hmm seems a tad bit condescending… but sure, its an opinion you have. In any case, thanks for all your input I suppose.
If I saw a name similar to mine (touchmytotem) I wouldn’t care, but I am curious… you can choose not to answer it… But would you report my name?
Yep.
The community does decide. If no one reports your name, then it won’t be changed.
Your community decided to report your name. Think about that.
It’s not. It’s just not the answer you wanted to hear.
For me personally? Probably not. It does not cross my threshhold of horrid. I only report horrid names. Does that mean the name is not a violation however? Nope
While I understand your frustration, you need to understand that Blizzard is reactionary in this process. That means they get the report they act on the report. If your name was not a violation, you would have never even known it was reported.
It has been like this since day one of the game. It is just much easier to report now than it was then. Back then you had to put a ticket in, make you ineligible to put any other ticket in until it was addressed to report somebody. Now, you just right click and select report for name.
Not only that, but until recently players felt the report was a panacea; you used it and nothing happened. Streamers live-streamed using it and getting results. Now players know that it actually does something so they are more likely to use it.
Yes.
It will never get done the way you suggest. There will be players who play solely to make those judgements. They would get someone’s name changed so one of them or their friends can get the name. They would use it as a way to harass other players. They would use it as a way to try and force players to have the sort of name THEY want players to have.
The section of the Code of Conduct that says the community decides is more to do with whether or not players report a name. It isn’t a player committee. Blizzard has final say.
A name that violates the Code of Conduct violates it whether one player reports it or one thousand players report it.
They do that already. Names like the one of yours that was reported is an obvious violation. It wouldn’t be open to interpretation. The appeals process is to have another person look at the name and either agree the name violates (forced rename stands) or doesn’t violate (forced rename removed) policy.
The major difference between the game doing it and players is the impact of it. The one you mention is one of a few places where that sort of offensive talk happens. It is one line in one questline for one faction. It has limited impact on players. It only happens if a player is Horde and actually does the Silverpine quest instead of the Barrens. or they are working on Loremaster.
If players do the same it is everywhere, not just in one limited spot. It is in the cities. It is in the questing zones. It is in dungeons. It is in battlegrounds. It is in chat. And it’s not just one character and happening once. It would have a huge impact on the game.
Lots of things going on here.
Let’s get this out of the way off the top: inappropriate =/= offensive. It’s a common mistake to make, but it’s a mistake nonetheless. A GM may find a particular funny, or clever, but also still find it inappropriate. I find Family Guy funny, but I wouldn’t put on an episode at a funeral.
Someone else breaking the rules doesn’t negate anything you did (whataboutism is a common fallacy). Blizzard’s policies are reactive, and those who are penalized aren’t being singled out, they just happened to be reported. Armoury is also a poor tool for finding anything, as it doesn’t show you if the character has already been flagged and just not logged into, or if someone went and changed their name right back.
Yes, NPCs say vulgar things. The reason they can say that is somewhat because we can’t. ESRB sets the rules for what constitutes a T rating, which is what Blizzard wants the game to be, and that rating is based on quantity of the material in question, as well as the ‘quality’ (as it were) of it. Because players have the ability to add infinitely more of that content, and the developers have no way to pre-empt us from doing so to keep us within the amount a T rating allows, we have to be shut out entirely.
Someone said “if player interaction affected content rating”; the thing is it can if the company presiding over the virtual space allows it. Thus, we have this trade-off. Blizzard cracks down on vulgarity from us, and we get to have dwarves keep talking about kicking butts (but using a different word for ‘butt’) and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Not going to say I agree with how the ESRB runs things, but it’s how it is.
There’s not really that much subjectivity to what’s inappropriate (your reported name, for example). GMs are specifically trained to identify policy violations. They can make mistakes, they’re human, and that’s what the appeal is for. It’s not for “stating your case” with “evidence” (which was meaningless btw, even in an actual court of law, using other people you’ve seen break the law doesn’t have anything to do with your own lawbreaking).
I see a mention of the famous “reported out of spite”. The motivations behind a report are irrelevant. I could find… Ekon in game (sorry to use you for the example bud) and report them for their name, and nothing would happen. They’d never even know I’d reported them.
Don’t throw around baseless hyperbole. It’s not against the rules, it’s just annoying, and making claims without evidence is always a disservice to humanity on some scale.
Think that hits everything.
Think the big takeaway is “Just because someone else is doing something that breaks ToS doesn’t mean you can”, sometimes actions move at different speeds (and also depends on if they’re being reported)
It will depend on the server of course (RP servers are much more prone to zap objectionable names with reports) but if the name is questionable enough, a report will do the trick, and that is the same across the board
As for the Garrosh/Sylvanas interaction, PG-13 movies tend to have an allowance on one or two curses, and I guess T rated games are the same way, in fact, the only two curse words in the entire game to my knowledge are from Cataclysm
That and NPCs saying naughty words and you knowingly posting a questionable name are very different things, you even mention yourself that it was questionable
Sorry you feel people are being condescending but they’re giving you pretty solid advice and recommendations, as well as explaining why things went down the way they did
Hopefully the next name will be received a bit better than the last, best of luck to you 
The appeal process is an opportunity for the Game Masters to review the decision that was made and determine if it was correct or not. The appeal process is not a discussion or an opportunity to provide your perspective on a subject. All decisions are at the discretion of Blizzard when it comes to enforcement.
Your name was reported through the in-game reporting system and upon review was found to be inappropriate for the game.
If you believe you’ve found a name in-game that may be a violation of our naming policies, please right-click on the character portrait and use the in-game reporting tools provided. If the name is brought to your attention because of a message in chat, you can right-click on the chat message instead and report the name from there.