Hello, Everyone,
In recent months, the climate on US2 has changed considerably -- where once there used to always exist a distinct line as to what is appropriate for world chat and what is not, and players, too, seemed to inherently know how to treat their fellow peers with respect and civility, that line has grown blurred as of late, and with it certain basic manners seem also to have been forgotten.
This is a family friendly game. And it always has been. So it should come as no surprise that comments of a vulgar nature, explicit sexual innuendos, derogatory name calling, obscene language, hate filled speech of any kind, harassment, nasty gossip, or ugly conflicts being publicly carried out which disturb the enjoyment of the game for others, are not tolerated in world chat.
It is our responsibility to ensure that all players in Villagers & Heroes have a safe and comfortable environment in which they can peacefully play the game without being assailed by any of the above. So we’re going to tighten things up on US2 until that line regarding what is appropriate and what is not, which has grown blurry recently, becomes distinct once more.
A few years ago, on a different server, it was necessary for stricter policies to go into effect, and those same policies will now be implemented on US2, which are as follows:
The basic rule of thumb is this: if a player is disrupting the enjoyment of the game for others in world chat, they will receive one whispered warning and then will be muted if they persist.
(In other words, please take your conflicts and inappropriate conversations to private channels.)
‘Disruption’ can mean any of the following
When a Moderator whispers a player with a warning:
We, Mad Otter, trust our game moderators to use their own common sense in applying these recommendations. If you genuinely feel that you have been treated unfairly by moderators, please submit a CS ticket with screenshots showing why you feel you were treated unfairly. Arguing with moderators in public chat is never appropriate. And rallying others in world chat to insult, belittle, and name call moderators is MOST DEFINITELY NOT APPROPRIATE. Any who engage in such behavior will be muted, and, if it continues after the mutes, will be temporarily banned from the game.
V&H has always been a family friendly game, and these new policies are meant to serve as a reminder of that. Thank you everyone for your understanding and cooperation.
In recent months, the climate on US2 has changed considerably -- where once there used to always exist a distinct line as to what is appropriate for world chat and what is not, and players, too, seemed to inherently know how to treat their fellow peers with respect and civility, that line has grown blurred as of late, and with it certain basic manners seem also to have been forgotten.
This is a family friendly game. And it always has been. So it should come as no surprise that comments of a vulgar nature, explicit sexual innuendos, derogatory name calling, obscene language, hate filled speech of any kind, harassment, nasty gossip, or ugly conflicts being publicly carried out which disturb the enjoyment of the game for others, are not tolerated in world chat.
It is our responsibility to ensure that all players in Villagers & Heroes have a safe and comfortable environment in which they can peacefully play the game without being assailed by any of the above. So we’re going to tighten things up on US2 until that line regarding what is appropriate and what is not, which has grown blurry recently, becomes distinct once more.
A few years ago, on a different server, it was necessary for stricter policies to go into effect, and those same policies will now be implemented on US2, which are as follows:
The basic rule of thumb is this: if a player is disrupting the enjoyment of the game for others in world chat, they will receive one whispered warning and then will be muted if they persist.
(In other words, please take your conflicts and inappropriate conversations to private channels.)
‘Disruption’ can mean any of the following
- Carrying on an argument with another player
- The use of derogatory remarks
- Name calling of any kind
- Inappropriate comments of a sexual, violent, or vulgar nature
- Deliberately provoking world chat to get into heated arguments
- Spamming chat in an effort to get blocked players to unblock you
- Guessing games, numbers games, etc, must be done in Local Chats if there are large numbers of participants because it is disruptive to all others who do not wish to partake in them.
- Other
When a Moderator whispers a player with a warning:
- Player will be told exactly why they are being disruptive, and told that it will be their only warning -- that a mute will immediately follow if the disruptive behavior persists.
- If the player then proceeds to publicly argue with the moderator about the warning they were given, thereby disrupting world chat, they will be muted.
- If other players then proceed to disrupt world chat as a result of that player’s mute, they will in turn, be warned themselves and muted if it continues.
We, Mad Otter, trust our game moderators to use their own common sense in applying these recommendations. If you genuinely feel that you have been treated unfairly by moderators, please submit a CS ticket with screenshots showing why you feel you were treated unfairly. Arguing with moderators in public chat is never appropriate. And rallying others in world chat to insult, belittle, and name call moderators is MOST DEFINITELY NOT APPROPRIATE. Any who engage in such behavior will be muted, and, if it continues after the mutes, will be temporarily banned from the game.
V&H has always been a family friendly game, and these new policies are meant to serve as a reminder of that. Thank you everyone for your understanding and cooperation.
Roak
Squirrel
Platform
- PC
Priest Daimheach
Brindle
Platform
- PC
Yes.... you can still talk about poop - provided that it still goes along with TOS.Can we still talk about poop?
Roak
Squirrel
Platform
- PC
I have another question: sometimes, i've seen people talk about ''weed'' , what is the Otters stance on this ?
I'm not qualified to give an official response, but remember Mad Otter is based in Oregon, where marijuana is legalised.
Perlio
Servant of Mallok
There hasn't been one place I've seen that didn't have some weed hiding somewhere.
Val Helheim
Priest
Characters
Val Helheim
Platform
- iOS
Chief Breaker
Warrior
Platform
- iOS
- Android
- PC
Last edited
This particular rule is probably targetting one person in US2 who likes guessing games and gives free motes of Yorick to those who guess correctly. Fun? Yes! I laugh in real life to these games.
Disruptive? No. Maybe if I hate or dislike that person then yes, but that's my personal problem and not his.
So I strongly disagree with this one rule. It's too restrictive and it doesn't break your "family-friendly" chat code of conduct.
Lastly what is "Other?" This is dangerous especially if a mod has something personal against one player he can sight this "Other" and call it "disruption" to justify his actions. Mods will liberally interpret this. Yesterday people were talking about WW2 and a mod told them to stop? Because it *could* get out of line? That is hypervigilance right there. This mod might as well sight "Other" to justify that too.
Felina
Adventurer
I do hope it means people talking about their latest surgeries and ailments.
In the first place, these are the same rules and policies applied to another server some two years ago, so no, they are not in any way designed to target one particular player on US2.
Secondly, if you have any actual evidence of mods abusing their power simply because they do not like a particular player, then please report that with screenshots to CS.
If you do not, please refrain from publicly questioning the personal integrity of players who willingly and voluntarily give up considerable amounts of their time to try to help people enjoy the game in a peaceful, friendly and safe environment.
I don't think it is targeting a certain person, it's a rule from back when we start having trivia contest in crafting party which is quite a while ago. With a pretty big amount contestant, lots of question, and a pretty long duration, which can really spam the world chat for a pretty long time. Which is why crafting party trivia is only done at local chat nowadays.
I don't think a snap trivia with just a few question ever get ruled from this, except one instances where one of the participant get entangled in a heated debate with the host. Which is why the rule specify it only applies to big contest
Zaphyra
Master Villager
Characters
Retired
Platform
- Android
- PC
I very much appreciate the work our Devs and Mods do, to keep all our servers "family-friendly", tyvm! 
Shyama
Bog Frog
Characters
way too many... :)
Platform
- Android
- PC
And to expand on this point just a bit- when these rules were created on another server, there were a couple people who started doing games that were nothing more than "guess what number I'm thinking." The wall of numbers speeding by for several minutes at a time prevented any other chat from happening. It scrolled off so fast on PC, anything else disappeared almost instantly. It was quite disruptive, especially when it continued after being asked repeatedly not to do them in world chat. In my opinion at least, it's a lot different than some random trivia games that happen now & then.
Perlio
Servant of Mallok
Felina, I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that you don't want to hear about how my lazy eye induced pre-marital (not a typo) diabetes and swelling. I hope it's obvious that I'm being facetious. Unfortunately, we will not always be interested in the same topics as everyone else. So when people start discussing their personal issues that I don't really care to know, I try to ignore it. Oooh, maybe we need a "mute this person for five minutes" button that causes that player's chat to not show for you. Feature request!
I have always found it helpful to have updates like this, but not spammed. "Prisma started, Prisma 70%, Prisma 50%, Prisma 20%", I'm okay with that type of thing. "Prisma started, 99%, 90%, 88%, 85%"...uh, no, don't do that. This is just my personal opinion and feelings. I am in no way telling trying to tell people how to interpret these rules.
Honestly, I could see that actually happening on the server. If this did happen, I agree with Chief Breaker that stuff like this should not be censored. If the conversation moved toward breaking the terms of service, then the moderator can step in to ask people to avoid that subject. However, telling people not to talk about a topic because it can lead to a related but inappropriate topic, I do not agree with.
@Sarah Otter, I was totally thinking that tagging wouldn't work on a forum, but it sure did. Wow. Anyway, I would also like some clarification:
Are we able to use terms "wtf" and literally "holy frick"? -- I have been told by a mod (when I had first started) that this is the same as if I had said the F word itself and I was warned. When I tried to question such a thing, I was told "Do we have a problem?"...so I never pursued it. But I would love to know if those terms are not allowed. If they are indeed not allowed, sharing my opinion here, I feel that this makes the game way too geared for babies. Your TOS say you must be 13+ to play, I'm sure I'm not going to offend a teenager by saying holy frick wtf. Honestly, I feel this is one of the biggest turn offs of the game for me. I'm always having to watch what I say, not because I'm being outright vulgar, but not being able to express myself with lmao, wtf, damn, hell, etc. I say damn all the time in real life, and I honestly do have to be vigilant with what I type in chat. Personally, and it is probably a generational thing, but I do not consider hell or damn curse words at all. But it's the lmao wtf and frick that really grinds my gears.
Chief Breaker
Warrior
Platform
- iOS
- Android
- PC
Lmao.
I am not questioning anyone's integrity here at all. I am questioning the capability of mods to do their job properly. In the past couple days people were warned over things so benign. I don't trust their personal interpretation with these rules based on what I have seen so far.
Ok thanks for clearing that up!
You just did.Lmao.
I am not questioning anyone's integrity here at all. I am questioning the capability of mods to do their job properly. In the past couple days people were warned over things so benign. I don't trust their personal interpretation with these rules based on what I have seen so far.
Ok thanks for clearing that up!
InSaNiA
Arch Wizard
Characters
ExPuRoSiOn (Fire Wiz), Hawkeye but Purple (Marksman)
Platform
- Android
Someone got reprimanded for saying lmfao and wtf last night in WC because we were joking about something. We might as well communicate using emotes, since in Chinese group 95s we 100% communicate using emotes. It could work, and WC might as well become a ghost town since people cant talk or express/share their emotions anymore.
Tbh, US2 wasn't like this until we became a default server. Everything went downhill after that switch. Feelsbadman.
Joleen
Grand Shaman
Royal Guardian
Characters
Kavita, Katona, Chephirah, Avani, Lash LaRue
Platform
- Android
- PC
It's good to see that the Otters are still supporting a more family-friendly environment. I've left games because of offensive chat before and it's easy for people to just take it to 'private'. I love you guys, best dev-team ever.
Chief Breaker
Warrior
Platform
- iOS
- Android
- PC
Last edited
I did?
About my issue with "Other?" I understand if English is not your first language if you can't understand my point. I understand your eagerness to defend the new rules for US2, though.Anyway no point to discuss this any further with a wall. You don't even know what's happening.
Finally, I know ultimately what I say here is most probably for naught but thanks anyway if you are reading this @Sarah Otter. I'm just here to voice out my disagreement with some of your rules and my observation of power tripping some of your mods do. In this past week alone the mods have taken liberties in warning players for even the most benign of words, harmless discussions, and one of them even taunts a player to react (this player is always an easy target for bullying and will strongly react against this particular mod). There is another side to these stories too.