I have to disagree... You have explained why we can't kill children. You have not explained the reason why the word "child" is forbidden.
Because if you can name an npc mob "child", and costume them as a child, you can kill "children". So no naming things "child", in order to prevent killing children.
" Just like Cryptic should not have put out a list of profane (forbidden) words without checking them first."
Which means it was intentional, because someone added it, which is what I've said all along. You don't just accidentally add a bunch of words to the forbidden list.
There are two filters used in the STO Foundry, the profanity filter (generic profanity) and the naming filter (to prevent using trademarked characters). This combination of filters means that I can mention Captain Picard in my mission, but I can't actually create an NPC named Jean-Luc Picard.
Now as far as I'm aware this change is too the games profanity filter (confirmed), which should be shared between all three games as all three use the same chat system, however the change isn't in STO.
Conclusion, given the generic words and the fact that this isn't also occurring in STO and CO it's likely that a test was done to see if they could implement a profanity list for a particular game without affecting the others and the test list was accidentally transferred onto the live server (not the first time this sort of thing has happened in an MMO and it won't be the last).
That is one possible conclusion. Another could be these changes are intended. And perhaps done because Hasbro, for whatever reason, dictated it. Leaving STO unaffected.
Honestly, we could surmise possible reasons for this till the cows come home. It would be nice to just get an official statement on this so we can actually stop all the rampant speculating.
0
ghestapwMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
There are two filters used in the STO Foundry, the profanity filter (generic profanity) and the naming filter (to prevent using trademarked characters). This combination of filters means that I can mention Captain Picard in my mission, but I can't actually create an NPC named Jean-Luc Picard.
Now as far as I'm aware this change is too the games profanity filter (confirmed), which should be shared between all three games as all three use the same chat system, however the change isn't in STO.
Conclusion, given the generic words and the fact that this isn't also occurring in STO and CO it's likely that a test was done to see if they could implement a profanity list for a particular game without affecting the others and the test list was accidentally transferred onto the live server (not the first time this sort of thing has happened in an MMO and it won't be the last).
So they decided to just go ahead and 'test' this on the live servers as opposed to the... oh what's it called.... TEST server?
Yet... Remember Cryptic has publicly said they are porting stuff from the NWO Foundry to the STO Foundry, because the NWO Foundry is supposedly more advanced (I've never used STO Foundry to confirm that).
Then it negates your point that it only occurs in NW and not STO as valid proof that this was an accident.
Also, let me state for the record, bluedarky, I'm not trying to go after you personally and I apologize if it seems like I am. I just disagree with some of the viewpoints as you've posted them. So please don't take my disagreeing with you as anything personal.
Rhev@ghestapw - Co-GL <iTyrant> - ityrantguild.com - Beholder server
Try out my first foundry mission - The Missing Youth - NW-DGX79EG65
That all may be true...
But as I just said, and said in my last two posts in this thread...it still going to be just as easy to make an offensive quest. Words can be used in good or bad ways...that's fine and normal. Many words should be outright censored...
But if you go too far into trying to remove words automatically you'll reach a point where the only people hurt are those who are trying to make the best content they can possibly make. And that is surely shooting themselves in the foot.
I don't disagree and I know it is easy for me to be pragmatic...I'm not trying to sell whisky tumblers.
But although not specific to the gaming industry, I do know how the whitelisting or blocking of words works. I've seen people say about the Foundry "let the report system take care of [insert whatever broke the ToS]" as if a software system is doing the back office work of checking for violations. But an automated system can only do so much, it needs a (paid) human to tell it I am not trying to sell liquor, I am only selling glassware.
Now we have no way of knowing what gets reported and what needs to be checked. But, I don't think anyone can dispute that even before this week's additions to the blocklist, Cryptic didn't want children depicted in the UGC. And yet we have them. And yes I know they are depicted responsibly by everyone here who has ever included a little person in their quests, but it still went against the designs and desire of Cryptic. So while Cryptic are maybe being overzealous, authors have to take some responsibility for the new additions to the block list.
And if Cryptic decide to reverse their decision and instead hire someone to play and check UGC for violations, I am available
This may be true (about the children), but why have children (Young street urchins) as quest starters in the foundry?
Narayan
They are young, but certainly look like older teens rather than young childrin. Also, they are within the control of the Protector's Enclave. I have no idea of the mechanics of the toolset, but seeing as I have never played out a UGC quest in its entirety within it, I assume what you can actually have the player do there is quite limited.
Also, let me state for the record, bluedarky, I'm not trying to go after you personally and I apologize if it seems like I am. I just disagree with some of the viewpoints as you've posted them. So please don't take my disagreeing with you as anything personal.
They are young, but certainly look like older teens rather than young childrin. Also, they are within the control of the Protector's Enclave. I have no idea of the mechanics of the toolset, but seeing as I have never played out a UGC quest in its entirety within it, I assume what you can actually have the player do there is quite limited.
LOL, that is a matter of opinion (as to the looks), But they would most assuredly be called children. Take a close look at the young (drow) street urchin in the area a Protectors Enclave that you need to port to. She does not look like a teenager.
But it really makes no difference. Their (Cryptic) new list is just plain dumb.
Narayan
Sweet Water and Light Laughter Till Next We Meet.
Narayan
I could not have Game Master, that completely ruined my foundry since that name is important, until i took away the space and i can use GameMaster. I hope the devs don't remove that word too or else my foundry would be dead..maybe i shouldn't give them ideas to filter more words
The fact that existing featured foundry quests make use of words that are on the new profanity filter is a fine illustration of the fact that the new profanity filter is too extensive. I'm pretty sure I can also find multiple uses of the new filtered words in official Cryptic quests, too, if I try.
Since the [!] symbols don't always adequately show which word(s) are being flagged, it makes it very difficult, especially for newer Foundry editors, to figure out why the system doesn't like your line of dialogue.
Finally, if I wanted to make a profoundly disturbing foundry quest, the profanity filter wouldn't be much (if any) more of an inconvenience for me than for someone making a completely innocuous quest. The new words are words with little if any shock value.
So. Bad decision, guys.
Foundry Quest: Breaking the Chain NW-DELOGH4IH
(Daily eligible! Could use more reviews. Largely complete.)
After seeing this fiasco start to unfold last week I have totally avoided the game, the foundry and even the forums.
My thoughts were that this is so clearly a mistake that it would be resolved ASAP.
I was, it seems, wrong.
Just logged in to the Foundry to see how badly I am affected; luckily not too bad, between my 3 published quests there's about 15-20 warning triangles.
Looking through them there is not a single one that any normal person, including the most sensitive of 10 year olds, would find "profane" in any way at all. So I'm not even going to think about changing any of them.
But I'm no longer going to waste my time and effort trying to create something worthwhile when it can all be undone by some of the most ridiculous decisions I have ever seen... ...anywhere, ever. Furthermore, as other have pointed out there is not on Cryptic's part even the spark of the idea that when doing something this badly thought out they might seek to warn the Foundry community about it.
I can't in good conscience work on a project when the T&Cs can be changed arbitrarily, without prior warning (just warning, not consultation) in such a counter to common-sense way.
My father always used to jest that "the problem with common-sense is that it just isn't that common any more", never have I seen that so admirably demonstrated as here.
There is a simple common-sense solution to this issue. One that is so simple that Cryptic really need to look long and hard at who they have making these decisions for not thinking of this solution already.
The game is aiming for a specific PEGI rating. If it isn't then someone needs to have their contract reconsidered.
Given the game already has violence and simulated gambling in it (Official Content) then the lowest rating it can get is T = Teen.
If a word does not threaten that PEGI Rating leave it in.
Furthermore, there needs to be consistency. If a word is banned from the Foundry it MUST also be banned from ALL Official content, including promotional material.
LOL, that is a matter of opinion (as to the looks), But they would most assuredly be called children. Take a close look at the young (drow) street urchin in the area a Protectors Enclave that you need to port to. She does not look like a teenager.
But it really makes no difference. Their (Cryptic) new list is just plain dumb.
Narayan
The one at Moonstone Mask with the C cup? If I am thinking of the right one, Dee uses her as a grown up woman in Drow Family Ties and it never crossed my mind she was anything but. Short does not = child. And take a look at the male versions - they look like wizened old men.
Don't get me wrong, I know it must suck to have to redo text that was fine previously. What was fun has now become 'work'. Especially for authors who already find the written part of their quest the least enjoyable.
Mostly though, I wanted to point out that you have always worked with a filter and in time you will become as comfortable with the list as it is now, as you have been with the list in the past. Even if these current changes are retracted, movements to and from the blocklist are likely to happen from time to time. And to be fair to Cryptic, they don't put these filters in for no reason, they respond to consumer demands and the governments of the day.
Furthermore, there needs to be consistency. If a word is banned from the Foundry it MUST also be banned from ALL Official content, including promotional material.
That's unreasonable. Cryptic can manually police their own content, they cannot do the same for 1000s of UGC modules.
EDIT: Though a 'stet' button for featured UGC that can no longer be edited should be a given.
0
celantraMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 465
edited August 2013
I love the way things get twisted around. By the way, every one of my quests is affected by this as well.
This occurred on Thursday of last week. I might point out, the opening day of Gencon, the largest Dungeons and Dragons convention on the planet. This was four days ago folks. Two of those days have minimal support staff, as its the weekend, and during this entire period of time, all of the senior community service people are otherwise engaged in activities that surely have high priority.
They are one week from pushing out the first expansion for the game. This is the first time they are applying an expansion to the game, that effects the entire server cluster and every aspect of the game from a new zone, races, abilities, crafting, foundry and every class.
I am sure that the addition of 10 little words to a filter, that was probably a mistake, is number one on their list of priorities right now. I am sure that every developer, and administrator, is wriggling fingers, and ripping their hair out because this occurred. I am sure that the community volunteer administrators are not actually trying to work the issue, but are hiding this issue from the people that matter, because it effects about 80% of the 260,000 foundry quests currently published, most especially their own. I am sure there must be a conspiracy somewhere, somehow, that would explain why this all happened in just the way it did.
I think instead I might believe that most of the people that can make a change are not currently in a position to do so for whatever reasons. Really its not my job to tell them what their priorities are, but in this case I think they have it pretty well in hand. I think that maybe having a little patience to at least let those responsible take action in a reasonable manner might be a good idea.
If there is not resolution to these issues within the next week, you might, I repeat might, have reason to complain, depending upon what priorities the developers of the game have set forth and must follow, not that it is our responsibility to dictate what that might be.
The one at Moonstone Mask with the C cup? If I am thinking of the right one, Dee uses her as a grown up woman in Drow Family Ties and it never crossed my mind she was anything but. Short does not = child. And take a look at the male versions - they look like wizened old men.
Don't get me wrong, I know it must suck to have to redo text that was fine previously. What was fun has now become 'work'. Especially for authors who already find the written part of their quest the least enjoyable.
Mostly though, I wanted to point out that you have always worked with a filter and in time you will become as comfortable with the list as it is now, as you have been with the list in the past. Even if these current changes are retracted, movements to and from the blocklist are likely to happen from time to time. And to be fair to Cryptic, they don't put these filters in for no reason, they respond to consumer demands and the governments of the day.
Actually I will not become comfortable with the list as it is now. If it does not change I will just stop playing Neverwinter completely.
Sweet Water and Light Laughter Till Next We Meet.
Narayan
I love the way things get twisted around. By the way, every one of my quests is affected by this as well.
This occurred on Thursday of last week. I might point out, the opening day of Gencon, the largest Dungeons and Dragons convention on the planet. This was four days ago folks. Two of those days have minimal support staff, as its the weekend, and during this entire period of time, all of the senior community service people are otherwise engaged in activities that surely have high priority.
They are one week from pushing out the first expansion for the game. This is the first time they are applying an expansion to the game, that effects the entire server cluster and every aspect of the game from a new zone, races, abilities, crafting, foundry and every class.
I am sure that the addition of 10 little words to a filter, that was probably a mistake, is number one on their list of priorities right now. I am sure that every developer, and administrator, is wriggling fingers, and ripping their hair out because this occurred. I am sure that the community volunteer administrators are not actually trying to work the issue, but are hiding this issue from the people that matter, because it effects about 80% of the 260,000 foundry quests currently published, most especially their own. I am sure there must be a conspiracy somewhere, somehow, that would explain why this all happened in just the way it did.
I think instead I might believe that most of the people that can make a change are not currently in a position to do so for whatever reasons. Really its not my job to tell them what their priorities are, but in this case I think they have it pretty well in hand. I think that maybe having a little patience to at least let those responsible take action in a reasonable manner might be a good idea.
If there is not resolution to these issues within the next week, you might, I repeat might, have reason to complain, depending upon what priorities the developers of the game have set forth and must follow, not that it is our responsibility to dictate what that might be.
Come on folks, take a breath.
You are partially right.
All I am asking is that they let us know that there is a problem or that it is WAI. That only takes a few minutes to do. So if they do not have just a few minutes to inform us... Well I will just leave it at that.
Narayan
Sweet Water and Light Laughter Till Next We Meet.
Narayan
If there is not resolution to these issues within the next week, you might, I repeat might, have reason to complain, depending upon what priorities the developers of the game have set forth and must follow, not that it is our responsibility to dictate what that might be.
A week?!?!?!?
You have got to be joking!
I work in customer service.
If I had made a mistake (I wanted to use a colloquial term that is a joining of the 4 letter word for a male chicken and -up) of this proportion, affecting so many people, that could be fixed by taking 5 minutes out to edit a list, I would have - at best - 10 minutes to fix it before being hauled in for disciplinary action.
This occurred on Thursday of last week. I might point out, the opening day of Gencon, the largest Dungeons and Dragons convention on the planet. This was four days ago folks. Two of those days have minimal support staff, as its the weekend, and during this entire period of time, all of the senior community service people are otherwise engaged in activities that surely have high priority.
Make changes, go to GenCon?
This new filtering was pushed during a patch, and normally a company would like to make sure people are on hand in case something breaks when they make changes.
Right before they all leave for vacation/GenCon/etc would be the last time you'd want to push out changes.
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ananvilhurtzMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
If I had made a mistake (I wanted to use a colloquial term that is a joining of the 4 letter word for a male chicken and -up) of this proportion, affecting so many people, that could be fixed by taking 5 minutes out to edit a list, I would have - at best - 10 minutes to fix it before being hauled in for disciplinary action.
All The Best
+1 to this.
Religion - 60 GF (15.3k GS)
The Seeker - 60 DC (11.5k GS)
Faithless - 60 CW (10k GS)
Celantra:
The problem isn't (IMO) the filter, or timing, or any of that.
It's communication.
Why has it been 5 days without a SINGLE COMMENT on the issue? For that matter, given the effects that should have taken 2 seconds to anticipate (huh, maybe making 'child' a profanity-filtered word might pose a problem in the thousands of missions), why weren't we approached in ANY way ahead of time?
Why do we have to guess at why this happened, what happened (mistake? intentional? an intern got drunk?), why nothing's changed in last few days (Gencon? Weekend? Someone had a birthday? Someone's sick in the hospital?)?
Either the devs don't want to talk to us, they are being sat on by PW managers to not be allowed to talk to us, or they are somehow not aware that they should talk to us.
Any way you slice it, this is a load.
Campaign: The Fenwick Cycle NWS-DKR9GB7KH
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Celantra:
The problem isn't (IMO) the filter, or timing, or any of that.
It's communication.
Why has it been 5 days without a SINGLE COMMENT on the issue? For that matter, given the effects that should have taken 2 seconds to anticipate (huh, maybe making 'child' a profanity-filtered word might pose a problem in the thousands of missions), why weren't we approached in ANY way ahead of time?
Why do we have to guess at why this happened, what happened (mistake? intentional? an intern got drunk?), why nothing's changed in last few days (Gencon? Weekend? Someone had a birthday? Someone's sick in the hospital?)?
Either the devs don't want to talk to us, they are being sat on by PW managers to not be allowed to talk to us, or they are somehow not aware that they should talk to us.
Any way you slice it, this is a load.
My guess would be that we hear nothing, if at all, until next week, after the release of Feywild and thing get a chance to settle down. How much official communication did we get when the foundry was down or when publishing kept failing? I would guess the same here. We seem to be the red headed step-child.
Narayan
Sweet Water and Light Laughter Till Next We Meet.
Narayan
But I'm no longer going to waste my time and effort trying to create something worthwhile when it can all be undone by some of the most ridiculous decisions I have ever seen... ...anywhere, ever. Furthermore, as other have pointed out there is not on Cryptic's part even the spark of the idea that when doing something this badly thought out they might seek to warn the Foundry community about it.
I can't in good conscience work on a project when the T&Cs can be changed arbitrarily, without prior warning (just warning, not consultation) in such a counter to common-sense way.
Couldn't agree with you more. The new changes makes me super nervous about putting any more time and effort into my foundry quests.
For the moment I've halted development on my foundry quests and have withdrawn any published quests I had until this gets sorted out. Hopefully soon.
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
edited August 2013
Issue Update:
. . . . . We just got word: This filter issue with the Foundry is a bug the Devs are working on and will be resolved as soon as they can.
. . . . . We just got word: This filter issue with the Foundry is a bug the Devs are working on and will be resolved as soon as they can.
And this "bug" was caused by...? I've modded too many profanity filters for other games, and they are always lists of forbidden words, sometimes with regexes, they don't get changed by accident.
0
ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
And this "bug" was caused by...? I've modded too many profanity filters for other games, and they are always lists of forbidden words, sometimes with regexes, they don't get changed by accident.
Purely my own speculation as our official information is limited to the fact the changes were unintentional but more than likely the changes were due to purposely changing the filter system and inadvertantly flagging words which shouldn' have been flagged.
I don't know which types of systems you have worked on but based on your post it sounds like you worked on a massive list of words which were manually added that were considered offensive. That's not usually the case with MMO Filters though.
I don't know the specifics around the system Cryptic uses but algorithmic systems can often flag perfectly fine words as violations. Another game I played made changes to their filter system and inadvertantly caused dozens of in game words to be filtered out. There was a "Cooking" skill in the game and that was flagged as being offensive. Better yet their own company name was flagged as profanity.
This stuff happens when messing with algorithmic based systems and while I do not know for sure which system Cryptic uses I would be surprised if they simply used a list of words as you are implying.
I don't know the specifics around the system Cryptic uses but algorithmic systems can often flag perfectly fine words as violations. Another game I played made changes to their filter system and inadvertantly caused dozens of in game words to be filtered out. There was a "Cooking" skill in the game and that was flagged as being offensive.
They obviously flagged the expression co*k, which gets "cook" as well as that other word.
MMO companies, like most game companies, probably buy their profanity list from someone. And yes, someone puts together these lists. It's a list, with regexes. No one is maintaining a list of every single possible co*k variant, you can catch them all with the regex co*k.
Issue Update:
. . . . . We just got word: This filter issue with the Foundry is a bug the Devs are working on and will be resolved as soon as they can.
Comments
" Just like Cryptic should not have put out a list of profane (forbidden) words without checking them first."
Which means it was intentional, because someone added it, which is what I've said all along. You don't just accidentally add a bunch of words to the forbidden list.
No, the intent is to rescue them.
@Moonchips
That is one possible conclusion. Another could be these changes are intended. And perhaps done because Hasbro, for whatever reason, dictated it. Leaving STO unaffected.
Honestly, we could surmise possible reasons for this till the cows come home. It would be nice to just get an official statement on this so we can actually stop all the rampant speculating.
So they decided to just go ahead and 'test' this on the live servers as opposed to the... oh what's it called.... TEST server?
In addition if, koboldbard2 is accurate....
Then it negates your point that it only occurs in NW and not STO as valid proof that this was an accident.
Also, let me state for the record, bluedarky, I'm not trying to go after you personally and I apologize if it seems like I am. I just disagree with some of the viewpoints as you've posted them. So please don't take my disagreeing with you as anything personal.
Try out my first foundry mission - The Missing Youth - NW-DGX79EG65
I don't disagree and I know it is easy for me to be pragmatic...I'm not trying to sell whisky tumblers.
But although not specific to the gaming industry, I do know how the whitelisting or blocking of words works. I've seen people say about the Foundry "let the report system take care of [insert whatever broke the ToS]" as if a software system is doing the back office work of checking for violations. But an automated system can only do so much, it needs a (paid) human to tell it I am not trying to sell liquor, I am only selling glassware.
Now we have no way of knowing what gets reported and what needs to be checked. But, I don't think anyone can dispute that even before this week's additions to the blocklist, Cryptic didn't want children depicted in the UGC. And yet we have them. And yes I know they are depicted responsibly by everyone here who has ever included a little person in their quests, but it still went against the designs and desire of Cryptic. So while Cryptic are maybe being overzealous, authors have to take some responsibility for the new additions to the block list.
And if Cryptic decide to reverse their decision and instead hire someone to play and check UGC for violations, I am available
They are young, but certainly look like older teens rather than young childrin. Also, they are within the control of the Protector's Enclave. I have no idea of the mechanics of the toolset, but seeing as I have never played out a UGC quest in its entirety within it, I assume what you can actually have the player do there is quite limited.
No, I said it was accidentally transferred to the live server, not purposely.
I rarely ever do take things personally.
LOL, that is a matter of opinion (as to the looks), But they would most assuredly be called children. Take a close look at the young (drow) street urchin in the area a Protectors Enclave that you need to port to. She does not look like a teenager.
But it really makes no difference. Their (Cryptic) new list is just plain dumb.
Narayan
Narayan
Since the [!] symbols don't always adequately show which word(s) are being flagged, it makes it very difficult, especially for newer Foundry editors, to figure out why the system doesn't like your line of dialogue.
Finally, if I wanted to make a profoundly disturbing foundry quest, the profanity filter wouldn't be much (if any) more of an inconvenience for me than for someone making a completely innocuous quest. The new words are words with little if any shock value.
So. Bad decision, guys.
(Daily eligible! Could use more reviews. Largely complete.)
My issue with the filter isn't the filter itself, but that it brings home how terrible the lines of communication are between Cryptic and the players.
In another game, devs might actually tell us ahead of time, let alone leaving us hang.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
My thoughts were that this is so clearly a mistake that it would be resolved ASAP.
I was, it seems, wrong.
Just logged in to the Foundry to see how badly I am affected; luckily not too bad, between my 3 published quests there's about 15-20 warning triangles.
Looking through them there is not a single one that any normal person, including the most sensitive of 10 year olds, would find "profane" in any way at all. So I'm not even going to think about changing any of them.
But I'm no longer going to waste my time and effort trying to create something worthwhile when it can all be undone by some of the most ridiculous decisions I have ever seen... ...anywhere, ever. Furthermore, as other have pointed out there is not on Cryptic's part even the spark of the idea that when doing something this badly thought out they might seek to warn the Foundry community about it.
I can't in good conscience work on a project when the T&Cs can be changed arbitrarily, without prior warning (just warning, not consultation) in such a counter to common-sense way.
My father always used to jest that "the problem with common-sense is that it just isn't that common any more", never have I seen that so admirably demonstrated as here.
There is a simple common-sense solution to this issue. One that is so simple that Cryptic really need to look long and hard at who they have making these decisions for not thinking of this solution already.
The game is aiming for a specific PEGI rating. If it isn't then someone needs to have their contract reconsidered.
Given the game already has violence and simulated gambling in it (Official Content) then the lowest rating it can get is T = Teen.
If a word does not threaten that PEGI Rating leave it in.
Furthermore, there needs to be consistency. If a word is banned from the Foundry it MUST also be banned from ALL Official content, including promotional material.
All The Best
Looking For Reviews For Your Foundry Quest?
Drop By Scribe's Enclave & Meet Up With Volunteer Reviewers.
The one at Moonstone Mask with the C cup? If I am thinking of the right one, Dee uses her as a grown up woman in Drow Family Ties and it never crossed my mind she was anything but. Short does not = child. And take a look at the male versions - they look like wizened old men.
Don't get me wrong, I know it must suck to have to redo text that was fine previously. What was fun has now become 'work'. Especially for authors who already find the written part of their quest the least enjoyable.
Mostly though, I wanted to point out that you have always worked with a filter and in time you will become as comfortable with the list as it is now, as you have been with the list in the past. Even if these current changes are retracted, movements to and from the blocklist are likely to happen from time to time. And to be fair to Cryptic, they don't put these filters in for no reason, they respond to consumer demands and the governments of the day.
That's unreasonable. Cryptic can manually police their own content, they cannot do the same for 1000s of UGC modules.
EDIT: Though a 'stet' button for featured UGC that can no longer be edited should be a given.
This occurred on Thursday of last week. I might point out, the opening day of Gencon, the largest Dungeons and Dragons convention on the planet. This was four days ago folks. Two of those days have minimal support staff, as its the weekend, and during this entire period of time, all of the senior community service people are otherwise engaged in activities that surely have high priority.
They are one week from pushing out the first expansion for the game. This is the first time they are applying an expansion to the game, that effects the entire server cluster and every aspect of the game from a new zone, races, abilities, crafting, foundry and every class.
I am sure that the addition of 10 little words to a filter, that was probably a mistake, is number one on their list of priorities right now. I am sure that every developer, and administrator, is wriggling fingers, and ripping their hair out because this occurred. I am sure that the community volunteer administrators are not actually trying to work the issue, but are hiding this issue from the people that matter, because it effects about 80% of the 260,000 foundry quests currently published, most especially their own. I am sure there must be a conspiracy somewhere, somehow, that would explain why this all happened in just the way it did.
I think instead I might believe that most of the people that can make a change are not currently in a position to do so for whatever reasons. Really its not my job to tell them what their priorities are, but in this case I think they have it pretty well in hand. I think that maybe having a little patience to at least let those responsible take action in a reasonable manner might be a good idea.
If there is not resolution to these issues within the next week, you might, I repeat might, have reason to complain, depending upon what priorities the developers of the game have set forth and must follow, not that it is our responsibility to dictate what that might be.
Come on folks, take a breath.
Actually I will not become comfortable with the list as it is now. If it does not change I will just stop playing Neverwinter completely.
Narayan
You are partially right.
All I am asking is that they let us know that there is a problem or that it is WAI. That only takes a few minutes to do. So if they do not have just a few minutes to inform us... Well I will just leave it at that.
Narayan
Narayan
A week?!?!?!?
You have got to be joking!
I work in customer service.
If I had made a mistake (I wanted to use a colloquial term that is a joining of the 4 letter word for a male chicken and -up) of this proportion, affecting so many people, that could be fixed by taking 5 minutes out to edit a list, I would have - at best - 10 minutes to fix it before being hauled in for disciplinary action.
All The Best
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This new filtering was pushed during a patch, and normally a company would like to make sure people are on hand in case something breaks when they make changes.
Right before they all leave for vacation/GenCon/etc would be the last time you'd want to push out changes.
+1 to this.
The Seeker - 60 DC (11.5k GS)
Faithless - 60 CW (10k GS)
The problem isn't (IMO) the filter, or timing, or any of that.
It's communication.
Why has it been 5 days without a SINGLE COMMENT on the issue? For that matter, given the effects that should have taken 2 seconds to anticipate (huh, maybe making 'child' a profanity-filtered word might pose a problem in the thousands of missions), why weren't we approached in ANY way ahead of time?
Why do we have to guess at why this happened, what happened (mistake? intentional? an intern got drunk?), why nothing's changed in last few days (Gencon? Weekend? Someone had a birthday? Someone's sick in the hospital?)?
Either the devs don't want to talk to us, they are being sat on by PW managers to not be allowed to talk to us, or they are somehow not aware that they should talk to us.
Any way you slice it, this is a load.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
My guess would be that we hear nothing, if at all, until next week, after the release of Feywild and thing get a chance to settle down. How much official communication did we get when the foundry was down or when publishing kept failing? I would guess the same here. We seem to be the red headed step-child.
Narayan
Narayan
Couldn't agree with you more. The new changes makes me super nervous about putting any more time and effort into my foundry quests.
For the moment I've halted development on my foundry quests and have withdrawn any published quests I had until this gets sorted out. Hopefully soon.
@Moonchips
. . . . . We just got word: This filter issue with the Foundry is a bug the Devs are working on and will be resolved as soon as they can.
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Thanks though for passing it on, I realize it isn't something you had any control over.
Purely my own speculation as our official information is limited to the fact the changes were unintentional but more than likely the changes were due to purposely changing the filter system and inadvertantly flagging words which shouldn' have been flagged.
I don't know which types of systems you have worked on but based on your post it sounds like you worked on a massive list of words which were manually added that were considered offensive. That's not usually the case with MMO Filters though.
I don't know the specifics around the system Cryptic uses but algorithmic systems can often flag perfectly fine words as violations. Another game I played made changes to their filter system and inadvertantly caused dozens of in game words to be filtered out. There was a "Cooking" skill in the game and that was flagged as being offensive. Better yet their own company name was flagged as profanity.
This stuff happens when messing with algorithmic based systems and while I do not know for sure which system Cryptic uses I would be surprised if they simply used a list of words as you are implying.
@Moonchips
MMO companies, like most game companies, probably buy their profanity list from someone. And yes, someone puts together these lists. It's a list, with regexes. No one is maintaining a list of every single possible co*k variant, you can catch them all with the regex co*k.
Thanks!