Ship naming filter at it again

[Dillon Fallon]

So Frontier aren't using a state of the art swear filter. No surprise there, this is hardly something worth spending masses of time on given that their priority should always be the game itself.

The game is rated 7+ in the UK (or was when I bought it), so they're probably duty bound to have something in place. Being a little overzealous here or there is going to be better than little Timmy asking Mummy what those words mean.

 

[Aashenfox]

Ignore the average age - it is not relevent to the game's rating...
Alternatively: Internet play is not subject to ESRB rating is used as a common argument too....

But IRL Frontier are the decision makers and 'naughty' or even 'potentially naughty' words will be censored or not

I feel that enforced censorship so that 12 year olds can buy this game over the counter was a poor decision, given the demographic at which it is aimed and the revenue earned from that sector of the market (or copies purchased that would otherwise not have been purchased, had it been rated mature), validating all such complaints as the OPs.

 

[Aashenfox]

So Frontier aren't using a state of the art swear filter. No surprise there, this is hardly something worth spending masses of time on given that their priority should always be the game itself.

The game is rated 7+ in the UK (or was when I bought it), so they're probably duty bound to have something in place. Being a little overzealous here or there is going to be better than little Timmy asking Mummy what those words mean.

I respectfully disagree, first of all, with buying an MMO for a 7 year old, especially one as complex as Elite, but more importantly, I'm struggling with how I can swear at you in the most colourful way in chat, and you are able to choose whether or not you can see my profanity, yet when it comes to ship names, you don't have the choice. All that for little Timmy in a game played by majority 35+? Come on man...

 

[dayrth]

I respectfully disagree, first of all, with buying an MMO for a 7 year old, especially one as complex as Elite, but more importantly, I'm struggling with how I can swear at you in the most colourful way in chat, and you are able to choose whether or not you can see my profanity, yet when it comes to ship names, you don't have the choice. All that for little Timmy in a game played by majority 35+? Come on man...

I don't see excluding a chunk of the player base (even if it is a minority) so that you can use rude words, being a sensible business decision. People do complain about the filter, but I doubt very much many will stop playing because of it.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I respectfully disagree, first of all, with buying an MMO for a 7 year old, especially one as complex as Elite, but more importantly, I'm struggling with how I can swear at you in the most colourful way in chat, and you are able to choose whether or not you can see my profanity, yet when it comes to ship names, you don't have the choice. All that for little Timmy in a game played by majority 35+? Come on man...

Well certainly the logic of marketing this game to the under 16s is questionable anyway (slavery, drug dealing, mass murder, arms dealing...), with that I agree, but somehow that 7+ rating got on there so unfortunately they've stuck themselves with it. Now that they've done that they've got to be able to turn off the swears. Perhaps this is harder to toggle on ships than in chat.

 

[Phongsalt]

I have given this far more thought than it really deserves,
how about Cuqumber?

 

[Aashenfox]

I don't see excluding a chunk of the player base (even if it is a minority) so that you can use rude words, being a sensible business decision. People do complain about the filter, but I doubt very much many will stop playing because of it.

But the majority of the profanity comes from chat which IS a switch. Yet ship names are not subject to the same 'choice'? You 'believe' that this is to do with the rating, and it's possible you're right, but I doubt it, because it makes no sense. I further purport that to do this for a 'PG' rating was a dumb decision both by the regulators that allowed profane chat, but was somehow ok because someone couldn't name their ship 'Pride of Scunthorpe', AND on the part of FD seeking such.

 

[Voracity_T]

because someone couldn't name their ship 'Pride of Scunthorpe',

Who on gods green earth would call thier ship that? Thats asking for it to fill up with squatters and junkies at the next starport.

 

[Aashenfox]

Who on gods green earth would call thier ship that? Thats asking for it to fill up with squatters and junkies at the next starport.

I am OBVIOUSLY naming one of my ships Pride of Scunthorpe tonight. I'll probably find a chav in the cargo hold before I get off the dock. lol

 

[Voracity_T]

I am OBVIOUSLY naming one of my ships Pride of Scunthorpe tonight. I'll probably find a chav in the cargo hold before I get off the dock. lol

Hopefully you remember to keep the CCTV on, it's like a natural bug repellant but for the less desirable of space's denizens.

 

[Soron Silin]

But the majority of the profanity comes from chat which IS a switch. Yet ship names are not subject to the same 'choice'? You 'believe' that this is to do with the rating, and it's possible you're right, but I doubt it, because it makes no sense.

It's probably because the chat is in text and name-plates are pre-rendered. You could censor the name on the HUD, but not when flying up and looking at the ship.

Also, I think it is generally accepted that forums are 13+. If the game is 7+ then that is potentially a big difference.

 

[B1rdy]

3. The current system is much too sensitive.

Looking at the case OP describes I would question, if it is even working properly. The system is obviously not able to recognize harmless expressions.

 

[Soron Silin]

Looking at the case OP describes I would question, if it is even working properly. The system is obviously not able to recognize harmless expressions.

Would you feel the same way if you were playing Elite along with your seven year old daughter and a ship went by with the name "Suckmy___baby"?

There is no way to detect all offensive names without a large number of false positives, and a whitelist is the best solution.

You should be able to call your ship Pride of Scunthorp, but the line should probably be drawn before Cockfosters Awe.

 

[Para Handy]

Or, you know, it could be an option, like it is in most other games of this ilk (filter profanity on/off). What's more, I think you've misunderstood the nature of complaints, I saw only one person mention freedom of speech which works exactly as you say it does, in three pages of posts. I see people complaining about the code that decides what's profanity or not; specifically, the idiocy that means that any word that happens to include some iteration of profanity in its makeup, is summarily made unreadable. Even this forum seems to do it better...

Mishitting...check.
Scunthorpe...check.
Circumvent...check.
Penistone...check.

I used to live in the next village to Crapstone in Devon - there was a nice house for sale there at the same time as I bought in Horrabridge but the village name put me off. ❄

 

[Voracity_T]

I used to live in the next village to Crapstone in Devon - there was a nice house for sale there at the same time as I bought in Horrabridge but the village name put me off. ❄

Westcountry names for ya. Me and my cousin were recently looking for a house and we found a spot named Crackington Haven.

Dread to think of the state of the locals.

 

[Soron Silin]

In the Vale of Evesham there is a stream called the Piddle, for good, honest Anglo-Saxon reasons. This means there are various villages along it: North Piddle, Wyre Piddle and so forth. My father swore there was a Piddle In The Hole, but I think he was messing with me.

 

[Para Handy]

Westcountry names for ya. Me and my cousin were recently looking for a house and we found a spot named Crackington Haven.

Dread to think of the state of the locals.

Australia has a lot of knobs

Spoiler: Oz Knobs

and Tasmania is full of rude words. This BBC news page a while ago highlighted some of the fun:

British mapmaker highlights rudest places in Australia

Peculiar , Titwobble Lane, Windy Saddle, Pensioners Bush and Intercourse Island are among the actual place names featured on a new map of Australia.

www.bbc.co.uk

Including this image with "URINEpot Creek", "Guys Dirty Hole", etc.

Spoiler: Oz funny place map detail

 

[Soron Silin]

Edit: False alarm.

Knobs is an allowed word for the forum. However its singular is still banned.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

The right to free speech means the government can’t arrest you for what you say. It does not mean that that you can say anything you want anywhere you like.

American detected? I could swear there was no "free speech" mentioned in this thread before this post, at least that was my impression. We're merely discussing Yet Another Annoying Flaw in the game, and given the rather unique community we have here (lots of highly skilled, educated adults who often behave like manbabies, I will give you that), we simply cannot get over the fact that someone did a really shoddy job. If "kids will be the first ones to turn it off" then introduce parental controls with password protect...

Overwatch is PEGI 12 and has a profanity filter toggle and it's online PvP, imagine what happens over voice comms in that... As a sniper main I heard my share... ;-) So no, it would not lose "teen" rating. Elite is PEGI 7, although anyone buying this for a 7 y'old kid is a nutjob from this forum stealing childhood from his/her kid, as it is clearly too complicated for that age. It's either a shoddy job, or some architectural nonsense doing it server-side for some reason (and still a shoddy job at the core at that).

 

[Screemonster]

I name all my ships after various bugs (for an admittedly loose definition of "bugs" that includes spiders and other arthropods and other crawly things)

so naturally when I got a cutter, the only thing to call it? The Monarch.

Apparently not allowed because "mona" is rude in italian.