Buddhism vs Christianity in GW

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Agreed, although I am not an advocate of censureship of stupid things like that (sorry if I offend anyone), I believe there should be absolutely no preferential treatment of one religion over another. Either allow all of them or allow none of them. Ideally I wish they were all allowed because where does the line stop? Someone not being able to name their cat Joseph because hes a name in the bible, the father of Jesus?

If respect is the issue, then all religions deserve it. Especially for Pastafarianism

Freedom of speech, Anet! Get with it. -_-

As a Christian myself I honestly don't find naming a pet Jesus Christ all that offensive at all. Because for me, if it's not something I'm doing, I simply won't worry about it as that sort of thing goes on all the time. It really wouldn't bother me if that name were allowed on a pet. Now I do think that it needs to be equal for everyone. As a Christian I would love to see as many people as possible 'saved' as it were, of course but I am not gonna hastle you for what you believe in. I also think that there should be a common respect amongst all believers in any religion. Anet needs to ban a few more names such as the budhist ones the OP mentioned. I also found that a pet can be named Muhammad, now I know that most if not all Muslims would take offence to that and I think that we should respect them and their beliefs.

Shepherd Book said it best in Serenity when he said: "I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it."

I agree with that, I personally have no qualms with what one believes in and I think we should respect them for whatever they believe whether it be Christianity, Budhism, Islam, Scientology, or whatever. It is up to the individual to believe what they want and I think we should respect their beliefs.

Now I am also not a big fan of Censorship as it tends to become rather subjective and doesn't tend to be equal. So I think that Anet should either catalog all the religious names that could be offensive and ban them, or just not censor at all, either way something needs to be changed.

With the self righteous / evagenlistic attitude that a good percentage of Christians aspire to, ANet wisely made certain that such names as Jesus Christ could not be used. Who needs an unnecessary backlash from a community after all?

Meanwhile they realized the passive ways of the Buddhists would allow for little to no turmoil if their sacred names were used in a game context.

Of course there are loopholes for getting Jesus Christ in to the game. I have a character names Tsirch Susej -- and i always play while looking at my monitor via a mirror. Does cause a degree of akwardness when my party goes one way and I tend to go the other.

I agree with the above posts wholeheartedly, but I will say that I'm not so sure it was a matter of respect for Christianity that caused Anet to restrict the use of "Jesus Christ" as a pet name.

From my observations, it may very well have been equally founded by a fear of anti-religious (those people out there that just seem to despise religion, you know what I'm talking about) lawsuits. In this day and age, it's possible to sue for almost anything, and I'm sure Anet at one point visualized a scenario with a little kid happening to meet someone with a pet named, "Jesus Christ" and an overzealous parent catching wind and suing. I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but I wouldn't never thought it possible to win a lawsuit against McDonalds for making someone obese, either.

Myself, I could care less what people name their pets. The name they choose is a direct reflection of their character and life. I respect that. However, you are right, if they are going to restrict it in one case, they should restrict it in the others, as well, or drop the restriction altogether.

Just my 2 cents!

I am a Christian alsp, and I don't find anything wrong with naming a pet or character "Jesus Christ" or "Mother Mary" Insulting at all. The only thing is when the person insults my religion by being a total asshole and disrespectin the name of Christ. I don't care if it's just a name to you, or if it isn't your religion, but don't make fun of it. Christian never make fun of other religion, that's not the way we are brought up. We are told our entire lives to respect and honour other cultures and people. We are taught to help ramdom peole on the street, and to be kind to those who hate us. People may not be Christian or Catholic, but don't make fun of our religion and beliefs, we almost never do it to you.

/endrant

I have a feeling this thread will likely degrade into some form of a flame war.

Honestly, does anyone give a hoot about this? Is anyone personally offended by censoring Jesus Christ as a name? Or is this just a "principal of it all" type argument.

It seems like A-Net would have MUCH more important things to do than to go through a massive religious research effort to satsify this request.

/notsigned

In my opinion, it's more of a "What kind of world we live in" discussion than a flame war. It's seeing how others feel on the topic.

/namepet Figaro doesn't work either...luckily they thought of my religion then!

Religious discussions are never too healthy in this kind of forum setting, because theres never a discussion, its just different people pushing their views on each other- which before long is likely to cause some quoting, then some feelings to get hurt.

Agreed. The topics a little too passionate for a reasonable discussion. At best we have a hard time with pve vs. pvp discussions let alone religion.

@OP ~ ANet makes decisions on what they allow and don't. Live with it. No naming things Jesus. No Pandas as pets.... get it? Would I like to have a Panda pet? yes. Would I like to name him Jesus. maybe (not likely). Will I just have to deal with the fact that some things are better left alone? YES.

I don't know what you people are going on about, my pet's a panda named Jesus Mohammed.

i have to agree

im not religious 1 bit but if 1 name is banned then all should be banned

Maybe "Jesus Christ" is not allowable, because it is also used as a swear? As far as I've seen, at least in this game, no one yells "Buddha!" in vain, out of frustration at others' stupidity/noobacity/jerkiness. So maybe it made the filter for a different reason.

(Not a religious person myself.)

QFT! Entirely possible.

I'd like to think Anet wasn't trying to discriminate against anyone or censor anyone.

Anet's blacklisted word list is weird.

You know you cant have "Lick" in your name? o.O

Its just Anet being cautious so they dont get sued or what not. Christianity pretty much controls the US government anyway and while im not trying to get into a political debate, i will say that if i wanted to stay in business, id try not to piss them off too much.

That is really stupid. Did you know that the creators of City of Heroes were sued by Marvel comics because players were creating characters like The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine?

The lawsuit thing is coming more to mind now that I see more agruments, doesnt make me happier, but I see where Anet might be going. Other than that though, im surprised to find a somewhat original religious theme in the game. I havent found much influence in the game that has direct application the "major" religions. I still hold to my philosophy of ban all or none though.

And yelling Buddha? I follow buddhist teaching to a point, but that would be hilarious to start catching on in Guild Wars lingo. Im def going to do that.

ex. "WTF, is that sin trying to tank AGAIN? BUDDHA!"
"ah BUDDHA, that damn touch ranger killed me AGAIN"
"BUDDHA, i lost Northern Wall AGAIN!"

Well, Christianity has far more crazed fanatics than most other religions. That's what happens when (please don't take offense to this) you have a religion based entirely on fear to get members.
So, they probably didn't care one way or the other about people doing this, except that Christians would be very likely to act against them in some horrible, possibly even violent way if they allowed it.