Character Profile Picture

[weaponzero]

20 minutes ago, Enhance said:

BnS's rating descriptors don't include that, however - so it's assumed that "Suggestive themes" is most the game will cough up.

 

But if you look at BnS's rating in particular:

 

 

Other:

 Indicates possible exposure to unfiltered/uncensored user-generated content, including user-to-user interactions and media sharing via social media and networks

 

 

So the user-uploaded inappropriate pics are already covered in this rating. Hence, rating itself could not be the issue or the driving force behind the change.

 

 

Link fo yo convenience: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/Synopsis.aspx?Certificate=10030377&Title=Blade+%26+Soul

There are more regions than America... The "suggestiveness" that is considered an issue there isn´t realized as an issue here. I am attempting to get insight into the actual verification protocol cause i am curious and as always it is interesting how different the various regions are treating content. :D

 

 

 

[Etniuh]

is very sad to put a picture of your own character ... is your character and others can see it as it is ... it is not necessary to put a picture of it up as you can put just looking forward

but hey better than no picture on the F2... sad but true

[Enhance]

25 minutes ago, weaponzero said:

There are more regions than America... The "suggestiveness" that is considered an issue there isn´t as an issue here. I am attempting to get insight into the actual verification protocol cause i am curious and as always it is interesting how different the various regions are treating content. :D

I believe ESRB is the main rating they're going after. I don't think it matters to them that much to uphold all the content rating values in all countries, like if some third-world country's content rating of them changes after they implement a feature or new content (not saying Germany is third-world, just an example).

What I'm saying is I don't believe the reason they removed that feature from game was because they were worried about ESRB (or any other) rating.

 

27 minutes ago, Lurkios said:

If they took our feedback to heart on this one it'd be the first time they ever gave a damn what the players thought. I swear...

 

NC: Don't give the people what they want, tell them they want what you give them.

I'm still convinced this initiative started because of technical issues the uploaded files brought when they had incorrect format/were corrupted/etc.

But I speculate that during a meeting on "how-do-we-solve-this" they either listened to a vocal minority of people who rage about seeing a *cricket* online, or had some influential person of similar views add that to agenda.

 

Babbletr0n's post indicates that after all, the reason was still that images went from "inappropriate" to "simply illegal and malicious", perhaps meaning hardcore porn/gore or even CP or whatnot (maybe they classified loli H there?).

What I would deem a better solution would be to set temp-ban/warning rules regarding content uploaded, which would act as a deterrent for people from uploading nasty stuff and at the same time would still leave most people with their "customization" and "personalization" and whatever they care about. Previously, they just shrugged away when people reported others for having stuff like that on profile pictures, and after they could banhammer without being frowned on.

 

Instead, after 2 months of being disabled, image upload comes back with a shabby protection, broken and bypassed in at least 2 ways in under a day (I came to my solution within an hour of poking around).

 

It solved the issue of images of formats other than JPEG from being uploaded. But those "main issues" that Babbletr0n pointed out are absolutely unaffected. It's a matter of time now before the ways to upload custom images are in public domain, and we're back at square one - except without gifs.

 

 

 

[KaLnoX]

1 minute ago, Enhance said:

It's a matter of time now before the ways to upload custom images are in public domain, and we're back at square one - except without gifs.

 

 

 

Whole of douchn side step their "measures" already.

[iCream]

you people never are happy ..

[Enhance]

1 minute ago, iCream said:

you people never are happy ..

Are you trying to imply that this much desired by the community change was supposed to make people more happy?

[Yetan]

While I enjoy the arts created by the players, I understand how the feature could be abused if NCSoft doesn't police the content of these image files diligently. When bots are running around wild in the game, I'd imagine hacking an image file being an easier exploit and causing more problems.

 

Rather than using a solution that doesn't solve anything, maybe they should just remove the uploading feature, and replace the profile picture with a 3D image of what the character is wearing/equipping at the moment of being inspected. Players spend a lot of time on the customization of their characters. I find it hard sometimes to zoom in on other characters to check out their looks. Maybe the player picture could be used for that.

[iCream]

No. but in the 1st place, all this is because some retarded players

Anyway, I don't like the new system too, but... for be honest i was sure they never will fixed this system again. it's better than nothing? i don't know..(not for me)

I make my own art too, sad i can't use it anymore. Yes, the game is for mature players, for real this is a good excuse?...

Anyway... Sad part, is that players like me, and maybe like you, that make ur own art and nice work, we can't use it anymore. but i'm more mad at the idiots than ruin it. and im sorry, i alredy know my english sucks, i just hope someone can understand my point.

[Lurkios]

8 minutes ago, iCream said:

Anyway, I don't like the new system too, but... for be honest i was sure they never will fixed this system again. it's better than nothing? i don't know..(not for me)

Is it? Because the way I'm looking at, this pile of crap they've given us is an inferior version of looking forward. At least the one other region that doesn't allow customization gave a 3D view instead of this lazy crap.

8 minutes ago, iCream said:

Anyway... Sad part, is that players like me, and maybe like you, that make ur own art and nice work, we can't use it anymore. but i'm more mad at the idiots than ruin it. and im sorry, i alredy know my english sucks, i just hope someone can understand my point.

True, there are idiots everywhere. What I find sad is that the decision makers at NC seem to be right at the top of that list.

 

But no, you can blame the people for the individual violations. You can punish those in violation for the same. What you should never, ever do is to take away a much loved feature from everyone because a few people abuse it. Freedom can be abused, that's just how it is. You don't punish everyone when it is.

[Tsuchiryu]

2 hours ago, Lurkios said:

Honestly, I just want them to stop touching things... Just go away, let the servers run until they stop. I have zero confidence in NCs ability to make rational decisions at this point.

When it comes to dealing with bots, hackers and other abusers, I'm inclined to agree, sadly. They can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that removing features is NOT the way to do things effectively. Then again, neither do some players, which sometimes doesn't help any.

2 hours ago, Celestria said:

This is a blatant example of how underpaid GM's are. The have to take the lazy way to accomplish their goals. This is why we do not have live GM events which constantly happen in all other regions of this game except for NA and EU.

Underpaid and likely understaffed too if they don't seem to bother to keep on banning people in an individual basis, which is much more effective than what this topic is discussing.

[Shinsetsu]

Personally, I am glad they changed this since it makes more sense with the intention of a CHARACTER PROFILE. If I wanted to see random fanart or inappropriate gifs, I would go to Tumblr, Reddit, 4chan, etc. I go to people's profiles because I want to know about that specific character, their stats, and what they look like.

[Nattia]

32 minutes ago, Shinsetsu said:

Personally, I am glad they changed this since it makes more sense with the intention of a CHARACTER PROFILE. If I wanted to see random fanart or inappropriate gifs, I would go to Tumblr, Reddit, 4chan, etc. I go to people's profiles because I want to know about that specific character, their stats, and what they look like.

Yeah, and most of the fanart I've seen looks just bad. Don't really care about the "animu" pics, I'm more interested how your character looks in-game. For other purposes I go to specific websites.

[demonshunt]

just add a report image option ..... why ban this feature ???!!!! .... 

 

[Shinsetsu]

1 hour ago, demonshunt said:

just add a report image option ..... why ban this feature ???!!!! .... 

 

Yup, because reporting bots and spammers completely solved that issue...oh wait...

[ginIchi093]

oh cmon with this, people in asia can use non-game pictures and we can't ? srslly, wat

[Hire De Lune]

1 minute ago, ginIchi093 said:

oh cmon with this, people in asia can use non-game pictures and we can't ? srslly, wat

They also get GM held events. Interaction with the community. You know, things we wish we had ;(

[LilMsQT]

56 minutes ago, Hire De Lune said:

They also get GM held events. Interaction with the community. You know, things we wish we had ;(

Sorry but what GM would want to interface with a disgruntled unsatified somewhat hostile community? 

That's like a vampire inviting the wooden pitch forked welding angry villagers over for Cricket and wondering why they burnt down the castle and he's fleeing for his life.

So maybe when we can behave a little better? Idk

[Lurkios]

1 hour ago, Hire De Lune said:

They also get GM held events. Interaction with the community. You know, things we wish we had ;(

We don't have real GMs. We have poorly automated systems and a very folks with a small arsenal of ill-fitting canned responses.

 

21 minutes ago, LilMsQT said:

Sorry but what GM would want to interface with a disgruntled unsatified somewhat hostile community? 

That's like a vampire inviting the wooden pitch forked welding angry villagers over for Cricket and wondering why they burnt down the castle and he's fleeing for his life.

So maybe when we can behave a little better? Idk

It could be, just maybe, that if the mentality of NCs players is that of "wooden pitch forked wielding angry villagers"... THEY'RE DOING SOMETHIN' REAL FREAKIN' WRONG.

 

Maybe we'll behaving a little better when NC stops screwing us all over.

[LilMsQT]

@Lurkios

 

Well there's a difference btw complaining  & contructive criticism; and raging out & badgering.

 

They're working on sheeit, give them time, sheesh.

[demonshunt]

JUST GOT A RESPOND .... AND I CAN TELL U I AM NOT HAPPY WITH IT .... IT'S LIKE THEY ARE RESPONDING TO SOME1 ELSE ... I DIDN'T EVEN MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT ANY SORT OF PROGRAM ... I JUST ASKED THEM ABOUT THE PROFILE PICTURE AND HERE IS THE RESPONSE ..................................

[removed: Please do not post private discussions]

..............................................

ok srsly =-= ..... and no i don't use any program what so ever to change my ingame profile picture ... it's all ingame method ... 

[AmatsuDF]

I'm convinced the number of staff at NCWest likely is under 10 people at this point, given their solutions to problems. Any forum staff are all likely the same person as well, unless they can prove otherwise.

[Enhance]

7 minutes ago, AmatsuDF said:

I'm convinced the number of staff at NCWest likely is under 10 people at this point, given their solutions to problems. Any forum staff are all likely the same person as well, unless they can prove otherwise.

No, if that were the case, those people would've learned and became competent.

 

Not trying to belittle anyone, but what it feels like, instead, is that they have ten thousand high schoolers given basic explanation about the game and paid two sandwiches a day. Have you ever received a message from the same GM twice in customer service, in one ticket? Me neither.

And the staff themselves may not be the cause of it - rather, I'd say it's the very poor organization of said staff.

[Negaimu]

Unfiltered & un-whatever still doesnt mean its ok to upload literal illegal pictures. babbletron already said on twitter they can easily remove / ban people abusing the system which is what they should have just done from the start. Sadly they are understaffed and dont have the man power to monitor a report button on char profiles.

[Brainy]

What they did with the new system is basically have you upload only small files (since they must be generated by the client) and they removed the ability to upload gifs. I think the way it is now is fine. If someone puts an inappropriate image, they should be reported and that's it.

[Enhance]

10 hours ago, Negaimu said:

Unfiltered & un-whatever still doesnt mean its ok to upload literal illegal pictures. babbletron already said on twitter they can easily remove / ban people abusing the system which is what they should have just done from the start. Sadly they are understaffed and dont have the man power to monitor a report button on char profiles.

Obviously, but the point of that statement was that ESRB rating can't have anything to do with this decision. (therefore shouting "it's rated M so we can handle it" is pointless).

Posting illegal images is obviously illegal and NCSoft don't want that, but the current solution does nothing for it.

 

I don't know any reliable source to confirm or deny the "understaffed" part, but I'm rather skeptical about it.

 

The big idea about reporting & banning people uploading illegal images, however, is not in bans alone: the fact that you CAN get reported and CAN get banned for uploading an "illegal picture" would by itself prevent many people from doing that.

 

Previously, they were sitting on the fence about it, and people who tried to report those would get a "You could submit ticket to support about it" and other stuff no one's gonna bother with. Because seriously, if you see someone with an offensive image passing by, why would you make it your own problem for more than a day, going out of game, filling out the report form, then waiting for a day for the copypasta from CS? You'll forget about the image itself in the next few minutes, and by the time you receive support reply it'd feel like you're making an elephant out of a mouse.

 

A report button, on the other hand, would be a way to fire & forget the report. If they are actually understaffed, not every report needs to be checked, instead they could simply go through most reported images. And let's face it, people uploading totally inappropriate images is not a frequent occurrence, way less frequent than botting, for example. Most people just have cute anime girls or boys or both there.

 

3 hours ago, Brainy said:

What they did with the new system is basically have you upload only small files (since they must be generated by the client) and they removed the ability to upload gifs. I think the way it is now is fine. If someone puts an inappropriate image, they should be reported and that's it.

It doesn't really have to do with size, though. But yeah, the format is restricted to JPEG (at least the file header).