How can I handle inappropriate behaviour?

Question

Lately, I've been running into a lot of distasteful language and behaviour. I'd like to take part of /General chat and submit it with my ticket. Is there a way to do so?

Answer 1

No, there is not. However SWTOR's Customer Service team absolutely has access to chat logs and all you need to do is report:

• The time of the occurrence
• Your location (each planet, operation, Fleet, etc. has shared chat across all instances)

The names of the players involved may also be helpful. I have logged reports in this way that have been acted upon — BioWare does not disclose any actions they take against players, but one player I reported happened to be in my guild (unfortunately) so I knew he got banned since he was MIA for a week and complained about it afterward.

This is basically summarized in their support system:

If /ignore is not of assistance, the profanity filter is deliberately circumvented, or if the harassment is serious enough to request further assistance from a Customer Service Agent, please click on the question mark icon on your game menu interface, and open a ticket with Customer Service. This will open a free form text box where you can provide further detail. It will send a notice directly to our Customer Service Agents who will then investigate the issue and act accordingly. Due to privacy restrictions, the Agent will not disclose to you any specific actions taken regarding the situation, but rest assured they will investigate and take action when appropriate.

However, as noted in the comments there is a profanity filter for you to use if you don't want to see profanity. Reporting "swear words" won't result in any action being taken.

Answer 2

There is an option in your preferences to filter and convert most swears into stars. This option is available under Preferences --> Game Tab --> Chat section --> Filter Profanity.

There are creative ways around that, as you had mentioned, but there isn't much that can be done about that. Unfortunately, there will always be undesirable elements when you are online; there is no way around it. The best you can do is mitigate it.

Another option would be to leave General chat entirely; that option is in the same area, called General chat. That will limit your exposure to profanity from the general population.

Profanity in general isn't really actionable; it's distasteful, yes, but it's everyone's right to express themselves within the rules set out by the creator, and the Rules of Conduct only mention that profanity is not acceptable within their forums.

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As for harassment :

From SWTOR's Rules of Conduct:

Harassment Policy

Our goal is to build a strong community that offers a comfortable atmosphere for all of our players. This means seeing that players have the ability to combat antisocial behavior

Harassment consists of misuse and/or abuse of game mechanics and verbal harassment with the intention of distressing and offending other players. Game mechanics allow players to interact with the world and each other. For example, the ability to block a doorway is a game mechanic. Use of game mechanics like these is by no means considered harassment in and of itself. The key to determining whether the mechanic is being misused or abused is to determine "intent." Reported incidents are not considered harassment until it is determined by the SWTOR CS that it was done to intentionally to cause distress or to offend other players.

Harassment is also any behavior that is incessant, inescapable, derogatory and directed specifically at you or your group. Before reporting, a genuine attempt to alleviate the situation should be made by leaving the area or the offending player, or asking them politely to stop. If a sincere attempt has been made to solve the problem and the offending player persists in the behavior, it should be reported.

Behavior that is always considered harassment includes derogatory and/or hateful comments that are sexual, racist, religious, or related to gender or creed.

A judgment of valid harassment can result in penalties placed on the harassing party up to and including immediate account closure, based on the severity of harassment and the player's past account history.

Player versus Player (“PvP”) activities, where available, are not exempt from this policy.

I have bolded the relevant section; reporting harassment is not actionable unless it is directed at you or your party. Just because you find something offensive does not automatically mean it is actionable. Like the policy states, an attempt to resolve the situation must be made prior to submitting a ticket; oftentimes a statement might offend you, when the person making the statement had no intention of it doing so. This is a very common occurrence online, where all we have to judge intent is the words themselves.

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In the event that you are submitting a ticket, it's a good idea to mention the following details:

• Which channel this occurred in
• The time of the occurrance
• The username of the person causing the issue
• Your location at the time of the incident

This will allow Customer Support to spend the least amount of time combing through their logs for the information. I doubt being able to copy from chat would be useful; customer service would still have to go through their chat logs to ensure accuracy and the proper context for the statements is known. That will allow the best chance for a fair and impartial decision to be made.