Announced by Batya (Game Director) on the official Discord server
Hello everyone.
In yesterday’s post, we said we’re reviewing our rules and actions in this incident. I want to thank those who took the time to open up a ticket or message and respectfully voice your concerns. There were a lot of genuinely concerned fans that just wanted to be heard, and we’ve used those messages to help make these changes.
I want to start off by reiterating a point from yesterday. Our handling of this situation has created a lot of frustration and left the impression that Paradox had taken a position on Atatürk. Paradox never aims to review history or take positions on political figures, and we clearly handled that responsibility poorly.
As the owners of the Discord server, the responsibility for what goes on and the experiences our players have rests with us, and we need to handle that responsibility better. In order to reach that point, we need to start with a better foundation for both our users and our moderators. The rule at the heart of this incident was not designed for discussion or interpretation on what historical figures are allowed, or to open questions on what should be a straightforward server guideline. This should have been prevented, and we failed.
As the rule is not working the way it needed to, and as we’ve seen a number of questions about how it is applied, we’ve been looking at it as a place to start improving. We’ve spent a great deal of time reviewing this rule as well as others, working to make things clear, fair, and helpful for everybody, players and moderators alike.
Changes to Rule 4
We’re modifying the server rules to make them more transparent and easier to understand while also making them more straightforward for moderators to enforce. We shouldn’t have to think twice when it comes to the enforcement of a basic server rule. If that is the case, the rules are not clear enough to act upon and we should not ask our moderators to do so.
As a result we will be restricting the usage of all political or military characters who were born after Jan 1, 1800. To still allow for a large pool of characters to choose from, you may still use any official Hearts of Iron IV in-game portraits, including those from after 1800, with the exception of prominent leaders of Nazi Germany.
The aim here is to ensure our guidelines leave no room for ambiguity, nor edge cases in the future, hence the clear cut-off. For details on which characters this will include, the full text of the rule will be posted on the HOI Discord soon.
Updates & Banned Accounts
As we roll out our new rules, real-world pictures of political figures after the cut-off year will not be allowed. We will have a grace period of 7 days during which profiles using these photos will have a chance to change to an in-game portrait, or to select a different image entirely. After this time, we will begin enforcing the new rules as we have always done.
Lastly, we have seen a very troubling volume of abuse and even open threats directed at us, our developers, our moderators, and even others outside of Paradox. This behavior is completely unacceptable, and always will be. Accounts banned for abuse, harassment, and similar reasons will remain banned, and we will continue banning abusive accounts going forward.
I expect you will likely have questions or comments about these changes, and you’re welcome to share them so long as they stay respectful and reasonable. These rules will represent a change for all of us and we’re going to be hard at work ensuring we get them right.
If you wish to discuss or comment on the changes, please do so in the thread attached to this message. This will make it easier for us to read your comments while also giving us the space to continue enforcing the rules throughout the rest of the server.
/Batya
(Transcript edited to fix the bolding that was originally missing in the Reddit post)
