Posted on 01/31/2006 3:51:15 PM PST by Panerai
Longtime virtual gamer Sara Andrews didn't know she would cause much of a ruckus when she began recruiting new members of her "World of Warcraft" virtual gaming guild, which mostly caters to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender players.
In recruitment messages she posted on WoW, she wrote that the guild was not "'glbt only,' but we are 'glbt friendly.'"
To WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment, however, Andrews' message was out of bounds. The Irvine, Calif.-based game publisher said her recruiting was a violation of the game's harassment policy, specifically the section of that policy regarding sexual orientation. Andrews was quickly warned in an e-mail to stop recruiting inside the game and to take all such efforts to forums outside WoW's virtual world. Andrews was also warned that if she didn't stop recruiting for the guild inside WoW, she risked being banned from the game.
In essence, Andrews and gay and lesbian rights advocates charge, Blizzard was trying to keep a lid on harassment in its gaming world by blocking players from doing things that could prompt other people to harass them.
"Their (terms of service) statement was clearly crafted to protect the GLBT community," said Ron Meiners, a longtime virtual worlds consultant who has served as a community manager for companies like Ubisoft and There.com. "And I think they wanted to basically protect them in this instance, too. But they seem to have overstepped what was appropriate."
Andrews said she thinks Blizzard, or at least the game master (company employees who control game play and make decisions about low-level controversies) who issued the warning, wasn't being fair. The harassment policy specifically prohibits language that "insultingly refers to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or others."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
people who waste away their lives playing online games hour after hour have bigger things to worry about than "discrimination"..
I don't know why I'm reading this. I have no idea what any of this means. I must be bored.
What was left out? Polygamists, pedophiles, and bestiality freaks? Sounds like they weren't inclusive enough.
Hoisted on her own petard?
Must. Resist. Urge. To. Be. Very. Naughty.
Don't resist. Do it 'for the children.'
This has generated tons of whining on the wow boards
There are a contingent of us on here that enjoy our time together. We consider it time well spent. Check freeping gamers.
Or is it just the more straightforward observation, the gay lobby will include any other sexually confused groups into their fold to increase their numbers and try to break 2% of the population. Why aren't they being publicly nicer to the NAMBLA folks or the people who like to have sex with animals? I'm sure those folks would like to be part of the GLBLTFU family.
People who need to live pretend lives as opposed to their real screwed up ones.
Pretty much everything generates tons of whining on the wow boards.
True.
Start a .999~ = 1 topic =]
Just my opinion.
Doesn't mean I believe it's the only perspective.
Wow. This explains why when I hit on those half-naked night elf women outside the Auction House in Ironforge never respond to my hitting on them. Oh sure, they give me excuses. "Not interested." "Meet the ignore list." "Dude, I'm a guy." "DO NOT SPEEK ENGLSIH. WTS GAUNTLETS OF SOUTHWIND! 600 GOLD!! CHEEEP!!!!!!" They were all members of this guild!
Well, I better try again, this time with a female charcter!
Hah!
I wouldn't go that far...I've watched my girlfriend's little brother (18 years old) turn into something other than a normal, 18 y.o. young man. It's an addiction with him and, from what I've heard, many of the other people in that game. He sits there for hours playing that game. I don't mean an hour or two, either. I'm talking 5/6/7 hours at a time sitting in one place and that's all he focuses on.
It'd be hypocritical of me to say that I don't enjoy video games, because I do (particularly Battlefield 2), but I can't see wasting my life away for hours on end playing a damn game that, in the end, does nothing to better me as a person. A lot of the people on that game, it seems, just waste their lives away trying to create this virtual life of their own. If they put half the effort into their real lives that they put into their virtual ones, they'd probably half-way decent people.
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