Political correctness gone mad?
by Jennie Lees 
Jan 28th 2006 at 12:00PM
I've heard various rumours
of people being silenced by Blizzard for referring to themselves as homosexual in-game; some of the players I know are
members of a European gay-friendly guild. However, this recent action by Blizzard seems bizarre--a player advertising
recruitment for a GLBT-friendly guild was cited for
"Harassment - Sexual Orientation".Blizzard have seemingly made it clear that they don't want to bring real-world sexuality into the game; a response from them over this issue has said "We have determined that advertising sexual orientation is not appropriate for the high fantasy setting of the World of Warcraft and is therefore not permitted". Further justification for the charge was that positive discrimination would offend the majority of players. However, this makes little sense seeing as the guild was not exclusive, merely GLBT-friendly.
To what extent do our in-game selves leave real-world attributes such as sexuality at the door? If I want to roleplay a lesbian dwarf, I would like to do so without being silenced by Blizzard. However, on the flip side of the coin, I don't want to be discriminated against in-game for my gender or sexuality--that's what Xbox Live is for. It's a tough line to draw, and GMs deal with it every day, but perhaps they overstepped the line this time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pince Feb 9th 2006 5:07PM
It seems that Blizzard just got freaked out by such a touchy issue and tried to push it aside by making an appeal to not wanting any "sexuality" in the game at all (despite the obvious heterosexually oriented sex symbols portrayed by many characters). It was a weak way to try to deal with a difficult issue (or should I say "to completely avoid a difficult issue") but it looks like they've at least apologized.
Goochoz Jan 28th 2006 1:24PM
There is also the young kids that play the game you have to worry about. I know I've run across a mess of 10 year olds, and some adults that are mentally 10 years old.
WLF Jan 28th 2006 1:35PM
Yes, that's my issue with this; kids play this game, and sexuality has no place in a world of elves & dragons...
Tryst Jan 28th 2006 5:11PM
Then why is it okay for there to be a "No Women Allowed" guild on the Khaz'goroth server? I don't know that they're actually called that, but they certainly advertise like that and confirm that no women are allowed when questioned about it in /1. And it is not infrequently that posts for groups are made specifying that the applicants should be male. If you're not allowed to advertise based on sexuality than you shouldn't be allowed to advertise guild or groups based on gender.
Pinwiz Jan 28th 2006 7:32PM
I'll only back this if other people are suspended for calling people "fags" and saying that something is "so gay". That's 100x worse than someone advertising a GLBT-friendly guild.
I'm this close to cancelling my subscription over this.
Poirot Jan 28th 2006 9:03PM
first off 10 year olds are in this game because their parents can't concieve that online communities could possibly be innapropriate. Parents fault. Secondly this is a tad offensive as basically blizzard is lumping anti-homophobes and gay-bashers in with gay rights advocates and the like. It's as if they say "Hey Klu Klux Klan and your buddies the NAACP. Neither of you are allowed to talk here" Which frankly, is their right as owners of a private space. If you don't like it you can leave. Yes that's a crap attitude on Blizzards part, but according to EULA they can say that. They shouldn't but they do.
Thirdly the title of this article "Political correctness gone mad?" is misleading, in a radical PC environment only the negative influencing voices would be banned not the gay-positive ones. So really we have a speech issue here not a PC or hate issue.
Makes one wonder what language/though filtering goes on in Chinese servers?
Hey WOWinsider there's an idea, find a democracy advocating guild on a Chinese server and see how that flies with Blizz.
PodMonkeys Jan 28th 2006 10:10PM
This is just the sort of hypocritical thing I see just about everyday. Why is gender specific allowed, but not GLBT? Why this over that? etc.
About the 10 year olds, thats why theres the ESRB rating on the game. I believe the wording is "Game experience may change during online play."
And besides, seeing groups that are openly friendly to groups wether gender or race based is beneficial in that it teaches open mindedness. I would much prefer having my kid see a group that is GLBT friendly, than to see a group that openly excludes her because she is a girl.
Goochoz Jan 29th 2006 1:30PM
As far as, "It's their parents job." arguement is concerned about the issue, Parents can't patrol 24/7. There is a responsibility by the mmo community to be respectful. I'm not saying that gays and lesbians should be barred from enjoying the game with gay/lesbian guilds, but people need to be more sensitive to other people's children.
Yes, there are racist and antihomosexual remarks, but report them. We can't make a better community if we don't help clean up the asshats hanging around azeroth.
JPC Jan 29th 2006 1:33PM
Well, as a parent of a 9 year old who loves playing WoW, I'd like to say that I wish he could play without me sitting there watching him to make sure he ignores all the jerks spamming lude remarks. I think it'd be real nice if there was a server for young kids (under 14) bc there's really no reason kids under 14 shouldn't be able to play. Having advertisements for GLBT-friendly guilds isn't bad, but going into detail about what GLBT means in the /1 is the kind of thing that makes it difficult for me to let my son play.
Robert Jan 30th 2006 12:13PM
I understand Blizzard's stance on this subject and agree with it. That being said, if there's a hetero's only club, that should be discouraged as well.
What I don't understand is how a person's real life race, religion, or sexual orientation has ANY impact an the world of Azeroth.
Diesel Fire Jan 30th 2006 12:30PM
"What I don't understand is how a person's real life race, religion, or sexual orientation has ANY impact an the world of Azeroth."
You're right, it doesn't have any impact on the world of Azeroth, but it does have an impact on the players and does NOT belong in the game. When sexual orientation is added to the character creation screen right there under hair color and skin color, then it would be acceptable.
barb dybwad Jan 30th 2006 3:37PM
Damn, there goes that Lesbian Dwarf Mafia guild I was gonna start.
I totally don't buy any of the "protect the kids" argument -- if any one of us were going to "protect our kids" from "displays of sexuality" we'd have to eradicate every magazine, newspaper, and tv commercial in the house and blindfold them on car trips so they couldn't see the billboards.
Daniel Axelrod Jan 30th 2006 4:45PM
In parenthetical response to Goochoz, while it is true that parents can't monitor childeren 24/7, anyone playing WoW is able to afford the monthly fee, and that money has to come from somewhere.
That has nothing to do with WoW community standards, though. Community standards are set by Blizzard to be whatever they like, and this is their right as the game owners, though I personally disagree with their objection to this particular subject existing in their game world.
The article raises a question I also had: does this policy extend to RP servers? From what I've read, almost any other kind of behavior is tolerated by GMs on RP servers as long as the behavior occurs in character. It would be stupid if this was the only exception.
I certainly wait with interest for Blizzard to respond with a clarification about what I can and cannot say in game. The only upside to them cracking down is that it would finally provide a way to shut up all those Chuck Norris fanboys.
James MacAulay Feb 1st 2006 1:46PM
"We have determined that advertising sexual orientation is not appropriate for the high fantasy setting of the World of Warcraft and is therefore not permitted"
Huh?
The whole game is dripping with heterosexuality! The human and night elf females, not to mention the succubi, are obviously meant to appeal to heterosexual males. The fact that there is a population at all implies that the characters are having sex and reproducing.
You want more? When Blizzard had their Valentine's Day screenshot contest last year, these were the winners:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/05-02-valentines-screenshots/winners/
And Blizzard is saying that it's because of the *high fantasy setting* that people can't advertise their sexual orientation?
Blizzard just has no reason to be doing this. Their naming policy (which applies to guild names) does not permit references to sexual orientation; however, in this case the guild's name was OZ. Maybe Blizzard is worried that some people will think of the HBO prison drama Oz, which featured some homosexual characters? Right.
From innewsweekly.com's article:
'Andrews' original posting read: "OZ [the name of her guild] is recruiting all levels We are not 'GLBT only,' but we are 'GLBT friendly'! (guilduniverse.com/oz)"'
This guild is open to everyone. The guild message doesn't even "advertise sexual orientation," to use Blizzard's language: nowhere did it actually say that anyone in the guild was GLBT, just that the guild is friendly towards GLBT.
Then, of course, there is the whole issue of the rampant disrespect that Blizzard does nothing about (people saying "that's gay" or whatever).
I just can't get over how spectacularly awful Blizzard is.