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Blizzard says sorry to WOW fan News
PC News by Games Industry.biz
Blizzard has apologised to a World of Warcraft player who was given an official warning for attempting to set up an in-game guild which welcomed lesbian, gay and bisexual members.
WOW fan Sara Andrews was told by a Blizzard customer service representative that she was in breach of the game's terms of service by inviting players to join her "LGB friendly" guild.
Andrews contested the decision, but was told: "While some language in and of itself may not be offensive, it may incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game."
Now, however, Blizzard appears to have had a rethink. In an email to Andrews published by US website InNewsWeekly, Thor Biafore, Blizzard's worldwide head of customer service, said that the company sends "Aplogies for any inconvenience this has caused you or your guild."
"The action that was taken by our customer service representative was an unfortunate interpretation of our current policies, which are currently under review... I have had the warning removed from your account. Please accept our apologies for the way our staff characterised your conduct, and rest assured that your account will not be penalised in any way."
According to INW, Blizzard COO Paul Sams has confirmed that a new guild recruitment channel will be set up, "Providing players with a designated area where they can advertise their guilds in an appropriate fashion." Blizzard is also set to provide "sensitivity training" for 1000 WOW Game Masters in North America, Europe and Asia to ensure there is no repeat of the incident.
Andrews told In News Weekly that she was glad Blizzard had made the apology, but added that she is "curious to see what they mean by their current policy being 'under review.'"
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Poster
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It was a she not a he. And the whole situation is ridiculous. Her stupid crusade for the rights of gay and lesbians in an on line role playing game pisses me right off. On the gamespy boards she was comparing her struggle to that of african americans in the 50's and 60's in the American deep south. WHAT? She's one of the most cretinous people I have encountered online and I hope she falls down some stairs and breaks all her fingers so she can never play WoW ever again. Hateful hateful human being, blizzard did nothing wrong. They discriminated against everyone equally. Her sexuality has fuck all to do with my troll slaying. I hope she gets stung by a bee.
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Artemis_Matsas
13/02/06 @ 11:24
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Sexual - Political - Religious preferences have no place in online gaming. Period.
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from what I see, some people in minorities love to marginalised in some ways. A friend of mine came out as gay in his mid 20's and the "only gay in the village" hat fits him perfectly.
He wears his gayness like a badge and it is the focus of most his conversations and he gets in peoples faces with it and then gets upset when people "discriminate" against him for it. Your gay get over it - it is not a disability. Same applies here I believe they discriminate against themselves. |
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"Sexual preferences have no place in online gaming."
That's kind of like saying gays have no place in the armed forces. This is an argument Lord Tebbit has regarding public displays of affection. It is fatuous to claim that online interaction should not mirror the norms of society. We haven't come this far with human rights just so some narrow-minded fools can make anonymous attacks in the online sphere. |
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jack_klugman
13/02/06 @ 12:20
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I have yet to come out as heterosexual. I wonder if anybody suspects.
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Scientist - actually no its not like saying that at all. It's saying that whether you like having sex with animals, men, women or whatever that PREFERENCE is not something that has anything to do with raids on level 60 dragons or whatever. It is equally discriminatory towards all sexual preferences. It doesn't in any way single out homosexuality. Learn to read.
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pantherboy
13/02/06 @ 12:29
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"Sexual - Political - Religious preferences have no place in online gaming. Period."
Some pretty bland games were in for then |
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reality_cheque
13/02/06 @ 12:40
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Andrews told In News Weekly that she was glad Blizzard had made the apology, but added that she is "curious to see what they mean by their current policy being 'under review.'"
Their policy of not allowing guild recruitment in game I would guess, as this was against the TOS and is what she got the caution for and now (judging by the fact they've set up a channel for it) it isn't. The reason I expect other guild 'adverts' are allowed are purely because there are no/minimal complaints about it. If people who spam guild adverts are reported, I bet they would have had the same treatment - i.e. a temp ban. |
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@ jstar: Unless you want to get it on with the level 60 dragon, of course.
But this is ridiculous. Don't we want our gaming experiences to be rounded and wholistic? Surely the more complex and varied the motivations/ethics/people we come across in our game worlds, the better? Of course sexuality has a place in online gaming. As does your approach to violence, any ethical choices you make, and your response to n00bs and smacktards. I'm glad Blizzard had the good sense to review their initial reaction. That, at least, is a positive step. And even if this person is the most annoying person in the world (I don't know her from a bar of soap) she still has the right to equal representation in her online and offline worlds, whatever her choices. Now about that level 60 dragon...Maybe if we sneak up from behind...
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/02/06 @ 12:43
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PearOfAnguish
13/02/06 @ 12:41
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it may incite certain responses in other players that will allow for discussion that we feel has no place in our game."
Yeah, because nobody has ever called someone a 'fag' in WoW before this happened... I know what Trevd is saying, I've known a few people like that. Some people like to continually point out how different they are because they're gay and when you tell them to shut up you're a homophobe. |
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kangarootoo
13/02/06 @ 12:43
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@jstar
You need to calm down mate. How can you get so angry about something that has no effect on your life? "Her sexuality has fuck all to do with my troll slaying" Since when was it about you? By the same merit your troll slaying has f'all to do with her sexuality, right? Live and let live I say, honestly with all that stress you are going to be dead before you are 70. Then who will slay your trolls for you? |
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This is a tough one. On one hand, gay people flock together like this - in real life or virtual - because there is protection in numbers. Everyone here who's ever played on-line will know how frequent the terms 'fag' and 'gay' are thrown around, and it can be pretty intimadating to some pepole and upsetting. So you flock together with other like-minded individuals who you feel you can relate to and can be protected from this type of comment.
On the other hand it does create marginalism and sepratism. Of course in a perfect world there would be no homophobia and people wouldn't feel the need to seperate themselves - which is probably why, more than anything else, people create these groups. Personally my life isn't dictated by my sexuality but to some people it really defines them. I don't feel the need to seek out groups like this, but that's just me. But if there's one point I would like to make here and its one of the only things that still gets my goat going.... sexuality is NOT a preference. I could no more change my sexuality than I could change my race. I was born this way and believe me if I could have 'picked' what I was going to be at the age of 11 I would have picked to be straight, cos generally speaking its a lot less hassle. Of course, I'm a perfectly well-adjusted adult these days (!) who wouldn't chose to be any different now so please don't take this as a 'woe is me' comment. |
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reality_cheque
13/02/06 @ 13:15
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Just because the term 'fag' is thrown around MMPORPGs all the time doesn't make it good or bad, it just means that people don't report the players.
I make it a habit to report all offensive players, whether they're offensive to gays, jews, muslims, essex boys, whatever. Partly because of my twisted sense of humour, but also because if more people found themselves on the recieving end of a week long ban for calling someone a fag, then they'd either think twice about doing it again or wouldn't play online anymore. Either way, I win. Incidentally, I'm not gay, jewish or a muslim (although I am an essex boy), I'm just annoyed with childish name-calling. I also (before reporting them) publically explain to homophobic people that usually their homophobia is caused by a repressed fear that they might be gay themselves and so is part of an attempt to put a barrier between themselves and their 'inner gay'. |
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jstar - what do you mean 'they discriminate equally amongst all sexual preferences'. AS far as I am aware, there aren't that many. Homosexuality and Heterosexuality is it I think. At least, they're the only ones that are legal.
As for her not having anything to do with your troll slaying, if WoW was just slaying monsters no-one would play it - it's the social aspect that keeps people playing. Take away or try to restrict that social aspect (no religion! no politics! no sexuality! just monster killing!) and you're in for a bit of a shit time. |
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Is all fun depended to politics or religon??
It's just baggage, unneeded baggage that you drag into a world that's free of it. Hell as general rule in life you should simply have; "No, discusions about politics, religon or art amongst friends", they always turn heated and are the quickest and easiest way to ruin a good time becuase of everybodys really strong and totaly fixed opinions regarding them. (I do consider the whole homo vs hetro thing to be politics, just incase there was confusion about that)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/02/06 @ 14:18
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"It's just baggage, unneeded baggage that you drag into a world that's free of it."
But the point is that people use terms such as fag to insult in WoW therefore the online is not free of this baggae. It is simply a microcosm of the real world. "Hell as general rule in life you should simply have; "No, discusions about politics, religon or art amongst friends"," If you can't discuss this with friends with whom can you discuss it? A world without intelligent debate is a totalitarian regime. |
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It's not a totalitarian regime at all. It's discussed between political adversaries, but you don't bring that stuff to the pub and least of all to games.
The online wolrd of games was free of that baggage, but people drag into it anyway and conflict results, hence the rule.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 13/02/06 @ 14:48
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"but you don't bring that stuff to the pub"
What do you talk about with your friends then? Football, celebrities and the weather? My friends and I are very intersted in politics, religion and art. Only through intelligent debate can we learn mroe about our own and others' beliefs. We are also mature enough to listen to each other's opinions, agree to disagree etc. It's harmless banter. |
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jack_klugman
13/02/06 @ 15:04
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What sort of rational person wants to play a game where freedom of speech is explicitly outlawed in the terms of service?
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Oh yes and then you enter in alcohol and somebody enivitably goes on a "we should just bomb all the mosques, those fucking poles are stealing our jobs, religon is for morons". Happend to many times, so now I just ignore it when somebody brings it up.
Or add in online anonimity and goes even more extreme. Just go look at a random forum thread about it, reason goes out the window after a couple posts. People opinions are simply to rigid on the subject. |
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PearOfAnguish
13/02/06 @ 15:07
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Homosexuality and Heterosexuality is it I think. At least, they're the only ones that are legal.
There's asexual and bisexual. There are others, too. |
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I'm Lesbian Nightelf called Candy - Maybe i can join this guild and make friends with other like minded people...
..where do i (and others like me) sit in all this? will we be accepted in this LBG friendly guild? my point is that altho i really don't play wow as a gay nightelf called Candy, the game is, at the end of the day, an RPG and there will be ppl who do. Will ppl like this be able to join in with a guild that advertises as LBG and be accepted - or will the Gay Guild feel that this is another from of ridicule? Unfortunatly i am one of those people who agree's that this has no place in WoW (and even my above idea breaks my own Ideology) - the market is too wide spread, and its demographic age limit too broad, so anything Political, Racial, or about Sexuality really has no place here. Its a sad truth, but the human race isn't ready to deal with these issues.. so i for one would rather not have the conflict. hell... a couple of us had a few warnings for arguing about what would be better, the XBOX 360 or the PS3 in /general... so i can imagine the problem with anything more risky...
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most recently on 13/02/06 @ 15:31
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"Its a sad truth, but the human race isn't ready to deal with these issues.. so i for one would rather not have the conflict. "
It's not even the human race in general. It's videogamers in supposedly enlightened societies who whinge about being called geeks by non-gamers. If we brush the issue under the carpet we will never progress, hence it should be raised and dealt with. |
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"Its a sad truth, but the human race isn't ready to deal with these issues.. so i for one would rather not have the conflict. "
It's not even the human race in general. It's videogamers in supposedly enlightened societies who whinge about being called geeks by non-gamers. If we brush the issue under the carpet we will never progress, hence it should be raised and dealt with. " ------------------------------------------- possibly... But like i also said "the market is too wide spread, and its demographic age limit too broad" - there are certain religons that frown upon this type of sexuality, and also people that are so closed minded as to not be accepting of such things. There are also children under the age of 10 playing... Now Blizzard have added Parental Controls for parents to limit their child's playtimes - but there isn't one to filterout the Religous, Political or Sexuality comments/arguements. The best thing for Blizz to do in this situation is stamp out ALL aspects of this. Its not really a case of trying not to offend minorities, but more a case of pleasing the majority. And I'd argue that since the advent of the PS1 - the geek stigma of the videogame world, doesn't really exist anymore...
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 13/02/06 @ 15:51
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PearOfAnguish
13/02/06 @ 15:53
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At what point does your sexuality become a concern in an online game anyway?
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most recently on 13/02/06 @ 15:53
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Why should a child not be aware of an LGBT guild? What do you think these guilds are up when play WoW? Do you think a child would be exposed to something unsavoury? What about the plenty of unsavoury elements populating the online community generally?
If a child is using a PC to access WoW and internet generally, with or without parental controls, personally I think there's a lot more to be worried about than them stumbling across a LBGT guild in WoW. Still, it makes great Daily Mail headlines I guess "my child groomed by LBGT guild - taught to fight like a fairy". |
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