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World of Warcraft : Rights for gays!

by Steven Williamson on 30 January 2006, 13:17

Tags: World of Warcraft, Vivendi Universal Interactive (NYSE:VIV), PC, RPG

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Gays are not welcome



A bizarre move by Blizzard could result in all out scandal. In an age where sexual orientation, colour, or creed are more widely accepted in society, Blizzard seem to have buried their heads firmly up the backsides of a 1970's anti-gay protestor.

According to In Newsweekly, Sara Andrews received an email from Blizzard under the title "Harassment - Sexual Orientation", Sara had wanted to set up a gay friendly guild and had advertised via the chat channels. Blizzard now promises to ban any players actively advertising for such guilds.

Sara emailed Blizzard and received the following response, "While we appreciate and understand your point of view, we do feel that the advertisement of a 'GLBT friendly' guild is very likely to result in harassment for players that may not have existed otherwise. If you will look at our policy, you will notice the suggested penalty for violating the Sexual Orientation Harassment Policy is to 'be temporarily suspended from the game.' However, as there was clearly no malicious intent on your part, this penalty was reduced to a warning." Just a warning, that's nice of them.

It's hard to understand the reasoning behind such a measure. Are there bands of gay lipstick-wearing male dwarves wandering around with handbags over their shoulders, dressed up to the nines, sexually harassing the poor gnomes of WOW? Just like that statement is wrong to suggest that all gay males adopt a girlie persona , surely it's wrong of Blizzard to suggest that gay guilds will cause sexual harassment to other members.

Other gay guilds are in the process of airing their views to Blizzard, it would be wise for them to lighten up on the whole issue, before a simple solution turns into front page headlines.

The original story was posted on 'In Newsweekly'.


HEXUS Forums :: 18 Comments

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Come join the gay guild? in Main chat?, i mean seriously you expect on a game where minors play that this isn't going to be outlawed. Its not the gay guild thats being banned, its the active advertisement which is completely against the WoW T&C's that i understand being stopped.

Sorry but i completely disagree with your stance on this.

TiG
Id have to agree, Funnily enough ive seen two different people advertising two different gay based guilds on Darksorrow and the amount of flaming they got for shouting this out was untrue and it was all flaming about what TiG pointed out, minors play the game.

I agree that advertisment of the guild should result in punishment.
How about an S&M guild, lets face it most of the clothing’s already in the game.
I understand that a gay guild may lead to their being harassed by other players, but thats the other players harrassing, not the people running the guild.

The fact that minors play the game is irrelevant.
The problem i have is with the way the article is phrased, the person has been caught up for advertising a gay friendly guild. This is against the T&C's of WoW. You are not allowed to advertise guilds of ANY sexual nature, thats why blizzard have sent e-mails out. I can't see one single shred of evidence that they are banning gay guilds. They have now been sent an e-mail because of this. Gay guilds are fine by me, but the advertising of them as a Gay guild is not.

WoW is not an 18+ game, and as such i'm afraid what you think about minors playing the game is wrong. Blizzard have a legal obligation to protect people under the age of 18, as with all games they are rated on the content. Blizzard have to ensure that is enforced, or they may find themselves at risk of legal actions against them.

I can't see it being anything more than common sence?.

TiG