World Of Warcraft - Rights for gays!

[Steven W]

A shocking move by Blizzard - no gays for us thanks.

Check out this Headline for more info.

[TiG]

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

[Kaine (AoD)]

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.

[Flibb]

How about an S&M guild, lets face it most of the clothing’s already in the game.

[TeePee]

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.

[TiG]

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

[RedPutty]

It would be kinda hard to have a gay guild if you werent allowed to tell anyone its for gay people only (thats another can of worms I dont think its a great idea to descriminate against membership based on sexuality).

Now about this issue of minors playing - are people really trying to hide the existence of homosexuality from kids for fear of it "corrupting" them, and are you only allowed to be gay after 18?

[Steven W]

In Final Fantasy I've seen some strange chatroom names. XXX chat, erotic chat and all sorts.

[Steven W]

allowed to advertise guilds of ANY sexual nature

TiG

Being gay is a way of life as far as I'm aware, nothing to do with sex. It would be the same as advertising for a vegeterians guild or a ballet dancers guild. Wouldn't it? ahh I don't know I'm confused

[YorkieBen]

Being gay is a way of life as far as I'm aware, nothing to do with sex. It would be the same as advertising for a vegeterians guild or a ballet dancers guild. Wouldn't it? ahh I don't know I'm confused

of course being gay is to do with sex. It is a person's sexual orientation.

plus what would happen if there were 'straight only' guilds?

[mike_w]

I can see both sides of the arguments here, but I believe that Blizzard are well within their rights to do this. Being gay can bring up some points for minors that they might not otherwise would have considered i.e. sex, which may be inappropiate for their age group.

Also, as YorkieBen mentioned if there were a 'straight only' guild, people would probably be complaining about discrimination - how is this any different? (Before people mention positive discrimination, that phrase is usually an oxymoron anyway.)

[Steven W]

There should be freedom of choice, I don't see what the problem is with letting them set up a gay or lesbian guild -God even I'll join the lesbian one.

[katbrat73]

First of all I want to specify that I am a happily married bisexual woman with 2, 4 & 5yr old toddlers (and yes my husband is MALE and military for that matter where the fact of me being bisexual is more of an issue than it is in a GAME) so I am not taking sides of anyone, but I completely disagree with a few of the posters in regards to Blizzard's GLBT issues. Dispite the fact it is a GLBT guild, it should not have EVER been considered a violation of terms since I see MANY MANY guild advertising 'all female guilds' or 'all male guilds' or 'all military guilds' and even 'all ASIAN guilds'. If youre going to be racist, why not go all the way and make 'Europen servers' or Australian (Oceanic) servers' ? ... OMG there ARE those kinds of servers ... how racist!!! =P

Seriously folks, it is a COMMON INTEREST GROUP that would like to spend their time in a casual environment with a goal for pursing the game together. It was wrong of Blizzard to reply as such to this young lady when there are several other issues at hand that require far more attention. How about 'warning' and banning the little jerks who send personal attacks to people (see below)

as I am certain 90% of those people who are total jerks in the game are NOT gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Why discriminate again having a GLBT guild at all for that matter?

And YES children play this game, hell, my 4yr old plays the game with me and my husband! As one poster commented about 'why hide the issue from children ...' I completely agree! My sister is Gay, my cousin is Gay and they are the best 'Aunties' to my children and they KNOW and see them with their partners in REAL LIFE ... as if its going to rub off on them any worse in a GAME? If that's the fact, then why are these children swearing in game? Gee ... I'm sure they didn't learn THAT in the game!

It's an absolutely ridiculous move on Blizzard's part and maybe they just wanted to avoid the whole confrontation of getting consistent complaints on 'harrassement' from people in that guild, but that is their JOB and that is the consequences the guildmates will have to face being a part of such a guild. But it should not be banned or 'warned' about such actions because we have to face the fact that we are a DIVERSITY of players, yet we are all people! THAT is what we shoudl be teaching the kids ... not hiding it from them!

[TiG]

First let me start by saying my commentry on this has only been about the way that this article has been posted. I played WoW for 6 months and had a level 60 character, so i know my way around WoW universe. I also know where to look for all the latest information of what is and isn't acceptable.

I've just been trawling through hundreds of posts trying to find any sort of official statement about the banning of gay guilds and from this search i can find absolutely 0 evidence of this happening.

I'd actually point to that being complete crap and at no time has blizzard wanted to or tried to close down gay or gay friendly guilds.

The reason i state this is due to the large amount of threads on guild recruitment openly advertising gay/gay friendly guilds.

So the issue comes down to advertising gay guilds in game in main chat. And i'm still where i stand on this, it will create huge spam and anti gay messages in main chat and cause huge problems. I'm sorry but it creates a negative atmosphere in the game and i'm afraid i view this as bad thing and to remove that problem the advertisement of gay guilds is not allowed.

I hope that people can see the subtlety of my arguement that creating chaos in the in game messaging is what blizzard are trying to stop.

Katbrat, i'm sorry but the "why hide the issue from the children" is down to individual peoples choice how they bring up their kids. There is no right and wrong to bringing up children. But it is down to individual choice. When i have kids at teenage level i would want them to feel they can play games like WoW, but my expectation as a parent would be that advertising of things that could be worrying to parents with minors would be excluded as well as possible.

Call me a prude if you like, and i'm sorry if you view that as derogatory. I'm viewing the advertising as anything like the Cannabis gang, or the BNP WoW clan, or sadly the Gay clan. Because it is all going to kick off swearing insults and general problems that i would not want any children i have to see.

I'll quite happily teach my children about the diversity of people in this world, and i'd certainly be teaching them that having an open mind is what you have to have in this world and that discrimination of any type is bad.

But commercial companies running games like WoW have a requirement to ensure that the minors playing the games are protected.

TiG

[Agent]

There should be freedom of choice, I don't see what the problem is with letting them set up a gay or lesbian guild -God even I'll join the lesbian one.

The setting up of a gay guild is not the problem. They have been there since day one of WoW. Blizzard has no problem with these.
Its the advertising that the guild were doing that is the problem. If people were advertising a 'straight' guide, they would also receive a warning / ban. They have not singled out just gay people.
Its in the T&C. Everyone in the game has to abide by them, gay or not.

Your turning this story into something its not Steve.

[Steven W]

Ferrago received this comment from Blizzard
"Topics related to sensitive real-world subjects - such as religious, sexual, or political preference, for example - have had a tendency to result in communication between players that often breaks down into harassment."

This is the reason they gave Ferrago for banning advertising of gay guilds, there just seems to be a total lack of consistency, if what ^^^Kate said is true.