I very strongly disagree. “Gay friendly” is inclusive. “Hetero-friendly” is exclusive, because the vast majority of the population is hetero, and therefore seems to intentionally exclude gay people — it’s easily assumed that any given guild would be hetero-friendly. It would be the same difference between “minority friendly” and “white friendly.”

“If a child plays World of Warcraft and then comes to his or her parent asking, “What does GLBT mean?” isn’t that slightly out of bounds for what World of Warcraft should be covering?”

Why in the world would you be so horrified for your child to discover that gay people exist? That’s the sum of what your statement is, that you don’t want your child exposed to gay people. Well guess what? There’s a lot of them out there. In the schools. On the streets. And lots of other people you probably (evidently?) don’t like or want your kids exposed to. Good luck with that.

“Frankly, I would like to take this moment to THANK Blizzard for protecting my rights as a parent to discuss sex and gender issues at the time and place of MY choosing…”

Your child is going to learn many things outside of your preferences, at times not of your choosing. That’s life. You and your child will survive and overcome such terrifying circumstances. And if your child who is playing World of Warcraft is 13 or over, you’re living in a fantasy world if you think they don’t realize there are gay people in the world. Wake up. They might not even be — gasp! — afraid of them.

“…rather than at the whim of someone who needs to exercise gay pride.”

You know who would say something like that? Someone who I don’t want my children to be exposed to.

Um, nowhere does she assume that.

What’s she’s saying is that Blizzard supports and condones the broadcasting of heterosexual activities like marriages ingame, but will suspend you for broadcasting homosexual themes for “fear of harassment”.

If the player themselves is actually gay, female, or whatever, doesn’t even enter into it. Blizzard is trying to avoid the entire issue, role-played, ingame, real, whatever. But of course they aren’t allowing gay marriages, if you’ve read into this at all. They don’t want any activity which might lead to harassment.

So when two lesbian characters get married in Azeroth, all it would take is one person complaining about it to get them in trouble. Could those lesbian (real or RP) players get harassed? Then they shouldn’t do it. That is Blizzard’s policy.

“But I don’t think there need to be guilds that stir up conflict, regardless of intent of creators of the guild.”

How is being “GLBT Friendly” stirring up the conflict? Advertising a friendly place in came is hardly confrontational. If some knee-jerk homophobe can’t resist harassing people because of it, it shouldn’t be the guild who get punished for it … which precisely what Blizzard is doing here.

Blizzard can’t seperate Azeroth completely from reality, as all the griefing, cybering and gay bashing proves. But they could be friendlier to groups trying to be mature about it, rather than protect the ones that aren’t.

Definitely +1 on Blizzard turning the victims into perpetrators. It’s like blaming black people for racism because they’re walking around and openly being black.

Vis-a-vis the marriage part – are they not allowing gay marriage in game? That *should* be changed, if not. But I don’t think there need to be guilds that stir up conflict, regardless of intent of creators of the guild. I hope never to see guild listings for Asian Pride, White Pride, Black Pride, Straight Pride, nor Gay Pride. But of the 5 I would bet that the 2nd and the 4th would get the most negative press if they were created. Funny ole’ world, isn’t it?

Sexual orientation is something that you have little control over, whereas “sexual preference” intimates that people have quite a bit of control over which gender(s) they are attracted to. If you are straight, did you choose it? Did you actively say, “I choose to be attracted to the opposite sex, that is what I prefer.” No, I don’t think so.

2. If Blizzard states that “advertising sexual orientation is not appropriate for the high fantasy setting of the World of Warcraft and is therefore not permitted,” then why do they sponsor in-game marriages between characters of different genders? Isn’t the fact that a marriage is taking place an advertisement of the sexual orientation of the two participating individuals? And wouldn’t people in game say things like, “Oh, what a cute couple” and so on? By Blizzard’s policy, such talk should be banned because it concerns sexual orientation.

Oh, wait. No, it wouldn’t be banned, because Blizzard is pandering to the sensibilities of the majority by “protecting” people from harassment, by placing the blame with the victim instead of the perpetrators — e.g. “It’s your fault because you’re the target that caused them to do that to you”, instead of punishing the guilty.

And while Blizzard isn’t banning the guild outright, they are censoring it from recruiting ingame or discussing aspects of the guild ingame. So they might not ban your gay-friendly guild, but they’ll warn/suspend/ban you for stating that you are in a gay-friendly guild.

Not exactly a wonderful distinction.

If someone had tried to advertise a “man on woman sex friendly” guild, players and GM’s would get just as ticked off.

I would.

But, ultimately, I agree with Blizzard when they say, “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.”

There are PLENTY of other avenues to discuss these topics. Why should World of Warcraft be one of them when many players (like me) would just rather not? To clarify, I do often discuss sensitive subjects, I just don’t want to have to in World of Warcraft.

However, 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.

Seems to indicate that they’re worred about people actually talking about sex … they’re worried about people getting harrased for publically stating their position.

They’ve never said anything about violating their content rating.

I would say only marginally did the “discussion can occur” enter into it, since the suspension was offered specifically for the Sexual Harassment.

In other words, simply saying, “We’re gay … and we will be over here” is considered “harassment” by Blizzard … a pretty low bar.

I shouldn’t have to point out the obvious difference between Cybersex conducted in private chat and advertising sexual preference in a public, high-traffic, available-to-all chat channel.

Nor should I. One is virtual pr0n and the other isn’t. Treating them equally is ridiculous.

Perhaps not, but Blizzard is trying to create an environment where parents can have a little trust that such discussions will not be taking place. Why? Because they can sell more games that way.

And in my opinion, way overstepping their bounds. Simply saying “we’re queer” is hardly inciting a discussion about homosexuality … and if our culture is really that homophobic, then someone should take a stand.

Why should it even come up? I group with all sorts of people. Many of them, I’m not even sure if they are male or female. Why does it matter? I don’t care if they are heterosexual or homosexual! It just doesn’t need to be discussed.

And this is where you are completely missing the point.

It comes up all the time. Every 13 year old kid out there uses queer, fag, homo, etc., as a swear word. So, it already does matter … by default. So some people are just trying to band together against the already rampant gay bashing that occurs on virtually every online game in the world. And in doing so, they only people they injure … are the people offended simply by the term.

And of the two groups, I’m darn sure which one I’d prefer to have around online.

So I’d agree with your position … if Blizzard was suspending everyone guilty of sexual harassment in WoW. But that clearly isn’t the case.

Blizzard’s statement that, “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” would seem to contradict your assertion. (Indeed, I would say that both this and the reason you gave apply.)

And as “teh cyber” illustrates, people ARE breaking the content barrier AND talking about sex to kids in the game …

I shouldn’t have to point out the obvious difference between Cybersex conducted in private chat and advertising sexual preference in a public, high-traffic, available-to-all chat channel.

As for “hetero” guilds … guilds are by default “hetero friendly”

You’re missing the point. The issue isn’t whether a guild is in fact gay-friendly or hetero-friendly. The issue is whether that fact (be it gay or not) ought to be advertised in the public chat channel.

And if parents really want to be first to that kind of talk, maybe letting their kids go rampant on the net and an MMO isn’t the best idea?

Perhaps not, but Blizzard is trying to create an environment where parents can have a little trust that such discussions will not be taking place. Why? Because they can sell more games that way.

Somebody was trying to offer a more friendly environment to certain demographics.

Why should it even come up? I group with all sorts of people. Many of them, I’m not even sure if they are male or female. Why does it matter? I don’t care if they are heterosexual or homosexual! It just doesn’t need to be discussed. I don’t want to know about anyone’s sex life, whether they are gay or not. If someone started proclaiming “I have sex with women” in public chat, I would tell them to shut it… regardless of what gender they were.