Sanitizing Expression In Virtual Worlds 516
1up has a piece looking back at the GLBT guild mixup that happened earlier this year in World of Warcraft. From the article: "'... last summer a friend introduced me to WOW, and I really liked it, though I didn't care for remarks many of the players made, like the fact that everything is apparently so gay when it's bad. So I decided to create my own guild, which would be GLBT friendly.' Sometimes singing, other times slogging her way through WOW's exacting echelons to a formidable level 60, Andrews had big endgame plans for her developing guild--until January 12, 2006, that is, when a note from publisher Blizzard blinkered everything."
Re:Private Property rights exist in virtual worlds (Score:5, Informative)
Your home is private property, but when you open your restaurant to the public, it becomes a 'public accomodation', and is not private property. This was an issue with a case against the Boy Scouts of America. They were sued because they discriminate against homosexuals. The courts ruled that the Boy Scouts were a private club, not a public accomodation, and that they were free to discriminate.
Some bars and restautants are also run as private clubs (playboy clubs (defunct), bottle clubs, etc). Most are public accomodations, with restricted 'property rights'.
Also, if you hire a person to work in your business, you are bound by labor laws. This includes not creating a 'hostile work environment' and other EEOC restrictions. If you don't like it, don't hire people in America.
um (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Soapbox rant of the whale (Score:3, Informative)
Hence the no discussion of sexuality rule.
Re:Maybe People Just Want to Play (Score:2, Informative)
>>political crap-ola with which we are inundated
>>constantly in our activist-infested world for a
>>change, and just go somewhere where they don't
>>have to think about it.
You want freedom from responsibility -- a one-sided world where you can say whatever you want about anyone and not have them react. You can do that if you are in a group who shares your beliefs, but when you're in mixed public, the civic rules of society apply. The general world of MMORPG is an open forum with lots of diverse people, not just people who like hearing "fag" equated with "bad". If you want a more closed world, create a guild or find another outlet.
If you're straight you probably don't mind hearing "ha ha, dude you got nuked, you are so gay". If you're white, you may not mind hearing "ha ha, dude, you're as dumb as a nigger". (Although whites are MUCH more sensitive to racial prejudice than homophobia.) If you're gay or black or whatever, hearing these kind of casual insults stands out every time and is a slap in the face. You can either choose to suppress your emotions, or deal with them and speak up, or avoid them, e.g. creating a GLBT guild. Just because you may want to insult someone does not mean they have to take it.
Re:They gave you your life back (Score:3, Informative)
My friend's son, was apparently using the term "gay" inappropriately. So he was reported and warned. Happened again and maybe a third time? BAN! Account terminated just like that.
Now there were some other things that happened too.
Too bad his son was bright enough to remove the warning messages before his father read them.
None the less, he learned a very valuable lesson: No matter how angry you get, if you talk trash in an inappropriate way... you get to start over from scratch.
That is one of the things that didn't read correctly in the article. They make it sound as if it is a world of discrimination and dominated by bashing. However, from the tales I hear, all it takes is to file a report when something like that happens.
Still, some bias is to be expected or perhaps this was a rather unique situation for my friend.