Blizzard apologises for GLBT blunder
by Jennie Lees 
Feb 9th 2006 at 2:00PM
We previously reported on Blizzard's run-in with Sara Andrews as she was
recruiting for her GLBT-friendly guild; fortunately, there's a happy ending. Blizzard's decision has been reversed, and
they are reviewing their policies (including their wording). Additionally, as the incident is being put down to a poorly
trained GM, we'll be seeing GMs with added "sensitivity training" in future.According to In Newsweekly, another outcome of this is that a special "guild recruitment" channel is going to come into existence soon, making it easier to advertise and find guilds.
Also, several academics have created and signed an "Open Letter to Blizzard" as a result of this issue, encouraging Blizzard to come forward and "make a public statement that the mention of homosexuality in general chat is not offensive. Beyond this, we also suggest that Blizzard investigate ways of making WoW more inclusive for GLBT guilds and players." It looks like this single GM reprimand has touched a very sensitive nerve.
Filed under: Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
My Name Feb 9th 2006 3:04PM
Sexuality has nothing to do with love (sonce some people were comparing the two in another post). I think Blizzard should leave sexuality out of the game. I feel I get beat down with this whole gay rights movement enough in the real world. I want to just play my game and not have to deal with reality. I thought that was the reason for MMPORPGs, to escape from reality. The last thing I want is to be hit on be a gay dwarf. No thanks.
PodMonkeys Feb 9th 2006 4:32PM
If you want to escape reality, and don't want to be hit on by a gay dwarf, then what you're saying is you play games to escape to an entirely heterosexual fantasy world? Or that not only do you not want to be hit on by a gay dwarf, but you don't want to be hit on by a straight night elf? ie, you want to escape reality, and play in a world where no one gets hit on?
GlennZilla Feb 9th 2006 5:48PM
With a background in community management, I am happy to see Blizzard come through with the reversal and the development of a "Guild Recruitng" channel.
It serves to point out that Guilds are based on the gathering of like minded players. It also moves all the "guildspam" onto a channel I can easily ignore.
Huzzah! Twice!
aarin Feb 9th 2006 6:01PM
My Name-
You really are not that clueless to think you'll be getting hit on by a gay dwarf, are you? The whole issue in question dealt with a guild that was GLBT friendly for the players themselves, not the characters in the game. Is it too much to ask that you actually have some clue as to what the topic is about before you go spewing intolerant 'leave me alone rants' around?
A guild where it would be okay and accepted to be of the GLBT sections of our society. Not a guild that RPs gay characters. When the most common insult hurled on the channels is something (and I quote) 'U R so gay!' one begins to understand why a GLBT-friendly guild might have a place. After all, being called Gay as an insult is something 30 years in the past.
Besides, you can't be daft enough to think that all of the female characters in the game that 'hit' on you are all female, can you? As someone with a narrow-minded outlook on life, I am surprised you would not be more threatened by a male masquerading around as a scantily-clad female NE than by a truly gay man playing a 'gay dwarf'.
If your daily reality is that of getting hit on by gay men, might I suggest that you change where you spend your time and with whom you associate. As it sounds like this fact bothers you a great deal, it is also something over which you have control.
As for the 'whole gay rights' movement, might one suggest that you examine why things like the civil rights movement in the 60s happened, and try to draw parallels to the current gay rights movement. 'Equal Protection Under the Law'- ever heard of it? If not, go do some reading. People tend to get miffed when they are denied basic freedoms and liberties that are freely and openly given to every other member of the same society. IOW, bigoted troll, there is a reason why there is a gay rights movement, and believe it or not, the agenda is NOT to ram gay lifestyles down your throat. It is about equality and freedom-You know, that stuff we are currently fighting to spread around the world?
[oh and for the record, I am not of the GLBT persuasion]
Open your collective eyes people. There are more than two types of people in the world (men and women). And they are not going away. Deal with it.
Denise Feb 9th 2006 7:00PM
Can't we all play nice? If everyone played politely... Ok, quit laughing. I know it is a blood and death game, but people do not have to say mean things. (Of course, I have not played PvP, so I can't speak about that.) Someone wrote about teenaged kids saying vulgar and rude things to other players. That is what should be curtailed.
Diesel Fire Feb 9th 2006 7:05PM
WOOT! Now I can start my hetro only guild! Thanks Blizzard!
Seraphim Feb 9th 2006 7:17PM
It wasnt about starting a GLBT only guild, it is about starting a GLBT Friendly guild.
Quicksilver Feb 10th 2006 3:07AM
Blizzard should take all sexuality out of teh game. This is not the place for this. Just because some people get in the game and try to make a statment ruffles the feathers of the entire community. Thats what really bugs me about the glbt group. They dont do half of their stuff because they think its right. they do most of their stuff to stick it to the man and break social norms. Imi all for equal treatment but that kinda stuff really bugs me. Leave it outta the game. 99% of the time sexuality is left outta the game. Its a rpg game with polygons not to much sex that can go on there and u cant really even do anything. Why worry about it. If you are goin to display love or sexuality at all in more then jsut a friendly way do it in pst or outside of the game. We have dragons to kill and portals to open. Escape and kill stuff.
brasti Feb 10th 2006 9:11AM
I am sure I do not have all the information, but I have to agree with the original GM and those here who want to leave sexuality out of the game. There are certain topics which cause a lot of tension and conflict such as sexual preference, religion, politics, etc. I do not think it is such a bad thing for me to not want those elements in my MMORPG. Where do we draw the line? These kinds of topics divide players and take away from the reason we all play these games in the first place, community and cooperation.
My Name Feb 10th 2006 9:50AM
Yes, I was joking about getting hit on by a gay dwarf. No, I do not care if they allow this and I am glad they retracted their previous statements. I do not want to exclude anyone from playing or make anyone uncomfortable because of their preferences. I guess I might have come off a little different then I intended. Sorry if I insulted anyone. No, I do not mind getting hit on by a straight female NE.
Casikao Feb 10th 2006 10:56AM
No, I do not mind getting hit on by a straight female NE.*unquote*
then you really are daft arent you, you do relize most of the flirting from the night elf females ( sorry if your really a girl) but most of them are guys who just like to look at something while they play and possibly get free items for being so. So the gay dwarf statement still applies even if your being hit on by a NE female. ( again sorry if your actually playing your Sex ^^ )
Erindriel Feb 10th 2006 11:31AM
What some of you who are cisgendered and heterosexual fail to realize is that *you* are allowed to exhibit your own sexuality in a great many ways during your day, and nobody every gives you any grief over it. We're not talking about overt sexual behavior here, but rather little things like commenting upon an attractive member of the opposite sex, mentioning something about your spouse or describing a date you went on to a friend. You also get to go through your day with almost no chance of hearing your orientation used as an insult. Well, in this spat with Blizzard, that is all we want too. Of COURSE any sort of overt sexual language is inappropriate in the game - no matter WHAT the orientation or gender of the speaker is! But we're all people with lives and feelings, and your "harmless" little attempts to dehumanize us by not letting us speak about ourselves equally is EXACTLY the sort of thing that makes some sickos feel justified in attacking us with hatchets and guns!
Tryst Feb 10th 2006 2:32PM
Just to clarify, the advertisement was for a guild wherein phrases like, "LOL u fag" were not going to be used, correct? My impression was that she was saying this guild is a place where your sexuality is not going to be an issue not a place where only homosexuals would be welcome. If that's not correct, could someone let me know? Because if my understanding is correct, then I feel that her intention was to remove references to sexuality from the game for people who are offended by the use of those words? Shouldn't everyone be able to have a guild where they feel comfortable?
I actually went to the place where this was originally posted and spent a good hour reading the first 30 pages of the posts. I was personally horrified by the degree of intolerance I found there, but not surprised, and I do respect the right of everyone to have their own opinion. My feelings on someone else's opinion being completely irrelevant. I'm just not sure that the outcry was focused on the correct issue?
I'm a woman and, personally, would not want to join a guild in which women were referred to in what I consider to be a derogatory manner. If that were a problem on my server, which it isn't except for the all-male guild I referenced in the other post on this topic, I would appreciate someone advertising for a female-friendly guild. My understanding of such a guild would be that while it is not an all-female guild, this particular guild is not rude or derogatory toward females.
In this case, it was the homosexual players who were trying to get away from other players using words like fag and gay, so aren't they the ones who are trying to get away from sexuality in the game, not the other way around?
Laika Feb 10th 2006 5:30PM
Tryst, that is probably one of the most logical comparisons I've heard in these discussions. I think you hit the nail on the head.
Erindriel Feb 10th 2006 7:09PM
Tryst wrote: In this case, it was the homosexual players who were trying to get away from other players using words like fag and gay, so aren't they the ones who are trying to get away from sexuality in the game, not the other way around?
There's a difference between trying to escape from bigotry and avoiding talking about a fundamental aspect of your own personality. When people use "fag" or "gay" in a derogatory manner, that has *nothing* to do with sexuality and *everything* to do with prejudice and intolerance. I prefer GLBT friendly guilds because the **prejudice** is missing... The opportunity to speak plainly about yourself just like all of the privileged straight folk get to do should absolutely still exist.
Silvertusk Feb 13th 2006 9:02PM
Great. My brother is 11, and he plays this game, and is like.. completely unaware about sex, and I hope he stays that way until he's ready. I don't want someone online to end up explaining to him about the birds-and-the-birds, the bees-and-the-bees, or the birds-that-want-to-be-bees, or any of that jazz. He's only a child, and if this whole things attracts more homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders to the game, Blizzard had better to a smack-up job of keeping those players' exploits to themselves.
Erindriel Feb 16th 2006 5:16PM
Silvertusk wrote: He's only a child, and if this whole things attracts more homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders to the game, Blizzard had better to a smack-up job of keeping those players' exploits to themselves.
Wow... you really are ignorant of what it means to be GLBT, aren't you? I understand your confusion, as there are some absurdly inaccurate stereotypes running around in our society, but you might want to question some of your beliefs. I assure you that your 11 year old brother is FAR more likely to hear explicit sexual language from the gazillions of straight, adolescent male gamers in WoW than he is from any of the LGBT gamers... even if only due to the vast disparity in population size. The belief that LGBT individuals are somehow more flagrantly sexual than straight individuals is nothing more than a myth. Yes, there are some very "in-your-face" people in the LGBT world, but there are a lot of flagrantly promiscuous straight people in the world too. If you're going to bash LGBT individuals based on the sexual behavior of a small subset of that group, I'd love to know when you're going to take action against all of the cheating straight people who contribute to the astronomical divorce rate in this country...