Nerf the naughty
by Jennie Lees 
Feb 13th 2006 at 11:45PM
This idea from Terra Nova would certainly help clean up Barrens chat: nerfing characters as a penalty for bad
behaviour in-game. If you use an alt to misbehave, then they'll all lose a level every time you break the bounds of
decency.Key problems with this idea include inconsistency between GMs (we've already seen the trouble one slightly misguided GM can cause) and the systematic targeting of players; if you really want to hurt someone, get everyone you know to report them and suddenly they'll be back at level 0.
As Terra Nova's commenters observe, social pressure and access control (making the players ashamed to misbehave, and banning them) are the most effective ways to control behaviour at the moment. However, if you lost a little bit of xp every time you called someone "gay" in general chat, you might well be less inclined to bigotry in public--the idea's got some potential.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, WoW Social Conventions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
WoW Screenshots Feb 14th 2006 3:20AM
When you use artificial means to prevent someone from being politically incorrect, you will always fail.
These are social problems that will take an incredible length of time to solve.
Stormgaard Feb 14th 2006 7:57AM
The fool will wonder, the wise man will ask the Barrens!
http://www.notaddicted.com/index.php?page=barrens
~
Stormgaard
The Se7en Samurai
Brinstar Feb 14th 2006 10:11AM
I think a better way to discourage bad behaviour is through peer pressure. Unfortunately, it is a problem of the culture, and until people stop tolerating bad behaviour, it will continue.
Cort Feb 14th 2006 10:24AM
I'm a bit confused... If you call someone "gay" in the general chat, are you a bigot? I wouldn't think so. I don't use the term in General, or elsewhere, but I honestly don't think that those who do use the term are biased against homosexuals. It's a phrase that has come to mean something akin to "You're stupid." Sort of like when someone says "that's retarded." Do they mean that the concept has some mental condition that prevents it from cognitive thought? No. It's insensetive, yes... But bigoted? I wouldn't say so.
Why are we still talking about this? Honestly. People are free to have a gay/lesbian-friendly guild, and that's fantastic. People are free to have a Christian-friendly or Muslim-friendly guild, and that's fantastic. Heck, have an all-midget (oh wait, they're little people, sorry) guild if you want. I just don't get the hullabaloo.
Why can't we enjoy the game, experience the lore and participate in it without bringing all of our biases into the game with us? I'm pretty sure there are quite a few liberals and conservatives in my guild, but oh my gosh, we all get along... Because we aren't playing to deal with that stuff. We're playing to have fun and to experience the World of Warcraft.
Comment #1 was correct. This is a social issue that is outside the realm of WoW. You're not going to fix it with any prescribed measure. You'll just end up pissing off another contingent of players, making the situation even worse than it already is.
Diesel Fire Feb 14th 2006 12:06PM
Punishing someone for saying that you?re being ?gay? is completely retarded.
Your attempt to oppress my artistic creativity and vocal expression is extremely offensive and you should be docked a level for your attempted censorship.
See? It works both ways and is a flawed idea that can be easily abused. Punishing someone for what offends you, but does not offend another is a totally gay idea.
jennie Feb 14th 2006 12:49PM
Fair points all, but this is more meant as a way of enforcing the ToS than rigidly cracking down on player-to-player censorship. It doesn't matter what I personally find offensive; what matters is whether what you say falls into Blizzard's catch-all:
"any content or language which, in the sole and absolute discretion of Blizzard Entertainment, is deemed to be offensive, including without limitation content or language that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, sexually explicit, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the content and language restrictions listed above"
Regarding the word "gay", I didn't necessarily mean that it itself implies bigotry, although there is an overlap between the people who use it in a defamatory sense and those who are homophobic. One problem with that particular word at the moment is that its negative use is still fairly new, and therefore people who didn't grow up with it being tossed around as a playground insult think that they can change it before it gets too late. But that's irrelevant to this discussion, and it always amuses me how quickly an academic or theoretical topic ends up debating the semantics of the word "gay"; it touches a nerve, somewhere in the universal consciousness.
Aarin Feb 14th 2006 2:49PM
"See? It works both ways and is a flawed idea that can be easily abused. Punishing someone for what offends you, but does not offend another is a totally gay idea."
And the stupidity continues.
A hundred years ago, a majority of the country weren't offended by a good old lynching. Heck, it was a cause of a picnic, and bring the kids! 50 years ago, most were not bothered by segregation and the depravation of civil rights to a significant (but minor) portion of the population. Date rape is a relatively new term (in, what, the past 20 years?). Do you think that girls and women weren't coerced into sex before the mid 1980s? Simply because something is accepted does not make it RIGHT. And yes, there are absolute RIGHT and WRONG things in our world, and no, your opinion does not matter on the subject. Killing someone is wrong, and you'll be punished. Society seems to be moving towards a more open and accepting view, rather than just the 'Moral Majority' view on things (think interracial marriage, birth control for women who aren't married, etc).
The fact that something does not offend YOU means nothing. Like it or not, we live in a society, and WoW is an online society. You are going to be governed and judged by the rules of that society. In the case of WoW, the rules are set by Blizzard.
Simply because you don?t see something wrong with the word 'gay' doesn't detract from the fact that a majority of people find it offensive. Do you use it in your normal day-to-day vernacular, or does the ability to be anonymous online free up your bigoted mind and mouth?
I am sorry, but even in the (good 'ol) USofA, we do not have the ability to do and say whatever we want (e.g., try yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theater and see what happens). In the realm of political speech, we do, but try existing in modern cosmopolitan society and use words like that, and you'll find yourself alone, or worse, hanging out with the skinheads.
Grow up. In order to live in civil society, we give up certain freedoms. Words like 'honkey' are not acceptable speech, because it is derogatory towards white people. Other words (and I'll skip naming them for fear of the ire it will doubtlessly bring from the overly sensitive), even if they speak in generalizations, are inappropriate. Words have power, pure and simple. Language is an important thing.
To honestly think that someone using 'gay' as a put-down is anything other than trying to associate that person with the 'otherness' of homosexuality is a fallacy. Even in the remote chance that you actually believe what you say, it hardly matters, because you will be grouped with the other narrow-minded, intolerant idiots that still crawl out from under rocks. You can stand there and say what you want, but it hardly matters when nobody hangs around to hear what is said.
While this hardly needs to be pointed out, I would suggest you try using the word 'gay' in the workplace (if you are, in fact, old enough to be working) and see how well it is received, and how receptive your employer is to the argument "but I didn?t use the word 'gay' to mean fag!". Censorship while at work isn't censorship in the manner of violation of someone's political rights. They are two totally different things. Blizzard is a business, and WoW is the product. Not for a moment should you think that 'Censorship' in the type of having books removed from a library, is the same thing as being socially punished for inappropriate use of language in a virtual world. By the same idea, simply because something is not offensive to you does not mean you should have the right to say it without consequence, especially when you no-doubt KNOW it is controversial.
Mike Feb 14th 2006 4:35PM
When did this become a political site? Am I on Hannity and Colmes? Is this the O'Reilly factor?
Talk about incredibly off-topic. Can we keep the discussion game-related? And please leave the contrived comparisons between mob lynchings and calling people "gay" to other sites (preferably ones not frequented by me)?
The fact of the matter is that Blizzard can, should, and will do anything it deems necessary to create the least offensive, most vanilla environment for online gaming on the planet. They're Big Blue's server you're playing on people, they can do what they like.
Diesel Fire Feb 14th 2006 6:42PM
"Simply because you don?t see something wrong with the word 'gay' doesn't detract from the fact that a majority of people find it offensive."
I would say that a minority of people find it offensive and that a majority think it's supposed to be offensive because they were told it is. The word "gay" used to mean "happy" long before you or I existed, so if some minority group says its offensive, I say "get over it."
"...and no, your opinion does not matter ..."
You are correct, your opinion does not matter and neither does mine. If Blizzard wants to ban everyone that runs around yelling, "CHEAP GOLD 4 SALE!!1!", or ban people that want to create racist night elf only guilds, or if they want to ban bigoted hetrophobes, that's their prerogative.
Q: You don't like it?
A: Don't give them money!
It's as simple as that. No one is forcing you to give them your money and subject yourself to their rules. Like it or not, Blizzard is a private business and if they wanted to ban everyone who?s real life last name started with the letter ?H?, no one could stop them. It might not be the smartest thing financially, but if they felt it made the game better for everyone else?
People seem to forget that a great many things are a privilege and not a right.