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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard disbands extreme erotic roleplaying guild
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Sep 17th 2007 at 10:44AM
I've been sidestepping writing about this issue for some time, since it's bound to generate some controversy here and I hate bringing publicity to bad people. But as the topic keeps popping up again and again, particularly on roleplaying servers, it might be time to bring it out into the open.
An erotic roleplaying guild that now spans two realms has been accused of defending pedophiles and engaging in extreme sexual situations without any way to verify that their members are above the age of 18. While the guild in question says it has been reported many times and is not violating policy, and that minors joining an ERP guild are being poorly parented, Blizzard has forcibly disbanded the guild -- only to have it reform under a new name. There might be some disturbing content following the cut, so click at your own risk.
Abhorrent Taboo was mainly a Hordeside RP guild on Ravenholdt, but recently expanded to an Alliance auxillary on Blackwater Raiders. The guild leader posted a somewhat hostile "welcome message" on the BWR forums: "Role-playing is legal. Even if you are role-playing something that would be considered deplorable and highly illegal IRL, it's still just role-playing and isn't subject to any form of disciplinary action. Negative publicity is still publicity. Make a Digg or website about how sick we are. Report us to PervertedJustice. All it does is bring in more members. In fact, the Digg the guy on Ravenholdt made about us was so effective, several people signed up for WoW just to be in our guild. The bottom line is: We're allowed to do what we do on any server we please and no one can do anything about it."
Now, most RP servers are okay with ERP, if a little squicked out by it -- serious roleplayers tend not to like being thought of as cyberers. But AT has a history. As reported by TenTonHammer and then Dugg, AT's leader has talked about pedophilia in a positive way in guild chat. The exact quote is "I want to defend us, but I also want to defend the pedosexual community." The guild leader notes that she was talking about pedophiles who don't actually molest children and that she hates kids herself.
After AT opened their BWR auxillary, a 25-page thread sprung up and was deleted about AT's intentions. AT's recruitment policy, which was reposted onto the BWR forums from elsewhere, stated: "NOTE: Be advised that we frequently ERP in guild chat and often engage in even potentially offensive kinks such as (Extreme) Ageplay, Bestiality, Child Birth, [something that is censored by the WoW forums so I can't tell what it is], Watersports, or any other kink those playing may wish to explore. If you are easily offended or upset by others using kinks you may not personally enjoy, this is not the guild for you. Furthermore, we are a guild based on freedom of love and sex. Monogamy of any kind runs counter to this, and so, all sexually exclusive relationships are prohibited." They add that officers should enjoy ageplay and bestiality. There have also been insinuations, denied by the guild leader, that AT is purposefully lax in checking up on the ages of applicants, and a poster from Ravenholdt says that the guild solicits new players in chat channels without informing them of the purpose of the guild.
As a result, there have been several posts in the Customer Service and Suggestions forums asking that Blizzard do something about extreme ERP. Basically, the opponents say that since Blizzard lets minors in the game, they are responsible for protecting them from unsafe environments, and that AT is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Supporters, or at least non-opponents, say that AT is only engaging in fantasies, that ERP doesn't actually hurt people, and that it's close to impossible to keep minors from joining a guild if they really, really want to.
It looks like Blizzard has come down on the side of the opponents, as Abhorrent Taboo has been forcibly gdisbanded. "This matter is not one Blizzard takes lightly in any way, shape or form, and we do not wish to have this topic continue circulation," wrote Blizzard employee Verrith. " ... Let it finally be said that we appreciate those of you who brought this particular issue to our attention and that we will continue to follow up with this matter in the future to ensure the safety of all parties concerned." However, the members have reformed as Vile Anathema.
I'm torn on what side of the fence to fall on about Blizzard's actions. I'm highly creeped out by "ageplay" in a video game where it's impossible to verify actual age, and the guild leader's posts do seem like they're actively seeking out controversy. But fantasy isn't reality, and I'm not entirely comfortable about the precedent this sets. What do you think about this situation?
Filed under: Virtual selves, News items, RP
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 8)
Danjo Sep 17th 2007 12:44PM
BwR is my home server. I'm glad these people got some attention from Blizz. They are not wanted or welcome on Blackwater Raiders, or WoW.
Seppuki Sep 17th 2007 12:50PM
I say blizzard hand over the account information of all those who have been in that guild and provide that to the authorities.
I don't care if its 'play' or not, fact is it deals with real situations, and has the chance at becoming something worse then it is already.
Have the authorities do a check with these individuals, and if they haven't done anything wrong, they should be afraid to have a few questions asked, and information verified.
I'm a firm believer that its only a matter of time before 'play' turns to reality, specially for those of 'non-conventional thought processes'
Tobiathin Sep 17th 2007 1:03PM
Haha, I remember this being all over horde general chat on Ravenholdt. Good game.
But really from what I've seen, its affected very few, it pops up as an off topic discussion, oh wow, call the cops. I'm not for it or anything, but I really don't care if it exists, parent's don't like minors playing it?
They should know what they are doing online.
So yeah, you can blame it on bad parenting, but its getting blown out of proportion, nonetheless.
rcdan Sep 20th 2007 11:57AM
@22 /WIN
zerorez Sep 17th 2007 1:01PM
This isn't about god, it's about people taking their agenda into a game and forcing it on everyone. While that alone isn't enough to upset me, the content of their own personal agenda is both illegal and predatory. This is a game and should not be treated as a place to fight for cyber rights or push the boundries of internet law.
Wow is owned by blizzard and it should take any and all reasonable steps to both keep themselves attractive to the players and to protect both their good name and their continued player base happy.
This likely will cause them to squash all guilds of this type and it is a good thing that greed will cause justice in this case.
SurpriseB Sep 17th 2007 1:13PM
What it comes down to is this. Pedophilia is a deplorable act in which no one should joke about. There is a community devoted to sex with children and other sexually "deviate" behavior. Many of you ask "Why bring this into a game that has children?" The answer is simple. The law has cracked down on, and rightly so, child pornography or anything that exploits minors. Meaning that instead of internet chatrooms, which are now monitored by law enforcement, they take their perversion into another forum. It's harder to trace people who play a game and "role play" into sexual fantasies then those who post on an internet forum. This way they can easy find people who share the same pleasures and are of "like" minds.
I applaud Elizabeth for taking on a difficult subject such as this. As controversial as the topic was, she made the article worth reading and with this subject thats a difficult task.
Koll A Sep 17th 2007 1:27PM
Your supposed to be 18 or older to have a subscription and play WoW. If you are younger than that, the account must be owned by the Guardian(Parents) and those Guardians should monitor play. If they let their kids get into a freaky guild thats the Guardians fault(bad parenting) not the guilds fault. This isn't a Childrens game ladies and gentelmen, and Freedom of Speech exists everywhere.
jxl Sep 17th 2007 1:31PM
I've posted a comment to the suggestions forums asking that they give guilds an "adults only" flag and that it checks against the parental controls tool in account management before allowing players to join AO guilds.
Poormojo Sep 17th 2007 2:13PM
So these people are being hammered because they are play acting morally repugnant acts, right? (Do we know they were engaging in age-play, or was that just being said for attention?) But isn't Warcraft ENTIRELY about acting out morally repugnant acts? Last night in Warcraft I poisoned people. Murdered people. Set people on fire. We do it routinely.
But some people talk about how much they want to piss on each other and everyone freaks out?
andywoho Sep 17th 2007 1:38PM
*puts a finger in the air and interrupts the shouting between libertarians and Christian right-wingers to say...*
Uh, maybe I'm just a WoW nerd at heart, but I just *had* to check out the gl's Armory profile to see if there was any actual looting and gaming going on.
For someone who claims to dislike traditional monogamy as much as she, I had a good chuckle when I saw she currently has Carinda's Wedding Band equipped.
Oh, and the other ring is "Band of Servitude," in case you were curious (like me). Hmm...sexual roleplay...servitude...I wonder what it could all mean...
Pardon the interruption. Back to your regularly scheduled shock and outrage.
Juliah Sep 17th 2007 1:48PM
Okay, this is really icky.
However, that being said, for the 400th time, Blizzard really needs to make a few adults-only servers (some of them non-RP, to accomodate all those people who are looking for a "mature" crowd *eye roll*). It would help protect them from liability in situations like this.
tela Sep 17th 2007 1:51PM
The reason why half of the server were so angry about it was because there were a lot of minors in the guild. At least two were 14.
Basic Sep 17th 2007 1:50PM
@24 "communicating with a minor for immoral purposes" is the Washington state law covering that (things you know when you're 18 and your GF isn't). I bet Cali has similar laws on the books. The existence of such laws would require Blizzard to police behavior as long as they don't control guild membership by age.
Basic Sep 17th 2007 1:51PM
@44 you are allowed to share your account with at most 1 minor who is an immediate relative. This is an all-ages game.
Basic Sep 17th 2007 1:52PM
@44 you are allowed to share your account with at most 1 minor who is an immediate relative. This is an all-ages game.
Ortai Sep 17th 2007 1:52PM
These are Blizz's servers and they do what they want with them. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
Blizz is under no obligation to provide free speech to any of us. To quote the first amendment. "CONGRESS shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."
@6 Post of the month.
Coherent Sep 17th 2007 1:53PM
This isn't an erotic roleplay guild, this is an attention-whore guild. Erotic roleplayers don't need or want the kind of attention this guild is soliciting.
Probably Blizz will end up banning the accounts of the leaders, and the guild will realize that there IS such a thing as too much bad publicity.
quaunaut Sep 17th 2007 1:57PM
Anonymoose: They don't recruit minors. Minors may join, but thats from going through a site that already does the best one can to filter out underage people(which, granted, isn't much, but I haven't seen a way yet that works on age verification). They don't aim for it, or want it. If they do the ageplay thing, thats between what they see as two adults, but one acts like they are younger.
I'm not condoning it or anything like that, but at this point these are basically people being punished for doing nothing wrong between what *no one* can tell is two consenting adults. This is like a young girl serving you a beer at a restaurant, really- you don't know how old she is, only how old she looks, and thats not enough to do anything.
Man, how fast people write off anyone with just an accusation is completely insane. People should use their brains instead of defaulting to anti-badpeople mode.
Adnarish Sep 17th 2007 2:02PM
@44: "Freedom of Speech exists everywhere."
Sure, but don't hide behind that when you first agree to a terms of use that restrict what you can dump on the internet when playing or posting on Blizzard owned servers. It just so happens to be that referring to violent and/or sexual acts with minors can be reason to permanently terminate a WoW account. In fact, it's at the top of the list.
Mackenzie Sep 17th 2007 2:28PM
I'm glad to see that Blizzard stepped up to the plate on this one. While it is true that "nothing illegal" is actually occuring, having WOW viewed by ANYONE as a place that will allow anything that could lead to something illegal is bad for all of us. Call me a prude, but I don't believe that this is something that the vast majority of players want in our game. We are all free to say what we want in do what we want (in a virtual sense) but I have to look at it from a parents perspective. Pedophilles are by their nature psycologically flawed, which leads one to the conclusion that they will have difficulty seperating fantasy from reality, and encouraging the commission of acts in a fantasy setting that are illegal (not to mention immoral) is tantamount to encouraging the REAL commission of such acts. Not something we can allow.