At one point in time Chuck Norris jokes dominated trade chat. Then it was the Murloc game. I'm sure we've all noticed that now it's the anal <insert spell> gibberish that now floods the channel. Dolce of Blackrock believes that it's time the Blizzard begin moderating trade channels during prime time. The chat channel can be turned off, but then it loses utility for valid messages such as selling enchants, transmutes, and well, general trade.

As a parent, Dolce continued his argument:

Wow has a very broad appeal and the average parent would look at the packaging of the World of Warcraft and assume that it is nothing more than a fantasy game where their son or daughter can play with their friends and have "adventures".
The average parent I imagine (and this is merely a broadstroke comment based on the huge playerbase), may not have any sort of familiairity with online games, and even to a certain degree, computers as a whole.
Asking parents (although I am extremely attentive to what my childrens activities are) to have an intimate knowledge of joining and exiting out of city channels is a bit extreme. Perhaps if there were parental controls that you could set ot make this easier...... /wink
In any event I would not be suprised to see some news anchor with some over the top expository on the lewd and profane content that is seen in WoW spun out of context in the near future.
I would say they would be killing a variety of birds with one stone if they simply moderated these popular channels.

Blizzard has taken a passive role in moderation, allowing reports from community members to be the primary source of action. Beardly of Dalvengyr agreed that servers should be moderated at all times. Other offenses include "People sitting stealthed on Quest Givers, Taurens parking their kodo on the mailbox, gold spammers." All of which are annoyances that we've learned to deal with.

The text based nature of most communications means that Blizzard can review content at any time. When the abuse is too great, there is always the option of reporting someone for their obnoxious behavior. But since the process of opening a ticket and responding to a GM is long and cumbersome. In most most cases I let it slide.

World of Warcraft carries a T for Teen rating with the disclaimer that the experience may change during game play. That's Blizzard's way of saying that there will always be obnoxious people who violate the limits of taste and common sense. Parents must take responsibility for their children, but may not be able to read every offensive message that comes across.

Do you think Blizzard should take a more active role in moderation?

Tags: anal-spell, chat, children, chuck-norris, moderation, moderator, murloc, murloc-game, murloc-movies, parent, parents, t-for-teen, teen, teens, trade-chat

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Forums, Forum Post of the Day