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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Would you join an "Anything Goes" realm?
by Robin Torres 
Jan 15th 2009 at 8:00AM
Some of the commenters in yesterday's Breakfast Topic talked about how we were all adults and shouldn't be bothered by adult content. But we aren't all adults. Kids play this game -- and often it's teenagers who are the ones with the adult oriented chatter.
We've discussed the concept of age restricted servers before and many have expressed that they would join them in an effort to escape what is perceived as underage offensive behavior. But what I'm proposing here is not an adult only realm to avoid adult content, but one that is age restricted because of the adult content.
We've discussed the concept of age restricted servers before and many have expressed that they would join them in an effort to escape what is perceived as underage offensive behavior. But what I'm proposing here is not an adult only realm to avoid adult content, but one that is age restricted because of the adult content.
Restricting ages is a difficult thing to do. To paraphrase House, even 17 year olds know to press the "I'm over 18" button. So, let's say that Blizzard found a way to actually restrict this realm to 18 and over only, therefore eliminating any worries about the children. This realm would be completely uncensored. You could report offensive names or behavior, but nothing would be done about it. Profanity and sexual content would be allowed. Unfortunately, the language of hate would be allowed as well. In practice, there would probably still have to be some guidelines. Names of products and celebrities might have to be disallowed just for copyright issues. And threats of real life violence would also have to be taken seriously.
I play casual games at Club Pogo and some of their game rooms are labeled Anything Goes Uncensored Chat. Late one night, I was playing a competitive solitaire game (it's more interesting than it sounds) and was trying to find a room with enough players that wasn't full. The only one available at that time was an Anything Goes room. Since I don't mind profanity and sexual innuendo, I thought I would give it a try. I expected some profanity and adult chatter and perhaps some mature banter -- maybe even intellectual topics. Yeah, I'm hopelessly optimistic.
The good part about the room was that people actually spelled out their words rather than speaking in acronyms like in the other rooms: "wtg gga ns tyvm". But the chatter was mostly not game related and rarely related to what anyone else was saying. It seemed to be randomly generated sentences with sexual organs and sexual activities thrown in. I wasn't offended, but it was annoying. I suspect that an Anything Goes WoW server would be the same.
I don't see Blizzard creating a realm like this, but hypothetically speaking, what do you think this realm would be like? After the initial month of newness wore off, would the chat just be what Trade/Barrens Chat is now only a bit more explicit? Or would the age restriction actually reduce the potty humor and homophobic rants?
Would you join an "Anything Goes" realm?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 8)
ivan256 Jan 15th 2009 10:34AM
If you find a mature guild where people behave themselves, then leave all the public chat channels (including Yell), you'll find you hardly ever have to /ignore anybody.
After a few days, you'll wonder how you ever stayed sane with Trade in your chatlog.
Amaxe Jan 15th 2009 9:38AM
An over 30 server would be interesting. There would be some crude people over there to be sure, but I think most of them would be people who want to get away from the immaturity of the channels.
But I think it is mainly maturity. On my server we have some under 30s and even under 18s who are mature and I would not want to exclude. Not mature as in "for mature audiences" but rather, people you can trust not to do stupid things.
Unfortunately maturity is a hard thing to measure in keeping people out
Amaxe Jan 15th 2009 9:50AM
Hmm, maybe a set of questions required to build a character on the server...
What site do you check first thing in the Morning:
1) 4Chan
2) Something Awful
3) Least I Could Do
4) I read the Newspaper
How do you respond to someone who has stolen a frost chip you were trying to get?
1) WTF? d00d, you suck!
2) What are you doing, jerk?
3) Post on Trade that he is a ninja
4) It's not worth the effort in dealing with them
What do you use to wake up in the morning?
1) Red Bull
2) Rock Star
3) Mountain Dew
4) Coffee
How Many Piercings do you have?
1) one pair, in my ears
2) Several in my ears
3) Several, including places I can't mention because of the EULA
4) People *do* that?
What do you do at 930 AM Monday through Friday?
1) I am at work
2) I am at school
3) I am logged on to WoW
I suppose we could filter people for the 30+ server that way ;-)
Gridneo Jan 15th 2009 9:48AM
Yea. I think a number of the previous comments sound a bit uptight. It's like somebody took something from you, and you want it back; and you want it back in the form of maturity. It's a game. Turn on your profanity filter and go join an RP server or something if you don't like it. I find a lot of humor in a lot of the trade chat banter, and we've had our fun with people we find to be underage in our guild (we do 18 and up... we convinced some 14 year old's mom to get in vent, and just embarassed the hell out of him... now that's fun)... Yea, we don't put up with ignorance, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of fun at the expense of a guildie. It's an understanding. As far as some kid being exposed to something that would somehow alter their upbringing or state-of-mind or something, comeon... Be a better parent. I wonder if the EU servers have a bunch of whiny people on them. Afterall, they're not used to the sweeping censorship that we enjoy in the US that has produce soooo many whiny, and I dare say too-damned sensative, kids (let alone adults).
QQ
William Jan 15th 2009 10:18AM
"As far as some kid being exposed to something that would somehow alter their upbringing or state-of-mind or something, comeon... Be a better parent. "
"Afterall, they're not used to the sweeping censorship that we enjoy in the US that has produce soooo many whiny, and I dare say too-damned sensative, kids (let alone adults)."
So should parents protect their children from adult content or not? You seem to say that being a better parent involves keeping those concepts away from our children, then turn around and say that doing such creates sensitivity (which is a bad thing?). Let me present a concept to you:
As a proud parent I know that children ARE impressionable. They hear words (even words that they don't know the meaning of) and observe the affect the words have when spoken. There is an age where learning adult content is necessary to complete education, however learning respect and proper usage and such things is also important. I believe you would be better off stating that utterly sheltering your child from adult content for their entire life could be detrimental to their wellbeing, but that perhaps censorship is necessary for children up to a certain age. If you call a child sensitive, perhaps that means that they haven't reached the age where the content you have introduced is appropriate for them. I conclude: As an adult, it is therefore your responsibility to not present inappropriate content when children are present. Children are not the ones we should hold responsible in this case, but the adults that are around them.
Loboscuro Jan 15th 2009 11:03AM
Answer: No
Why? AoC adult-only content proved how useless the +18 years old barrier is.
Servers for +30 years old ? Give. I would miss a few ppl in the twenties that are really mature. Unfortunately they seem to be vastly outnumbered by the just over 18 whose hormones doesnt allow them to talk about sex without talking nonsense...
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jan 15th 2009 9:58AM
I think the problem stems from mixing children and adults in a game where everyone hides behind an assumed name. You’ll get adult-like children or childish adults as much as getting mature adults and bratty kids. An anything goes realm would be mixed with people pushing their limits just because they can and it has nothing to do with age physically wise - that’s all up there in that mental cranium most people have.
Osi Jan 15th 2009 10:00AM
Yes, some of us are adults. But some of us are also mature. It is the mature people who are bothered by the kiddy content. It is definitely not "adult content" in any shape or form.
Anaughtybear Jan 15th 2009 10:07AM
I'd be down for that kind of realm. No, it wouldn't stop all immature behavior, but simply locking out all the kids would surely cut it down by a huge percentage. Then you could also rule out certain offenses and excuses. There would be no reason for bad grammar and idiotic nonsense, since nobody would be able to say "Oh, he's just a kid." You would be well within your rights to call someone a douche bag for blocking the mailbox at that point, after eliminating the child factor.
Belna Jan 15th 2009 10:15AM
Why would you need an "anything goes" server for if people are allready offending in chat anyway the way it is now? I would be happy with less spam and less teens that use the tradechannel as an open ICQ channel.
That server would probably draw a lot of people that like to be offencive. After a few months you cold pull the plug and ban all accounts on that server. That would clean up a lot.
I would join a family server.
More my style.
Fuseitana Jan 15th 2009 10:13AM
Since when did a tolerance for offensive behavior equal maturity? I'm one of the more mature (oooold) players and I certainly don't want to be around a bunch of preening adolescents (or adults with adolescent mental capacity).
Salacia Jan 15th 2009 10:28AM
Agreed! I'm an "older" player too -- the older I get, the less I can tolerate so much of the idiocy that goes on in this game.
Soifra Jan 15th 2009 10:20AM
Seems like an iffy concept. I don't think Blizzard would really want to be known to shelter stuff like hate speech.
Age-restricted realms are one idea - an impractical one as it currently stands, though who knows what they might come up with - but if "Anything Goes" would mean removing the consequences for behaving horribly in-game, that realm would be a nightmarish place for people who aren't trolls (and I'm not talking Darkspear).
Melchior Jan 15th 2009 10:19AM
I want a realm where horde can group with alliance or where you can kill same faction players... people who steal my quest items or kills deserve justice...
William Jan 15th 2009 10:21AM
This^
Wulfgyr Jan 15th 2009 10:22AM
Hey, I'd be fully supportive of Blizzard opening something like this and I hope they'd offer free transfers from any server. That might get the more obnoxious ERPers off the server I'm on.
Linden Jan 15th 2009 10:24AM
Personally think it'd be an awesome idea; but only because you can hope that most of the immature people would head there or be sent there.
I have a very dark (and dirty) sense of humour but I rein it in on WoW, the odd joke is fine but the racial/sexual/general slurs get annoying.
Rather than an 'anything goes' possibly a 'zero-tolerance' people found mis-using trade chat get silenced in all chat channels for 3 days etc. That way chat etc stays to private channels and whispers....
Cmen Jan 29th 2009 12:32AM
Requiring 18+ would make little to no difference. From MY personal experience people are still immature in general until 23/24+. But 21+ should be a good compromise.
Language would not be a great attractor as blizzard already has a "filter" setting to catch some "bad" language. Hate messages i would Imagen staying the same.
Another attraction would be a server with load times revolving around a work schedule instead of a school schedule.
Off topic:
Same faction pvp would be great. Some type of exclusion would be needed (party member, guild members, and major cities) becuase dps shooting the tank in the back during a pull would be a bad thing. I would say same faction pvp with a guild restriction would add a wonderful addition to a guild's dynamic.
Another idea would be to have a pure pvp class called "bounty hunter". Someone camping you, place a few gold on there head. The bounty hunter class would be able to travel to apposing faction cities hunt them down without guard interference. However combat with players that don't have a bounty is forbidden unless attacked first. Sorta like a heroic rogue class with 'home faction' land rules applied everywhere (when fighting a bounty pvp flag is not set). Possibly as making goblins a playable race, they are well established neutral class.
Way off topic:
Drunk PVP rules
1) PvP
2) winner drinks
3) repeat
Houldum Jan 15th 2009 10:33AM
Unfortunately the majority of people out there (WoW players or not) are psychologically immature. The standard bell curve doesn't apply to maturity (in my opinion 2/3 of all adolescents (13-25) and adults (25+) are immature). This doesn't mean they're all jerks or have a low-intelligence, they just lack self-control, common sense and some form of interlocutor between brain and mouth/fingers. We'll never have a server that is free of immature players, unfortunately.
snowleopard233 Jan 15th 2009 10:48AM
This game's rated T for teen which I think is pretty accurate consiering that whenever anyone's acting like a jerk on WoW, they're pretty much just acting like some assanine teenager.
That being said, I don't feel there's anything in this game that will harm the "Virgin ears" of anyone over the age of 13. There's not that much voilence and there's hardly any sex. The worst you have to deal with is harsh language from other players that can be wiped out on profanity filters and let's face it, the worst of trade chat cannot hold a candle to the crude language and conversation topics that go down in a high school cafateria.
As for the pre-teens, Why areyou even letting them play an online game? To expect every person they meet online to behave like a silver angel is just ludicrus. If you're worried about your kid having a bad experience online, than you shouldn't let them hop in a virtual world every night with 11 million strangers.