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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard to patrol Moon Guard's Goldshire for harassment, erotic role playing
by Mathew McCurley 
Aug 4th 2010 at 12:30AM
Check out the full Blizzard response after the break.
Arrestide -- Re: Cancelled My Son's AccountThis topic is not a new one, and we know it's a concern for our players and our player-parents. We hear perennial complaints about spots in our game where this activity is said to take place, and Moon Guard Goldshire appears in that list with some regularity.
Often the public assumption is that unless a GM appears with a crack of lightning and a mighty hammer, Blizzard is turning a blind eye.... this is very much not the case, so I'm hoping to shed a little more light on this topic from Blizzard's perspective.
For reference, the In-Game Harassment Policy:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20226
Our Intent
It's our goal (and in our interests, obviously), to present a safe and accessible environment for play. While defining "offensive" behavior can be subjective, the policy linked above reflects our working definition, and our intent to keep certain types of offensive behavior from affecting the play experience.
Enforcement
With millions of players in hundreds of servers and thousands of channels, it is impossible to manually monitor everywhere. To this end, World of Warcraft provides features to help players protect themselves and help us moderate accordingly:
- Profanity/obscenity filter to automatically intercept the most obvious offensive language
- The ability to report any player violating the rules
- Ignore functionality to remove individuals from appearing in chat
No single one of these, by itself, is always sufficient. It's critical to understand the rules we're enforcing, and where they apply. Relevant to this case, whisper chat between two consenting individuals, guildmates, etc is not an area we are out to pro-actively police. Any offensive in-game behavior needs to be reported in order to receive the right followup.
"Punish in Private"
Some posters on this thread have suggested that Blizzard ignores those reports. From several years as a manager for our call centers, I can promise you that we take action routinely.... because they call us. Or they email us. Sometimes there's blame placed on a roommate or sibling, sometimes an account thief committed the offense, etc. The point is that players appeal because players receive actions. You won't see it happen.... well, unless it happens to you. Otherwise you can only decide whether you will take our word on it.
Okay, what now?
Members of our CS team will 'patrol' Goldshire on Moon Guard on a regular basis, and take appropriate action for individuals violating the Harassment Policy. Note that this pertains primarily to public messages (/say, /yell, General) and unsolicited whispers. We won't be showing up with that mythical crack of lightning-- we'll just be watching silently for any rule-breaking language and following up privately with the player[s] in question.
Often the public assumption is that unless a GM appears with a crack of lightning and a mighty hammer, Blizzard is turning a blind eye.... this is very much not the case, so I'm hoping to shed a little more light on this topic from Blizzard's perspective.
For reference, the In-Game Harassment Policy:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20226
Our Intent
It's our goal (and in our interests, obviously), to present a safe and accessible environment for play. While defining "offensive" behavior can be subjective, the policy linked above reflects our working definition, and our intent to keep certain types of offensive behavior from affecting the play experience.
Enforcement
With millions of players in hundreds of servers and thousands of channels, it is impossible to manually monitor everywhere. To this end, World of Warcraft provides features to help players protect themselves and help us moderate accordingly:
- Profanity/obscenity filter to automatically intercept the most obvious offensive language
- The ability to report any player violating the rules
- Ignore functionality to remove individuals from appearing in chat
No single one of these, by itself, is always sufficient. It's critical to understand the rules we're enforcing, and where they apply. Relevant to this case, whisper chat between two consenting individuals, guildmates, etc is not an area we are out to pro-actively police. Any offensive in-game behavior needs to be reported in order to receive the right followup.
"Punish in Private"
Some posters on this thread have suggested that Blizzard ignores those reports. From several years as a manager for our call centers, I can promise you that we take action routinely.... because they call us. Or they email us. Sometimes there's blame placed on a roommate or sibling, sometimes an account thief committed the offense, etc. The point is that players appeal because players receive actions. You won't see it happen.... well, unless it happens to you. Otherwise you can only decide whether you will take our word on it.
Okay, what now?
Members of our CS team will 'patrol' Goldshire on Moon Guard on a regular basis, and take appropriate action for individuals violating the Harassment Policy. Note that this pertains primarily to public messages (/say, /yell, General) and unsolicited whispers. We won't be showing up with that mythical crack of lightning-- we'll just be watching silently for any rule-breaking language and following up privately with the player[s] in question.
This is the first time the customer service team has taken a preemptive, proactive approach to dealing with this type of rule-breaking behavior. Moon Guard is infamous for its roleplay community, but this move by Blizzard should definitely not be seen as a slight against their acceptance of roleplayers in general. The policy is laid out for those who would want to roleplay in the general chat channels, and Moon Guard residents can rest assured that their private conversations are not being monitored for harassment policy infractions. Unsolicited /tells, however, are definitely against the rules, especially when they involve unwanted language, descriptions, vulgarity or innuendo.
Blizzard has a fairly comprehensive In-Game Harassment Policy that can be found here for your perusal. Moon Guardians, my only advice to you is to keep it to party chat -- that sultry human death knight at the bar you're eyeing might not appreciate that /tell in the way it was intended.
Filed under: News items, Account Security
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 14)
c.j.kamp42 Aug 4th 2010 12:45AM
There are a number of us on Moon Guard that are happy Blizzard is finally taking a stronger approach to the gross disregard of the rules specific to a Role Play server. There are plenty of great role players on our server and some of them do include erp as part of their story. I agree with the sentiment in the last paragraph to keep it to party chat (and a lot of us do that already). Goldshire has been the one real blemish in that because it has been so dense that it's hard for every one of them to be reported (and those that were reported were level one and probably just deleted anyways).
I'm happy that you all decided to report this story. I hope that a lot of people see it and it deters them from coming to our server just to grief and that it might reverse the Moon Guard stereotype that I find around the community (including this website).
Kaphik Aug 4th 2010 1:02AM
We were just discussing this on Thorium Brotherhood. And I said pretty much what you said, that I have a feeling most of the people doing this are non-roleplayers who are just trying to grief The Moon Guard server. Quite a few people didn't believe that people would do that. I told them they just need to read forums more, they'll see.
Hopefully this cleans up your server some, and in the long run I really hope it gets rid of the stigma MG has.
Mr. Tastix Aug 4th 2010 12:50AM
I'd like to say "I'm posting this before the flame train" sets in, but it's a bit too late for that now.
First off, there's a difference between what is "cyber sex" and what is "erotic roleplaying", I'll get to that in a minute. My first point is that many of the people throwing offensive slurs in public chat channels within Elwynn Forest are not always from Moon Guard natively, look about on the General Discussion forums and you'll see things such as "raids" on MG's Goldshire and people -publicly advertising- how "bad" it is.
It's bad because it got this amount of publicity, it's bad because of the dipshits in in General chat spamming it up with their racist, sexist and otherwise offensive filth. It's disgusting and I, as a proud Moon Guardian, hate it.
Now, for the main course!
Cyber sex =/= Erotic roleplay. Please get that into your heads, they -are- two different things.
The former is cheap, online sex. That's basically all it is, it's online sex, nothing more and nothing less.
The latter is a legit form of roleplay that many people enjoy partaking in: in -private-. ERP is the idea of sprucing up a storyline with erotica, which -does not- have to be sex, erp doesn't have to involve two people shoving their genitals in each other's faces and any good rper should have a damn sight more tact than that.
I, personally, have no problem with ERP, -so long as it is beneficial to a storyline or plot element-. I won't just erp for the sake of erping, if it has no storyline element then I do consider it just straight cyber-sex.
Alex Ziebart Aug 4th 2010 12:56AM
Regardless of whether it's ERP or cybersex, it doesn't belong anywhere near public channels. What you do in privacy is completely your business. When someone takes it to public channels, it becomes a problem.
Mr. Tastix Aug 4th 2010 3:36AM
Yup, agreed. It's mostly contained within private chat channels, anyway, the problem on Moon Guard is the General chat. That's what is the main problem.
Snuzzle Aug 4th 2010 4:00AM
I don't care how tactful it is, how well you think you know the other participant/s, how mature s/he or you are, etc. The fact that there may be a minor on the other side of that screen should be enough to give one pause before pursuing a risque storyline.
Add to that the fact that ERP can be hinted at but not played through and there is, in my humble opinion, no reason to actually do it. Older sitcoms are a testament to alluding to sex without actually following through. If you feel it's important to the story, you could have an ooc whisper that's like "Okay, now we have sex but I am unable to perform. Let's pick up the story a few moments after the fact." Or maybe you set the mood for a romantic evening by describing a candlelit room with rose petals thrown over the silk sheets on the bed, wine chilling in an ice bucket on the floor and fade to black as your characters embrace.
Now, if the above is what you're talking about when you refer to ERP, then I agree with you. But I wouldn't really call that ERP, just part of a character's life. If you want your character to have a baby with his in-game love, of course they have to have sex; but you don't have to describe what happens.
Please note that I am not saying you are not free to RP privately as you wish. You certainly are. And I am not insinuating that all those who engage in ERP are doing it to get their jollies. However, in my personal opinion, there is no need to ERP, but those who are doing it privately and for storyline purposes should have no reason to worry.
Mr. Tastix Aug 4th 2010 4:40AM
I only rp with people I know in real-life, personally speaking, I am not going to be held accountable for the rest of the rp community however.
This isn't a debate on the moral ethics of erp, it's telling you what cyber-sex is and what erp isn't.
Malaena Aug 4th 2010 5:22AM
Agree.
I think its good Blizzard is cracking down on this. There is no reason for "cybersex" in any public channels.
I just wish the would be consistent in enforcing the RP rules on RP servers. Cracking down on non RPers who interfere with people RPing. Enforcing the naming rules on RP servers etc..
It works both ways.
They have done very little to encourage RP on RP servers so its a bit annoying that the first time they do involve themselves with anything substantial, its to prohibit the RPers instead of taking actions to encourage RP.
Grovinofdarkhour Aug 4th 2010 7:32AM
OK, now I'm confused.
I was reading through the original post, and partway through, I thought, "OK, this makes sense now. If the guy behind the screen is wackin' off, it's cyber. If not, ERP."
Then I get to the end, and see "so long as it is beneficial to a storyline or plot element", or part of a bigger picture, it's ERP; otherwise, "if it has no storyline element then I do consider it just straight cyber-sex."
So I guess what I mean to say is that two different disctinctions seem to be being made to delineate the same thing. Which one of these is the REAL dividing line - whether somebody's being pervy IRL (which, barring actual admission, cannot be conclusively determined in-game), or whether the activity is "part of a larger story" (which can also be BS'd about in order to get to the activity somebody wants)?
Mr. Tastix Aug 4th 2010 2:09PM
Yes, someone -can- have ulterior motives, but you don't call a director/writer a pervert for including sex or any form or erotica into his movies, do you? And people clearly still buy romance novels.
Zandrae Aug 4th 2010 5:25PM
Actually erotic roleplay IS cybersex.
ERP is a term coined by cyberserxers to try to make themselves feel more dignified and less dirty about having text sex. It doesn't matter if you're being yourself, pretending to be yourself as an elf, or pretending to be someone else entirely. It's still text sex.
The moment both your hands come off the keyboard is the moment you've crossed the line between IC and OOC. That's not good roleplay, that's just plain Bad™.
It is completely possible to RP a character and never play out sex on screen. Cybersex is not necessary for character development. You can always fade to black, if something important happened you can say so OOCly. Cybersex is purely there for people to get their jollies and really shouldn't be mislabeled as "RP" of any sort, it makes the non-ERPers look bad.
ERP is not dignified or something to be proud of, it's downright pathetic, in poor taste, and being done in an inappropriate place. I'm sure there's a place on Second Life where people can pretend to be their favorite wow characters and have all sorts of sex.
Often times I have an old, laggy computer, so I sit on a bench in Silvermoon where it's pretty. Perverts prowling for pornographic partners frequently proposition me and get offended and harass and insult me when I say no.
They proposition people they know nothing about. They don't know that I report perverts, they won't know if someone else they're propositioning is a minor. What happens if little Madison's mom sees? Are you going to have a partyvan outside your place of living and Chris Hansen at your door?
Why don't you have a seat right over there?
Mr. Tastix Aug 4th 2010 8:27PM
That's the thing, whilst I admit to participating in erp, I don't go and jack myself off whilst doing it. I also -only- do it for storyline purposes.
Like I said, you don't condemn directors or writers for including nudity or sex scenes in their movies or books, but as soon as it's stuck in a game or a player includes it for -artistic purposes- (much like those directors and writers) they get shunned for it.
You people have double standards, that's sickening more than those who enjoy fapping to night elves.
Zandrae Aug 4th 2010 9:32PM
I highly doubt your truthfulness when you say your hand doesn't come off the keyboard.
Cybersex isn't artistic. Period. Cybersex isn't a form of creative expression. Period. Cybersex isn't classy. It's multi-writer porn, often badly written.
Public cybersex is not a form of free speech and it doesn't need protecting. Exposing people who don't enjoy such garbage, and exposing minors to it, is wrong.
Regardless, your analogy between sex scenes in normal novels and movies isn't a good one. It might even be fallacious. You're comparing apples to oranges.
What is happening in WOW, in public, is not comparable to a PG13 or R movie or a novel that happens to have a sex scene (apples). It's more comparable to a porn movie or a trashy romance novel that borders on softcore porn (oranges).
I doubt anyone looks at porn films or trashy softcore smut novels as artistic forms of expression, and yes, some people do frown upon people who create content in those industries.
The difference between trashy novels and porn films vs wow?
If I felt inclined to pick up a porn movie, it's going to have a warning sign. If I grab an adult manga? It's going to be wrapped in plastic with warnings, hell, EMPowered, which is just T&A is all wrapped up as 'explicit'. I'm not sure about trashy smut novels as I avoid that type of book.
WOW is not X rated. I don't log into WOW going, "I'm going to have me some cybersex!" I log in to kill bosses, loot epics, roleplay a goofy inventor, and hang out with my friends.
Overt smut in WOW is like packaging a hardcore porn film in an innocent package and leaving it in the children's dvd section of your friendly local walmart and therein is where the problem lies.
If for some outlandish reason I felt inclined to have textsex I'd go open an account on SecondLife where it's appropriate.
An amusing note: None of the people that have propositioned me for sex have ever been running a RSP program. If all the perverts ran FlagRSP or something similar and set themselves to "adult RPer looking for contact" they could easily and discreetly find each other without bothering the normal decent people.
Joker Aug 4th 2010 12:52AM
Wow, they are trying to keep RP off a RP server.
Shouldn't they be trying to get the non-RPers off of the RP servers?
And why exactly are they worried about a child that should not even be playing an online game?
Sounds like they have lost their damned minds.
Seems like they don't care about the actual people that should be on that server.
PS.
Erotic RP is ment to be lol'd at, lol.
Aarcial Aug 4th 2010 1:34AM
What happens in that goldshire is usually trolling RP and the whole quest hub is a cess pit. There are dozens of naked women dancing around, and it's certainly not legitimate RP in any sense. The rampant cyber (because ERP usually is built into a story of a legitimate RPer, or at least in character) there has given the whole server and WoW RPers a bad name to those who here it's a good RP server and pass by there on their leveling track.
McRaider Aug 4th 2010 3:40AM
"And why exactly are they worried about a child that should not even be playing an online game?"
now that's a term that I wouldn't use on this matter. It says 12+ on the cover in my country, but that's not written in stone. In my country (and I bet there are others) you can stretch the age and it is only a suggested age limit. Even though if it isn't, this behavior that moon guard is experiencing is NOT the good community for ages 11-14, which consist a good amount of the players. These children are watched by their parents while they play and the parents are the ones who get angry at this.
Fletcher Aug 4th 2010 4:35AM
The validity of the "think of the children" argument aside, I should mention that it's *not* the only reason to dislike ERP. Myself, I don't care to have to listen to that sort of thing when I'm trying to quest or carry out legitimate (no-E) RP or whatnot. It's just crass and there are plenty of IRC channels, or private channels, they can take it to where I don't have to see it.
Know Aug 4th 2010 4:41AM
"Think of the Children!" and Just blame Canada!
/South Park references off
Joker Aug 4th 2010 4:57AM
@McRaider. How is anyone supposed to give a rating to an online game?
People do what they want and say what they want, every server in WoW is filled with racism and hatred and Blizz does nothing about it when the real players want those trashy people gone, but when a little boys dad threatens to cancel his childs account they start patrolling.
I have played many many online games and the only one that actually kept the trashy people in check was Final Fantasy XI, so it is possible to keep an MMO clean.
Suzaku Aug 4th 2010 5:49AM
@Joker: WoW is rated T for Teen with a note that the "game experience may change during online play." In other words, everything Blizzard has created is considered by the ESRB to be suitable to players 13 and up, but the actions of player's in-game might bump things up to Mature or Adults Only.
Bottom line, so long as people follow the rules that Blizzard established and that they themselves agree to, there should be nothing in the game that is inappropriate for people 13 and up. It's when people break these rules that problems arise, and Blizzard has every right to police this activity and protect the many younger users that undoubtedly play the game.