The maker of the hugely popular online game, World of Warcraft, has changed its policy on gay teams following an outcry from many players. Blizzard was accused of being heavy-handed by threatening to expel a player for advertising a gay-friendly team or guild. Blizzard has officially apologised to the guild recruiter, saying the warning should never have been issued. More than five million people regularly play World of Warcraft worldwide. Team play Warcraft involves players taking a character adventuring so they become more experienced in their chosen class of warrior, mage, rogue, druid, hunter, shaman, warlock, priest or paladin. The row blew up around Warcraft player Sara Andrews, who plays a high-level mage called Shimmre on the Shadow Moon server. Each server runs a separate duplicate of the Warcraft world. Warcraft players are spread out across the realms to make sure the game worlds do not get too crowded. When adventuring, many players join "guilds" to get help from other players in regions filled with dangerous monsters, get quick access to good magical items and, just as importantly, so they can stay in touch with friends and make new ones. Many guilds use Warcraft's text chat channels to recruit new members. In late January, Sara Andrews used these channels to say that the guild she helps run, called Oz, was set up to be gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender "friendly". But an in-game admininstrator issued a warning saying that such talk was a breach of Warcraft's terms of service. She was threatened with being banned from the game if she continued to advertise the Oz guild using such language. Ms Andrews challenged the warning and the claim that it broke the terms of service. She said many players used homophobic language in the game that went unchallenged. To publicise her plight, Ms Andrews visited many discussion sites and forums where Warcraft players gather. The debate that followed largely criticised Blizzard for its heavy-handed treatment. Many pointed out that Warcraft has a thriving community of gay players, or gaymers, and that it made no sense to censor talk about players' sexuality outside Azeroth. Gay pride marches are known to have taken place in Warcraft and there are many other guilds in the game that are known to be friendly toward the gay community. Two such guilds, Stonewall Champions and The Spreading Taint wrote an open letter to Blizzard criticising its policy. Sensitive area The uproar has prompted Blizzard to officially apologise to Ms Andrews. It said that her comments should not have produced a warning. In an e-mail to Ms Andrews, Thor Biafore, senior manager of Blizzard's customer service, said: "Please accept our apologies for the way our staff characterized your conduct, and rest assured that your account will not be penalized in any way for this occurrence." The 1,000 or so in-game administrators Blizzard uses to police Azeroth are also to get training to help them deal more sensitively with such issues. Blizzard defended itself by saying that information about players' real lives can lead to harassment in the game and its warning was only intended to limit such harassment. The game firm also said that it would create a separate chat channel in the game that guilds can use to advertise themselves and look for recruits. By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News website
not that i'm homophobic or anything, but what the crap, why have gay clans at all, or straight only clans or any other bullcrap, why not just clans, yes no subtitles, just equals, people need to realize its a game where stuff is sweet and all good, who you are in the game has no bearing on who you are in real life and visa versa. People need to stop bring dumb crap into games or seperating people into groups, next thing you know there be straight vs gay battles. friggin people this message was not intended to cut any certain person or persons down just to state a point.
Hmm. That's a pretty good point. But it's most likely due to the continued widespread existence of homophobes who discriminate against gay players that prompts gay guilds to form. People obviously want to be accepted, and in a gay-friendly guild they know they will be more accepted than anywhere else. If no one discriminated against gays in the first place, then there would be no need for gays to isolate themselves. In that scenario what you say would definitely apply better, but right now I can't blame gays for making "gay-friendly" guilds.
yeah a very valid point escecially in todays world i was mostly wishfully thinking, and especially in a game world which should be viod of worldy issues
