Gay rights win in Warcraft
p2p news / p2pnet: Blizzard has been forced to apologise for threatening to expel a Warcraft player for advertising a gay-friendly guild.
The warning, "should never have been issued," it says.
Troubles arose when Sara Andrews, with a Level 60 mage called Shimmre on the Shadow Moon server, said Oz, the guild she helps to run, was friendly to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
"The credo of OZ is one of peace and unity without judgments or intolerance of others, whatever they may be," says the Oz page.
"The idea for OZ sprang from the mind of our Guild Master, also known as the Wizard of OZ, Shimmre. She, along with others, were tired of being in guilds where the all too old and tired phrase ‘That’s so gay’ was used all too frequently and where gay jokes and bashes seemed all too prevalent. There just did not seem to be a place for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community to fit in when it came to guilds in the game. So Shimmre decided to change that. But during the course of the development of the guild it was decided that the guild would not be exclusively GLBT. We did not want to send the message that it seemed so many others were sending us…one of unacceptance and intolerance of others. So the rules changed. OZ became a guild where GLBT were accepted openly and without prejudice or fear of being the brunt of jokes made at their expense and where they could be open and honest about who they were without the fear of rejection. However, we also decided, in the true spirit of our ideals, to accept anyone and everyone with the one rule that they must be open minded, kind and leave all their judgments at the doors to OZ.
"And so, OZ was formed. We are still a relatively new guild and still somewhat small compared to others, but we are growing every day. With 100 members currently we’re well on our way to becoming a great guild. This site is here to inform our members about OZ news, events, contests and well…pretty much everything pertaining to OZ and to let others know about us and who we are in the interest of reaching other new recruits. So stay a while and learn a little about OZ."
On January 14, "We have reviewed this case and have determined that advertising for a guild based on Sexual Orientation is not appropriate for the World of Warcraft," said a/c admin Karliss.
"Yes, but I willl continue to advertise for my glbt friendly guild because it’s NOT against the policy," responded Shimmre, "and if I get reported again by some bigot that doesn’t like seeing a glbt friendly guild advertised, and I get my account suspend. . . we’ll have SERIOUS problems. Therefore, I need to be assured that this will not happen. . . so that I can reassure my guildmates that they will not be in trouble for recruiting for my glbt friendly guild. I refuse to recruit any other way, because there are WAY too many people on WoW that use REAL anti-gay terms and I do not want those people in my guild."
But, "Hi Sara," emailed Thor Biafore, head of Blizzard customer service worldwide.
"I’d like to thank you for bringing your recent concerns to our attention, and to extend our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused you or your guild.
"The action that was taken by our customer service representative was an unfortunate interpretation of our current policies, which are currently under review. This was ultimately escalated to my attention,
and after reviewing all the details, I have had the warning removed from your account.
"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."
February 13th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
do we really care??
February 13th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Obviously YOU don’t, so why bother posting? As for everyone else, perhaps they’ll remember that intolerance can wear many faces, and just because you think you won’t be discriminated against is no reason NOT to care. Have a day.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Blizzard is actually getting better, either that or they are scared about bad PR.
February 14th, 2006 at 6:25 am
It’s pretty clear Blizzard wanted to avoid any bad PR. Leaving aside all the GLBT people who I’m guessing would be pretty happy about this, most people simply don’t care about other people’s sexual orientation.
Blizzard may lose a few hardcore anti-gay bigots, but the amount of PR damage for being anti-gay they would get would be much worse in both ethical terms and the bottom line.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
>>most people simply don’t care about other people’s sexual orientation.
The GOP is banking that you are wrong; to distract the voters with a shiny bauble from the ethics and criminal activity of Republican Reps, lobbyist and Fund raisers , Frist is going to offer a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
I think it will work.
February 14th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
shes a wacked out bitch and i would pimp that ho BIATCH SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
February 14th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Most of the people who play sad games like warcraft have no sex life anyhow so the entire argument is mute fact is most of em are sad lonely overweight loners sat in darkened rooms with complexions that border on morlocks munching on nachos and pissing in bottles rather that getting up to go to the toilet- get a life you sad cases no one of consequnce cares about you anyway.
February 14th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Second life = No Life!
February 14th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
If marriage is so important/holy/sacred, shouldn’t there be laws banning divorce?
I don’t know about everyone else, but I couldn’t give a toss whether it’s a guy marrying a guy or a guy marrying a girl (or a girl marrying a girl who used to be a guy even).
I think it would be really funny if the U.S. ended up with a gay president who gives tax breaks (or something) to gay couples as revenge for being discriminated against for decades.
Well, maybe that wouldn’t be so great but it would prove the point – gays, lesbians and everyone in between should have the same rights as heterosexuals, because honestly, who cares?
February 16th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Go back to school and learn to write. It’s moot, not mute.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
You obviously don’t. Do I care you think you needed to post you don’t care? Absolutely not. Get a life.
February 17th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Is that a self-descrition? Sounds like you know what you’re talking about – intimately!