Virtual worlds: WoW vs. GLBTQ preferences

[drscott]

This story (via Boing-Boing) is interesting. I'm not into MMRPGs like World of Warcraft or City of Heroes, but unlike conventional governments based on geographic residence, a virtual community is easy to leave. If an obtuse "government" (moderators of the game) discriminates against me, I can choose another, though at some social cost. I doubt if the WoW owners will continue this policy for long in the face of protests, though.

Comments

[mellowtigger]

Fyi, I was in one of the Warcraft guilds mentioned by the article. Their forums are available here http://www.roughtrade.ws/boards/ . They've got several threads of discussion on this issue.

One of the roles in the game is the "warlock" profession. Warlocks (whether male or female) get a summoned succubus as a companion. She wears skimpy outfits and smacks her butt and coos suggestively. Clearly, Blizzard has some serious hypocrisy issues if they think they can ban sexuality issues from the public game discussions.

There were plenty of reasons to leave the game (primarily that max-level gameplay is vastly different than earlier gameplay) but this was definitely a "last straw" issue for me. I cancelled my account over the weekend.