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World of Warcraft Incident Highlights Challenges Faced by GLBT Gamers

There is a war being waged within popular Internet role-playing games. This war has nothing to do with the alternate realities and mystical creatures within the games, but with the puzzling stances on harassment and homophobia displayed by those who create and play the game.

The inequality GLBT players face in online gaming came to national attention last month when a player advertised a GLBT-friendly guild (group of players) within a game, and was reprimanded for doing so. That gamer was Sara Andrews, the guild was called Oz, and the game was World of Warcraft, which is operated by Blizzard Entertainment.

According to In Newsweekly, which first reported the story, Andrews received an e-mail from a WoW game master citing her for “Harassment?Sexual Orientation” and threatening to ban her from the game after she posted a GLBT-friendly recruitment notice within a general chat section of the game. She was told by Blizzard to stop recruiting within the game and that her post violated the game’s policy against harassment.

Thinking it a misunderstanding, Andrews responded to the game master’s e-mail saying that she was not trying to offend or exclude anyone. But Blizzard upheld their decision to issue a warning to Andrews, telling her, “the advertisement of a ‘GLBT-friendly’ guild is very likely to result in harassment for players that may not have existed otherwise.”

Suddenly, the policy that was created to protect queer players and pre-existing guilds (like Stonewall Champions and The Spreading Taint) was being used against them. It seemed that Blizzard was trying to prevent harassment of GLBT players within WoW by making GLBT players invisible.

“We recognize that stopping harassment is extremely important,” said Brian Chase, a staff attorney at Lambda Legal, which works for GLBT rights, “but the way to stop the harassment is to stop the harassers, not insist gay people be quiet.”

But Blizzard’s confounding harassment policy does not seem stop the harassers, and WoW itself seems to be operating under a double standard. According to Andrews, gamers can use keyboard commands to make characters say things like “Homogenized? No way, I like the ladies!” “They state that they don’t want mention of sexuality in their game, for fear it may cause people to harass others,” said Andrews. “Yet they have things like this in the game already that (were) put there by them.”

Andrews also noted that derogatory language is common in general chat forums, where she posted her recruitment advertisement.

“It seems OK for general chat to be flooded with, ‘That’s so gay!’ yet advertising for a GLBT friendly environment where we don’t have to deal with such language is deemed inappropriate,” noted Andrews.

There are others in the gaming world who questioned Blizzard’s double-standard. Fellow WoW player, John Blatzheim, expressed his concern to Blizzard that game masters warned Andrews that she could not use “GLBT” as an advertisement to express a safe place for gay players, yet there was an incident a few months ago where a plague occurred within the game and players said things in general chat like, “Don’t get the AIDS!”

Blizzard defended their policy and treatment of Andrews in a response to Blatzheim, telling him that the recruitment advertisement violated policy because “many people are insulted just at the word ‘homosexual’ or any other word referring to sexual orientation.”

Some players used WoW to show their distaste for Blizzard’s actions. In game play, there was a wedding at which several characters showed up to protest people flaunting their heterosexuality. But other players showed support for Blizzard’s policy. WoW’s message boards are full of posts agreeing that using the term “GLBT” opens the doors to harassment.

After a few weeks of criticism from the GLBT and gaming community, Blizzard finally apologized to Andrews and stated they would review their policy and offer sensitivity training to game masters.

While Sara Andrews won her fight against Blizzard, her story has not seemed to do much to beat the homophobia within internet gaming. A mere glance at WoW message boards makes it obvious that out and proud queer gamers and their guilds are not entirely welcomed.

Some players who agreed with Blizzard’s initial response to Andrews feel that bringing sexual orientation into any aspect of the game is unacceptable. These players want to escape the real world, and seem to feel that players who advertise GLBT-friendly guilds just want “attention.”

“The fact that most people I’ve talked to guessed that the average Blizzard fan would react this way tells you something. Now, if that’s a comment on America, 14-year-old boys, or the world in general I’m not sure,” Kurt Squire, Ph.D., assistant professor of educational communications and technology for the University of Wisconsin at Madison told

In Newsweekly.

In the wake of Andrews’ fight for her GLBT-friendly guild, some jilted gamers have posted advertisements for “Straight-friendly guilds.” These recruitment posts, which clearly reference sexuality, have not been removed from Blizzard ‘s new guild recruitment forum. Homophobic posts responding to recent GLBT-friendly guild advertisements have also not been removed.

Not all of the gamers in WoW are so opposed to GLBT-friendly guilds. Some posters suggested gay players join a guild and not divulge their orientation, making it obvious that many do not understand the desire for a place where players do not have to deal with the hurtful language that they encounter in the real world and in certain aspects of the game.

“Queer folk (have) always been told to hide themselves and who they really are in the real world. I would hope that in these new online worlds, people would not be punished for being honest about themselves,” said Jason Schultz, an attorney in San Francisco.

One WoW forum poster, going by the alias Bonsoldat, dismissed those who suggested that s/he keep quiet and join a generic guild by saying s/he wanted a guild “that would offer its gay members a place where their sexual orientation is known and accepted.”

This World of Warcraft controversy and the mixed reactions from other players show that such a place is still necessary.

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