Blizzard Disbands Exteme Erotic Guild
By William on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 1:39 AM PST In Blizzard, World of Warcraft
In an interesting move, Blizzard finally put the kabash on one of the more notorious guilds around. Abhorrent Taboo, the group that was ousted, is well known for their complete disregard for rules and structure.
Their welcome statement was a fairly arrogant one and probably gave Blizzard more motivation to do something about it. Their welcome statement follows:
“Role-playing is legal. Even if you are role-playing something that would be considered deplorable and highly illegal IRL, it’s still just role-playing and isn’t subject to any form of disciplinary action. Negative publicity is still publicity. Make a Digg or website about how sick we are. Report us to PervertedJustice. All it does is bring in more members. In fact, the Digg the guy on Ravenholdt made about us was so effective, several people signed up for WoW just to be in our guild. The bottom line is: We’re allowed to do what we do on any server we please and no one can do anything about it.”
In addition to their obvious rule breaking attitudes, the guild was accused of defending pedophiles and engaging in extreme sexual behavior without verifying the age of their members.
I firmly believe in freedom of speech, but it’s Blizzard’s right to pull any group from their servers for breaking rules. Their attitude towards Blizzard and the rest of the community in general was too out there. Who on earth would defend pedophiles anyway?
Via WoW Insider
Good job Blizzard. It’s one thing having no life and spending all your time playing WOW but if you’re going to be a dumb arse about it then you deserve whats coming to you.
Ownt
“Who on earth would defend pedophiles anyway?”
This is largely off topic, but… you assume that all pedophiles like being pedophiles.
Pedophile != child rapist
Most everyone is complaining about how rampent online gaming is perverting our youth, and when a online community decides to step in and moderate, then they yell about rights being violated? i cheer for blizzard for taking a stand on what it believes to be higher moral ground
This is why every MMORPG should be rated M by default. Kids shouldn’t be playing games with adults. Firstly, because it can be harmful to the kids, and secondly, because everyone wants to limit the rights of the adults to protect the kids. Online games should automatically call for an ESRB rating of M and then only the parent(s)/guardian(s) should be responsible for everything that happens. The other players aren’t responsibile for what your kid does in a game.
Chris, I agree that kids shouldn’t be playing with adults. Honestly, sometimes the kids behave worse than the adults particularly in things like Halo. I have always felt like there needs to be a way to create adult only servers in the future. This protects the kids from the adults and also protects the adults from the kids. That could raise costs for us, but that’s something I’d be willing to pay.
@Chris: The problem with the theory of all MMO’s being ‘M’ rated is that ratings are based on content created by the developer. Of course, you’ll see that glorious “Experience may change during online play” sticker on the box.
One thing Blizzard has consistently done is to enforce their rules pretty evenhandedly in an effort to maintain their ‘T’ rating. Why do they do this? It’s simple. Holding down a ‘T’ gets them a greatly expanded playerbase.
Here’s an interesting thing for you that you may not have known. Did you know that under Blizzard’s Terms of Use, a minor (under age 18) may not have a WoW account in their name? They are required to put it in the name of a parent / guardian.
Oh, and one other point. You say “everyone wants to limit the rights of the adults to protect the kids.” Please realize that in an MMO, the only ‘rights’ you have are the ones granted to you by the company running the servers. It’s a common misconception among gamers that they enjoy complete ‘freedom of speech’ in an online game, and anytime they are censored or punished for exercising this supposed right, they scream about ‘First Amendment’ and ‘Freedom of Speech.’
THERE IS NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AN MMO. You are in (in this case) Blizzard’s sandbox, and you can either play by their rules, or take your ball and go home.
Checking in.
I agree with you William. And Ron, I know it’s all about the money. I still don’t like it though. I wish the rating was M to make the game better for adults while at the same time putting responsibility in the hands of parents. The only reason they can’t have an account is because you have to be 18, I believe, to have a credit card and legally “sign” or check off the contract in the Terms of Service agreement. I’m sure if game companies could, they’d be more than happy to let minors have their own accounts. The thought frightens me. And you’re right, the game’s owner makes the rules. I took my ball and went home about a year ago because I dislike Blizzard. I just worry about the future of these games as a whole because, like you said, the companies do make the rules but they make those rules depending on the targetted market. When the game is made for adults, rules are relaxed a bit. When they hold back to let kids play just to make an extra dollar (or even a few million), it hurts the gameplay for the rest of us. That’s why I’m holding out to find a new MMO to call home.
Interesting topic. I play WOW at 46 yrs old, primarily because my 11 yr old encouraged it. I play with him, observe his behavior and those of his guild, and that of other players and am surprised to find that anyone would use this tool for seemingly mindless pornographic demonstrations. I have been blessed ( I suppose ) to have never witnessed or been called to observe the kind of behavior reported against the above-mentioned guild. Who has the time or interest? The gaming is great. As to the pedophile angle, unfortunately this is a growing issue due to the anonymous nature of the toons set up to play for us. There is simplly no way to tell who’s behind the mask. I am always concious of my kids when they are online playing MMOs, and am lucky to have children who still come to me and report things they find innappropriate. I would always report such action, and admire Blizzard for upholding their standards. We live in an early period of this electronic age, and we have to be our own police. Keeping my kids safe will always stand as a higher priority over their desire for entertainment. Good luck to all parents out there, and also to those of you in that “in-between” age where you are becoming responsible for your own safety as well as your choices for fun.