Blizzard CEO respons to Gay Guild issue

[Lyion]

http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2 ... ceo_re.php

Drawing last month's GLBT-friendly guild story to what looks to be its close, Blizzard CEO Paul Sams has responded to Lambda Legal, the gay and lesbian civil rights group which then contacted the company citing anti-discrimination case law in opposition to Blizzard's decision.

In it he again characterized the earlier decision to prohibit mention of 'real-world' subjects in recruiting for guilds as an "unfortunate mistake," which only came about because the initial comments weren't properly analyzed before sending a warning.

"It is expected and accepted that players will discuss a wide variety of topics, based on both the game world and the real world," Sams says. "Players are free to discuss personal characteristics if they wish, to include their sexual orientations and gender identities."

"Blizzard has provided additional training to its game masters," the letter continues, "in order to give them a greater level of sensitivity when responding to similar situations in the future. Blizzard has specifically instructed its game masters that mentioning or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in a non-insulting fashion is not a violation of the anti-harassment policy and does not constitute grounds for a warning or any other disciplinary action."

In addition to the training, a separate guild recruitment chat channel went into effect in an early February patch, to both allow like-minded players to advertise for groups, and appease those players that might not wish to listen.

"It has always been and will remain Blizzard’s policy," Sams concludes, "that LGBT-friendly guilds are allowed to announce their existence, and to recruit members in the same manner as any other guilds."

[Ouchyfish]

Yes let's all bow down and scrape to every special interest and minority out there until politcal correctness pushes this country to the brink of revolution.

[Gidan]

Or of course we could just not discrimintate against them because they are a minority. In this case however, the people they are bowing down to are the people who complained about what the guild was doing and not the guild.

[Ouchyfish]

A big flowery explanation when they should have been able to say "if you don't like it, go find a gay version of World of Warcraft and play there." They cannot do that, however because society has become a bunch of PC obsessed pansies.

[Gidan]

So they should have banned people who did nothing wrong because some people didn't like what they read, even though they were able at any time to turn off that chat channel and not read it. By your logic they could have said "If you dont like it got find and anti gay version of World of Warcraft and play there". Instead they created a completely seperate channel for guild recruitment so these people who complained didn't have to read about a guild that promoted gays.

They should have completely ignored the complaints, and changed nothing. You may dislike minorities, that doesn't mean a corperation should discriminate against them.

[Harrison]

I don't think they should be discriminated against.

I also think they should receive fuck all in terms of special treatment.

Equality is equality, plain and simple.

[Gidan]

I don't think they should be discriminated against.

I also think they should receive fuck all in terms of special treatment.

Equality is equality, plain and simple.

Your exactly right here, they should be treated just like everyone else. In the end, the people who complained were given special treatment, not the guild.

[Ouchyfish]

Honestly, I'm not concerned with either. What is pissing me off is how they have to handle the whole situation with kid gloves. Like every other issue such as this.

No, discriminating would have been stupid because it didn't break rules. Not like they were saying how they wanted hot buttsex over public channels etc where you could pin it down to one cut and dried violation.

I'm just fucking fed up with these god damn responses the companies are forced to come up with to keep groups from having something to bitch about.

Just come out and say "yeah we went back and had a look and the gm was wrong-move along nothing to see here". nooo, gotta candyass it up a bit with legal dick stroking or some sector will get their feelings hurt.

[Gidan]

Honestly, I'm not concerned with either. What is pissing me off is how they have to handle the whole situation with kid gloves. Like every other issue such as this.

No, discriminating would have been stupid because it didn't break rules. Not like they were saying how they wanted hot buttsex over public channels etc where you could pin it down to one cut and dried violation.

I'm just fucking fed up with these god damn responses the companies are forced to come up with to keep groups from having something to bitch about.

Just come out and say "yeah we went back and had a look and the gm was wrong-move along nothing to see here". nooo, gotta candyass it up a bit with legal dick stroking or some sector will get their feelings hurt.

I agree, they should have just come back with a statment similar to "The GM screwed up, we apologies to those who were mistreated by the GM" and left it at that.

[Captain Insano]

Sooo what they are saying is if I start a guild and say white-friendly guild, Klan members prefered that would be OK, right?

[Captain Insano]

the above is just an example, but seriously homos are really beginning to get on my nerves. and when the Captain's nerves get frayed mother fuckers GET PUNCHED!

[Gidan]

Sooo what they are saying is if I start a guild and say white-friendly guild, Klan members prefered that would be OK, right?

Actually that should be allowed, if you wanted to have a guild that was white-friendly and you didn't force your ideas on others, their should be no complaints. Just as this guild that considered themselves gay-friendly but in no way was trying to force their ideals on others. Also IMO, anything said in guild chat that is not illegal (ie death threats and such) should be out of the reach of GM's. At any time if you are uncomfortable in your guild, you can leave without having to leave the game itself. If a guild wants to talk in guild about how much they hate so and so, thats up to them.

Also in general channels, dont see a problem with a guild advertising that they are white-friends, just as I dont see anything wrong with some guild saying they are gay-friendly. However you start to hit a grey area when you say your guild is gay-unfriendly or white-unfriendly.

[Jay]

Can I join this white friendly guild? I'm asian and all, but everyone says I'm a twinkie anyways.

[Ouchyfish]

Sooo what they are saying is if I start a guild and say white-friendly guild, Klan members prefered that would be OK, right?

Actually that should be allowed, if you wanted to have a guild that was white-friendly and you didn't force your ideas on others, their should be no complaints. Just as this guild that considered themselves gay-friendly but in no way was trying to force their ideals on others. Also IMO, anything said in guild chat that is not illegal (ie death threats and such) should be out of the reach of GM's. At any time if you are uncomfortable in your guild, you can leave without having to leave the game itself. If a guild wants to talk in guild about how much they hate so and so, thats up to them.

Also in general channels, dont see a problem with a guild advertising that they are white-friends, just as I dont see anything wrong with some guild saying they are gay-friendly. However you start to hit a grey area when you say your guild is gay-unfriendly or white-unfriendly.

Just for the sake of discussion, would Blizzard have any recourse if a black person wanted to join, but after foolishly admitting he was black in rl, he was vetoed from the guild?

[Harrison]

Can I join this white friendly guild? I'm asian and all, but everyone says I'm a twinkie anyways.

No.

[Eldred]

You should let Erod join, he's a good guy. I remeber the first time he called himself a twinkie in guild chat I laughed my ass off.

[Diekan]

Making a white only guild will never happen - PC society wont allow it.

In America it's only ok to discriminate against white males and christians.

[Gidan]

Sooo what they are saying is if I start a guild and say white-friendly guild, Klan members prefered that would be OK, right?

Actually that should be allowed, if you wanted to have a guild that was white-friendly and you didn't force your ideas on others, their should be no complaints. Just as this guild that considered themselves gay-friendly but in no way was trying to force their ideals on others. Also IMO, anything said in guild chat that is not illegal (ie death threats and such) should be out of the reach of GM's. At any time if you are uncomfortable in your guild, you can leave without having to leave the game itself. If a guild wants to talk in guild about how much they hate so and so, thats up to them.

Also in general channels, dont see a problem with a guild advertising that they are white-friends, just as I dont see anything wrong with some guild saying they are gay-friendly. However you start to hit a grey area when you say your guild is gay-unfriendly or white-unfriendly.

Just for the sake of discussion, would Blizzard have any recourse if a black person wanted to join, but after foolishly admitting he was black in rl, he was vetoed from the guild?

Blizzard should have no recourse at all. Guilds should have the power to determin who will join. Guilds in a video game should not be forced to admit people they dont want in it. If you are argue that a guild should be forced to allow somone in or be banned for not allowing somone based on their race or beleifs, then this should also be upheld for any reasons for not allowing somone in such as level, pvp rank, pay times and such.

[Lyion]

Making a white only guild will never happen - PC society wont allow it.

In America it's only ok to discriminate against white males and christians.

Because, ya know, only 75% of the country is white and christian.

Minority groups need to be protected against discrimination, but when a group is pretty much most of the country, I think it's safe to say they don't need protection, just guaranteed equality.

This is Blizzards sandbox. They can run it however they choose. Also, another thing of note is Blizzard is owned by Vivendi. Much of what you are seeing coming from Blizzard is most likely directed by them.

Now, a better analogy for comparison is seeing if Blizzard has a problem with your guild of polygamists who want multiple Asian mail order brides.