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[DunDunDunpachi]

Gay World of Warcraft guild forced to change name because of user complaints [Updated]

"GAY BOYS" name change comes during week of heightened Blizzard scrutiny.

arstechnica.com

In a move that should surprise no one, Blizzard is forced to begin cracking down on A L L I E S after the company's contradictory stance on Chinese-sponsored censorship blows up. Instead of going the easier route by not censoring, Blizzard may be following the time-honored authoritarian way of censoring everything else to make it "fair".

A cursory scan of existing WoW guilds shows another one named "GAY BOYS," which had a temporary name change in 2016, followed by a Blizzard forum thread asking why it had been changed. After acknowledging that general user forums weren't the place to properly dispute customer service issues, a WoW forum moderator offered some advice for choosing a new name: "Picking a name that you can identify with without also using words that would illicit [sic] a reaction from other players would be far more beneficial."​

​

Blizzard still hasn't responded to our questions, but the guild's original "GAY BOYS" name has since been reinstated, according to members of the guild. Jilani forwarded a screencap of Blizzard's latest customer service message to the guild, which begins, "I too would hate to lose my account if the account was caught up in something some [sic] thought was violating the TOS/EULA and got the guild renamed, and I'm bummed yours was."​

​

After confirming that the guild name should be back to normal and citing a "careful investigation of your account warning," the unnamed moderator made clear that this kind of automatic takedown may very well happen again: "There isn't a way to stop people from reporting this name, as some find the way the term is used offensive. If you get actioned again, you can appeal like this, and we can look at it once more. For now, though, you have your guild name back!"​

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[ManaByte]

Eh, there are worse guild names than that. Just look at how many on Proudmoore have “taint” in the name.

 

[mcjmetroid]

So Blizzard are the shitshow publisher of this year right?
If it was Bethesda last year and
EA the year before.

Who is next year?

 

[Whitesnake]

From the headline I thought it was gonna be something like "BIG HARD COCKS" or "FAGS RISE UP" or something.

"GAY BOYS" is incredibly tame and inoffensive in comparison.

 

[Thaedolus]

Eh, there are worse guild names than that. Just look at how many on Proudmoore have “taint” in the name.

Boromir’s Taint was a key chapter in Fellowship though, the conceptual taint has its roots deep in the annals of fantasy lore.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Let people have whatever names they want within reason I say.

But what is with people monolithically bonding together over their sexual orientation like they're the same people because of it? I'll never understand things like this, it's like typecasting a movie with a particular group of people versus seeking out the best for the job who would have harmonious chemistry for the roles. When I used to play video games competitively I remember the teams girls would try to form, and form they would merely on their gender versus putting together a group of the best people for the job regardless of gender. None ever amounted to anything because the image was more important than the results.

What a world...

 

[Dr. Claus]

From the headline I thought it was gonna be something like "BIG HARD COCKS" or "FAGS RISE UP" or something.

"GAY BOYS" is incredibly tame and inoffensive in comparison.

Yep. Definitely not something that needs to be an issue.

 

[Fractured_Veil]

So Blizzard are the shitshow publisher of this year right?
If it was Bethesda last year and
EA the year before.

Who is next year?

They've certainly made some questionable decisions recently

 

[Vawn]

I had just assumed everyone on WoW was gay.

 

[Virex]

No one gives a flying fucking shit.

 

[dorkimoe]

No one gives a flying fucking shit.

I really wish we could stop making these political bait threads. Just stop, nobody cares.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

No one gives a flying fucking shit.

I really wish we could stop making these political bait threads. Just stop, nobody cares.

Agreed.

 

[GreyHorace]

Maybe China should purchase Blizzard whole so they can serve their market exclusively. Us gamers outside the middle kingdom are just too much of a hassle with our free speech and democracy.

To see a once great developer bend to the whims of totalitarian state like China is disgusting.

 

[Skyr]

 

[BlackOlivesMatter]

Fitting name for Wow players, what's the issue?

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

Blizzard, you should deliver Diablo 4 so you can be forgiven by SJWs.

 

[ExpandKong]

Boromir’s Taint was a key chapter in Fellowship though, the conceptual taint has its roots deep in the annals of fantasy lore.

I thought the taint was next to the annals though

 

[anthraticus]

I really wish we could stop making these political bait threads. Just stop, nobody cares.

Some leftovers who missed the boat to Reject Era.

 

[The_Mike]

Wow, why are so many saying that Wow players are gays?

 

[Kamina]

Is that change back in accordance with your chinese overlords, blizzard?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Ars reaching for low hanging fruit(s).

Don't read too much into it.

 

[plushyp]

Ars reaching for low hanging fruit(s).

Don't read too much into it.

They are called Ars(e) after all...

 

[Spukc]

SLurpPY BOISSS

 

[Tesseract]

my old guild of all shadow priests was big black clocks

 

[Nickolaidas]

So gay people are not allowed to call themselves gay? Or is that guild making fun of gay people?

The mind boggles at those fascinating possibilities ...

 

[dirthead]

MMOs blow. We're already a point where consumers don't own OFFLINE games that they buy.

MMOs are just a complete farce. Why pay for something that can be arbitrarily stolen from you at any time?

 

[brap]

Imagine needing a guild of members that all share the same sexuality as you.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Imagine needing a guild of members that all share the same sexuality as you.

Wargies, bro!

 

[TLZ]

Let people have whatever names they want within reason I say.

But what is with people monolithically bonding together over their sexual orientation like they're the same people because of it? I'll never understand things like this, it's like typecasting a movie with a particular group of people versus seeking out the best for the job who would have harmonious chemistry for the roles. When I used to play video games competitively I remember the teams girls would try to form, and form they would merely on their gender versus putting together a group of the best people for the job regardless of gender. None ever amounted to anything because the image was more important than the results.

What a world...

Team Thick Booty.

 

[Generic]

Maybe China should purchase Blizzard whole so they can serve their market exclusively. Us gamers outside the middle kingdom are just too much of a hassle with our free speech and democracy.

To see a once great developer bend to the whims of totalitarian state like China is disgusting.

You don't need to look at China to see censorship, in the great "democratic" western countries your career can be destroyed for saying that women don't have penises or you can be locked in jail for touching a woman's arm.

 

[iconmaster]

 

[Generic]

They will only censor gay things on China.

 

[CuNi]

So Blizzard are the shitshow publisher of this year right?
If it was Bethesda last year and
EA the year before.

Who is next year?

You got that wrong.
It's always 2!
This year its EA and Blizz, before it was Bethesda and EA and that year before it was EA and EA.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

I used to run a guild in Guild Wars named Grawls Gone [WiLD]. I wonder if the Anet of today would let it stand due to be a parody of something they would obviously classify as misogynistic, exploitive, and sexist since they're just as bad as Blizzard when it comes to these things.

 

[Kenpachii]

I used to run a guild in Guild Wars named Grawls Gone [WiLD]. I wonder if the Anet of today would let it stand due to be a parody of something they would obviously classify as misogynistic, exploitive, and sexist since they're just as bad as Blizzard when it comes to these things.

Bliz always banned everything for no reason at all. Couldn't even curse if people reported you u get like a hour ban or something in vanilla and tbc from what i remember.

It really was the start of internet censorship in games they pushed.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Bliz always banned everything for no reason at all. Couldn't even curse if people reported you u get like a hour ban or something in vanilla and tbc from what i remember.

It really was the start of internet censorship in games they pushed.

I remember hearing stories about that. I didn't play WoW for very long, but when I did it was before Burning Crusade had come out and I was running around as a Gnome dancing on people as they "slept". I'm surprised I wasn't banned for harrassment lol

 

[CyberPanda]

Less explicit content, Curry.