I really think it’s sad to see all that damage control. The forums are a place of expression, where people should give their opinion on the subjects around the game. And the sex to body type is actually a subject created by Blizz by implementing it in-game.
But it seems like there is just two valid opinions: I’m for all for the change or I dont care about it.
On the other side, if Blizz did not wanted any debate about sexual orientation theme and gender identity, they should just not have made a change that is implicitly referring to those themes.
To be fair, i really dont care about this thematically. I just find it more confusing than anything else. Male and female icons were a social code to refer to certain type of body and cultural codes.
Furthermore, i dont think it appeal to anybody in the end. Trans are identifying as the other gender, so gender identity is important for them. Finally, for who is this change? For those who are identifying outside the gender codes? Then just blend the two models and give the choice of you pronoun, because there will be a Combat helicopter that wont have his pronoun in game. And those people are a minority in a minority and probably represent 0.00002% of the playerbase.
Is it really worth?
What i’m really agaisnt is censoring and what’s happening in this forum is really sad.
Maybe they would have preferred not to see a debate about whether certain people should be allowed to exist or not, but to simply ignore the situation would have been to side with those who believe those people should not exist.
To be fair, you know the expression ‘‘don’t feed the troll’’?
Blizz had feed the troll. But this time, it’s not an internet troll, it’s those who are just against excessive progressive theme. To be fair, you can be left side and considering this goes too far. Yes, insults should individually punished, but not an entire topic.
Obscuring biology and science term to please a very little minority is pretty excessive. Not saying they should not exist, but they are an exception, not a rule.
The biggest issue is the flagging system. People use that to disagree rather than highlight rule breaches. Even when people are following the rules, there’s potential for individual interpretation of what is considered “inflammatory and/or upsetting”.
The EU forums have a mix of cultures, where certain belief systems are seen as ‘progressive’ by some and ‘pandering’ by others. There will never be a happy consensus, especially when there is a ‘cancel-culture’ in existence. I think people should be allowed to air alternative viewpoints…not to the point where they’re abusive (which many topics have become) but to encourage active, mature debate on the forums. However, we also have too many trolls that like to fuel people’s frustrations and they, in turn, do exactly what the trolls want.
Blizzard need to invest more in effective and consistent moderation of the forums. Clear rules, clear enforcement, limit the alt-swapping posters, and make the forums a place where sensible discussions can be had.
Whilst I agree with you about the fact that the flag shouldn’t be used as a downvote or to show disagreement from what I have seen the vast majority of flagged posts are rightfully flagged. Those that are falsely flagged tend to be unhidden eventually (something that I feel also takes too long).
The majority of threads that get removed tend to be ones where if you were to remove the posts which were in breach of the ToS you’d only be left with circa 50% of the posts in the thread. It kind of makes sense that rather than remove 100’s of posts the whole thread is locked and unlisted.
That’s the problem though. Yes, if there is a clear breach then it should be removed/locked/hidden but there’s a number of threads where an OP has not said anything that breaches the rules but because others don’t like the opinion, it gets flagged. It never used to be so blatant but since the Versailles office was shut down, the forums have become more wild in their behaviours.
Sometimes it is because there is another thread about exactly the same topic near the top of the latest threads list already, which is actually a valid reason for flagging.
However, it would be nice if the moderation didn’t move at a geological pace.
That could easily be circumvented. Create a post about WoW food or WoW music and then people would relate to how something in Boralus is similar to something IRL. That level of monitoring would be so difficult to police and it would probably stifle all conversations. There needs to be a balance in keeping WoW forums active and relevant to the game without people become disengaged or worried about potential rule-breaches over innocent comments.
Ah, but then the debate begins… What is innocent and what is not?
That’s very subjective.
I personally, for instance, think that any glorifying of drinking alcohol and ‘promoting’ it, is not okay and should not be allowed. Other people will likely disagree with that sentiment and see it as ‘innocent’.
The line drawing is up to Blizzard. And I suppose this (what the OP is talking about) is where they draw it. If people don’t agree with that, there’s only a few courses of action they can realistically take:
Ignore it (avoid the subject) and move on with your life.
Don’t visit the forums (although that still leaves ingame chat where these things might pop up).
The threads don’t get locked because people oppose the change. It’s how those people voice their opposition by demeaning a decently large chunk of WoW’s population, the world’s population, the personal beliefs of others.
This is exactly what I mean. You probably don’t even think your uncivilized conduct is a problem, but it is. It’s not censorship to lock these threads. It is maintaining basic civility.
If you can find it in you to have this conversation in a civil manner, the thread won’t be locked.
You’ll not find me disagreeing with you on this. I think the only place where we differ is that I feel like 99% of the flagged posts I have come across truly deserved the flags.
