Following complaints, Blizzard will soon start policing a notorious hang out for erotic role-players in World of Warcraft.
The Lion’s Pride Inn in Goldshire on the Moon Guard server has something of a reputation in World of Warcraft, and whether it’s a good or bad one rather depends upon your opinion of saucy public chat and strippers. As you can imagine, it’s not to everyone’s tastes, and after one complaint too many, Blizzard has said it will start patrolling the area to make sure people play by the rules.
The final straw seems to have been a complaint from a father who had found his son investigating the inn. After seeing what he described as “appalling and beyond offensive” activity, he cancelled his son’s account, and then posted about his displeasure on the WoW forums. He said that while he regretted having to punish his son for something that wasn’t his fault, he didn’t want him exposed to that kind of content.
A Blizzard representative responded, saying that this was not the first time Goldshire on Moon Guard had been brought to Blizzard’s attention. The rep said that while it was impossible to have someone watching all the time, the customer support team would regularly patrol the area and take appropriate action against those who weren’t following the rules. The rep made it clear however, that only public forms of communication would be monitored, as well as unsolicited whispers. What consenting players chose to get up to in party or guild chat, the rep said, was up to them.
The complaints must have been numerous and severe to warrant it, but the idea that WoW essentially has its own vice squad now is so strange that it’s almost funny. It’s not all that surprising that Blizzard wants to curtail this kind of behaviour though, as World of Warcraft, and indeed all MMOGs, lives and dies by its community, and public cyber-sex is a pretty good way of getting people riled.
Source: Eurogamer
Published: Aug 5, 2010 01:12 pm