Comments on: This Just In: We Can't Trust Any Of You With Those Body Parts You Think About, Like, All The Time

By: Lantyssa

Lantyssa — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:05:21 +0000

This thread exemplifies the problem. If an ‘escapist’ lets slip they’re going out with their wife no one bats an eyelash. It’s done and forgotten about. If we mention we’d like to be able to do the same without worry, it spawns an epic discussion which lasts days, weeks, and months about whether it’s intruding too much into personal details.

If things were ideal, the GLBT portion of this comment space would have been two posts because no one would care and we could get back to discussing EA’s stupidity. (Thankfully we have an update for that.)

By: Jeremy Preacher

Jeremy Preacher — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:28:56 +0000

(Also, Scott, I want whitespace!)

By: Jeremy Preacher

Jeremy Preacher — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:28:31 +0000

Votan, first of all, I apologize – you were getting some heat that is better-deserved by others in this thread. I didn’t mean to suggest you were one of the ones doing the gay-bashing, although I could have made that more clear by not using the second person.
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Secondly, after a night’s sleep, I think I can better explain my position. Here’s what the thread read like to me:
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Scott: Here are some links to people who are trying to put a stop to gay-bashing in MMOS!
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Some Posters: That’s not the problem. The real problem is people who talk about their personal lives in MMOs. That makes me mad. Because it affects me, it’s obviously more important than gay-bashing, and it’s what we really should be talking about.
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Other Posters: ARGH! HULK SMASH!
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This probably wouldn’t trigger the HULK SMASH reaction if it didn’t come up EVERY SINGLE TIME gay-bashing in chat is discussed. It’s actually point #1 (and #2, for that matter) in Joshua’s post here – http://joshuameadows.com/2009/07/summarizing-opposition-to-lgbt-players-in-mmogs/ The fact that it tends to come across, to a greater or lesser degree, like “Go back to the closet, #%@@$!” is more my problem than yours, but perhaps explaining it in somewhat more civil terms than I managed yesterday will help you (and everyone else in the thread) why it gets such a strong reaction.

By: Votan

Votan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:17:47 +0000

Jeremey please re-read what I have said, because your last response makes 0 sense based on anything that I have posted.
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You want to make this about me not wanting to hear about gays, when the fact all along I have I have said I do not want to hear about gay or straight (sexual preference goes both ways) those include “people” like me in global chat. GLOBAL, not guild, not group, not any op-in setting and going to repeat this for the last time, gay bashing, making fun of, name calling, threats should not be allowed, and those doing that should be suspended at minimum and if repeated, or a real life threat made banned. I have said that in every single post….I am not sure just how to make you understand what I have been VERY clear about in every post I have made.
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You are the one that made the leap that I am being as you said “forced to cope with people unlike me.” I have a very wide diverse group of people I game which including multiple gay members who have also been long time friends of mine. Re-read all of my post here because you really are missing the heart of what I am saying and making it about something that it never was. Good luck to you we mostly agree but by your last response basically label me some kind of homophobe by not really wanting to understand the heart of what I was trying to say when that could not be further from the truth. I should have known better than have any discussion on a topic like this in the first place. My bad.
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I am going to let this die and should have with my first post.

By: Jeremy Preacher

Jeremy Preacher — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:54:34 +0000

Votan, we’re not talking about “detailed discussions” of anything. We’re talking about people t having to turn off general chat because of the level of casual hate being directed at everyone like them. The whole subject of you being forced to deal with someone else’s lifestyle is really a total derail. All anyone’s asking is that you cope with the existence of people unlike you without resorting to name-calling, threats, and derision. Surely that’s not too much to ask?

By: Votan

Votan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:14:33 +0000

Jeremy I guess my very lost point is a video games global chat channel should not be used to discuss lifestyle( straight or gay), advance a social idea, a politcal or religious thought, nor should it be used to slander a group. Do you feel it an good place for me to expose my religious beliefs in global chat? Do you really feel global game chat should be a place to discuss sexuality, sexual preference?

There is great places on the internet to have a detailed discussion about all of this, and a games global chat channel is not that place.

By: Brask Mumei

Brask Mumei — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:38:47 +0000

“I would no sooner expect you to feel uncomfortable to casually reference your heterosexuality”

I thought this is why the internet invented the term SO?

By: Jeremy Preacher

Jeremy Preacher — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:33:34 +0000

Ok, then, now I’m really confused. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it’s just as “repugnant and offensive” as the gay bashing itself? And trying to stop the gay bashing equates to… what, filling your poor escapist ears with WFAG Radio, all-gay all the time?

I don’t think we’re going to come to anything resembling a consensus on this one, frankly.

By: Joshua Meadows

Joshua Meadows — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:31:03 +0000

I’m just saying, if your advice is good enough for me, why isn’t it good enough for you? You have tools to restrict what you see; the difference is that you don’t want to see any references to real life however demure, while I don’t want to see hateful, abusive speech that attacks me and marginalizes me as a human being. It’s not a matter of what’s more valid than the other, but you do see the disparity between the two, right?
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By this point I think I’ve circled around and around and said all I can possibly say. I am now freeing this link up from its place in my Firefox tabs and returning control of the blog to Lum. I thank you all for keeping this discussion under the comment-count of the last gay discussion here, mad props yo.

By: Votan

Votan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:24:09 +0000

@Jeremy it happens very little. I do not see much gay bashing, and I do not see very much talking about lifestyle. It happens but most of the time it occurs on either side is to get a reaction in global chat. And if we are talking about a game like WoW this is a community consisting of people find it funny to type “anal” then linking there class abilities.
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Josh wrote:
And frankly the “I come here to escape!” line is really getting old. It is a small percentage of people who actually go there to “escape” anything, and if it bothers you that much you ought to be the one disconnecting yourself from global chat channels and not socializing with others, because even if all the gay references stop tomorrow, the political arguments, religious arguments, stupid pop culture references and so on won’t stop
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But as Josh has pointed out above I am the small minority because I actually play to escape so my views are not worth factoring in because I happen to be only in the small percentage of gamers who do this…his views are more valid than mine because of my minority status in what I feel is appropriate in global chat and that if it bothers me so much I should shut off global chat……irony at its finest!