Forum post of the day: Where's my big brother
At one point in time Chuck Norris jokes dominated trade chat. Then it was the Murloc game. I'm sure we've all noticed that now it's the anal <insert spell> gibberish that now floods the channel. Dolce of Blackrock believes that it's time the Blizzard begin moderating trade channels during prime time. The chat channel can be turned off, but then it loses utility for valid messages such as selling enchants, transmutes, and well, general trade.
As a parent, Dolce continued his argument:
Wow has a very broad appeal and the average parent would look at the packaging of the World of Warcraft and assume that it is nothing more than a fantasy game where their son or daughter can play with their friends and have "adventures".
The average parent I imagine (and this is merely a broadstroke comment based on the huge playerbase), may not have any sort of familiairity with online games, and even to a certain degree, computers as a whole.
Asking parents (although I am extremely attentive to what my childrens activities are) to have an intimate knowledge of joining and exiting out of city channels is a bit extreme. Perhaps if there were parental controls that you could set ot make this easier...... /wink
In any event I would not be suprised to see some news anchor with some over the top expository on the lewd and profane content that is seen in WoW spun out of context in the near future.
I would say they would be killing a variety of birds with one stone if they simply moderated these popular channels.
Blizzard has taken a passive role in moderation, allowing reports from community members to be the primary source of action. Beardly of Dalvengyr agreed that servers should be moderated at all times. Other offenses include "People sitting stealthed on Quest Givers, Taurens parking their kodo on the mailbox, gold spammers." All of which are annoyances that we've learned to deal with.
The text based nature of most communications means that Blizzard can review content at any time. When the abuse is too great, there is always the option of reporting someone for their obnoxious behavior. But since the process of opening a ticket and responding to a GM is long and cumbersome. In most most cases I let it slide.
World of Warcraft carries a T for Teen rating with the disclaimer that the experience may change during game play. That's Blizzard's way of saying that there will always be obnoxious people who violate the limits of taste and common sense. Parents must take responsibility for their children, but may not be able to read every offensive message that comes across.
Do you think Blizzard should take a more active role in moderation?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
8-26-2008 @ 3:28AM
Zanathos said...
I'm all for coming down on morons in trade chat, but the reason behind this thinking is a little off. This is a teen game. If your kids need parental supervision to consume pop culture, they're not of age to play WOW.
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 3:55AM
my2cents said...
Exactly. It's rated Teen. If your teen can't handle the word "anal", send him/her back to kindergarden imo =P
8-26-2008 @ 5:54AM
Aigarius said...
Agree with my2cents - if your teen cann't handle Trade chat, he will not be able to handle life. Have you been to a school lately? Teens nowadays are ridiculing kids that are virgins at 16 as slow.
8-26-2008 @ 9:39AM
jtrain said...
Completely agree. However, if you asked me if I'd be upset if they moderated the channels and cleaned up the ass-hattery that makes up 90% of the chatter, nope, wouldn't mind that at all.
8-26-2008 @ 12:56PM
Jane Gray said...
I agree. The majority of the players of this game aren't under 18, so legislating the game on behalf of them is a terrible idea (furthermore your under-18s are reliant on someone else to pay for their accounts (mostly), making stoppages of them paying likely and them picking up second accounts unlikely-not the ideal target customers).
I'd love to see a kids only server (with free transfers and every parent who has set up parental controls notified about it by email) but changing the regular game because some people want their 8 year olds to play a teen game is silly.
8-26-2008 @ 7:01PM
PimpyMicPimp said...
Agreed. When I let my little sister play, I'm in the room making sure nothing I don't think she should see is happening. Yes, it's harder than sitting on your ass eating chips and expecting other people to supervise your kids, but it's much more effective and fun.
Parent your own kids.
8-26-2008 @ 3:30AM
Palladiamors said...
If by moderate you mean actually paying attention, and warning stupid people as things arise, then heck yea, all for it. All it takes is an attentive GM to stop a lot of the annoyances that plague the game currently. At current, with their being only one trade channel, for that particular gripe it wouldn't be hard to follow up. Something else that would definitely help are more GMs in general, more able to be on call when people need them. I think a lot of us have had to sit and wait for hours on end for a GM to be able to answer our ticket.
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 9:57AM
lazarel said...
Personally, I find a lot of the offensive stuff comes from groups or kids as well. I'd love to have the ability to ignore a whole guild.
8-26-2008 @ 3:33AM
Ramses said...
Internet:
A) Accept it
B) Leave
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 3:43AM
SaxxonPike said...
This. The world isn't made of sunshine and rainbows like we were taught in kindergarten.
Also, bring back global LookingForGroup!
8-26-2008 @ 4:05AM
Garlictators said...
I agree. Chuck Norris jokes were cool with me. Murlock games and the new anal games are retarded. But oh well. I'm willing to put up with it.
8-26-2008 @ 11:37AM
Fellbane said...
This is not the internet where you operate freely but a subsection of it and you have to agree to abide by certain rules and regulations in order to access it. So option A and B are irrelevant.
Second, the spirit of the suggestion is to allow /2 to be returned to those actually playing the game and liberate it from those merely using the game to pass the time spamming "look at me, look at me". In that spirit, let those who want to "socialize" use /1 to worship Chuck Norris etc.
8-26-2008 @ 3:34AM
Procris said...
Sadly i see it as the children themselves that are causing the profanity in the trade channels. He puts forth some interesting points such as a need to restrict trade chat access with parental control but obviously as he also pointed out most parents don't know the first thing about computers or the games their kids are playing, so its not like it will help.
As of late it certainly has been getting worse, to the point were you want to leave the channel or just get out of a city. Yes the game is rated teen, however just because they are old enough to be playing the game doesn't mean their maturity matches.
Blizzard needs to come down hard on them. The easiest punishment is to ban them from being able to talk in trade channel, something i think would be an amazing addition to the game. I mean, the main reason a lot of people talk crap in the public channels is because they know perfectly well they can get away with it.
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 3:35AM
dba22 said...
I've thought for a long time that there should be a "report inapporiate comment" just like there's a "report spam" command when right clicking on the chat box.
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 12:16PM
Kothmia said...
This idea, I like. I tend to leave trade and general channels upon creating characters, because, let's face it, if I needed to see how big someones epeen was, or the latest trend in gaybashing, there are other places I'd go to do it. When someone gets well and truly out of line, I'll report them. But giving the ability to report like we do spam... True, it could be abused, but I think it's well worth the risk.
8-26-2008 @ 3:35AM
Michael said...
As an adult I don't want to deal with the inane juvenile banter that often destroys the functionality of chat and communication in the game. I'm all for chat moderation, the WoW children apparently need supervision.
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 3:46AM
Luciferkrist said...
.... STFU..... you whiny little child sheltering ignoramus. Can they also moderate this guys account so he's more aware what an "average parent" is and be less moronic?
It carries a TEEN rating, and if you're 15 w/o knowing what "anal"(which I'm sure 90% of this is coming from anyway) is.. you have much bigger problems than that being typed in some game. This game isn't Hello Kitty.. half of what you do is mass genocide FFS! R-tards in trade chat are very easily ignored. IF these parents didn't filter any kind of 'vulgarity' about their children directly into taboos, they might not find such imbecilic outlets for their sexual frustrations.
But than again.. anal IS a funny word.
I foresee incoming links BTW.
(Good call on the segway pic... nothing more authoritative than a guy going 3 mph wearing a helmet.)
Reply
8-26-2008 @ 4:09AM
Garlictators said...
"(Good call on the segway pic... nothing more authoritative than a guy going 3 mph wearing a helmet.)"
made me lol
8-26-2008 @ 8:18AM
me said...
Teen rating or not, did you read the eula when you installed the game? Or when every there is a major patch and the eula comes up?
I know at this point your stammering but, but, but.
You excepted the terms of use, deal with it.
8-26-2008 @ 11:04AM
Magma said...
Funny because segways can go up to 12. Twit.