heteronormativity in the world of warcraft
| By FEM - Feb 26th, 2006 at 7:49 am EST |
Blizzard (the owners of World of Warcraft) warned a Warcraft player for advertising a GLBT guild (groups of 50-200 players who regularly play together) on the Warcraft general chat. It is commonplace for guilds to be advertised there. What angered Blizzard was that they felt advertising a GLBT guild was in violation of Blizzard's rules against harassment. Blizzard argued that by mentioning sexual orientation, the GLBT guild was opening itself up for harassment. After public uproar and legal action from Lambda Legal, Blizzard issued a public apology. (Incidently, Blizzard also created a separate chat channel that users must specifically state they want to join for guild recruitment and thus restricting users from using the general chat channel... a channel which users are signed up for by default).
However, what I find interesting is that the sexual, or at least sexual identity, is a facet of game play. Users pay 15 dollars per month to play Warcraft. But, what is the money paying for? Is it just to kill monsters or is it to build community? The existence of GLBT guilds and my research points to the latter. Warcraft allows players to get know each other and form (sometimes sexual) relationships. Blizzard recognizes this and even uses it in its marketing now. However, when that community is based on a sexual identity, Blizzard reacts differently. Blizzard allows guilds based on location and even gender (e.g. Daughters of the Horde, Daughts of the Alliance, Sons of the Alliance) to advertise themselves, why not sexual identity? Blizzard condemned the mention of sexuality becomes it might provoke "harassment". But couldn't other issues "provoke" harassment as well? I have been harassed for reasons other than my sexual identity, is this my fault for attracting harassment? Of course not, why is the sexual an exception?
Thus, this article leaves me with two important ideas…
1. People use Warcraft (and pay for it!) to find community online. You pay for community--sometimes sexual community (online relationships, straight or gay) and sometimes communities based on sexuality. Sexual consumption is not as simple as paying money for sex.
2. Once again, the sexual and sexual identity is ghettoized and looked at as a "special" category.
Link
The comments are also pretty fascinating, in a completely homophobic and sexist way. Although, being appreciative, it is interesting to see some people say they only use the game for killing monsters and are surprised that anyone would use the game to discuss offline matters. This article and the comments also reaffirm the blatant heteronormativity I have noticed in the game. Heterosexuality is taken completely for granted. This is a trend I have noticed in both my interviews and field notes. Thus, I'm not surprised that people would want GLBT guilds…
MS/Michelle
However, what I find interesting is that the sexual, or at least sexual identity, is a facet of game play. Users pay 15 dollars per month to play Warcraft. But, what is the money paying for? Is it just to kill monsters or is it to build community? The existence of GLBT guilds and my research points to the latter. Warcraft allows players to get know each other and form (sometimes sexual) relationships. Blizzard recognizes this and even uses it in its marketing now. However, when that community is based on a sexual identity, Blizzard reacts differently. Blizzard allows guilds based on location and even gender (e.g. Daughters of the Horde, Daughts of the Alliance, Sons of the Alliance) to advertise themselves, why not sexual identity? Blizzard condemned the mention of sexuality becomes it might provoke "harassment". But couldn't other issues "provoke" harassment as well? I have been harassed for reasons other than my sexual identity, is this my fault for attracting harassment? Of course not, why is the sexual an exception?
Thus, this article leaves me with two important ideas…
1. People use Warcraft (and pay for it!) to find community online. You pay for community--sometimes sexual community (online relationships, straight or gay) and sometimes communities based on sexuality. Sexual consumption is not as simple as paying money for sex.
2. Once again, the sexual and sexual identity is ghettoized and looked at as a "special" category.
Link
The comments are also pretty fascinating, in a completely homophobic and sexist way. Although, being appreciative, it is interesting to see some people say they only use the game for killing monsters and are surprised that anyone would use the game to discuss offline matters. This article and the comments also reaffirm the blatant heteronormativity I have noticed in the game. Heterosexuality is taken completely for granted. This is a trend I have noticed in both my interviews and field notes. Thus, I'm not surprised that people would want GLBT guilds…
MS/Michelle
!
Comments are closed for this post.
This is not really an issue of heteronormativity so much as it is stupid bureaucratic pathologies at work.
MMOs are widely known for having their customer service be "a gigantic clusterfuck", or customer service so shoddy that the best you can do is just sit back and wonder what they'll manage to screw up next. In such a context, problems such as this usually arise not from some systemic problem or bias within the company, but due to the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.
Case in point:
No, it didn't "anger blizzard". It came to the attention of some low level drone in Customer Service.
Blizzard is a company that makes more money than some major movie studios. This is like saying that you have a dispute with the guy selling you tickets at the movie theater, and pretending that it reflects the will of Steven Spielberg.
It really goes like this:
-Random drone in Customer Service (one of literally thousands of CS drones) is dealing with hundreds of petitions for assistance, complaints, whines, and questions per hour. Something slides across his virtual desk, he takes about ten seconds to think about it, slides back an answer.
-The complaints start on the message boards. A different branch of Customer Service known as "community outreach" is dispatched. They're every bit as low level as the Customer Service folk, and have no power to set any policies - their only purpose for existence is to toe whatever status quo has already been set. There is no Solomon-esque reasoning on their part, simply one question: "What'd we already do and what can we say in support of what we've already done?" This goes for everything, whether it's players who've been banned, a feature in the game that's been removed, or anything else that might anger the playerbase.
-Then, eventually, if enough righteous fire gets stoked, someone in the position to actually do something or care about the company's image notices something's been fucked up enough by the little guys. Mistake is corrected at last, the little guys are reprimanded, life goes on.
Such are the bureaucratic pathologies at work at Blizzard.
Thank god! This is something MMOG players have been demanding for years. When you want to just play, having spam from guild recruiters in your general chat channel is like opening up your e-mail inbox and finding 50 viagra ads.
Anyhoo, your comments are interesting, but they're ignorant of the dynamics of the MMO genre and of Blizzard specifically. The way this issue was handled gives no evidence of whether or not Blizzard is a 'heteronormative' company.
Want to figure out something worthwhile? Check into whether or not they extend benefits to same-sex couples as well as married partners.
Of course, there is a difference between Blizzard being heteronormative and a few service reps being as such. I am proposing the latter.
Still, it is interesting that this seems to be the incident that caused the guild channel to come about. Not that I am complaining about General Chat being freed up...
Thank you for your suggestion about looking into benefits for same sex partners. If one is looking to see if Blizzard is a whole is heteronormative and/or heterosexist, that would be a great way to start (and I believe the HRC has more detailed ways to access companies' GLBT stance as well).
MS