Briefly noted: an open letter from a group of academics to Blizzard regarding GLBT guilds. This has more than a whiff of open letters in other areas of politics, and makes me wonder how governance of virtual spaces will continue to evolve. How long until this group of academics starts writing their letters under the rubric of an organization?
The Churchill Club panel went very well, but alas, I was unable to wheedle an Xbox 360 out of Peter Moore.
Beyond that — we’re on FeedBurner now. Looks like 358 of you on feeds at the moment. If there’s issues with the feed or the blog layout, let me know here… I have seen two reports of people who say they cannot scroll down when looking at the web pages, which is really odd.
And now, I must sleep.
12 Responses to “From San Jose”
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With all the differences in browsers who knows whats wrong with webpages these days 😛 Of course I am self taught and I can’t even get list tags to work on my blog…
Anyways this is what I don’t get. Why is there governance of virtual worlds at all? If you want governance… vote with your damn wallet.
If you are offended by a virtual world and keep paying the monthly fee… the developers are laughing all the way to the bank.
Its equivelant to smokers getting kicked out of public resteraunts. Either conform or quit.
Politics and MMO make poor bedfellows.
[…] Comments […]
I don’t think we really want free speach in game pubic chat channels. I don’t believe that it is the interest of the customers or the company.
And if this kind of thing becomes successful, I don’t think the people advocating it now will like the place it takes us to.
We’ve all seen what unmoderated message boards look like already.
Heartless:
Amen.
As much as I can appreciate the sentiment of the letter, I don’t know why we would waste our time telling a business how we think they should run their business. Blizzard made a decision that they think makes sense for their business. If we don’t like it … as Heartless alludes: shop elsewhere!
There’s this weird entitlement issue that people have with MMOs: they seem to think, imo anyway, that they somehow “own” the VW to which they subscribe. That’s the same as thinking that you own a magazine just because you subscribe to it. If you don’t like the editorial direction of the magazine, by all means write a letter. But you can’t *expect* the magazine to change just because you want it to. If you want to really try to change it, then you have to stop subscribing. And if enough people share your opinion AND they also terminate their subscription, then the magazine will HAVE to change in order to survive.
However, in the U.S. anyway, it seems like we are gluttons for punishment: we complain like crazy about everything, but we refuse to do what’s necessary to really change matters.
Another example: in Chicago, Macy’s department stores has acquired the landmark Chicago store Marshall Fields. Macy’s is going to change the name to Macy’s (naturally) and the citizens of Chicago are, of course, in an uproar. However, this won’t sway Macy’s because they know damn well that the folks in Chicago will not stick to their guns and stop shopping at the store simply because the name has changed. We simply cannot make ourselves go that extra step to affect change. We like our stuff too much.
J seems to think the scroll-down problem may be with internet explorer. He can view the site fine with opera.
wouldn’t the chat rules affect the teen rating?
I can view it fine with IE both at home and at work, is the thing… and also using Firefox on the PC and for that matter Safari or IE on the Mac. So I really have no idea what it might be…
Is anyone besides me getting really tired of gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans-sexual people constantly trying to cram their lifestyle choices and peculiar moral values down our throats?
I see it as being similar to people with a habit of picking their noses insisting on trumpeting that fact to the world, then demanding that people not refuse to hang out with them. I want to nudge these people in the ribs and gently say, “Get a grip, people. If you insist on identifying yourself in terms of your repulsive habits, you need to expect people to be repulsed. If you want to live like that, don’t rub MY nose in it. Go away. Just go the hell away.”
Count me as 359 on the feeds, although I’m using FeedReader. I’m starting to itch for an XBOX 360, but I’d rather my wife didn’t leave me. Besides, I can’t remember the last time I saw the word “wheedle”! =P
Actually, FeedReader will show up on FeedBurner’s stats. Basically, FeedBurner works by redirecting all the feeds through FeedBurner, so I can see stats on every single feed reader. 🙂 As it happens, there’s three people using FeedReader…
There’s even one person using a PSP to read the site!
Iakimo, the theory is that those who see themselves as more forward thinking, typically found in major metropolitan areas, think being gay is not a repulsive habit. It’s a lifestyle choice, a preference. You prefer blondes, I prefer redheads, they prefer the same sex.
You can disagree and say it’s disgusting and no one polled your opinion before deciding that as a people we need to believe it’s ok to be gay, but whether you like it or not, that’s the new idealistic standard, the fantasy we pretend everyone agrees with, and to which we will hold businesses and governments.
To answer your question, it is the pretense you seem to hold that being gay is something to be ashamed of that is the very reason that lifestyle is being ‘crammed down your throat’. It’s a natural reaction when you’re tired of being told your habits are repulsive when you really don’t think they are.
Personally I think we do ourselves a disservice by pretending everyone is onboard with the ‘ok to be gay’ movement when I can still turn on the news and see demonstrators with ‘Fags will burn in hell’ and ‘God hates you’ signs. Conservative religious groups simply do not believe its ok to be gay, and the fact that they’re about the scariest thing currently happening on this planet doesn’t mean it makes sense to pretend they don’t exist.
So where is the alternative to WoW where everything is peachy? Just so I can vote for that with my wallet.