Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Learn To Take More Offense

So I go to log on yesterday after an epic day of mind blowing killing of random things in the new Final Fantasy game when I get the message. "Your account is currently suspended please check your registered email for more information". So of course I was wondering what the hell was up and of course when I check my email there is nothing from Blizzard. Pretty pro of them to tell you to check something for a reason and then its not there. Now I have been banned before someone dared me to open a GM ticket jokingly insulting the GMs mother and his entire family. That got me a 3 hour ban and the fastest reply ever from a GM in existence. I also have received a ban for mailing too much gold to myself, which apparently flags your account, who knew? That one was a 24 hour ban, but I got it reduced after some complaining, since obviously I am not a gold farmer and did nothing wrong. This leads us to this reason.

Now I thought I could have received it for my exploring adventures on the weekend since I know some alliance whispered me and told me I was being reported for being somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. This though was not the reason. It didn't even cross my mind that my comedy in trade chat from the weekend was the reason. For those who weren't there or have yet to hear about it this is what happened.

I said before I started telling jokes that I was going to be fair and insult anyone and everyone. Therefore I couldn't be take as offensive to any one group of people. Second of all I stressed the point it was all for a good laugh, apparently upon finally getting my email it was not taken that way.

Realm: Llane
Character Name: Gauss

A user of the above account has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for the World of Warcraft by the In-Game Support staff of Blizzard Entertainment. This decision was made after a thorough investigation of the situation as a whole.

When a harassment report is made, all players involved in the incident are subject to review, which may result in account penalties. Though we are unable to discuss the outcomes of our investigations due to privacy concerns, rest assured that this incident has been looked into very thoroughly, and the appropriate actions have been taken on all involved accounts.

Any disputes or questions concerning the following account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.

Account Action: 24 Hour Suspension
Offense: Racial/Ethnic

This category includes both clear and masked language which:
* Promotes racial/ethnic hatred
* Is recognized as a racial/ethnic slur
* Alludes to symbols of racial/ethnic hatred

Lets be clear, I insulted everyone and I don't think I could have promoted hatred unless it would be considered hatred for everything. Regardless I wasn't going to fight it for the simple fact that people can get so bent out of shape over a joke. The best part of the entire email was the list of things I said because it is like 30 minutes worth of jokes in trade chat with the exception of the jokes I made about Caucasians. I am actually pretty pissed that those aren't included so much so that here is part of the letter I wrote to Blizzard last night.

So I understand that I have received my suspension of 24 hours because people obviously can't take a joke, and I am find with that. What I would like to point out is I am insulted at the fact that the jokes I made against a Caucasian with no particular religious affiliation are not included in the list of offensive and hatred material you included in the email I was sent. Is this do to the fact that you as Blizzard don't find these offensive and if so what makes them any less worse than anything else I said. Are things like this ok to say? I am just trying to make sure something like this doesn't matter again. It is very obvious you went through everything I said and if you look at the time stamps of everything you sent me there is an obvious gap of about 6 minutes were there is nothing. The whole purpose of it was I was insulting anyone and everyone so if you are going to suspend my account for something do it for that, and don't pick and choose because that in itself is more insulting, and shows that Blizzard as a company has this particular opinion.

So there is my rant and will be back today for all those who missed me. I wonder how long it will take me to offend someone...

12 comments:

  1. LOL I can't believe you wrote them that is amazing. But when you think about it, it is always going to be that way. We are always worried about offending people that we change the name of holidays and even think about changing words to national anthems to do so.

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  2. You should be ashamed of yourself Gauss. There is nothing "RIGHT" about racial slurs even said in a joking manner. Grow the fuck up and stop entertaining the children in trade chat.

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  3. He wasn't making an slurs they were jokes. He never used any word he shouldn't have or as Gauss puts it here what someone else said he shouldn't use. He honestly said before hand he was going to insult everyone. People are just too sensitive and need to be protected. I agree with Mac at Christmas time we can't even say Merry Christmas or call it a damn Christmas Tree. He makes a completely valid point they as he was joking about christians, white people, or anything like that came off as ok.

    He also said he accepted the suspension, but there was never any slur or hatred and I have no idea why they would have classified it under that.

    -Boggle

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  4. I laughed and I amd Black. I think since he included everyone made it that much better. He was just poking fun at peoples attitudes towards the world. Grow up it's a joke they were funny. He got suspended probably because one person cried to a GM. I hope he gets on today and does it again just to prove a point.

    I laughed Gauss as did so many others too bad people take things too seriously.

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  5. people always take things to seriously, but good on you Gauss for giving them crap about that. If they going to suspend you better have been for everything and not a select few

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  6. In moderate defense of Blizzard's policy toward language, they are in an unenviable position. Technically, as a private, for-profit company, they can decide what is an is not acceptable language. They are guided by the laws of the countries in which they operate and, as such, "free speech" as we know it, does not exist within chat. I can stand on a street corner in downtown Chicago and call Canadians a bunch of moose loving flat-faced idiots and be allowed to maintain my opinion as long as it does not incite violence. I can't stand in the middle of Stormwind and scream the same thing without probably getting a ban. It is a reality of the online world.

    What Blizzard is often faced with and which some of my guild members of other than Caucasian extraction have experienced is the racist who insults someone and then says, "Man, you can't take a joke." Remember, there is no way to know vocal inflection with a typed sentence and that, more than anything else, determines whether you are or are not joking. Too many people hide behind the "I was just joking" sentence that Blizzard has to step forward and say, "Nope, none of it is allowed."

    Do people take things too seriously? Absolutely. They have been doing it for millennia and will continue to do it. I don't find some things very funny that members of my guild just roar over. Humor is a very subjective thing. Setting out to try to offend everyone isn't going to take you that long to do. Another reason I keep Trade Chat off.

    I do applaud your stance on applying a ban across the board. While every ban will be a subjective event, if it is not applied uniformly, it is meaningless, even in a fake world.

    --Gimmlette

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  7. It sounds like you had a very eventful time. I applaud your pointing out the obvious leaving out of the jokes about Caucasians. That in itself shows the very thing that has been hinted at for years; companies and laws will overlook things said about Caucasians, but if any other race or religion is insulted it automatically warrants punishment. I hope it all works out for you.

    ~Kai (Meja)~

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  8. While what you said probably offended quite a few people and reading this I may think that was the point. I understand you did it to make people laugh. I am all for giving you a ban because even if this was done in humor the next person who comes along may not have that intent and say it's for the same reason as you. It does bug me that they did not include everything you said, because wants we start picking and choosing the punishment means nothing.

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  9. hehe, you really should have known that despite your disclaimer that you'd be making fun of everyone, someone would and did report you.

    I do agree though that it's shitty on Bliz's part to only focus on select parts when they informed you of the ban

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  10. Your letter to Blizzard has so many typos and grammatical errors that they probably just laughed at your failed attempt to justify yourself. Why don't you include your quoted trade chat "jokes" to impress your prepubescent blog fans? Are you feeling some kind of shame in realizing that you are not an exemption to Blizz's rules? I think it's hilarious that you got banned and hope to see more of that to come.

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  11. Did they include the pedophilic jokes? Because pedophilia and child molestation is so very funny! I wouldn't doubt that you are a pedophile actually.

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  12. If I included the jokes on here I would then could be googled based upon the results and that is not the kind of audience I would want to attract. If anyone wants to know I would gladly tell them. I never said I was too good to be exempt and I feel no shame in joking around. People really need to take advice from the Joker "Why so Serious?"

    To mr. Anonymous who I know for a fact is the same person, since I can see your IP. Those jokes were actually not listed as offensive which was part of my point. Resorting to name calling though is very big of you. You are obviously one of the ones that is super serious and has trouble understanding the concept of a joke. It also takes a big person to insult someone anonymously makes your arguement and your point have merit at all.

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