Tolerance
Latest
Barack Obama breaks the record for most-liked Tweet
Barack Obama's August 13th tweet promoting racial and religious tolerance has become the most liked of all time, Twitter says. The message -- apparently in response to the death of a woman at Charlottesville neo-Nazi marches -- quotes Nelson Mandela and reads, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion." So far, it has hit three million likes, easily surpassing Ariana Grande's 2.7 million-like-tweet following the bombing of her Manchester, UK concert that killed 23.
Thousands of game devs sign open letter against harassment
"We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened." It may seem like an obvious statement, but it's one with particular relevance to the gaming industry at the moment. The past few weeks have been colored by vicious online harassment of notable women involved in gaming, including developer Zoe Quinn and critic Anita Sarkeesian. Sarkeesian, who launched a new video in her Tropes vs Women in Video Games series last week, was forced out of her home after receiving threats against her and her family. She also posted a sample of some of the scariest messages that get thrown her way (trigger warning). This week, Spaces of Play developer Andreas Zecher posted an open letter to the gaming community, calling for an end to harassment and hate speech. It's now been signed by more than 2,000 developers and professionals in the industry, including people from BioWare, Nexon, Ubisoft, Riot, Epic Games, EA, King, Double Fine, Sony, Blizzard and Telltale.
15 Minutes of Fame: Progressive guild thrives under uncommon leadership team
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. There's plenty about Wreck List of Garrosh (US-H) that's a little different from your run-of-the-mill World of Warcraft guild. The sprawling social guild doused Ragnaros just days ago with a team of core raiders rooted by several members in their 50s and 60s. In fact, the guild is run primarily by women over the age of 50 -- "at age 51, I'm the baby of the group," admits guild leader Dkosmama. With a median member age of about 40, Wreck List boasts well over 200 members, half of them women. Even more remarkable than its unusual gender and age mix, though, are the guild's roots -- Wreck List is the unofficial guild of the popular progressive political blog Daily Kos. Not limited to members from the Daily Kos community, Wreck List is open to any player looking for a sanctuary from trade chat madness, away from "threatening racist, homophobic, and misogynist language and ideas." The group's official Declaration of Purpose clearly states that "while guild chat is mostly non-political, it is also where we express our leftist political views, which sometimes may include a sharp word or two about Republicans. Because many guild members did not come to the Wreck List through political blogs, we do not expect everyone to hold progressive views on all issues; however, we do expect that all members respect the liberal foundation of the guild." An unusual balance for an entire guild? We thought so, too, and sat down to visit with Dkosmama about the balance of ideas and free expression that makes this whole group hang together. Editor's note: This article focuses on this group's integration with the World of Warcraft and is not an endorsement or promotion of any particular political ideology or agenda. Please keep comments focused on the guild and its activities, rather than political ideologies.
Drama Mamas: Racism and setting social standards
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We love updates! We've already heard back from the writer of last week's letter, Hacking a friend's account. Hi, I recently sent in an email to the Drama Mamas; it was the "hacking a friend's account" one. Just sending this in to say thanks, he gave me a ring today, I manned up and answered it and probably wouldn't of done if not for you. We made up, both said sorry and I gave him his password back. So all's well that ends well -- and sticking with a common theme, an end to situations that have no place in our game is what's on tap this week, too. The topic: racism and hate speech. (Before we begin: Standard warning for comments -- we'll be removing those that veer off the subject of handling racist hate speech in game, so please stay on topic and keep the language civil so we can have a productive conversation.)
GLAAD fights homophobia in online communities like WoW
We've talked here on the site before about this issue -- the anonymity in online communities like World of Warcraft often leads to people throwing out offensive statements that they usually wouldn't in normal company. Most people shrug these off as just what happens in online games ("kids will be kids, and idiots will be idiots"), but this type of undercurrent behavior still signifies and perpetuates prejudices and hatreds that affect society at large. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has recently started up a campaign to try and stamp out hatred and homophobia in communities like World of Warcraft, and they've published an op-ed on exactly why this is such a problem and what we can do to stop it. They don't mention WoW specifically, but we're one of the biggest online communities out there, and if nothing else, here's a chance to show just how tolerant we as a community can be.The good news is that as the practice of online gaming grows, both players and policymakers are becoming more and more aware of the problem -- Microsoft met earlier this year with representatives from GLAAD to determine how better to combat offensive statements on Xbox Live, and the organization held a panel recently to discuss exactly this issue.Thanks, Joshua!
Hi, my name is mandy*
Do you ever stop to think about the other players in WoW? The game attracts a wide range of folks, but odds are good many of them are remarkably similar to you in many ways. Sometimes it's hard to remember that there is a living being behind those pixels. Someone who is excited by triumphs and aggravated by mistakes. Oddly enough, we don't always treat them as real people.Take for instance one of the PUGs I did this evening. Within 10 minutes of joining the group, the Hunter typed a vulgar joke in party chat. At this point I saw four options four options for dealing with it:
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MMO MMOnkey: Short Circuiting Social Stereotypes with MMOs
I was playing Lord of the Rings Online one night when a player agreed with something mentioned in general chat by saying "Indeed!" Without rancor or hostility another player laughed at this stilted language and asked whether people really talked like that. Of course the question was answered with a chorus of "Indeed!" but in the ensuing conversation the player who had laughed said that he or she was from an economically disadvantaged area where the use of language like "Indeed" was wholly foreign. S/he was surprised to discover that language differed so radically among different socio-economic groups. And I thought, "Now, this is one of the reasons why MMOs are such interesting places." People categorize each other based on visual attributes like age, gender, hair and clothing style, and skin color. We also use political, religious, and social ideologies, musical, cinema, and leisure time preferences, and socio-economic class differences to divide ourselves up into different groups. The tendency to categorize and divide has more to do with the basic functioning of the human information processing system than bias or narrow mindedness on people's parts, and it is useful in allowing us to function effectively in the complex, dynamic, and often dangerious environment we call the real world. However, it does have it's drawbacks. It's long been known that people have a marked tendency to identify themselves with a group, identify people who are not members of their group as members of an out-group, and assign negative characteristics to the out-group. Moreover, we tend to spend most of our time with people who are like us. In other words, we hang out with people who look and think like we do and tend to think about people who are not like us in negative terms.
Ars Technica defends Left Behind, industry grows up a little
Recently Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica was interviewed about Left Behind: Eternal Forces on NPR's All Things Considered and found himself "defending the Christian right." He says Left Behind is being unfairly "demonized," the same way Bully and GTA have been, "We can't pick and choose our fights based on whether or not we agree with what a game says; we must fight for the game's ability to say anything it wants to." And that sound you hear is the industry getting just a little older.Religion, sex, politics and everything else we've heard "don't belong in games" will be -- or already has been -- incorporated into titles that'll sell millions of copies. As the industry gets older and the average demographic playing them does as well, complex ideas that may offend or challenge will start to pop up. What's thrilling and horrible at the same time is we have to defend the games with messages we agree with as strongly as those we don't. Like movies, music, theater, literature, television and other art, we shouldn't stop the message from being said, just make sure to vote with your wallet on what games you want to see more of. See also: Metareview -- Left Behind: Eternal Forces Political groups angry over Left Behind game Islamic groups want Left Behind off Wal-Mart shelves [Via Game Politics]
