In response to a wave of public criticism, yesterday, Bioware decided to lift the restriction in their community forums that previously prevented users from using words that referenced homosexuality. According to Eurogamer, Sean Dahlberg, Community Manager at BioWare, apologized on BioWare’s forums to gamers that might have been offended.
Earlier this week, Dahlberg publicly stated on the forums for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, that the words like “gay” and “lesbian” were automatically filtered and censored. Additionally, any conversations about homosexuality would be automatically closed down by forum moderators because homosexuality and terms like lesbian and gay did not exist in the Star Wars universe.
Strangely enough, though not canonically apart of Star Wars lore, in Bioware’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Cathar Jedi Knight Juhani can be a lesbian if your character’s gender is female. Additionally, in the extended Star Wars universe, there are numerous inferences to the questionable sexual preferences of some of its characters.
“My intention was not to demean anyone but simply to help promote a community that could discuss topics in a mature fashion,” said Dahlberg. “When I first built the word filter list, I added a variety of terms to the word filter that have been used numerous times in derogatory messaging. There were some words added to the filter that should not have been.”
“I have overstepped my boundaries in my original statement and I sincerely apologize for doing so.”
Several years ago, Blizzard ran into a similar problem when a moderator for World of Warcraft threatened to ban a gamer who was actively recruiting members for her gay-and-lesbian guild. Microsoft was also accused of discrimination earlier this year when they suspended a gamer who listed herself as a lesbian on her gamer profile.
Mark Fujii: I'm your typical college student who plays too much video games. I also work as an electronic sales associate, meaning I sell Ipods and violent video games to your children when not trying to sneak off and play Super Smash Bros while the boss isn't looking. Oh, and I'm totally awesome. True fact.
Comments
Add your comment
the217
Sections
Buzz Magazine
Mark Fujii
I'm your typical college student who plays too much video games. I also work as an electronic sales associate, meaning I sell Ipods and violent video games to your children when not trying to sneak off and play Super Smash Bros while the boss isn't looking. Oh, and I'm totally awesome. True fact.
Timbo (Timbo) says:
(Posted May 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am)
Moderators who are afraid of free expression are FAGGOTS.
I mean that in the worst possible way (think David Cross bit).