No Same Sex Marriage In World of Warcraft?

Previously, we discussed a World of Warcraft guild representative getting reprimanded for mentioning same-sex relationships while advertising their organization. The subject hasn't been dropped in the intervening days, with GamePolitics providing an update to the community's reaction. Additionally, a Cathode Tan post links to a supposed discussion with a GM that kind of wrecks their whole equal treatment statement. From that post: "[GM] Anyone can report and we will take appropriate action. While it may seem ok because they are truly a heterosexual couple in real life, in game they are two females. Please keep in mind, you need to worry about the other players. While I do understand where you are coming from, there are those who do not have the maturity"

Comments

Re:There is one simple fair solution

[Suppafly]

WoW doesn't have marriage in the first place.. People have mock weddings but there isn't really an ingame way to get married and have the software recognize it. A wedding in WoW is just a bunch of characters standing around in a church just like in every other mmo.

Re:Blizzard's got some house-cleaning to do

[Dachannien]

And what about the Christian WoW guilds? Will Blizzard shut them down too?

Straw man. Blizzard has already said that gay-friendly guilds are fine - it's the advertisement in-game of guilds based around RL controversies like sexual orientation, religion, nationality, etc., that is not. They've also said that if guilds wish to recruit based specifically on these qualities (and can do it without disparaging those of differing qualities), they are welcome to use the official guild recruiting forum on their website (an out-of-game resource) to do so.

Tell them about it

[faldore]

If Blizzard's actions piss you off, tell them about it.

Re:They *are* allowed to recruit...

[ignorant_newbie]

I'm Aryan, you insensitive clod! We don't advocate hurting anyone. It's a sad state when the mere celebration of one's race, if not a minority, is automatically interpreted by others as racism. People who play the race card so frequently, I think, are the true racists. "White pride" doesn't have to mean "down with blacks" any more than "Muslim pride" means "bomb America". Please don't generalize like this. It perpetuates the racism you might aim to solve.

um... yeah. except that Aryans aren't white. this is a common post-hitler misconception. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan

Re:This says it all:

[Tony]

How do they taste?

Like Chicken.

Re:Blizzard's got some house-cleaning to do

[eaolson]

Absence is a particularly interesting one. That bastion of hard-core conservativism, The Atlantic, reported a while back that children raised without both a male and female role model in the home are at a significant disadvantage compared to those who do not (subscription required). Now that was comparing single-parent relationships to two-parent relationships, so it is extrapolation to suggest this applies to homosexual relationships.

I can't get to your linked article, but I'll comment anyway.

Implicit in your argument is the idea that the reason these children are disadvantaged is because they do not have a role model for one sex. That's a massive oversimplification of a complex problem. A parent in a single-parent household will probably be less able to spend as much time with their child, so he will get less parental attention. For that same reason, he might not be able to get as much help with schoolwork, and might not get as good an education. Or, because single parenthood tends to correlate with lower incomes and younger parents, one of these factors might be what's causing the poorer outcome.

Jumping to the conclusion that (e.g.) children in a lesbian household do poorly because they won't have a male role model is a major jump to a conclusion, not a simple extrapolation. All the studies I'm familiar with say that children raised in two-parent, same-sex households do just as well as their heterosexually, two-parented friends.

Re:Why do gays want to marry? Re:Sorry Zonk

[cafard]

the question for me is WHY do homosexuals want to marry?

I don't know where you live and what your laws are, but in both France and Ireland, being a married couple gives you an additional legal status. The couple is no longer two individuals with the same address, but are an entity in regards to certain laws. I couldn't be exhaustive, but among the rights that you have, there would be:

• tax breaks: in France at least, you pay less taxes by being a married couple than by being two separate individuals.
• inheritance: in case of death in a married couple, the second person still owns everything that the 'couple' entity owned. In the other case, you have to go through inheritance (insert family troubles in here) and that's *if* there is a will. In the case of a sudden accident - with an unmarried couple - the living partner can get ripped of everything his/her partner legally owned.
• being considered a relative: when your partner is in a hospital for something serious, not being married can be enough to prevent you from visiting or tending to him/her.

You're right when you say that marriage was a religious thing for long. But nowadays, at least in the countries i know, it's much more than that, it's a different legal status in regards to society and its laws. And i can perfectly understand homosexual couples wanting to be on an equal par in this regard.