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The Chinese Socialist MMOG
GP writes "How different is China? In the online game version of the idealized Socialist state, you gain experience points by 'doing good deeds' and 'thwarting spys'. You can even meet Chairman Mao!" From a great writeup by Scott Jennings on the game: "And now we have the online MMO version, 'Learn From Lei Feng Online', which allows you to... mend socks. Again - not making any of this up. To quote from the original Xinhua story 'For beginners, sewing and mending socks is the only way to increase experience and to upgrade,' said Jiao Jian, a six-grade pupil in Yuexiu District, quoted by the newspaper. He then continues. 'Every time you are promoted to a higher level, your clothes will become more average,' he said. I'm pretty sure this isn't a translation screw up. The longer you grind, the more you look like everyone else. I guess new users wear designer pastels or something."
It gave me the option of tagging the topic. I entered 'scary'. :/
DYWYPI?
That comment was about as obligatory as getting drunk and beating your wife.
"But Judge! I couldn't help myself!"
Exactly why _do_ you feel a need to advertise your sexuality in a fantasy RPG? Other than a way to be an attention whore, that is.
Exactly what difference does it make anyway? Do gay players get different costumes? Different quests? Do you get to give Onyxia a stern talking to and redecorate her room if you're gay, instead of killing her like us macho heterosexuals? Or what?
I keep hearing about how a GLBT-friendly guild was needed, presumably as opposed to all those who've been unfriendly. So please enlighten me... Exactly which guilds explicitly asked you about your sexuality when you joined? The ones I've been in asked me about the classes I play, whether I have teamspeak installed, maybe the country I'm from, several asked my age (apparently making sure I'm not 13 years old), but not one asked about my sex life yet.
I've been in guilds and groups in several games and more than one server even in WoW, and the question never ever popped up at all. I haven't yet seen any guild ask me "but first, are you straight? we don't allow gays in our guild." I haven't yet seen any group advertise as "LF1M straight heterosexual for UBRS". I have seen groups advertise "LFM, but no more rogues, we have enough", but never ever seen one advertise as "LFM, but no gays and lesbians."
Basically from where I stand, and from what I've seen in-game, the issue doesn't even exist unless _you_ choose to shove it down people's throats and advertise your sexuality in a non-sexual game.
So _why_ do you need to advertise your sexuality in a non-sexual game? It's just a game, and kids play it too. It's not a matchmaking service for either gays or straights, nor a forum for sexuality-related discussions.
So basically you don't see the rest of us advertising "straight heterosexual guild looking for members" on the chat channels, how about returning the favour? How about realizing that we're all there to play the fucking game, and not to get a dose of sexuality debates, persecution complex whining or attention-whore drama on the public channels?
I don't give a damn about your sexuality, and make no mistake, Blizzard doesn't give a damn either. All they did have against is _polluting_ the public channels with some topics that just don't belong there.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"in the rest of the world 'Communism' is a political viewpoint, something about sharing etc etc."
No, to semi-educated Slashdotters 'Communism' is 'something about sharing'. Communism (I.e. Marxist communism, the only version that survived the 19:th century) is the teaching of the radical remaking of society and mankind itself through first civil war and revolution, then the supreme rule of the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. This is also how Communists have (attempted) to go about (with some variation) creating the Communist ideal state.
What has been implemented in some* Nordic countries, notably my own country (Sweden) is rather Reformism, which is founded on the rejection of Communism and the implementation of gradual reform of society (as the name implies). This also means that Sweden has always had a relatively vital private sector with many large multinational corporations. (Volvo, SAAB, ASEA, SKF, IKEA, H&M, etc.) Still, a larger share of savings and income transfers are routed through the state than in the rest of Europe (on the order of 10 percent of GDP or so).