Earlier this week, Blizzard's Customer Service team announced that it will be patrolling World of Warcraft's Moon Guard server and its Goldshire Inn for any erotic role-playing. For the uninitiated, this particular virtual establishment is notorious for naughtiness, however now it's come under scrutiny thanks to a father canceling his son's account based on the Goldshire's adult festivities.
"Tonight, he had some friends over for the night," the father wrote of his son here on the Blizzard Customer Support forums. "When it came time to wrap it up, I went into the comp room to find my son and his friends huddled over the monitor, laughing like school boys will. Apparently, they had heard about and discovered Goldshire Inn on Moon Guard. I myself had heard of it's reputation, but after scrolling up and reading the chat, I never thought it was as bad as I was reading."
"I cannot begin to tell you how displeased I am with the absolute lack of server/ToS follow up regarding this abominable server," he goes on to say. "Line after line, having absolutely NOTHING to do with RP: sexual emotes, gay bashing, racial comments....I sat there speechless."
After numerous replies to the father's post, an assumed Blizzard customer service representative named Arrestide responded and admitted that the Goldshire Inn is one of the game's "hotspots." Arrestide said that Blizzard isn't turning a blind eye by not sweeping in with "a crack of lightning and a mighty hammer."
"It's our goal (and in our interests, obviously), to present a safe and accessible environment for play," the reply reads. "While defining "offensive" behavior can be subjective, the policy linked above [referring to the In-Game Harassment Policy] reflects our working definition, and our intent to keep certain types of offensive behavior from affecting the play experience."
The post goes on to report that Customer Service will actively patrol the Goldshire Inn on Moon Guard on a regular basis, and take appropriate action for gamers violating the Harassment Policy. "Note that this pertains primarily to public messages (/say, /yell, General) and unsolicited whispers," Arrestide added. "We won't be showing up with that mythical crack of lightning-- we'll just be watching silently for any rule-breaking language and following up privately with the player[s] in question."
Guess that means if you have any naughtiness going on, keep it private.
