Question of the Day, August 6, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, August 6, 2010



World of WarCraft has announced that its GMs will be patrolling The Lions Pride inn at Goldshire, after a father was displeased with some of the erotic roleplay occuring there while his son played. Ignoring the fact that some roleplay can go a bit far - does mature roleplay (violent, sexual, or otherwise) have a place in MMOs? Should it be accepted or discouraged?

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[uppitycracker]

In a game like WoW, as long as it's in private tells, I don't really see the issue. This game is rated Teen, so they have to maintain the policies to keep in line with a Teen rating. I guess where this becomes a problem on the live servers, is because of emotes. They already said they won't be targeting anything other than public chat, which is perfectly reasonable.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Why isn?t there a ?Do it in public? Option? Just sayin

 

[Blue Musician]

I do not play MMOGs but I voted "No, it is a public place and we shouldn't be subjected to that."

 

[Lenny Magic]

Given that the only mmo I play is Eve, I don't really know how to awnser that one...

 

[Jaranja]

Given that the only mmo I play is Eve, I don't really know how to awnser that one...

Maybe I can put my Ballistics Control System on your Raven

Um... I don't really care. Public mature roleplay is fine with me because I can ignore it.

 

[The DSM]

As long as its in Private, it really doesnt matter, its harming no-one.

Also just patroling GS isnt going to to work, people will probably just move over to another zone.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Combination of in private and adults only. Mature roleplay should be restricted to mature players (as far as I'm concerned), and that also means that children shouldn't be in a position to hear it.

 

[Proteus214]

As long as it's done in privacy between consenting parties, I really don't see a problem with it.

 

[erbkaiser]

Let consenting adults do what they want. If this bugs some, just create an "mature" shard and let the saddos... err "sexual RPGers" do their thing there.
Then also create a "kiddie" shard where everything is filtered out.

Side-note: really wish there was another term than "mature" for porn. The two terms ought not be treated as synonymous.

 

[imnot]

Given that the only mmo I play is Eve, I don't really know how to awnser that one...

spaceship porn.
i dont play them but voted for yes in private.

 

[ItsAPaul]

More like "No, you probably shouldn't be doing that in an mmo to begin with, and I damn sure don't want to see it."

 

[Jared]

My opinion is, as long as its not done in front of me, I dont care. Keep it to private tells, and places where others cant see.

Doing it publically is both embarrasing to you, the individual...and other around you...

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

I can't see why not, as long as it's not an MMO targeted at children. People play MMOs for escapism and immersion; if they want to roleplay in a mature fashion to pull that off then fine by me. Just leave the non-consenting parties and kiddies out of it.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Im all for NOT IN PUBLIC but whatever u do in private is A O K

 

[Lorechaser]

In WoW especially you can make a huge raid for all the rpers.

 

[Bloodstain]

Where is my "Yes, between anybody" option?

 

[CitySquirrel]

As long as it's done in privacy between consenting parties, I really don't see a problem with it.

How does one have non consensual mature role playing?

I voted yes, but I do wonder why someone would do that in a public channel...

 

[Yelchor]

I find this rather hilarious as I reffer cyboring as -immature-. Well, up to 98% atleast. Not sure if there have been any sort of belivable romance plot between two roleplayers that has contained sexual intercourse, I haven't seen any for sure. The form of cyboring that I've become familiar with is usually made up of players that explores the concept just for its own sake, without any real ties between the characters or any real plot with it.

I personally see nothing wrong with this sort of behaviour. It's simply how we reproduce... Ahem. And it is a common fact that people tend to explore such interactions to gain further experience either in the real world or the anonymous internet. But since there are young children playing the game, I suppose restricting such content to isolated chat channels isn't too unreasonable.

I'm a roleplayer, but I find cyboring unnecessary. It has little to no importance on plot or character development, which is why I preffer to roleplay as Undead characters since you can have character relations that are not linked to urges of reproduction more easily since such things are impossible pretty much.

 

[Proteus214]

As long as it's done in privacy between consenting parties, I really don't see a problem with it.

How does one have non consensual mature role playing?

I voted yes, but I do wonder why someone would do that in a public channel...

With something like that, observation is involvement. So Mature RPing in public is involving everyone around you without their consent. Sending illicit whispers to other players that you don't know is also non-consensual.