Back in early February, we reported that Blizzard sent Sara Andrews of Tennessee an email warning her against trying to recruit for her gay-friendly World of Warcraft guild because it violated the company's anti-harassment policy. Andrews wrote Blizzard back, saying she wasn't insulting anyone. Blizzard replied that her actions could incite others to harass players.

Lambda Legal, the country's oldest and largest legal group dedicated to gay and lesbian civil rights' protection, got involved and contacted Blizzard, explaining groups for possible litigation. Here's the crux of their argument:

Although Blizzard is well within its rights to insist that players avoid referring to other gamers in an "insulting manner," Blizzard cannot issue a blanket ban on any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Blizzard began to cave and withdrew the warning. The company's worldwide customer service contacted Ms. Andrews and said the action against her was an "unfortunate interpretation" of current policies. In fax sent yesterday, Blizzard acknowledged that "the initial reaction to Ms. Andrews' in-game announcement of a LGBT-friendly guild was, quite frankly, an unfortunate mistake."

The company goes on to state that players are free to talk about their gender/sexual identities in a non-insulting manner. Game Masters have also been giving training so that such matters are handled with greater sensitivity in the future. Blizzard also mentions that WoW has added a guild recruitment chat channel, stating that "LGBT-friendly guilds are allowed to announce their existence, and to recruit members in the same manner as any other guilds." Full letter after the jump.

Thank you for your letter dated February 6, 2006 concerning Sara Andrews and World of Warcraft (WoW). This letter is intended to clarify Blizzard's anti-harassment and guild recruitment policies, and to address the specific issues you raised in your letter.

Blizzard strives for a game environment in which everyone can feel welcome. With that goal in mind, Blizzard's in-game policies prohibit harassment of other players in general, and specifically prohibit harassment of other players based on their sexual orientation.

As a "massively multiplayer" online game, WoW provides a social environment for players to interact with each other. It is expected and accepted that players will discuss a wide variety of topics, based on both the game world and the real world. Players are free to discuss personal characteristics if they wish, to include their sexual orientations and gender identities.

The initial reaction to Ms. Andrews' in-game announcement of a LGBT-friendly guild was, quite frankly, an unfortunate mistake. The game master received a report that Ms. Andrews had posted disruptive comments, and failed to properly analyze her message before issuing a warning. As you rightly pointed out in your letter, Ms. Andrews's announcement was not disruptive, and the warning should not have been issued. When Blizzard's heard of service became aware of the issue, he contacted Ms. Andrews, acknowledged the mistake, and expunged the warning from her account.

Blizzard has provided additional training to its game masters in order to give them a greater level of sensitivity when responding to similar situations in the future. Blizzard has specifically instructed its game masters that mentioning or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in a non-insulting fashion is not a violation of the anti-harassment policy and does not constitute grounds for a warning or any other disciplinary action.

On the general topic of guild recruitment, Blizzard has added a guild-recruitment chat channel. While many players have an interest in guilds, many others do not, and are annoyed by the number of guild advertisements. The new guild recruitment channel will allow all guilds to recruit members with similar interests in-game with advertisements that include attributes of particular guilds. It has always been, and will remain Blizzard's policy that LGBT-friendly guilds are allowed to announce their existence, and to recruit members in the same manner as any other guilds.

I hope I have addressed your concerns regarding Blizzard's policies and practices. Should you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours,

Paul Sams
Chief Operating Officer
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Blizzard Gets Warning [Kotaku]

Send an email to the author of this post at .