Abhorrent Taboo or When Online Sexuality Goes Too Far in World of Warcraft

I’ve got a hot topic on my hands today as news - which the term controversial doesn’t even begin describe - just reached my ears. Out of a WoW Insider article, we find out about Blizzard directly interfering with a guild and disbanding it, seemingly on popular demand. That particular guild has been known for engaging in Erotic Role Play, often enough extreme in its perversion and kink that enacting such behavior in real life would incur legal ramifications. But which one is it – is World of Warcraft hosting current and future pedophiles within its organized guild ranks, or is it just fantasy and should be treated as such?

The story begins roughly six months ago with the Lilith, the game master and founder of Abhorrent Taboo guild on the US realm Ravenholdt, horde side. We’re talking about a RP-PvP server, where role playing attitudes are endorsed and welcomed as standard online play. The guild soon after expanded to an Alliance counterpart, the Blackwater Raiders. RP servers were always different than the regular ones and maybe a bit cleaner when it comes to cursing, swearing and other ireverential behavior, due to players being higher in the age demographic. Maybe no-one saw it coming, but Abhorrent Taboo went into a strong sexual direction with its activities.

WarcraftRealms statistics report that the guild had 152 members joining its ranks in its life time which ranks it a large sized guild in the WoW scene. Just take a look at Lilith’s profile and you will see the equipment isn’t that good and the guild never really had that many level 70 players, thus both PvE and PvP pursuits are pretty much out of the question. The sole purpose of Abhorrent Taboo was to find people who enjoy engaging in sexually arousing activities through explicit erotic role playing (ERP). This included age play (known and feared by most puritan minds as a direct reference to pedophilia), intercourse simulations and others as described by the recruitment post: “Be advised that we frequently ERP in guild chat and often engage in even potentially offensive kinks such as (Extreme) Age play, Bestiality, Child Birth, [something censored by the WoW forums], Watersports, or any other kink those playing may wish to explore. If you are easily offended or upset by others using kinks you may not personally enjoy, this is not the guild for you.” It’s a bit hard to swallow even for an opened mind, but technically it’s all just fantasy role playing in a fantasy world so it shouldn’t hurt anyone.

Abhorrent Taboo members were accused of being too lax in the enforcement of their 18+ recruitment policy. It was speculated that guild members continued their activities even when knowing they were interacting with a minor in guild chat. Limits were crossed when such role playing went off to /yell spam messages which every player in the area could witness, instead of a relatively innocent chat between consenting adults, on private channels. More or less we’re talking about a variation to cybersex, using World of Warcraft emotes and in-character chat. It was only a question of time before the whole of Ravenholdt would take notice of these activities and report the guild members to Game Masters.

While exploring the official forums, it seems that such reports were quite common in the past months, but nothing was done to quench them, not until last week when a game master forcefully disbanded the guild and banned the name from being taken again. Blizzard out stepped its attributions even more and repeatedly banned actual accounts for supposed violations of the Terms of Agreement. In this Dailygaming interview Lilith said her account has been banned several times, until she got a workaround going by means of friendly Game Master (slash guild member) involvement. The forums celebrated this small victory as a huge success of common sense, yet only days later the same Abhorrent Taboo members reformed the guild, now called Vile Anathema. Less people, different name, what else has changed? Now don’t let me picture these gals and gents like the most evil and depraved people on earth, because they’re not. However, what they do here is unheard of and dragging this affair into public only added to “public” dismay. You might want to check this screenshot though, supposedly taken from the Abhorrent Taboo guild chat. It pictures guild master Lilith speaking her mind about virtual pedophilia.

One must take into account some basic issues that World of Warcraft perpetuates, like most other MMORPGs. The game has been rated Teen by the ESRB (the American rating association), which usually implies mild violence and soft sexual themes, both of short duration. That could be the worst that could happen in such a game. Blizzard has a nice sticker on the side of the World of Warcraft case which states that “Game experience may change during online play.” I find that really interesting since the game can only be played online. A quick call to the ESRB will give you the clarification that whatever happens online is not for this organization to rate or control, thus Blizzard alone can police their own backyard. This disclaimer means that the game is not rated on additional content by third parties, including chat. What does Blizzard do? It dodges responsibility until further notice, since the End User License Agreement which you must accept in order to play the game clearly states: “Neither Blizzard or any of its parent subsidiaries or affiliates shall be liable in any way for any loss or damage of any kind arising out of the game, including without limitation (..) loss of goodwill, work stoppage, (..) or any and all other damage and losses.” Thus whatever happens in the real world as a direct result of you playing a character in the virtual World of Warcraft world, is your fault alone. I wouldn’t call this reassuring considering that you can be under aged and still play. Like most serious MMORPGs, you need to make recurrent monthly payments in order to play. WoW has been rated Teen, but playing requires recurrent use of a credit card which no-person younger than 18 can own in most countries. There are alternate paying methods, but I’m sure Blizzard officials can back me up when I say that credit card payment is the prevalent way of supplying your subscription.

These screenshots feature the in game models with their natural good looks and anatomically correct bodies. At some point there was a mod that removed the texture of those pants and bras so you could see the, erm, whole picture. They were taken is a hurry though and do not represent at all what determined individuals can make them look like when grouped together. Just imagine going out of Orgrimmar and seeing a gathering of 20 horde characters, all naked, performing weird movements you never thought possible with the current game engine and spamming General Chat with sexual innuendo. Everyone shared the same unprecedented tendency for ambiguous sexuality in their teens so it wouldn’t surprise me if players below the 18 year old threshold would still like to join. One must recall that Ventrilo cybering and IRC-like behavior in the guild chat channel is not the initial purpose of World of Warcraft, nor appropriate for severely under aged persons.

I remember once reading an interview with a leading Sony Entertainment figure. He was going on and on about how much time he spends playing games with his son and how well that strengthened their relationship. Sony Online Entertainment was one of the prime movers in the MMORPG scene with the old school Everquest series, thus the question was bound to arise: How much time does you child spend playing online games? The tone of the discussion suddenly changed as the said CEO underlined the importance of online gaming security. Not only that his son was spending a very limited amount of time in virtual worlds, but he was instructed to notice a Game Master or his father whenever someone asked about his age or location. He was never to talk to such persons again and to put them in the ignore list. While privacy is a good thing, especially for young children, I can’t help but wondering if I ever triggered such a response in my online adventures. While analyzing the term MMORPG, I urge you to think a bit about the meaning of each component - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Often enough I would feel good about myself and my team mates after completing an instance flawlessly so I could have asked completely innocent questions like “Where are you from?” or “How old are you?”. Well, apparently that would make me a pedophile so I’d better enjoy the massive factor just by camping the same spawn point for three hours straight. I could then role play a rock by not speaking a word to anyone and be glad I’m online since I see other characters running around. That would be wrong.

When the day is over, you don't have to be role playing on Ravenholdt to act out of line. Check out this tricky picture to understand what some do for fun. As for Lilith and her ERP comrades, they still live in the World of Warcraft by this credo: “I say those people need to give it a try before they nay-say it. ERP is something that happens between two or three or more consenting adults. It's an expression of love, and beautiful to watch! Anyone who says that it doesn't belong on a Warcraft server is saying they agree with the Catholic Church when they say 'no sex before marriage”.

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