An Open Letter to STS on Censorship, Hate Speech and Bigotry

[Stephencobear]

my point is the opposite, these words weren’t offensive, yet now they are usually.

I believe that the words will still be used most often with the worst intentions, and sts has seen this. These forums are their owned platform. They choose rules, just like fb deleting qanon.
Play as much as u decide within those permitters, or stand on a street where free speech does exist:

[Oakmaiden]

Your not getting the point. You can’t control the community and tell them chat nice. It wont work. Have you not been watching tv. People are hateful in real life. Work on those issues in the real world. Not Here! In Arlor your a warrior, mage or rogue. Not human, so no need to discuss which way you walk talk or swing.

[Cor]

It is not that I don't see your point, it is that I don't agree with it and your baffling quickness in trying to shut down this discussion. But I can see that your opinion is not something to be let go of easily, and as unfortunate as it is to see someone hold such a negative and one dimensional view of the general population, I will leave it alone.

I think we may have derailed the thread from its original message - just so we're back on track, I thought this bit was particularly important:

it's slightly troubling that saying "lesbian" gives you a "soft censor" - ie hides the "offensive" word with asterisks (which can be disabled by changing your settings) - but saying "gay" mutes you for the whole 5 minutes.

This went on for a little longer than I intended, but it is an issue close to my heart - all of us here know that many children play this game (in fact I was barely a teenager when I started playing AL), and to a young gay child this sort of thing can be very damaging to their self esteem. Many parts of the world are still extremely homophobic, and often the internet can be a person's only outlet to being their true self.

To everyone who had the patience to make it this far, thanks for your time - and I hope that together, one step at a time, we can make at least this little corner of the internet a more accepting place to live in.

Even if no changes are made, it is still heartening to see this kind of courage and consideration in the community.

(Oakmaiden, I'd still like to point out that this is part of the real world, and it is in those who have forgotten this fact that we often find the most toxicity.)

[Serillia]

Your not getting the point. You can’t control the community and tell them chat nice. It wont work. Have you not been watching tv. People are hateful in real life. Work on those issues in the real world. Not Here! In Arlor your a warrior, mage or rogue. Not human, so no need to discuss which way you walk talk or swing.

Real people play this game. We make the community. The point of this discussion is not asking people to chat nice. It's to bring awareness and notify STS that the word "gay" is not a slur anymore. It's 2020. Would you be offended if someone called you "straight"? No? That is where we need to reach with the word "gay". Causing 5 minute mutes for uttering the word is harmful to that movement, and as OP said, could be quite damaging to a young mind's self esteem.

Cor suggested a good solution. Move the word "gay" from a hard mute to a soft censor, so that those who do not believe the community will chat nice to them can turn on filter chat and be rid of any potentially damaging words.

[Overbear]

Real people play this game. We make the community. The point of this discussion is not asking people to chat nice. It's to bring awareness and notify STS that the word "gay" is not a slur anymore. It's 2020. Would you be offended if someone called you "straight"? No? That is where we need to reach with the word "gay". Causing 5 minute mutes for uttering the word is harmful to that movement, and as OP said, could be quite damaging to a young mind's self esteem.

Cor suggested a good solution. Move the word "gay" from a hard mute to a soft censor, so that those who do not believe the community will chat nice to them can turn on filter chat and be rid of any potentially damaging words.

I agree. Hopefully a time will come when it won't need to be censored but we can only do thi for now.

[|Ares|]

Your not getting the point. You can’t control the community and tell them chat nice. It wont work. Have you not been watching tv. People are hateful in real life. Work on those issues in the real world. Not Here! In Arlor your a warrior, mage or rogue. Not human, so no need to discuss which way you walk talk or swing.

Maybe that's the issue? Turn off your TV and think for yourself and how you would like to be treated in a fairly system based on mutual respect. I'm not saying that LGBTQ+ community players should have more rights than casual player base that's not bothered but let's be real, time goes by and I think it's about time to realize that world is changing. There's nothing you can do about it than just adapt and accept some things as they are. Especially considering people that just want to live their own life as they like, not how someone is telling them to or trying to make them look like they should be put down as minority dictating the rules to majority. Without pointing out at people calling them unlimited amount of creative slurs people no matter of what sexual orientation can get along I believe. Why should we be even sitting here and thinking of which areas of daily life has to be taken into consideration that world is changing.

People are hateful in real life, true. But some issues requires to be worked on in every aspect of life. Thinking that "Arlor" and "real world" are so far from eachother right now is bold thing to say. Some people want to log in and chill taking on topics and chatting with friends on whatever they want. Taking on this subject to be worked through is not controlling the community or trying to "get the point". It's just being human, letting other human express themselves.
If that's something that is disturbing you, people who want to be themselves disturb you... well then you're the issue, not them. Really simple as that.

[Motherless_Child]

Your not getting the point. You can’t control the community and tell them chat nice. It wont work. Have you not been watching tv. People are hateful in real life. Work on those issues in the real world. Not Here! In Arlor your a warrior, mage or rogue. Not human, so no need to discuss which way you walk talk or swing.

Yeah....

People have to learn to not let senseless words get to them.....

The whole internet is uncensored so, if an individual prefers an experience that equals utter censorship, they should probably strictly confine themselves to watching the "PBS" channel......

[WinterBlizzard]

People are hateful in real life, true. But some issues requires to be worked on in every aspect of life. Thinking that "Arlor" and "real world" are so far from eachother right now is bold thing to say. Some people want to log in and chill taking on topics and chatting with friends on whatever they want. Taking on this subject to be worked through is not controlling the community or trying to "get the point". It's just being human, letting other human express themselves.
If that's something that is disturbing you, people who want to be themselves disturb you... well then you're the issue, not them. Really simple as that.

This.

People really here don’t get the point of this thread perhaps their subtle intentions is to shut the discussion without realizing the main issue. To put it simply, STS should make the word “Gay” as a soft censor instead of getting players muted for 5 minutes. As mentioned multiple times, the world is changing as time passes by, the word “Gay” should no longer be an insult. Still, it does not guarantee that people wouldn’t use it to offend or to hate someone. It’s true that you can’t change the whole community and the world. But, the point here is why does “Gay” is a heavier insult than “***” ? Let’s say one closeted teenager decided to reveal his sexual orientation to his friend in AL. If they said “I’m gay” then got spontaneously muted. What would that person think? that being gay is wrong? because it got them muted considering the fact that “***” or “lesbian” will only censor your chat?

Real people play this game and so as other games too. Arcane Legends is still part of this world, it’s not like an other universe or dimension that politics and religion is restricted. Of course, we should still be aware of our limitations that makes our gameplay more enjoyable and shouldn’t be a place to discuss about topic gives you stress(lol). If you think you are not offended because you concluded “It’s just a game” Or “You cannot change that”, good for you. Not all people have that mental and emotional capacity to deal with these issues.

[Terracraft]

They always want to be perceived even though it is deviant

[Cor]

They always want to be perceived even though it is deviant

Please don't state your deviant opinion as if it is a fact.

[Jeffgeomon]

Would you be offended if someone called you "straight"? No? That is where we need to reach with the word "gay".

Agreed. Imagine yourself typing "I'm straight" in the chat, and then a message pops up saying: "Your chat has been muted. Further mutes may result in being banned." The thought of that gave me a visceral, disturbing feeling. I assume that's how members of LGBTQ would feel when they decide to disclose their sexuality, and then perhaps proceed to question if its okay to be who they are.

Chat restrictions were implemented in 2012. In those 8 years, culture shifts happened, the norms were challenged, and our language has been changed. Back then, people widely used homophobic language to describe things that were annoying or quirky. Many video game players used the term "r*pe" to denote domination, and the n and f word were loosely thrown around. Nowadays, we know how insensitive and disrespectful these words are, how uncomfortable they make people, and how damaging they can be. Words can be meaningless, but can also mean a lot. However, challenging status quo is never easy. Changing the language is big. It's never an instant fix or an instant cure. It requires lots of incremental reminders and awareness. It's a very slow shift.

The funny thing is that the world has done the hard yards for us, and the culture shift has already happened for many parts of the world. It's becoming a global shift. However, the culture shift train has taken off without the AL community or even the gaming community in general, leaving us behind at station 2012, comfortable in our veil of anonymity. This is one of the reasons why toxicity is so prevalent, and why a lot of outdated terms and expressions are seeing a resurgence in video game chat. The AL chat restriction system is definitely outdated, and having the word "gay" changed from a hard mute to a censor sounds like a good first step.

But we can't JUST do that, because like Qua and Zeus mentioned, lifting the hard mute will definitely increase harassment and the word being used in a derogatory manner, especially when the game has a lot of younger players. This is where the Devs need to come in to offer protection. They need to play an integral role in actively reviewing reports, lowering their tolerance with chat bans and being harsher when punishing players with toxic chatlogs. We as a community can also help protect these players by being better at calling out your homies when they use homophobic language insensitively or in a context that should not be joked about. Specific members of the community, such as GMs of top guilds, can make a huge difference here too.

For sure, it will be a bumpy road. I get the feeling that fighting against toxicity is like fighting a helpless war. Getting to the root of toxicity is definitely not easy. But boy, do we as humans love to take the easy way out, because that's how the human brain is wired. "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?" But we got to be forward-thinking. We got to challenge things before it becomes cool to challenge them. And unlike a lot of commenters above who seemed to have given up or feel like toxicity is unsolvable, I'm still hopeful, because whenever you throw in the towel, give up, and say "gg go next", that's when there's really a 0% for change to happen.

[PatD]

I don't have anything about the idea but this game is 12+, this mean many children are playing this game,
so the question is why would you disclose your sexuality on a game like this? is that relevant?

I mean if you meet someone that you really like and feel to talk about very personal thing with him/her,
maybe it would be more adequate to go chat onto another app/platform about those topics?

And because there is many kids playing this game we all know how the word will be use, kids will be kids!

[magiz]

As a person of the community myself, I personally don't mind whether or not the word stays muted. However, others apart of the community are aloud to voice their opinions if they feel the need to. Society is changing and the community itself is beginning to be more accepted to say the least. So, if the word were to be unmuted it wouldn't hurt anybody depending on the way it was used.

If there is obvious abuse of the word then it would be best to take proper measures just as you would for anything racist or, hopefully, ableist.

[shadowronn]

Is the word homosexual also bannable by a 5-minute ban? Maybe we could use that instead IF it's not banned by STS.

[Anehazaz]

This went on for a little longer than I intended, but it is an issue close to my heart - all of us here know that many children play this game (in fact I was barely a teenager when I started playing AL), and to a young gay child this sort of thing can be very damaging to their self esteem. Many parts of the world are still extremely homophobic, and often the internet can be a person's only outlet to being their true self.

The more that you feel confident about sharing your real feeling, the more impact you have. I feel you have already achieved some good here.

[mhysaa]

Dear STS,

I haven't played this game in a long time. I recently got back into it and played around for a while, rekindled connections with old friends I thought I'd lost forever. It gave me a new chance to look at the wonderful community you have crafted over 8 long years, a robust core of players that have remained loyal to you through everything; but it has also brought to light some decisions you have made that might have made sense in 2013, but are archaic in today's world.

But first, I think a little backstory is necessary to fully capture the magnitude of this issue that might seem trivial at first glance, but on closer inspection reveals flaws so deeply baked into human society, and in particular gaming culture, that it would require years of work on the parts of every member of the gaming community at large, players and developers alike, to come together to attempt to fix this problem that exists at the very bedrock of our society.

Trash talking has long been at the core of every online game. Any game that has a player versus player or co-op mechanic will inevitably have players throwing insults at each other - whether you play competitive shooters, League of Legends, Club Penguin or, yes, Arcane Legends, you will come across trash talking. It's something you come to expect from online gaming; a player behind a keyboard, comfortable in his or her anonymity, will often lose restrictions imposed on them by society; to put it more colorfully, give a man a mask and he shows his true face. While it is sad, it is human nature; and this is not the problem I look to solve today (and indeed, I'm not entirely sure it can be solved, ever, but that's a topic for another day).

Censorship - regardless of whom you ask, it's a controversial topic. Reckless freedom of speech has devastating consequences, but so does depriving an individual of it entirely. It's an issue that isn't restricted to gaming by any means, and strays so far into the realm of the political that I won't attempt to venture very far into this topic, though it is the heart of this issue: I am not here to argue whether censorship is right or wrong - instead, I want to examine what should be censored and what should not: but even this issue is a minefield so I'll be restricting myself to one particular "insult". Whether it opens the discussion further is in your hands.

I want to restrict this discussion, in fact, to the term "gay" which, I would argue, should not cause you to get muted for using it - while it can be, and for decades has been, used as an insult, it also has far more innocuous uses - and if saying "gay marriage" times you out for five minutes, or if you have to type "I'm g@y" when revealing your orientation to your in game friends to avoid being censored - maybe it's time for a change.

The year is 2020. I doubt anyone had homophobic intentions when censoring this word when the code was laid down in 2012 - but it's slightly troubling that saying "lesbian" gives you a "soft censor" - ie hides the "offensive" word with asterisks (which can be disabled by changing your settings) - but saying "gay" mutes you for the whole 5 minutes.

This went on for a little longer than I intended, but it is an issue close to my heart - all of us here know that many children play this game (in fact I was barely a teenager when I started playing AL), and to a young gay child this sort of thing can be very damaging to their self esteem. Many parts of the world are still extremely homophobic, and often the internet can be a person's only outlet to being their true self.

To everyone who had the patience to make it this far, thanks for your time - and I hope that together, one step at a time, we can make at least this little corner of the internet a more accepting place to live in.

(If you want a tl;dr, I'm sorry - a topic like this shouldn't be condensed into one sentence.)

I understand, and agree with you completely. Since I started playing I have wondered why the word 'gay' was considered insulting or obese, to the point of generating muted. I believe it comes from the long years of people using the word 'gay' as an insult, as if it were something bad, something offensive. Homophobia and sexism ( word 'lesbian' is not considerated that bad, because to the marjority straight males, is something "cool") are still ingrained even in the most modern and liberating societies, we still have many battles to go, and that is why small steps like this it does makes the difference.
-------
It is very sad to see pessimistic comments, "it will not change", "you cannot change", every change must start somewhere, and it is little by little that the world changes. You'll are playing with a human, not a robot, sharing information, knowledge and cultures happens even if not on purpose. You end up learning from your friend's culture that is from another country, and he ends up learning from yours.
There is no point in pretending that AL is just a game that people go on maps do missions and leave. There is a strong community, and it is a very sociable game. Issues like that do matter, where there are humans, and their rights. A teacher of mine used to say "you can go as far as your right touches, and stop where you start to 'hurt' another's right". If that does not alter your right, it is not your place of speech. Let the people who are having their rights hurt speak up.

[Fiasaria]

14/15 year old me typing gahy so i dont get muted

the thingy that mutes you: am i a joke to you ? :c

[Silentkill]

I believe any word that contains the word “sex” is banned. Also, back in the early days/years, character names like “Titanium” or “Titan” were allowed. Now the existing ones can remain, but if you try to make a new chatacter containing these 3 digits (you know what I mean) it says the character name is prohibited.
I mean I find It rather sad and extreme, that everything in our society is so EXTREMELY sexualized.

And back to the topic, i agree with everything the OP has stated

Edit: Also sorry I forgot to add and I think it has been mentioned before, muting these words doesnt do ANY good. Words like gay can be written in a lot of different ways. People who want to abuse these words will always find a way. Gay -> they will use gae, gai, gaiii and etc.
Sex -> they will use seks.

It discriminates players with this sexual orientation, in my opinion