Okay, uhm, I think you have misread my post a little bit, so I’ll just start out by stating that I am by no means on a witch hunt against ERP. Here’s a quote from my post, notice the highlighted bit:
I’m not against adult content in of itself. I don’t really engage with it myself, but I know a lot of people who do, and I do not want to take that away from them, nor do I think they are causing others harm by doing it. My concerns are all about responsibility, and to punish those who do not take their own responsibility very seriously. I don’t want to ban people because they do something they enjoy.
Required reading for what’s ahead: Blizzard’s Code of Conduct (https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/42673). To quote the important part of it:
“When participating in communication of any kind (chat, voice communication, group finder), you are responsible for how you express yourself. You may not use language that could be offensive or vulgar to others. Hate speech and discriminatory language is inappropriate, as is any obscene or disruptive language. Threatening or harassing another player is always unacceptable, regardless of language used. Violating any of these expectations will result in account restrictions. More serious and repeated violations will result in greater restrictions.”
This is true, and I hope to hear from other RPers from any and all parts of the world. I can only really represent myself and in part the community I’m from, and sometimes there’s been expectations put on me to represent someone else - which I just can’t do. I can’t even properly represent the community I’m from, because there’s a lot of people in there that disagree with me, too. It would be nice to diversify the discussions by adding more voices to the discussion.
I can’t really speak for American RP culture, but I can certainly say that European RP culture at large doesn’t fully fit into this idea. It is true that there are subcultures within our community that definitely fits these descriptions, and there is a lot of drama and accusations being thrown around regarding ERP and all of that - and most of this is pretty bad, not gonna lie. Slutshaming and kinkshaming isn’t all that uncommon, and a lot of it leads directly to harrassment - which I think is bad and should also be punished, because that’s against the rules. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done there, from a progressive point of view, and I for one want to see more work being done there - not by Blizzard, but by the community itself.
I’m not really using this argument to enforce draconian laws, restrict the playerbase, or even target and harrass this portion of the community. I’m asking for better oversight over Goldshire (which I’ll remind you, I used as an example to a wider issue that applies to the entire game), because players within there are not only in breach of the Code of Conduct, but also because there is actual criminal behaviour going on in there. The problem isn’t the ERP, or the people who participate in it, the problem is that they’re doing so in an unregulated public space. Just because I don’t think you should be allowed to jack off in the middle of a public space, particularly where there are children, doesn’t mean I don’t think you shouldn’t be allowed to jack off at all.
It’s also not just about the parents’ responsibility here. Not everyone in Goldshire are engaging in criminal behaviour that involves child abuse, I don’t even think there’s a lot of it in the first place. Obviously, a responsible adult in Goldshire will immediately turn away any twelve-year-old that walks inside. But if these same adults also have a very public profile that goes into vivid detail of everything, they are exposing these same twelve-year-olds to sexual content without asking for their consent first, without asking their age first, because this is of public record. They might not even mean to or realise that they are exposing these children to it, or for that matter, other adults who aren’t consenting to this. Should they get banned for that? The Code of Conduct says “Violating any of these expectations will result in account restrictions. More serious and repeated violations will result in greater restrictions.”. You’ll probably be left off with a warning to start with.
But… not everyone does, and that’s the problem. Parents especially don’t know what’s going on in there. There are no signs that says “18+” in Goldshire. There are no checks in place to verify that everyone that goes in there is both old enough to give consent, and actually giving their consent. You need prior knowledge to actually know that Goldshire is a place where this sort of thing happens.
It doesn’t spread the problem out, because it’s not just about Goldshire, it’s about the whole world of Warcraft. Everywhere is subject to the same Code of Conduct, everything you do in public, whether you are in Goldshire, Stormwind, Orgrimmar, is subject to the Code of Conduct. You are free to do whatever you please in private, and no one is stopping you from that. In fact, if people report you and you get banned because you ERP in private with another consenting adult, they are in the wrong.
I believe this is the correct quote from the TRP3 report system:
Beyond this update, be aware that all roleplay profile contents will be logged and can be reported to Blizzard for abuse. An issue arose within the past year or so where some individuals were extensively using roleplay profiles to harass others on an ongoing basis, or to publish someone else’s personal details. As such, implementing the reporting capability became a high priority for profile addons, and it has been done in time for 8.0 prepatch launch.
This means you should clean up your profiles now. The guidelines on acceptability are roughly what you’d see in public chat channels. If you wouldn’t say it in /say, don’t put it in your profile. These reports are all reviewed exclusively by Blizzard – addon authors have no power or influence whatsoever, so please don’t hurl abuse at any of them if your profile is ever reported.
That said, I ask that everyone exercise common courtesy when it comes to reporting. Don’t abuse the report system – abuse of the report system to harass someone can result in actions against your account, instead of the person being reported. Furthermore, please use your judgement when it comes to reporting – try to reserve reports for profiles that incite hatred or violence, that harass and target individuals, or that publish personal or harmful details on others. These sorts of profiles, while few and far between in a community like this, are serious enough problems that this needed to be done.
I never said this was the reason it was added, but it has come to be that. As stated above, the only things that fly in TRP3 profiles are things that are deemed acceptable in similar public channels, and so, the Code of Conduct is a good guideline.
TL;DR: read the start of this “essay” that got way longer than I first intended it to be, it’s a bad habit of mine :<
Finally, I just want to say I don’t want to cause any drama. I just want to make sure my points are clear and properly represented; I don’t even think I can try to convince anyone to see it my way. If you don’t like me, or what I’m writing about, that’s all good with me.