Totally disagree with this.
Boundless and these forums should be a heaven of peace to escape the stupidity of world politics.
Yeah, I said it.
We are in an era where politics are becoming sickening and stupid, with too much corruption going around in many countries, with many so-called leaders talking about “fake news” here, “fake news” there…
So it’s important for video-games to be free of political and religious beliefs.
There’s already enough debates going around about the game’s design as it is.
In a game based on expression, I would caution against censorship in any form other than what is absolutely necessary I don’t agree with the political displays, but I’m against banning them for this reason.
Oh I get it. I was just pointing out that this is a private entity/forum. If WS wanted to ban the word “lasagna” or discussion of “lasagna”, due to it’s superior-ness to all other pastas(!!!), they can, because this is a privately run forum.
They can censor whatever they want.
Something tells me you didn’t get where I was coming from. In my opinion, I extremely dislike the avatar/pic that prompted you to revive this discussion.
My point simply being that the rights that we appreciate so much in the real world (various rights in various countries) do not apply here at all. I could start a forum on how anchovies are the best pizza topping (man I must be hungry with all this food talk), and I could ban any discussion that doesnt agree with my view. And guess what, there’s nothing you could do about it. You have no “rights” here.
No, no it doesn’t. My point is “technically” it doesn’t. Now whether or not the avatar should be here, is a matter of opinion (I don’t think it should). But, “technically”, whatever WS wants to be here, will be here.
While it technically doesn’t apply, it still doses. Businesses need to make money, so therefore it is typically in the best interest of the bottom line to have as close to „Freedom of speech“ as they can with the select reservations and rules as seen in most forums.
That should be reported to James, give him a week or two to react to it, and if he won’t remove it, then I understand this logo „protest“ that seems to be happening even thou I don’t agree with the protest.
I dont really see it as a big deal as long as they aren’t making political statements all the time then have whatever icon they want. The dev’s can get rid of it if they really feel like it’s such a big deal.
Oh no, don’t worry, I totally got what you were saying. But I just thought the Freedom of speech thing had to be clarified to avoid further derailling because there is also this debates going around on the internet about companies (like Blizzard) censoring players who show support for Hong Kong, which by extension means supporting Human rights.
And what that shows is that if you censor people too much, they boycott you, you get a bad rep, etc.
It’s a grey area and that’s probably why they’ve gotten by with it for this long. But overall it’s poor taste in my opinion. It’s an unspoken rule in video games that we don’t talk about politics, mainly due to the fact that it divides us when video games are the one place that brings us together. I don’t care who you support honestly, i don’t want to see it whether I like the political figure or not.
For instance, if WS keeps the avatar and does nothing, what will it make the people who like/dislike the avatar think? Like you said, reputation is everything.
To play devil’s advocate, what if they remove it? Will they get backlash for removing it? Probably…
Regardless though, this is their domain. It’s up to them and how they want to be perceived. My whole point being that we can do whatever we want until WS tells us that we can’t. Hence, the reasons for a Code of Conduct in the first place.
My thoughts exactly. The icon contains no profanity or graphic imagery whatsoever and shouldn’t be banned. Its user will just have to manage their own social standing.
I don’t believe it’s in good taste to bring RL politics into a gaming community but really why should you care someone has a little picture next to their name? If you don’t like it all you have to do is scroll past that persons post.
I know this is in a different spectrum of bad. But swastika was a political symbol and isn’t allowed. It’s also religious in some scenarios not tied to the bad things. Tho there are people that are adversely affected by said person in said profile picture and now they have to be reminded of that by browsing some topics.
I gotta say, that avatar kinda ruined the neutral opinion I had about its user. Now whenever I see his username, part of me is going to think “oh no, not that guy”.
I wish I never saw it, really. But I did. Was it my fault for looking at it, or his for deciding to make his belief/political orientation public?
It’s easy to say “don’t think about it” or “just scroll down” when you’re not annoyed by the picture.
I’m going to need everyone that has or had pants in their profile to be banned please. Pants make me really uncomfortable. Even when I buy the right size.
I honestly can’t even begin to fathom…you know what, they should remove all avatars. Everyone gets a number or letter based on their name so silly things like this stop detracting from the game.
I don’t agree with the political displays, but I’m against banning them for this reason.
