Sexual Harassment on WoW - Harsh Punishment

#0 - Sept. 25, 2010, 4:45 a.m.
Blizzard Post
I have been sexually harassed on World of Warcraft dozens of times. This involves "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content." However, Blizzard does not seem to take these accusations seriously.

Hate speech, such as those directed against gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender players is UNACCEPTABLE.

Speech which is harassing and defamatory to women is UNACCEPTABLE.

Threats of violence, including forced sexual acts, against anyone is UNACCEPTABLE.

Even with multiple people reporting a user for sexual harassment, Blizzard allows these users to keep their accounts without consequence and continue spreading hate speech and defamatory language on public channels.

This issue goes beyond simply pressing the "Ignore" button. Blizzard needs to keep to its terms of use and punish the players who harass other players. These players should not be allowed to continue their hate rampages.

Personally, I no longer feel safe on WoW. I cannot join a city's trade channel or general channel without witnessing harassment. Upon asking for it to cease, players often send even more hateful and harassing messages via whisper. Even without asking for it to cease, this behavior is unacceptable in the first place. These incidents often involve references to sexual identity, gender identity, disability status, and threats of a violent or sexual nature.

Please Blizzard, help make WoW a safer environment for EVERYONE by enforcing harsher punishments against those found to have harassed, sexually or otherwise, other players.
#183 - Sept. 25, 2010, 9:01 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Since the OP has not made an appearance in this thread for quite some time, I think it may be high time to lock it. It seems to be going round and round and a lot of finger-pointing seems to be happening.

Vina –

We do take harassment of ANY KIND seriously. When a ticket is filed it will be reviewed thoroughly by the Game Master, including chat logs to determine EXACTLY what was said.

The best thing to do in these cases is open a ticket EVERY TIME, report the character name and realm, what was said, and put the player on “ignore”. DO NOT reply in any way, shape or form. If you receive a whisper from this player do not respond. I know it is tempting but you will be better off for it.

Death threats are another story entirely. Report these matters to your local authorities. They will have the means to contact us for additional information.