04-29-2003, 01:30 PM
Count, I don't have too much to add of academic interest, but I think Blizzard censors certain words to keep from getting sued. By whom I have no idea, but they must pay their lawyers for some reason.
I would think it is technically a little harder to ban strings, even those most of us here might consider hate speech, when there is nothing particularly wrong with the component parts, just how the words are juxtaposed.
True, the game won't let you use the L word, but (for example) you could create characters with names like SapphicAvenger and Tribade...though I suppose you can't do so on east.
In real life I am an advocate of free speech, but I hold that neither commercial speech nor hate speech is protected speech, at least in the U.S. Actually I am glad that Blizzard makes an attempt to keep the realms clean. I can only imagine what the chat screens would look like if they did not.
Hope your course goes well.
I would think it is technically a little harder to ban strings, even those most of us here might consider hate speech, when there is nothing particularly wrong with the component parts, just how the words are juxtaposed.
True, the game won't let you use the L word, but (for example) you could create characters with names like SapphicAvenger and Tribade...though I suppose you can't do so on east.
In real life I am an advocate of free speech, but I hold that neither commercial speech nor hate speech is protected speech, at least in the U.S. Actually I am glad that Blizzard makes an attempt to keep the realms clean. I can only imagine what the chat screens would look like if they did not.
Hope your course goes well.
"I may be old, but I'm not dead."