One of the last bastions of entertainment to embrace gay culture has to be the gaming world. Anyone who has played anything on Microsoft's Xbox Live online multiplayer channel can tell you that there is no end to the expletives and derogatory comments thrown around by the typically heterosexual male players you encounter there. Gay players to some degree avoid the online aspects of the system for that very reason. After all, gaming is supposed to be about having fun, not being bombarded by homophobic slurs.
Well for those gay players who instead opt for MMO's (Massively Multiplayer Online games) on PC, he's a story to tickle your fancy. It seems that the world's most played online role-playing game, is also one of the world's most politically correct and diversely played role-playing games.
Released in 2003 by Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft (typically referred to as WoW), has vaulted to the head of the pack when it comes to MMO's, having received countless awards, been named by The Guiness Book Of World Records as the worlds most played Online Game, and it currently holds 62 percent of the MMO market (with 11.5 million monthly subscribers).
It seems that World of Warcraft is the game to be play if you're a member of the LGBT community as well.
This year the 5th annual Pride Parade took place on the games Proudmoore server. Organized by two guilds of opposing factions in the game ('The Stonewall Family' guild of the Alliance and 'The Spreading Taint' of the Horde) , the virtual festivities were attended by at least 12 other large player created guilds. These guilds included had such names as 'The Real Houseboys of Silvermoon City', 'Bears in the Woods', 'Priests with Pom Poms' and 'Proudmoore Divas'.
Prior to the event, it was announced on many of the game's community websites, receiving substantial support from both players and game mediators.
Mike Schramm of wow.com wrote, "...These folks are very social and a lot of fun -- while their roots are in the GLBT community, they're interested in including people from all backgrounds, and obviously this event is open to everyone who wants to have a good time in-game."
He closed the article with, "All hateful comments will get deleted and repeat offenders will be banned. You don't have to agree, but you can disagree respectfully without personal attacks or insults."
The festivities reportedly went off without a hitch, being the largest such event thus far and included a variety of activities including Pre-Parade Festivities, March, Meetup with Alliance, Nude Duel Championship, March to Ratchet, Dance Boat Party to Booty Bay, Azeroth's (Azeroth being the world that WoW takes place in) Next Top Model Competition, Crafting Fair and Post-Parade Dance Party in the Bay.
Keep an eye out for the 6th annual WoW Pride Festivities, expected sometime in late June, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment