BioWare apologises for forum policy

Written by Joe Martin

April 29, 2009 | 10:54

Tags: #forum #gay #homosexual #lesbian #old-republic #policy #star-wars

Companies: #bioware

BioWare has had a rethink on the forum policy that caused so much uproar yesterday, loosening guidelines and automatic filters to allow discussion of homosexuality that the moderators had previously dismissed as not being relevant to the Star Wars universe.

The RPG developer found itself in hot water yesterday when community manager Sean Dahlberg claimed that homosexuality did not exist in the Star Wars universe and that discussion was therefore not relevant to BioWare's Star Wars games - despite the fact that previous BioWare Star Wars games had included gay relationships.

BioWare forum moderators then started closing threads that mentioned homosexualty, as well as those that discussed the closure of such threads. Words such as 'Gay' and 'Lesbian' were also banned on the forums through an automatic word-filter.

Sean has since apologised for his actions and BioWare has moved to allow appropriate discussion on the forums, removing terms from the automatic word filter.

"My intention was not to demean anyone but simply to help promote a community that could discuss topics in a mature fashion," Sean wrote in a public apology.

"[i]When I first built the word filter list, I added a variety of terms to the word filter that have been used numerous times in derogatory messaging. There were some words added to the filter that should not have been...there was never any intent to limit discussion," he added.

Have you ever created a gay character within a computer game or do you think sexual content in games is inappropriate? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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