View Single Post
Old 04-17-2013, 10:28 AM   #6
SnowTroll
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 183
SnowTroll will become famous soon enough
Re: Finding a Place to Call Home: Communities Tolerant & Accepting of Gay Gamers

While I can't speak from experience, I can definitely imagine most muds (being fairly non-policed, anything goes environments) being full of teenagers who use "gay" as the adjective of choice for nearly anything undesirable, and "fag" as the ultimate insult for anybody with any negative quality. Especially years ago when a larger portion of mud players were immature teenagers, and when homosexuality was less accepted across the board.

I do want to submit, however, that the pendulum has swung a little too far, and people are way too sensitive nowadays. For example, if an idiot uses the word "gay" as a synonym for bad, and we all understood what he meant, then that word has that definition (even if it's slang, tasteless, and offensive). We communicated using that word. He said it, we understood it. People get way too uppity nowadays. "OMG!!!! Bigotry!!!" Honestly, it's not against any laws to be wrong and stupid, and I say let stupid people show their colors so the rest of us can make informed decisions regarding those people. If someone wants to hate and condemn homosexuality, he has the same right to do that as a gay person has to be gay, out, and proud about it. It's up to each mud owner to decide on rules and whether to punish or ban people for stating stupid and unpopular, offensive opinions. While it would be politically incorrect in today's climate, a mud owner could legitimately choose to ban homosexuals from his game based on his own moral views.

I'd question any homosexual player, even in today's accepting climate, that logs into a roleplaying game and devotes any significant amount of time to chatting on out of character channels about being homosexual. I don't have a problem with homosexuality, but I've always been bothered by people who use homosexuality as attention-seeking behavior. I don't talk about being straight or Jewish or having a heart murmur or each time I'm battling diarrhea. I'm not saying homosexual mud players should stay in the closet, just be judicious. If I don't know you and I'm not your friend, and the only thing we have in common is that we happen to be logged into the same mud right now, it's strange that I know you're gay. I'd also question anybody who plays a homosexual character in a roleplay-enforced game and doesn't expect at least a little guff for that, in character (provided the mud world where that's taking place is a fairly traditional medieval climate).
SnowTroll is offline   Reply With Quote