Blizzard Drops the Hammer on "Inappropriate" StarCraft 2 Maps

[Danpascooch]

Yet another reason not to buy that crap. Inappropriate maps...ffs. On no somebody made a plateau shaped like a dick, better hide it before all the girls turn into whores and the boys into catamites.

I wish the "think of the children" people would just go form a commune somewhere and stop bothering the rest of us.

But there are maps in WC3, let me quote some I have seen.
KKK-adventure, Natzi-hunters. Free-XXX (there are millions of these maps), Maps that preview screen is AD to an site that is fraud or spread some thing that you don't want in your computer, and simply maps that spread something that you don't want on your computer,

So you are saying that these maps ARE TOTALLY OK!?


I don't want to spoil the fun, but line must be drawn somewhere, may it be extreme line or not. it needs to be somewhere.

And if you counter me with comment like "but people aren't so stupid to go to those sites, if they are they deserve it". You are an idiot, and people do go to those sites, and then they can blame the portal they went trough. And if you would be one keeping a portal that Millions! of users use daily, wouldn't you want to keep it clean of links/material that can hurt you or your clients.

The game is K16 (In Finland at least) so I'm sure it wont be removing all maps that contains harsh form of "Pee and Poo"-jokes.

PS.

If you agree on the EULA/Tos/whatever, you are bound to these rules, don't agree with them don't buy the game
.

I agree with everything you said up until the EULA argument, personally I think EULA's are a load of shit, since you don't see them until AFTER you bought AND opened the game, you can't really decide to not buy it at that point.

Still, I'm all for not having a million penis shaped maps on Starcraft II

 

[Rigs83]

I guess this means no taking of Beaver Hill.

Spoiler: What were you thinking?

 

[Danpascooch]

Really? So much hate for this? Any of you bother to read their policy? I welcome this, anyone whos played Warcraft 3 custom matches would know there are people who try to host porn on the game. Yes people, porn, sometimes advertised as such or in disguise.

So what? Porn is all over the internet, people throw around shock imagery links to each other all the time. Do they have to be 18 to be to access the internet? Hell-fucking-no. People should be able to choose for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

Exactly, porn is easy to access on any number of websites, we don't need it taking up spots on custom map lists. If these maps had any sort of entertainment value, I'd be the first to cry, "no, Blizzard! Why?!" But they're shite maps that try to make up for it by giving you a hard-on. And they don't even accomplish that.

*cough* Some of those maps had some pretty nice images. My point was, you're not going to 'protect the children' by banning some maps in some game to begin with when almost everybody in the world has access to the internet, not to mention it strangles the creative freedoms of mapmakers. This is not limited to porn, obviously. Inappropriate can mean oh so many things. Again, all Blizz did here was make a pollitically correct derp.

snip

Never in the seven years TFT was out have I seen or even heard about anything even remote to pure racism. Hell, there was one map called ****** Assault, but I just found the idea funny, I didn't play it to kill some black people or anything. You have to have a racist mind to be afraid of these words so badly.

So you're saying "people see porn anyway, so we should not make any attempt to stop it at all, anywhere" that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I don't think porn is wrong, but there's a time and a place, and Starcraft II isn't it, with your argument, I could go to 4chan right now, find the most disgusting shock pedophilic porn RIGHT NOW, and post it here in this reply. Would that be alright with you? Of course it wouldn't (if you say it would be, then you clearly just want to disagree with people, there are times when porn is alright, but I would rather not have it shoved in my face while I'm trying to play Starcraft II)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I don't think this paints blizzard badly, they are trying to keep maps shaped like sexual images from being exposed to people who don't want to see them.

And trying to keep people from being exposed to flirty talk in WoW.

But it's not just sexual images, is it? That's just the partyline.

It's "inappropriate content". Which could theoretically contain anything they find offensive, like a remake of a Starcraft 1 map, or a map of Iraq. What this is is a "catchall" term for anything they just want to remove. After the EULA of course.

I'm sure they'll ban some penis maps, and I'm sure there will be people who keep making them; but if it's bad enough for someone to see a map based on a penis (and really...how much detail can you make on those maps) then perhaps targetting it on the forums should be their first job instead of the idea of pulling in RealID...to tackle exactly the same issue.

 

[Danpascooch]

Although it sounds good on paper, blizzard has been far too strict on map filtering so far. Absolutely no taboo words permitted at all; a popular tank defence map was taken down for having a 'badass' round. Hell, one of my uploads was rejected for having the word 'starcraft' in the description. I shit you not!

Wouldn't doubt it for a nano second. If this actually is true, I strongly suggest people take a second to think about this.

And people, inappropriate doesn't only include porn. Just saying, you should give this more thought than to just say what first comes to your head.

Look if you're whining and crying about not being able to play on your favorite dick/boob shaped map because it violates their ToS/ToU/EULA/whatever, get a life. Freedom of speech doesn't translate into privately owned gaming servers, and Blizz is legally allowed to limit what content is used/distributed through their product. End of story. You don't have an argument here, so leave it be. You can't take it to court, you can't win a lawsuit.
If you think this affects the game negatively for you, then quit playing. Theres no entitlements here for you. YOu choose to buy and play said game, and if you don't like the rules put down by the people running battle.net, you're free to play something else somewhere else.

Oh, so you're one of those 'deal with it or get a life' pricks. Fuck off.

Having the word "starcraft" in the map was probably a copyright issue, not inappropriate content.

I've never seen someone get so enraged at not being able to look at dick shaped landscape.

 

[Pearwood]

Thank fuck for that, I was wondering why I hadn't been annoyed yet by one of the fucking hentai maps that were around war3 like a plague.

 

[Mechsoap]

wait? what could be flagged "Inappropriate"? is it like gigantic building made to look like a human female?

 

[Danpascooch]

I don't think this paints blizzard badly, they are trying to keep maps shaped like sexual images from being exposed to people who don't want to see them.

And trying to keep people from being exposed to flirty talk in WoW.

But it's not just sexual images, is it? That's just the partyline.

It's "inappropriate content". Which could theoretically contain anything they find offensive, like a remake of a Starcraft 1 map, or a map of Iraq. What this is is a "catchall" term for anything they just want to remove. After the EULA of course.

I'm sure they'll ban some penis maps, and I'm sure there will be people who keep making them; but if it's bad enough for someone to see a map based on a penis (and really...how much detail can you make on those maps) then perhaps targetting it on the forums should be their first job instead of the idea of pulling in RealID...to tackle exactly the same issue.

I don't grant any merit to "slippery slope" arguments, and I don't assume that "some filtering" is inevitably going to become "complete and total filtering".

Slippery slope arguments are stupid in general in my opinion, it's blaming an entity for something they haven't done yet, and might not do at all, I'd save the hate for when/if they actually do the thing they're being accused of.

We should stop talking now, this debate thing is a slippery slope, soon we'll be arguing, then shouting, then we'll track each other down, you'll kill me, then proceed to destroy my home country out of hate of me. YOU'RE GENOCIDAL!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

YOU'RE GENOCIDAL!

Hey, it's tough to be the root of all evil when all these people start trying to muck in on my territory.

But look at it from a different stand point. These are people accused of running a slave farm, smashing Infinity Ward, firing a Stewardess for not playing arm-candy and stealing someone's identity.

And you're happy to give them carte blanche to decide things for you?

because we can

 

[w-Jinksy]

hmm well this doesnt really affect me as i have never had the urge to recreate phallic objects in games and some of the unsavoury maps on older blizz games were really bad like as has been mentioned with the porno maps.

also i checked out what's blocked and the usual fare except they blcoked anything that references sexual orientation i quote "Refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves, other players, or in-game characters" i found this one a little odd while i understand blocking maps that are just the word "FAG" or one that lets you know that protoss swing the other way i dont get why they would block something that would reference to your own.

 

[Jared]

Well, I suppose a stringent quality control department will mean we can look forward to balanced, and fair gameplay

 

[Keava]

Then maybe they should reconsider their policy of sharing user made maps and allow them be used without the battle.net service? Maybe like, you know, allow players to share their maps through their own websites, because as for now you have to upload the map to Blizzard's servers first before anyone else can play it or use 3rd party programs.

 

[Wolfram23]

Could be that they're blocking "Use Map Settings" games that have units with inappropriate names and/or extremely suggestive themes or actions...

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Although it sounds good on paper, blizzard has been far too strict on map filtering so far. Absolutely no taboo words permitted at all; a popular tank defence map was taken down for having a 'badass' round. Hell, one of my uploads was rejected for having the word 'starcraft' in the description. I shit you not!

Wouldn't doubt it for a nano second. If this actually is true, I strongly suggest people take a second to think about this.

And people, inappropriate doesn't only include porn. Just saying, you should give this more thought than to just say what first comes to your head.

Look if you're whining and crying about not being able to play on your favorite dick/boob shaped map because it violates their ToS/ToU/EULA/whatever, get a life. Freedom of speech doesn't translate into privately owned gaming servers, and Blizz is legally allowed to limit what content is used/distributed through their product. End of story. You don't have an argument here, so leave it be. You can't take it to court, you can't win a lawsuit.
If you think this affects the game negatively for you, then quit playing. Theres no entitlements here for you. YOu choose to buy and play said game, and if you don't like the rules put down by the people running battle.net, you're free to play something else somewhere else.

Oh, so you're one of those 'deal with it or get a life' pricks. Fuck off.

Nope. I'm a firm believer in the host of the party has the right to throw out anyone they feel is disruptive. People act like its an arbitrary "I don't like you" issue. Take it personally even. Starcraft itself is overall Blizzards party, and they have set down their rules. You can give me "but the fans make the game" arguments all over the place but the crux of the matter is, Blizz developed, put all the man-hours into making the game for people to enjoy, not for you or your little immature buddies to make maps that either offend people or somehow infringe copyrights of other media/games/whatever.
In the end, you don't have any rights to do as you please with their equipment. You can make the maps all you want, but Blizz doesn't want you to distribute content they find to be either offensive to others or in violation of some copyright or other things.
I don't see any issue with them covering their ass in the lawsuit department. Its their baby, their money that went into making the game and their money that keeps the servers running. (Oh, once you paid for the game, that money you paid isn't your money anymore).
Banning maps isn't game-destroying, its an effort to keep content fair, balanced and overall neutral and non-offensive.
If you don't like these things, you are welcome to code your own RTS, map-editor and build/maintain your own servers dedicated to penis/boob shaped maps and key-logger/trojan site advertisements inbetween.

 

[Danpascooch]

YOU'RE GENOCIDAL!

Hey, it's tough to be the root of all evil when all these people start trying to muck in on my territory.

But look at it from a different stand point. These are people accused of running a slave farm, smashing Infinity Ward, firing a Stewardess for not playing arm-candy and stealing someone's identity.

And you're happy to give them carte blanche to decide things for you?

because we can

I'm willing to put a little trust in the company that developed one of my favorite games, and has thus far done nothing to betray my trust.

I'm willing to not blame Blizzard for things they haven't yet done, and might not do at all.

 

[Danpascooch]

snip

To begin with, you're either uninformed or simply ignorant towards the way the (at least current) custom game system works. Something that's purposely porn material will never (read: never) become popular enough to even surface the top 500 maps popularity wise. Nothing new can even penetrate the top 20 as it is now, but with some changes, people with common sense would be what prevents such material from surfacing. So that's not an issue. Second, the name of the map should be an indicator of what you're about to see, even if you're scrolling through those over-500 placed maps.

And stop being so god damn hung up on the porn aspect of it. It has been said, time and time again, by me 2 times and other people in this thread alone, that this is FAR from the actual problem of this.

First off, the titles aren't always an indicator of the content of the map, and secondly, it can happen, it does happen for people.

Secondly, it's outrageous to blame Blizzard because you think they MIGHT start abusing something sometime in the future. Get mad when they actually do something wrong.

 

[KaiRai]

Really? So much hate for this? Any of you bother to read their policy? I welcome this, anyone whos played Warcraft 3 custom matches would know there are people who try to host porn on the game. Yes people, porn, sometimes advertised as such or in disguise.

Oh god I remember it.

"Hey a green TD! Couldn't find one for age- OH MY GOD!"

I was 14 at the time in my defence. I was scared my mom would find it and nail me to a cross.
Honestly, I agree with you though, there's no need for it, and it's not till the map has DL'ed, which was a tad frustrating.

I think what people are mostly complaining about though is that Blizzard will almost certainly link everything to some form of 'innappropriate' label and ban everything.