10thattempttoregister said:
You know it's funny, I think that Blizz has in the past, and continues to go with the libertarian philosophy of "that which governs least, governs best". You look at their actions, not their words, and that has generally been the policy. I can't say that I disagree, on the whole. So in this case, I would suspect that there will again be much sound and fury on the boards, but not much will actually happen. Seems to me this is the easiest, and least controversial, of the possible paths they could take. Although adding new "banned character names" to the server would be a pretty easy step, that would really only upset vulgar teen-boys. The only danger would be a lawsuite from some wack-job of a parent.
Having said that, Battlenet is NOT a public domain, place or forum. It is the sole propriety of Blizzard Entertainment, and as such, they are under no obligations to allow or prevent "free speech", as it were. So, as far as "where the line is", our opinions, apart from as potential future customers, are essentially irrelevant.
On the [email protected] issue, it is not just violence, it is deeper than that, and over-use of the term cheapens the meaning of the word for those who have suffered as victims. Murder victims do not have this concern. In my humble O, I would rather see the penalty for [email protected] be much more severe than murder- seems like experimental surgery withouth aneasthesia ought to do, yes?