I’m finding a disturbing increase in the use of the R word in Vent, in Guild Chat, In General Chat, in BGs ect … and its hard to say ‘ Hey’ I don’t like you using that word without sounding too much of a prude.
I’m not going to write the word as I don’t want this entry to come up in some weird google search, but you know what I’m talking about. Its used when a Boss/Mob/team is beaten to a pulp, and players of all ages and even gender say we “R….. ” them.
As an adult in an adult guild – no matter that my gender is female I expect the language used to be ‘adult’ and I will join in and laugh at most things said, and on occasion when things get out of hand, such as repeated dicussions as to some rather Odd and disgusting internet Meme vids, we will can the conversation, and there have been two occasions when I have said. “This conversation is to stop, you are crossing on very dangerous ground and I will leave chat if you continue” and it doesn’t mean it gets said regularly, but It’s popped up in several guilds, realms, chats often enough.
The R word gets slipped into gaming chat so easily, and thats the scary bit, and I’ve mentioned on several occasions when I’ve heard it that I ‘don’t like that word being used.’ “Wish you wouldn’t use that word”, and I’ve done it politely, I don’t want to be hardline about because my concern is how easily its become to slip into the everyday gaming language, its not about gender, or feminism, because it can happen to anyone at any age, any gender. I worry that the people using it don’t see it as being offensive or threatening anymore because ‘everyone else is doing it” and I can’t see that the majority of gaming girls who see/hear that word, or people in general don’t at least feel like a fraction as I do about the use of the word.
Yes language has evolved, the days where ‘bloody’ is no longer as offensive, or swearing or cussing is now common place, the impact of some words have lessened with their common every day use. But I do not want to hear 14 year boys or 30 year old men refer to the killing of a boss as a ‘R… ” Or an Arena or BG team saying we were ‘r…” And for a serious moment, does this evolution of that word into ‘Geek’ Speak mean that its never been about ‘pleasure or being horny.’ Its always been about power. How easily the word describes the complete and utter loss of control and free will in a Game.
So without trying to get on a feministic rant about womens lib in Games, I am making an appeal. Don’t let the word, become an cavalier attitude, if you use it, stop and think what the word means. Gamers are supposed be at the forfront of popular culture, Language and technology, so please don’t add that word to the dictonary with another meaning.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
yarr – that one has never made me smile either …. could try introducing a new ‘cool’ (I know I know cool is not cool anymore :p ) foul mouthed term to celebrate … the boys I know yell something like ‘Skull F***** them’ which actually doesn’t bother me as much as the other (I get a bizarre image of skulls and American Pie outtakes.) A guild related battle cry might catch on too – particularly on a RP server (that’s why I PVPRP ^_^)
That one’s always made me feel uncomfortable when I’ve heard it said, although luckily only once or twice by people in-guild and such.
What scares me is the amount of seemingly younger players saying this… I don’t think they really understand what it means tbh, but that doesn’t excuse it.
I have similar issues with that particular phrase – fortunately I’ve not heard it in my current raid or guild. It just seems… well, I don’t mind swearing, but this kind of thing is on a different level.
The word choice of the impoverished mind.
It’s a bit like [dirge] I suppose.
The best way to deal with unwanted behaviour is to ignore it. If they get any kind of reaction out of you that’ll just stimulate them to overexercise the behaviour.
If all else fails I think WoW has a language filter option somewhere which should filter that kind of nonsense out.
Alternatively be swift on the ignore. I know I am… I don’t listen to things I don’t want to hear, as is my privilige.
never really thought about it this way but you do have a point about using “r***” as to define when you pwn something really bad. can`t say i`m offended by it, but i`d hate to hear this word used as a cool thing.
The problem with failing to say anything, Captain, is that many people aren’t aware of how offensive it can be to others. And if they aren’t aware that it is an issue, then they can’t correct their behavior. And so the person who is offended by the word sits there and silently fumes while the others blithely continue spouting off the word without realizing that someone is offended by it.
I’m a huge advocate of speaking up when there’s an issue, because sometimes people just don’t know that there is one. It was like this Sunday afternoon when a large number of the people in the raid were joking about abusing women. And we’re not talking about casually referencing it; they were making long, elaborate jokes about it. As one of a few women in the raid (one of maybe two that week, though we did have some pickups of indeterminate gender) I didn’t want to further emphasize my gender by speaking up, but it really was rather innappropriate. Fortunately, others — all of them men — spoke up before I managed to type out a response.
One or two yahoos started up a debate about how thin-skinned we were or something about Free Speech, but most of the guys wisened up and apologized — they honestly didn’t consider the fact that someone could be offended by their comments.
I must admit, I really do not like the use of that word either. I know that they do not ‘literally’ mean it, but it is just plain unpleasant. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned ‘We Pwned him!” or “We whipped his butt!”.