Friday, August 1, 2008

Welcome to the Internet. Warning: User-generated Content.

You can quote volumes of texts praising the goodness and nobility of man. But leave that same man alone with a magic marker and he'll draw a wiener on Gainsborough's "Blue Boy." (No, I don't think there are any wieners drawn on him, yet, but I do have some vacation time coming, and well, I'm just saying...)

So should it be a surprise that when the "Creature Creator" portion of massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-ultra-Web 2.0-crapfest, Spore was released that guys started drawing wieners on everything? The answer is No, for those of you auditing this course.

Thus, the term Sporn, for characters in the Spore would with fully-intact, and visibly active politically incorrect body parts was created (Spore+porn, yeah, google that to see how many guys just got their last name made into a funny).

One of the phalloffenders said it was just silly and juvenile to create the "offensive" characters who engage in "sexually graphic acts."

"Users can create animated scenarios for the characters to engage in, some of which include sexually graphic acts." See, I told you. (from CNN, by Mallory Simon.)

Spore is rated E for Everyone, but includes content for Animated Blood, Comic Mischief, and Fantasy Violence. So it's within the acceptable use of the game to injure another Spore character, but be damned if you try to make love with one.

"When EA got word of the Sporn creations, it began working with YouTube to pull them down. Players who repeatedly upload 'offensive content' are warned, suspended and eventually banned, [Lucy] Bradshaw said."

This is where I see the world heading. The larger these online worlds become, the greater the likelihood that some corporations will own part of the Internet that we now take for granted as being free. All these servers, cables and wires are owned by someone other than us. At some point, when they feel there's enough money in it, everything they find offensive will be banned.
And violations will earn the offender a Scarlet Letter.

"Bradshaw hopes the sexual characters don't spoil Spore for everyone or get in the way of what she says is a revolutionary game."

Philosophically, I think people should be able to create what they want, but personally, if I played this game, I don't think I'd want to see some lumbering, or worse, super-fast, penis- or vagina- or anus- shaped character approaching my innocent, little bunny character. So yeah, I might be one of those who would label the sexually-graphic designers as Assholes. But would I make them wear the letter, the badge of shame? Of course, I would. Doesn't it look awesome?



"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules