World of Warcraft&#39;s Strange Rules About Cybersex

A new version of massive multiplayer game World of Warcraft will allow people to change their characters' hair and dance moves, but not their genders. Just goes to show that you can move to a new cyber-world packed with an international population of millions, and still be SOL if you want to find a decent tranny bar. This isn't the first time that WOW has instituted weird, arbitrary rules about sex-related crap, either.

Over the past two years, there have been in-game protest marches and legal action against WOW because Blizzard had shut down guilds that advertised themselves as queer-friendly. And of course, WOW also tries to prevent players from getting into sexual positions with each other, though there are many ways around that.

Given the number of kids who play WOW, I get why Blizzard might want to limit sexual escapades. But preventing characters from calling themselves gay-friendly, or from switching genders? Isn't the whole point of MMOs that they offer us a chance to escape our biological bodies and plug into the post-human universe? C'mon, Blizzard people, get with the program. Switching genders is the whole point of MMOs. It's part of our cyber-destiny to be elves with twelve sexes.

Change Your Gender? Blizz Says No. [WOW Insider]