But that elf-mage told me she was 18, officer!
World Of Warcraft is not widely thought to be the favored online game of perverts -- because it's not. Most perverts who enjoy virtual-sexual roleplaying situations subscribe flock to corners of Second Life, after all. However, a guild, composed of a couple of bad apples amongst the millions of World of Warcraft subscribers, was shutdown recently, for engaging in suspected questionable online activities involving minors.
The ex-WoW guild was called 'Abhorrent Taboo.' In a introductory forum post soliciting new members, the guild described themselves, and their interests, using the handy acronym ERP ('erotic roleplay'). Amongst a slew of extreme perversions that will not be mentioned out of decency, the guild promoted an activity they called 'extreme ageplay.'
'Ageplay' is an 'erotic roleplay' situation where participants pretend to be ages that they are not.
According to a post on the official World of Warcraft forums, a gamer (not a representative of Blizzard) stated that a member of 'Abhorrent Taboo' was 'caught' virtually-propositioning a underage gamer for erotic roleplay. The underage gamer took screenshots showing a member of 'Abhorrent Taboo' continuing to proposition the gamer for 'ERP' even after he/she stated she was only 12 years of age.
The posting of these screenshots is what prompted Blizzard to shutdown the guild, according to the theorizer on the forum.
However, it seems that the sex-guild has now reformed -- just with a different name. And while it is impossible for players of World of Warcraft to verify real-world age in-game, in order to prevent underage membership, the organizers of this freakish sex guild do not seem to mind.
Hopefully Blizzard will ban the reformed guild as well, while potential problems can still be prevented.