Tonight, live on the interzone Chat, ten or twelve users decided that Zonechat was the perfect place to talk about their own personal views on religion. While the rest of us asked them to take it locally or private, they refused, stating they could do whatever they wanted. many tickets were submitted to GMs, but after 15 minutes, including the /ignore factor, the articles sparked some rather heated debate, including threatening about bans, and so forth.

While there's not a definitive rule about this sort of thing, InterZone Chat is being misused by certain people who believe that they can do anything they wish, and it's getting out of hand and doesn't pertain to the game.

Can we get some feedback relating to this, please?

lol I saw that! It wasnt that bad though. Your always bound to get arguments. Just some more heated then others xD

Zone chat... we talk about subject from how to fap Grond to politics. That is what chat is for. You can increase/decreased the size of the chat window and the words (can't remember how atm) So you can read it all easy enough if you want.:p

I find the fact that religious and political discussions are considered taboo basically everywhere to be pretty loathesome. And it's the reason no one can discuss the things rationally. So I have no real opinion, the discussions are pretty ********, but the only way to make people have some clue is to let them discuss them and get challenged on their ideas.

If i were looking for a religion, politics, sports... whatever discussion ill join the apropiate 'channels' (forums, webpages, social networks...).
This is a game and i'm of the opinion that such discussions are out of context, and most time even offensive because of the people talking about it.
If someone want to chat about this things ill suggest them to join a private channel for that purpose, but seems that what they are looking for is not the discussion but to show everyone how great are their ideas (whatever they are).

I love to chat/speak/discuss about this topics (politics and religion my favourites), but in the proper places, and the common chat channel of a MMO is not the place.

Honestly I love debating both religeon and politics. On the other hand in this sort of medium few people seem interested in actually debating. They dont seem to be involved in discussion to compare the merits of both arguments so that perhaps some insight can be gained into a possible truth. Rather, in a faceless medium like zone chat, lacking even a semblance of civil discourse much of the time, they feel free to shove their opinion down everyone's throat and scream insults at anyone who disagrees with them. Without repurcussions for misbehavior, and in an age of entitlement, they dont accept that there can be a challenge to their ideas or opinions. If you dont agree with them you are bad. Not just wrong but in some way bad.

Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to say that my comment above applies to everyone, or even more than just a very vocal minority, but it does describe a common occurance.

I'm perfectly happy to debate religion and philosophy. Politics somewhat less so. I just usually prefer not to do so on the internet because 1) My views are different from 90% of the rest of the world, and 2) so very few people are interested in actual debate.

Regardless, there is a time and a place for such discussions, in general, and Zone Chat is rarely either, if for no other reason than heated arguments are rarely appropriate to a public setting... and that's what Zone Chat effectively is. In a real life situation, two or more people having an argument in public would be grounds for my walking away, but in Zone Chat, I don't have that option.

Personally I'd say it's a bit wrong to have a really big discussion on any topic in Zone chat. Zone chat is for the 'LF2M Viper Nest' and 'where the heck is Stingray?!?!' type stuff, with maybe some light discussion on game related topics...

Too much discussion will flood the channel, such that all messages get lost in a constantly scrolling haze of text.

There are two topics you can't discuss in public, because people feel the need to state their opinion on them, whether they are in the conversation or not.

And they are, unsurprisingly: Religion and Politics.

I've had to ignore quite a few people over them, even if just saying something about either topic in passing.