BioWare has updated its forum policy in the wake of racist, sexist, and homophobic comments directed towards company employees on the BioWare community. There is now a zero tolerance policy in place to ensure civility on the forums.

UPDATED (MAR. 2, 2012) Important update to site rules & code of conduct : Effective immediately there is a zero tolerance policy on any form of abuse towards staff, moderators or other Community members. Anyone posting a personal attack on staff, moderators or other Community members will, at the sole discretion of staff or moderators, be banned from the BioWare Social Network without notice and is no longer welcomed. We continue to value all of our customers and fans. However participation in the BSN and engaging with staff and like-minded community members is – to be abundantly clear – a privilege, and not a right. Members may continue to discuss and critique our games and products in a civil manner, but any form of discussion targeted at an individual will not be tolerated. New and existing members who cannot adhere to the code of conduct, or maintain a civil demeanor at all times, are encouraged instead to contact customer support for any game related issues they may have. We have made additional important changes to the Site Rules and Code of Conduct, and recommend that all our users review them by clicking on the link at the top of this notice. By continuing to use this site you are accepting the Site Rules and agree to follow these rules.

Since BioWare clamped down on attacks on BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler, angry, juvenile fans have decided to select new targets in addition to Hepler in an attempt to badmouth the developer.

It can be hard to justify writing an article dedicated to the attacks, but given how widespread these attacks are becoming, I found the subject difficult to ignore.

Just yesterday, I received the following correspondence:

**CONFIRMED!:

Ashley Williams IS a tranny… there's a thread in the Bioware forums with a developer participating, in it, that confirms that she is indeed a man**. Stanley Woo: "Many of you already know, with the subsequent leak of the story, that Ashley is holding a secret. Many of you feel baffled by this reveal of the story and are questioning why did we chose to take this path. We at Bioware are committed with progressive thinking and shun every time of discrimination in relationships when we develop our games. We already put homosexual relationships in Dragon Age 2 and we heard the input from the transsexual community, that they wanted to be counted too. That's why we chose to take this path with Ashley's character. A final word to out heterosexual fans. This choices are not forced upon you, and there's always the choice of going with the opposite sex in your game love interest"

If you Google some of these terms, you'll find that the post has been making the rounds on the BioWare Social Forums in addition to posts on GameFAQs, 4chan, and reddit.

This particular campaign may well be the work of a single disgruntled individual, but it's happening in the midst of the Mass Effect 3 release tomorrow, which will undoubtedly herald a new wave of gibbering racist imbeciles on the game's official community.