#1 - Oct. 27, 2011, 8:13 p.m.
"I find it funny how whenever someone complains about homophobia, sexism, fat/cripple/crazy jokes, whatever, it's "just a game, grow a thicker skin"... but when someone goes off on an insult spree BECAUSE YOU HAVE A BLUE PVP ICON AND NOT A RED ONE IN THE GAME, suddenly that's a big deal! Suddenly the fact he criticized the Alliance matters more than that he was calling people f*ggot and c*cks**ker and telling them "to suicide!" And of course, when the apology is finally sort-of forthcoming, people turned up TO ACCEPT THE APOLOGY ON BEHALF OF THE ALLIANCE." -concerned guild member
This is an accurate observation that I myself witnessed this past week. The people who have any reason to be outraged is the community of GLBTQ gamers and their supporters. It is not the fact that the special guest "Corpsegrinder" called the alliance gay (amongst other homophobic obscenities). The reason for the outrage is because he used gay terminology in a hateful manner. A really hateful manner so much as to endorse suicide. We are enraged this person was promoted. The original interview (not the edited one shown at Blizzcon) depicted discrimination and violence towards a part of your community who once again has been made to feel alienated. Again, this was not an apology towards players who have an obese amount of faction pride.
"When I first saw it posted somewhere, a link to the uncensored video wasn't provided, and immediately everyone assumed it was all about Alliance versus Horde and wrote it off. I suspect this has happened more than once and many people didn't learn of it and/or have ignored it because they think it's just plain old QQ'ing. That's why word has been slow to get around, I think." -Another Concerned Guild Member
Again, the same points are made but offers a possible source point: the video mix up. The video we saw at Blizzcon was an edited version of the original. To understand the full effects of what has made us so upset you must see the original.
The Original has vulgar language and and strong anti-gay rhetoric so it is not intended for underage audiences to look for it nor will I post a direct link. Just go to YouTube and search for the original corpsegrinder interview where he talks about World of Warcraft.
"Blizzard has never struck me as being at all supportive of LGBT folk as anything but the butt of jokes, so anything beyond a richly-deserved apology would come off as lip service pandering. Any apology that they weren't bright enough to give on their own is going to sound pretty damned insincere, though.
It's really depressing that Blizzard thought this was somehow a good idea. " -Yet Another C.G.M
So what can Blizzard do at this point to rectify things? Is there anything they can do other than sweep it under the rug? I should say so, for instance, apologize despite this perception of it being possibly insincere and follow-thru by being aware of what you are throwing out into the ether.
Oh and please do not provide us with one of these again:
"When it was delicately pointed out to Blizzard that this sort of thing isn't really appropriate at any time, much less at their official corporate convention, much less being implicitly supported by representatives of their company that include the President of the Company (Mike Morhaime is ETC's lead singer) or one of their major art designers (Samwise Didier also plays with ETC), their response was a disingenuous fauxpology that accepted no blame for offending a significant portion of their paying customers/fanbase and instead deflected responsibility for that offense onto the victims of it, claiming that the homophobic screed was a joke gone awry." -Another C.G.M
There is a letter coming your way. Here are a few excerpts:
"we live in a world where young people are bullied into suicide because of their expressed or perceived sexuality. Many of these young people play WoW as a source of escapism. It is a safe assumption that at least ten percent of your customer base are GLBTQ, and many more of them are allies of those minorities."
"To see Sam Didier up on stage endorsing that kind of language, albeit "bleeped", was heartbreaking. I have put hundreds of hours into my characters."
"Perhaps you could give me a reason to continue my subscription. Perhaps you could offer an apology. Perhaps Blizzard could film an "It Gets Better" video."
Can you risk doing the right thing?
