Mod Edit:The thread has been derailed and the discussions haven’t been very constructive towards World of Warcraft. Locking this down.
Hello!
I am not entirely sure that this is the outlet for my complaint, but I’ll start here!
I have been playing World of Warcraft since I was 12 in 2007, and as an adult in 2020 I think it’s time that WoW incorporates an LGBT character, story or other form of representation. There have been numerous new characters and romantic arcs introduced to the game in the past 13 years and notably, none of them represent the diverse group of players that make up the community.
Blizzard has been asked questions about the lack of LGBT representation for a while now. I remember in 2011 there was a question asked at BlizzCon about why there was no LGBT characters in the Warcraft lore, and the answer was that it would be coming in the future. 9 years later, it seems to have been forgotten.
The world we live in today is changing, and this is one way that a game I love could be on the right side of the wave. Please consider this, and if there is another form of contact that I can send this complaint to let me know!
It’s been said over and over again that representation matters, and I believe that is especially true for a platform that has a large community of younger players. Blizzard has created a world in which gay people don’t exist. I understand that 15 years ago things were different but as we move into a new expansion later this year I think they should feel responsible to make changes where they can!
…So? It’s their universe, they can build it however they want. I also enjoy the Warhammer 40K universe, sexual representation is a complete non-issue in that universe.
I’m gay and I understand you and why you ask about these things, but blizzard has shown us that they can barely do the job when talking about the main plot of an expansion,(see bfa and wod for example), asking to get LGBTQI+ pautes in the game will probably be handed poorly and will actually cause more harm than good.
so I 'd prefer to blizzard to focus on the plot that is essencial for the game survival and let those topics for the side quest team, or to characters in books where the autor has more control about how and when he’ll introduce topics that are dificult to handle.
on a good note, with the new character customization we are going to see alot more of diversity in the game and i’m talking about skin colors that were always a taboo in most games or just a literally dark tone for the character while maintaining all the European characteristics, now we’ll have a better representation on that front, Perhaps in the future we can have woman in power that does not go crazy and LGBTQI+ representation in main characters.
I agree they can make it how they want! I’m simply saying that they should want to create more interesting characters that diversify the story and also can represent the world outside of WoW.
Regarding the first comment about representation only mattering to some people – it matters to the people who aren’t represented. I get a sense that it doesn’t matter to you, and that might be because you have never felt that way before. Correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t mean to assume.
to everyone it matters, even if you do not realize it yourself, but if you do not identify a thing with the game you’re playing you would not be playing that game to begin with, don’t blame him for asking for representation, give him arguments to why blizzard should not or should wait to not do that., or why he is wrong.
thats true and false, they can build it however they like but the money will speak if it was trully theirs to begin with.
this is before a game a product, and products are made to be sold, and right now in the real world Representation Matters, like it or not, if blizzard does not follow the trend, they will stay behind and lose money and one thing they do not like is losing money. so your statement may be true in the word, but false in the sense that blizzard controls the direction the game will go, the game will go where the money is.
one thing most fail to realize is that world of warcraft is an old game, with old ppl playing it, you may be one of those old white guys and for that you’ll never understand why representation in fiction matters.
I agree they’ve definitely messed up in the past, but I think it’s important not to just let it go. I’m not asking for a new all-gay faction in Shadowlands, I’d just like to see one or two NPCs so that I don’t feel like I’m playing the only gay character in the game.
Definitely would be satisfied with even a side quest, but the fact that we haven’t seen any minor LGBT NPCs is even more telling that they aren’t writing inclusively.
We also see they have made great strides as a company to promote diversity and support their LGBT employees and co-workers, I just wonder why that hasn’t made its way into the products as well.
And that’s fine! I’m in no way speaking for every gay person that plays WoW. I’m speaking for myself, and I know there are many others who feel the same way. Apologies if that wasn’t clear.
Sexuality has been part of their game from the start. There have been romances both old and new incorporated in the story, so to say they haven’t brought it into the discussion is incorrect.
And I encourage you to read up on the many other discussions happening across the globe right now and in the past regarding representation in fiction.
I think there’s a shipwrecked female sailor in Tiragarde Sound who has a female lover. I believe the quest entailed you finding her locket and bringing it back, and inside is a picture of another woman. That could just be my interpretation though.
As for representation, I’m bi and I cringe at the thought of Blizz trying to implement some LGBT+ characters. I fully understand OP’s reasoning, I just don’t think the company is capable of doing it in a mature way. I can easily see it being two blood elf lesbians giggling or something.
I’d love to keep discussing this with you but I feel you’re not open to that. Please don’t insinuate that there is an agenda to overtake the narrative with gay characters, as it is both incorrect and outdated. As I clarified above, that is not what I am asking for.
If you’re open to mature discussion I apologize for thinking you weren’t! I’m struggling to see how your comment about how I’m not asking for an all-gay faction “Yet…” and how it "Starts here… and “…Goes here” is constructive but maybe I misinterpreted your tone from previous messages.
I’m not uninterested in disagreements, but this is a topic that really doesn’t need to have opposing sides to it. There shouldn’t be polarity in a conversation about adding one or two characters to a game that already contains thousands. Do you see this negatively affecting the gameplay for you?
these are some of the examples of you being shady
and i’m mad cuz that is the very treatment gay ppl receive when talking about representation, if you’re not being i’m sorry for my actions, still thats hurts even if you don’t realize it.
I see how that response can come across as short, it was more my intent to be concise. I’ll elaborate on my position with regard to that part.
What I meant was that yes, you yourself may very well be happy with the requests you mentioned being fulfilled (LGBT NPCs, possibly a side quest with them). However, there are likely those out their that would not be satisfied with those concessions alone.
For example:
“Hey! Why are there no darker skin options for trolls?”
Blizzard puts in darker skin options for trolls.
“Hey! Why are there no NPC trolls with the darker skin options?”
Blizzard puts in NPC Trolls with darker skin options
“Hey! Why don’t the trolls with the darker skin options have quests?”
You see where this going, right?
My concern is that should Blizzard do that, others will only want more and more. A similar scenario is with changes Blizzard has made to WoW Classic. There are many people now using those changes, however minor, to justify asking for additional changes some of which would, IMO, be detrimental to the game.
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t even notice.
EDIT: to further elaborate, it’s one of the reasons I don’t ask for more dark skin options for the different races even though I myself am of darker complexion. It just isn’t important to me with regard to what I enjoy about the game. I do recognize others have different view points.
Why? does knowing if someone is straight, gay, or bi add anything to the game? I don’t look at someone like Khadgar and think to myself “Gee, I wonder if he likes women or guys” I just see him as a cool cat. Same with any other character in the game. Knowing a characters sexual preferences means nothing.
