This is the big question for me and I don’t know. I was hoping to hear that this book would contribute to the world-building of the setting removed from lore characters, little things that would add context to the values and beliefs of the tauren, trolls, night elves, and the groups at large without such a focus on the individuals.
Between this and the Sylvanas ‘splinter’ or whatever, it’s looking like this book had an objective of redefining things that were understood in order to inject something that wasn’t there before or to set the stage for some reveal so that they can’t be accused of pulling it from out of left field.
Either way, makes me wonder if Danuser and co have any respect for the setting and writing of the authors that came before them. They’re not building on, they’re replacing, and that’s not worthy of respect of accomplishment. You can’t claim to understand Warcraft if you’re just chipping away at what it is to force in what you want it to have.
If gaming culture is that bad, why do so many people want to be a part of it? If someone adopts a hobby and then complains about its prevalent elements, why do they continue to partake? If they say they are a fan, but want it to change the elements that brought them in, how can they call themselves a fan?
It’s not a defense of in whatever -isms people attach to it, but a consideration that maybe they’re not actually there and maybe people should just stop partaking in something they find so offensive.
I take the radical opinion that any recontextualization is terrible, especially if the work being affected is not the original creator of such work.
People might not care about the problematic aspects of gamer culture, may want to be included in it despite recognising it’s faults due to a sense of wider belonging, may work to facilitate the problems within it or may be ignorant of them.
Theres actually a whole bunch of people who refuse to actually call themselves a ‘gamer’ because they don’t want to be associated with the special brand of toxicity that does the rounds in gamer circles, despite the fact they enjoy ‘gaming’ as a hobby
I doubt the toxic elements of gamer culture actually brought the people who find problems with it in. You don’t need to uncritically accept things to call yourself a fan.
Because as far as I(and I am sure many) are concerned gaming culture was always more than the toxic elements and that is the part I want to see more off.
Gaming was suppose to be inclusive, not exclusive. It was actually the refuge of people who were ostrocized by the majority before it went mainstream.
To quote overwatch “Never accept the world as it appears to be, dare to see it for what it could be”. And as far as I am concern I see gaming as place that actually can become more civil.
There are no problems attached to gaming other than time wasting and addiction. There are problems involving greed and sullying good will stuff like being against Homophobia associated with Terrible companies
As in Blizzard being the whole “Rainbow capitalism” Could be Considered offensive to LGBT people. Because Blizzard is a Terrible Evil corporation that sees its employees as Rockstars and the consoomers as basically cult followers.
Blizzard lined up the books release pretty good with the controversial TBC scheme involving money like 70 usd for some ingame goodies, and a boost that should not exist because TBC isnt an appropriate expansion for a boost due to its designed around actually learning your class etc while you level as opposed to learning the spec.
Its like giving someone who just learned to drive a bulldozer and say “Here you will figure things out”.
Or just saying “just read it on the internet” when building a house.
I don’t think anybody’s surprised that companies are greedy. Money’s kinda how they function. It doesn’t mean employees within the company can’t be trying to do something good, though. I don’t really see the problem with this, given that it’s something that already had speculation in the past. The only thing that’s out-of-nowhere about this is their change of mind.
And if people need an in-universe reason, we’re talking about a bunch of dragons that change their entire species to something they find comfortable. It’s the whole reason why Kalec has a “half-elf” form. It’s not like there’s no precedence for this.
There’s some reasons why people don’t buy this at face value.
Chromie began as a miswritten character. Chronormu was an accident that Blizzard stuck with. The draconian naming habits didn’t have merit until BC where caverns of time became involved and expanded the Bronze Dragonflight.
Chromie being trans is a long winded choice after years of speculation, developer mockery and avoidance of the subject all together. This decision doesn’t quite owe the merit of Blizzard being Considered trans-friendly since 2004.
Now, my stance on the subject that Chromie was a perfect example for gender fluid character. An anomaly warden of time who elects for various forms but found preference in a gnome female form. It could clue in that Bronze Dragons have a far less strict view of gender and don’t emphasize the gender they assume since they observe time in various disguises.
Chromie became a notable favorite for the speculation. And I feel giving a definitive answer about her gender puts her into the gender binary and takes away some of the intrigue and mystery about her.
If you’re someone who enjoys this change of character. That’s all yours. Me, I prefer when we didn’t get an answer and got to speculate. We don’t know Chromie’s exact age and when she was born or what timeline she heralds from.
Some things don’t need an answer. The community speculation was far more interesting to theorize over.
I’m not sure if you’re being intentionally obtuse by referring to Chromie as a male when the linked text makes it clear Chromie should be referred to as a girl.
It’s my experience that if there are elements in an area that people find unsavory, they either don’t participate or decide that it’s not a deal-breaker. I have a hard time taking seriously anyone who actively participates in a hobby but then complaints about things that were not horrible enough to repel them.
If a player has a problem with the setting or the environment, the appropriate thing to do is not participate.
I just think it’s a hobby. I don’t see any reason to make it any bigger than that, at the very least not a ‘culture’.
You can play a singleplayer game and enjoy the game without interacting with the community. Hell gaming is becoming increasingly solo/friendless adapted
Look at WoW, you can enjoy the story (if you DO enjoy it) and play a RPG without much interaction.
Unless you find the word “Hi” or Watercooler talk toxic, then gaming is the least toxic thing there is.
If you think getting kicked from dungeons is toxic… Well according to blizzard and I quote “Frankly that is a skill issue”.
You can also choose your communities within the space without having to care about what other people are doing. I run a guild. I play with like-minded friends who like what my environment has to offer. I don’t care what other people are doing or saying, I don’t care what they find civil or uncivil. I’ve found what consider tolerable and I don’t have to project what I think other people should or shouldn’t be doing in order to do that.
We all want the best for the things we enjoy, and those enjoyable parts to be maximized. If my enjoyment relied on some vague percentage of people behaving the way I thought was right, I’d never be able to enjoy this game or any others. Fortunately I only have to care for a very select few, and if I were a guild member and not the leader of one, I’d only have to care about myself.
Blizzard is profit-motived and right now they’re only going to do what expands their audience. If they think that changing their story will retain or attract more people than they currently have, that’s what they’ll do. If it were not going to amount to a calculable gain, they would not do it. That should not be confused with social awareness. There is only one color on that rainbow that influences what they decide to do.
I enjoy when people act like every single person at a 5000 person company down to the janitors are all Bobby Kotick clones and it’s impossible for any person who works at, for, or with a company (read: most of society) to ever care about anything ever, and therefore X representation is bad cuz money or something. Real worlds far more complicated than that.
Nobody is praising the board of Activision-Blizzard for this, but please, tell me all about the personal opinions of LL McKinney and Tamsyn Muir and how you know for sure they definitely don’t care.
It’s sad that this sort of story, which does not change the character’s standing gender as we conceive her but just reveals trans people of a sort exist in dragons, has caused this degree of meltdown.
This change does not affect the story. It does not change anything about the narrative of Chromie as we know her, does not change anything she did.
It’s the same if they made Turalyon Black.
There was not LGBTI struggle in-universe, there was no “Stonewall” equivalent in Stormwind, where the Knights raided some gay tavern in the Mage District. There is no intra-race racism; all human phenotype variations simply always existed because they are all robots with a tentacle monster curse.
Changing a character’s appearance and changing a character’s gender backstory or sexuality does not affect the story at all.
Retcons are retcons if they affect the story.
Changing whether Thrall is Light Green vs Dark Green does not affect the story at all.
To wit: there are trans people on the Game Team. We know this.
