So for us then?
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Would it really matter? On a story level I mean.
If the developers do not engage with the council members to explain the story decisions they have made this far?
In every interview they pretend there is nothing wrong and a 5 minute look at any social media or youtube would show the ceaseless criticism, mocking and downvotes.
The council forums would become nothing but yet another outlet that feedback is thrown into the void.
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Except the way they have done it, you do have that mass exodus. Just instead of all happening on a single specific day, it happens over the course of 2-3 months. All those familiar voices that were present in December are already gone by the time the holiday slump has ended.
This current methodology also means when the CC starts off, it only has a small portion of the total CC members, giving it a very slow start. That slow start makes it appear from the outside as if nobody really wants to discuss issues with the game (at least not those selected by Blizzard to bring up those problems). One hundred is already a laughably small sample size, but when you break that up over the course of three or four rounds of admission? Those first three months already make the entire system look like a half-thought-out appeasement measure done in haste.
Putting out all the invites out on day one at least ensures that those first three months, the slowest for gaming because of the holiday season, will have enough people still active and posting so the CC forum doesnât seem dead on arrival.
I mean, a better way to handle it would be to do it all seasonally, with one hundred invites going out each season and invites lasting for a full year. Youâll have a large enough pool in the beginning to get the ball rolling, and a constant influx of new selected voices to bring fresh ideas and takes into the opinion pool, and when the first batch of invitees leave, thereâs still plenty of people remaining so it doesnât seem like a wiped chalk board every year.
But this is the way they implemented it, and maybe in Community Council Forum Patch 1.3.5 they will have fixed the bugs with the released system enough to make it useable. Cuz thatâs the Blizzard way.
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I think a roll out makes sense instead of a bulk invite at once.
One reason I didnât apply : I didnât feel my lifestyle enables the right amount of free time, and others would be able to make better use of the platform.
I donât think everyone is as egalitarian as I am.
I could see tons of people applying who probably unsubbed a week later. They probably wrote their earnest little words, and meant them⌠but found other interests.
Blizzard was probably wise to wait a bit, in order to see how many of the applicants are still even subbed.
Applying to a super neat council that is invite only sounds tempting to most. I donât have the time or patience. I almost wanted to apply just to see - but I figured even in the best case, that would take the spot of someone who wanted it and could make use of it.
Good additions to the council so far!
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I applied, full well knowing I wouldnât get picked. Iâm too critical, sometimes I lay the snark and sarcasm on too thick, and have very little PVE or PVP experience at endgame. Iâm too casual even for LFR, and Iâm sure whatever stat metric Blizzard used flagged and deleted me. And I donât blame them at all.
Iâd probably make my first thread all about murlocs or why feathermanes are the apex of all hunter pets or something equally silly-sounding but sadly all too sincere.
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Itâs a lot more readable to me than the green was so Iâm a fan.
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The newest person in the introduction thread is a GD poster who spent time denying all racism in Exploring Kalimdor and indirectly called people the âreal racistsâ in this thread.
However, they are gay and disabled, and have complained about homophobia on the forums.
Weâre doomed, Baal.
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Click the chain button on peopleâs posts to get direct links to them.
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It is done. They can come here now and discuss the problem.
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Good.
The last person I would ever give this story to would be Baal.
Glad this Maizou person joined this council team. So far from the exchanges I see they are pretty balanced in their approach.
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Well, I would hope so.
Baal would remove the misogyny you love, and make a story that isnât about the Alliance beating up the Horde.
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I renewed my account a week early entirely to reply to this post. I highly recommend people click the link and read the thread before assuming the worst.
I stand by my statements in that thread. Every WoW race are loosely based on stereotypes of real life races, for instance, the Dwarves are Irish/Scottish (They seem to switch a lot like the writers canât decide or something), Night Elves are Japanese, Humans are Generic White European, Pandaren are Chinese, etc. (To note, I do not condone using stereotypes to build a fictional race, but whatâs done has been done, and itâs a matter of Blizzard bettering themselves to not reinforce those stereotypes now, and so far for the last few races, theyâve been mostly good. The Vulpera seem to heavily be inspired by the Romani for instance, but I havenât noticed them play on any of the stereotypes, but I could have missed some.)
But if you actively acknowledge those stereotypes fit those real life races, thatâs racist in itself. Like, for instance, if you agree that Jewish people have large crooked noses and are after money, thatâs anti-semitic. No question. Yet you literally just said I was wrong for that. I would love to hear your explanation as to why.
Understanding they are stereotypes is fine, and important. But in the thread linked, as well as the wowhead article on it, people were speaking as though those fictional races were actually those real life races. Iâm not sure how you donât think that is racist.
On top of that, as I said in the thread, the article referenced in the OP of that thread was about a clickbait article. I still donât agree with the OP of that thread, as I stated later in the thread, but as I said in my CC intro post, Iâll defend people if I think the critiques of them are unfounded.
I have plenty of issues with the book in question, but from a lore standpoint (which most of the discussion about said book was about), not from a racism standpoint. The only real issue I had with the book racism wise, was mentioned in the wowhead article - the poisoning of the water by the goblins. Thatâs reinforcing anti-semitic stereotypes. But the people who caused a stir because Zekhan didnât understand words made no sense to me, because heâs young and Iâm 32 and Iâm still learning words I didnât know the meaning of to this day. It had nothing to do with race.
Also to clarify, I did not deny racism in the book. There is racism in the book, but towards the fictional races. I denied that the racism in the book was racist in real life towards the races they were based on. For instance, I hate continuing to use the goblins, but itâs the easiest to reference here as the wowhead article directly mentions it - Zekhan hates Goblins, brings it up constantly. This is racism towards Goblins. But itâs not anti-semitic just because goblins are based on stereotypes of Jewish people. This is the type of thing you were saying is true in the thread.
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Imagine thinking a wow Race is supposed to be representative of your real culture.
Amazing.
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Imagine being as ignorant as you are 
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My race is âGeneric White Dude of European Descentâ. The closest race this tracks to in WoW are the humans of Stormwind. Hmm, Stormwind completely dominates the narrative, often to the detriment of the other races, and those who disagree them are often âshownâ (as in, merely said, without actual demonstration) to automatically be âwrongâ.
Seems legit.
Edit: Just to be clear, I was being mainly satirical, more mocking Stormwindâs narrative dominance and noting the parallel of White/Western cultural dominance than actually seeing them as being any deliberate attempt to represent âmy peopleâ.
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Imagine ignoring the real world inspiration taken from those fantasy races, and imagine thinking stapling racist stereotypes associated with those real world races on to said fantasy race was perfectly fine and not at all racist.
Imagine thinking second-hand racism is worth defending.
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Iâm the Story Forum detective. You guys should be glad to have me. Also, I was in that thread myself.
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The first person:
I literally explain how acknowledging the stereotypes is important. Because we can learn from the bad decisions Blizzard made in the past and learn from it. However, when you start taking personal offense at something happening to a fictional race because you believe the stereotypes mean the race is indeed the real life race, that becomes an issue where you start blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
Second Person:
Literally every single race in WoW has been demonized at one point. Every. Single. One. Heck, Worgen are based on the British, and they are demonized in the Horde Narrative just as much as any Horde race in the Alliance narrative. But I donât see you complaining about that. The Night Elves, as I said, are based on stereotypes of the Japanese. Yet I donât see you talking about the Horde literally nuking Night Elf children in Stonetalon, or the burning of Teldrassil being able to be an allegory for Hiroshima.
When did I ever state this? I never did. I quite literally said I do not condone using stereotypes to build a fictional race. My issue is when people acknowledge those stereotypes are what make the real life race and become offended by something that happened to said fictional race and take it personally.
Tauren are based on stereotypes of Native Americans. As someone who is half Native, does that mean I should be offended by the demonizing of Tauren? No. Because I understand they are not Native American. They draw on stereotypes. If I start associating myself with a stereotype, that is a problem and I would innately be racist toward myself. I see them as a fictional race, no more, no less. I wish they wouldnât use stereotypes, but they were established decades ago and itâs not like they can just change it, as that would destroy the lore thatâs been established. All they can do is better themselves and not rely on the stereotypes so much, which Blizzard has been rather good at doing lately.
That said, Iâm putting this thread on mute, as I donât desire talking about this. This is literally why I do not visit the Story Forum despite loving the lore. People attack you if you share a differing thought process on something.
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