Racial stereotypes in wow NPCs... Is wow racist?

Lore Story Forum
21

Oh dearie me

2 Likes
22

We are all at edge of our seats.

3 Likes
23

Anyway as someone who is fat and dumb IRL I have a dissertation here about the problematic presentation of the Ogres

Part 1 (Chapter 1 (Subsection 1: On Farting in Warcraft 2))

24

What chapters are you devoting to the Chris Farley dance?

:pancakes:

1 Like
25

I plan to put the results in part 5, chapters 13 through 27 (Fatshaming in a Macro-Sociological Context and the effects of Capitalism on Ogre-Culture) once I get the results back from the lab.

26

You need to get it peer reviewed first you fool.

27

I’ve been trying to find some other fat idiots to help me with that but they’re too busy posting about Warcraft lore on the internet

28

Sorry, me was born with big brain! But me drink enuff beer, and brain go smoll smoll. Me be redee to peer review in… half a bottle.

29

Blizzard’s stance on pro-capitalism can be seen in Ogri’la. The dumb and fat Ogres (eg Americans) become enlightened via Apexis Crystals, the Ogres newly created form of capital and path to salvation. This represents Blizzard’s view that it is only through money that the downtrodden and oppressed can rise up. This capitalist view is reinforced in Warlords of Draenor via the quests involving apexis crystals, where the players engage in a time consuming grind which prolongs player activity and justifies the $15 a month fee. Auxiliary examples include the physical weight of Gallywix and the silliness his character entails, proving that Blizzard views its dumb and fat playerbase as a joke which seeks atonement from the company through giving the corporation monthly payments.

I expect to be given credit in your dissertation or I will sue you for damages equal to a year’s worth of World of Warcraft game time.

4 Likes
30

Well Bolvar’s skin was blackened after the dragon fire. He is like a reverse Michael Jackson, or that Rachel Dolezal lady.

8 Likes
31

nods gravely VERY problematic

1 Like
32

I think Bolvar’s hammer is named PepsiBringer

1 Like
33

When Bolvar’s skin is changed from white to black, the next time we see him he is in chains, being held captive by a white man sitting on a throne. Yikes.

3 Likes
34

Unironically given Taelia is kinda tan, I am in fact confident Bolvar may be retcon’d to be black partially because Blizzard forgot Bolvar is simply crispy due to dragon fire and not originally darkskinned :skull::skull::sob::sob::joy::joy: I wouldn’t put it past the devs

7 Likes
35

I think the biggest issue is the tendency to play on this whole idea of “tribal/vaguely mongol like” = More prone to war and evil than cultures that had plenty of war and crimes against humanity to their name just in shinier and more familiar uniforms, and this comes heavily from not really explaining things like the support for Sylvanas so it comes across as simply in their nature, and the heavy handed Evil Warchief plotlines ending up putting more blame on the Horde even when the Alliance seemed to have had a role in escalation.

Portraying a super idealistic take on Medieval Europeans and making goodness just easily come to those that ally with them is going to cause questionable narratives when “savage culture is acting too savagely” is resorted to in order for a faction conflict to be justified.

15 Likes
36

I disagree.
The Alliance is as dark as the Horde if not darker.

Taurajo? The Purge? Monsterous acts.

1 Like
37

Try not putting all the weight on one buttcheek.

4 Likes
38

Technically Arthas is kinda blue-gray by then so I think he skirts by.

39

Honest answer? Yeah, kinda. But that comes with a lot of older franchises, WoW isn’t any kind of exception. In fact, a lot of its stuff comes more from vanilla WoW than Warcraft 3, which for the most part didn’t rely nearly much on cultural tropes.

Doesn’t make the entire company, franchise, or dev team racist. At this point, after this many years, it’s a lot of working with what they’re given, and I’d say that in recent years, Blizzard has done a lot better job at representing real life equivalents much better, Zandalari are the best example of having more nuance than their Darkspear counterparts in vanilla. Might be a bit slow, but they’ve absolutely made progress with it.

Honestly, Taelia’s look was one of the first indicators to me that the whole “Calia and Bolvar are her parents” theory was off. Not that I wouldn’t put it past them, but a pale blonde girl and a pale redhead guy don’t usually mix to make a tan skinned black haired girl. Would be interesting to have her actually be mix-raced (by real life standards) if she ever gets a unique model, WoW’s pretty lacking in that department with human and human-like races.

1 Like
40

I personally never understood the romanticized version of Europe that companies like Blizz and such have….It’s almost like they don’t realize Europe was a pretty dark place to live at one point and the Vikings/Celts and other groups were at times conquerors and could be major dicks.

But…that’s me and that’s all I got :wolf: