And the devs shouldn’t dedicate time to a minority of people harassing them.
They could have spent the same amount of energy addressing salient, recurring narrative concerns given the current story is dealing with fascism and genocide and a sexual assault metaphor + survivor turned abuser trope.
They chose to address not the majority of the valid criticisms and concerns coming from a place of worry and love for the game or personal trauma, but the trolls and harassers.
Don’t attack real life human beings or god forbid commit criminal acts against them because you’re mad about the video game zombie elf you weirdos. Like, seriously grow up
They didn’t defend harassments, they were condemning it. You need to read what they are posting before attempting to steer the conversation into your strawman arguments.
These are grown adults writing a fictional story with multiple races based on peoples in real life who also play this game who have endured systemic oppression, genocide, and violence otherwise while they write a story that is toying with the prospect of vindicating genocide at the hands of a sexual assault metaphor survivor turned abuser trope in a period of history where sexual justice and racial justice and post-war justice is globally a concern.
I’m Afroindigenious, and the Tauren and Troll narrative sucks and does not bring dignity to the peoples they’ve used for these races.
I’m a survivor of sexual assault, and what they’re dragging out with Sylvanas is vile.
My ancestors survived genocide and they fact they did genocide to a Japanese-derivative race and are now feeling out possibly “justifying it” (e.g. AH BUT THIS WAS PART OF ELUNE’S GREATER GOOD MASTER PLAN 5D CHESS TO CHECKMATE SYLVANAS AND ZOVAAL) is mind boggling.
These are concerns that need to be addressed.
Not some losers sending death threads while anon online.
But you know and I know the level of toxic hatred that the devs are getting right now, this moment, on social media and it has nothing to do with the concerns you listed here. It is because some gamer-bros did not get the story outcome they wanted. That’s it. The end.
This is all you should regard it as. I think the worry over angry people online is overblown but the possibility of someone acting out those threats is more important than people getting upset over themes in a story.
To wit though: one of the instances of harassments Golden listed was a reckless accusation that she’s a German Fascist™. That could have been a moment to recognize that they’re toying with genocide in a reckless and ugly way but to not harass her or accuse her of such extremes as she’s the child/grandchild (forget) of a Holocaust survivor.
But it wasn’t.
It isn’t because with each new race that is added to this game, it’s evident they’re putting some degree of effort and research to incorporate yet another World Region/Ethnicity into the game, e.g. the Romani-Imazighen Vulpera and Sethrak.
The more the in-game world grows, the more complete the list of ethnic-derivations becomes, and more dangerous their story telling becomes.
Precisely, just look at how Naughty Dog and Druckman reacted to criticism of The Last of Us 2. And Rian Johsnson after “The Last Jedi”. And Paul Feig after Ghostbusters 2016. AND Elizabeth Banks after her reboot of Charlie’s Angels failed…
Baal, are you able to eat a burrito without spending the rest of the day in solitary penance because the rice and peppers intermingling with the beef is a sickening reflection of society’s assimilation of colonized peoples