Should we have Skinwalkers in WoW?

Community General Discussion
41

I was debating on posting this, but why not? Learn yourself something! :dracthyr_blob_dance_animated:

(Please excuse that intro LMAO)

42

That’s because the old myths are better.

43

People from a given culture are the only authority on how that culture should be portrayed. And while they aren’t a hivemind, consensus can be reached.

Only the general Arab view, and nobody else’s view, matters in that case.

44

I feel this is covered by Dreadlords.
Maybe not the “generic” part but they definitely fit the rest of the description.

45

Any attempt that WoW makes at horror will always just be toothless and superficial. Horror ultimately derives from being powerless and this is a power fantasy.

I can just que up any number of supernatural entities and beat them to death with a pointed iron stick.

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46

It is possible to create haunting and horror themed aesthetics and atmosphere. All of Drustvar is a pretty good example of that. But straight up horror like a horror movie or game then I’d be inclined to agree with you, but WoW can do horror. But it requires an entirely different setup and premise (than that of a full movie or game, but WoW can do horror stories).

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48

so why are you mentioning a culture that had zero contact with the culture of the native american tribes it represents? what exactly is your point? the law of averages basically dictates that at some point similar folklore was bound to come up. doesn’t really have anything to do with the conversation at hand.

49

you can be a Mawwalker

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50

I dont believe that an idea can be owned.
They dont have to like it, but its fair game imo.

Need be, just call them fleshstrollers :stuck_out_tongue:

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51

While you’re technically not wrong, there is this thing we have called “respect” that we’re normally supposed to give to others. And given the history of Native Americans and literally anyone else, I don’t blame them for not wanting to deal with outsiders’ and their portrayal of their (Native Americans’) culture.

Also, there is actually a cryptid donning the name Fleshgait.

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52

It’s more than that. A person has to commit a heinous crime, like killing a family member, to become a skin walker. They must also regularly kill to stay alive. So actually knowing what a skin walker is, I’d say hard pass on adding them to any video game.

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54

(i accidentally hit delete and not edit on the first attempt :stuck_out_tongue: )

55

Just curious, does this apply to European cultures?

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56

In theory, it does.

In practice, Europe basically forced their culture down the throats of most of the world, and those people now have a say in the matter. Whether they wanted to or not, the colonizer’s culture is now part of their culture. When that happens, the very concept of cultural appropriation kinda loses it’s meaning.

For example: This was the British Empire:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/The_British_Empire_5.png

Good luck finding any amount of consensus on how Elves should be portrayed between all these people lol

57

After reading this thread, it seems the term Skinwalker could be offensive to some, even though the actual practical effects of Skinwalkers already exist in the game through Druids and other shapeshifters and magical form changing.

For the sake of woke inclusivity, how about we call them:

Fleshjauntilysaunterers

Or

Bodyamblers

Or

Tissuepacers

58

Its not being disrespectful to use the same ideas for stories. They dont get to call dibs on a concept that none of them even made up :stuck_out_tongue:

Would it be disrespectful to make up stories and say thats what they believe? Sure. But i dont think anyone is saying to do that.

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59

This genuinely made me smile.

60

Maybe, but that’s not what’s being discussed here.

Adding skinwalkers to WoW isn’t using the same ideas. Using the same ideas would be to add an evil shapeshifter to WoW. AKA Bad Druids.

Skinwalkers in WoW is just taking something that they created from and for their culture, maybe making a thinly veiled “legally distinct” version like “Hideshamblers”, and use it without their permission. It’s not illegal, but it’s a disrespectful move.

There’s a thing in psychology called “reactance”, which is when someone tells you that you can’t or shouldn’t do something, and it feels like you’re losing freedom, and so you grow the desire to do the thing you’ve been told not to do as a way of “trying to recover that lost freedom”.

So I understand that when people say “you can’t do this, it’s disrespectful”, it can be tempting to just be like “you ain’t the boss of me, I’ll do the thing!”.

But setting these nonsense feelings aside for a moment allows us to see that this is just an inherently and objectively bad idea. Adding Skinwalkers to WoW would invite unnecessary and unwanted controversy to the game without adding any concept that we don’t have already in the game. A Skinwalker is an evil shapeshifter. We have that already. Plenty of it, in fact. Drust, Druids of the Nightmare, Druids of the Flame, Faceless Ones, etc.

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61

I just completely disagree with everything you said tbh.
They dont own anything. Its not disrectful. Its not nonsense to say so, at least no more so than the concept that they own it or get to control it, or that its disrespectful to them.

But we would just be going round in circles with this because we both seem pretty planted in our beliefs.

Should blizzard ever want to add a skinwalker, theyre completely free to and shouldnt worry about offending those who have no right to be offended.
If they dont want to because it has no use in their story, then dont use it. A forum thread is no reason to add specific villians to wow.

3 Likes
62

“How about Body Jumpers, kind of like Body Snatchers.”
/smile

1 Like