We the players did not sexually harass anyone, and we should not be punished

Community General Discussion
409

Let’s all be reasonable here. I get a lot of people don’t care about the paintings. I get it. I never noticed them myself and the idea of changing the paintings to reflect a particular corporate ideology is, at best, idiotic and at worst, absolutely misguided.

But here’s why you should speak up now even if the things you do care about are, as of yet, still untouched.

WoW, as a game, has declined substantially in recent years and, I daresay, even more in recent months. This means there is a lower overall population who will and can speak up about things that matter to me, you, some, or all of us.

Now let’s consider the paintings. You may not care. Fine. But let me posit this: if Blizzard manages to drive off the players who are currently speaking up and calling them out leave for greener pastures, who is then left to back you when something you care about is changed in the name of corporate cover-up?

Someone said it earlier and it bears repeating. It’s not about the paintings. It’s about the principle. If we, as a shrinking population, do not stand together even though it may not be for something we’ve no interest in, who will be left to stand when it is something you care about?

The time to speak up is not when it’s something you care about. The time to speak up os precisely when it’s about something reasonably small and unnoticed that you don’t care about.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

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410

No, it’s a manufactured outrage because it’s a pointless effort at virtue signalling some sort of highly exaggerated sense of free speech over an amazingly minute amount of reworking of tiny details. There’s no declaration of removal of sexy women in game, but a a tacky outfit portrait got changed into a similar and slightly less revealing form when a higher res version was made and another low res image was replaced with a higher res one. Maybe the art team felt that the still life worked better and made that choice.

But this idea that this is some vanguard of I don’t know what is just another attempt to rile up people to connect something completely inconsequential into the latest culture war bogey man.

What is wrong with your brain to try and use the holocaust/rise of that party in Germany that led to WW2 with a fricking still life of fruit in a game?

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411

Imagine writing this cringepost without adding TL;DR.

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Because, and I will say this only once, it is about the principle of speaking out even when it is not something you care about.

Today, it is a stupid argument over a stupid painting which no one has ever noticed or cared about before.

What will it be tomorrow? Or next week? Next month? Next patch or expansion?

Who will be left to speak with you when it’s something you do care about or involves you? And worse, we can all see these chamges however minor, are not being made in good faith but out of a need for Blizzard to present themselves as forward thinking without having to actually change a damn thing within their corporate offices besides the burnt out shredder?

If you fail to see that, then there’s no hope for you.

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413

Again, you are wrong. This is NOT manufactured outrage. People are concerned on what this will lead to. How far will they go with it? You need to realize what is going on here. Things like this send all the wrong messages and insult people at the same time. Why didn’t they just up the resolution on the current paintings instead of outright changing them unless they thought they were a problem? Get it now?

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414

Because to up the resolution they needed to remake them, and they didn’t just copy them straight up? I really doubt there was some higher res version lying around, it was set dressing and only enough time was spent on it to make it good enough.

This is more fake outrage meant to try and whip up people who play video games into joining a nasty culture war by pretending there’s some sort of war on them, and it is really, really sad that this is the type of stuff people are pretending matter.

Speaking out is important.

But there has to be something actually THERE to speak out against. This is such a stupidly miniscule change to some set dressing. It impacts nothing in game at all. They just put in new pictures, for all we know this is just some minor work at making the game graphics more up to date and this is what the art team came up with.

What are you speaking out against? You spend a lot of time and words explaining the importance of doing it, but you don’t really present a reason of why this needs to be spoken out against.

And just seriously, this is just entertainment, it’s out of line to compare it to what that poem is about. and if you don’t see that, I’m not the one where’s there no hope left.

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415

No what is sad is people like you literally ignoring the arguments being made here and trying to justify these changes under “what if” scenarios that few if any people would honestly believe.

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416

It’s a couple pieces of set dressing in a game being changed. There’s a whole internet out there if you’re that hard up for low res cheesecake.

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417

Incorrect. Bilzzard themselves has made a blue post regarding removing and changing “problematic” items in-game.

Censorship and faux corporate arguments in favor of censorship designed to cover up ongoing abhorrent corporate practices in the face of a massive lawsuit.

And yet, that entertainment has meant a great deal to countless people over the years which, despite it being only entertainment, gives it some measure of importance to players.

Says who? Says you? You do understand what that poem is about right? How important it is to speak up against something when it doesn’t involve you.

If your sole argument is that the poem is about a horrific tragedy and therefore is not comparable to what’s happening at and with Blizzard, you’ve a terrible lack of understanding the importance of recurring themes and deeper literary analysis and it’s comparison to modern day occurances.

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418

You literally just proved you have no idea what people are arguing and concerned about here. I honestly believe you’re trolling at this point. Either you really are that oblivious to the backlash over this or you’re trolling.

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419

shame there’s no censorship here or you’d have a point.

About how it’s important to speak up when people are being hurt by those in power. I really don’t see how anyone is being harmed by set dressing changing up.

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Blizzard literally dehumanized women by changing a portrait into a bowl of fruit in the name of corporate “inclusivity”. It doesn’t get more censorious than that.

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421

Oh, you’re peddling that line of BS.

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422

Blizzard is a crap company. Better to just move on to ffxiv…
I can see blizzard’s end soon …

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423

Eh, there seems to be no shortage of crap companies out there.

424

No, you’re literally ignoring it. Why now? Why those paintings that just so happen to have women on them? Why? You can’t ignore the obvious here but you’re trying to. Its absolutely insulting.

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425

What I am starting to fear is how this story evolves.

We will have villains who will harm innocents to further their plans. But be respectful? And how does that work exactly.

Oh no no minions…put some clothes on the woman sacrifice right now! I see cleavage. That will not do at all.

Minions put on more clothes.

Much better minions. Now give me the ritual knife so I can cut out her heart to offer to our dark master still beating.

Minions go umm…okay…wouldn’t it be easier to cut out the heart with less clothes.

Yes minions…it would. But we must be respectful. They will be dressed appropriately. So we can send their souls to our dark master to serve them in torment forever properly. As per our dark masters terms of employment. He is evil. But he is evil AND 100% EEO compliant at the same time.

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And i think that’s what most of those people who are basicaly saying “it’s not a big deal” or “it’s a good thing” don’t get.

The players who are against this censorship don’t care about the painting itself but do care about the consequences behind:
Blizzard is promoting the return to a puritanism where the problem is not the man harassing the woman but the woman being the problem by wearing something…too light.

Who know when it will stop?
The next target could be the transmog, preventing anyone to choose clothing too revealing for their tastes.

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427

Blizzard really needs to take a page from FFXIV on this.

I have to wonder if any of this is as a result of fears for their ESRB and similar ratings of their games. If so I say bite the bullet, go M, be a soft M rated game. Overwhelmingly the playerbase is over 25 and most people use a credit card to play so it’s not exactly an issue. I’m sure a small amount of puritans will be upset but I’d bet just as many people would hop on and start playing the game for the first time thinking it more serious and adult like many highly praised single player RPGs that are M-rated as a result.

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428

They really don’t, Japan is really behind USA in terms of women’s right, if anything FFXIV needs to take a page from WOW.

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