As a nod to marcus luttrell , There could be a Lone Survivor achievement for any raid member who solos a raid boss after the deaths of the rest of the raid.
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Seeing as how this is a global game, I highly doubt they’ll put in a reference to a soldier who fought in a highly criticized war.
But, then again, Blizz does some wacky stuff at times, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility, I suppose.
yes very wacky indeed like creating a whole expansion inspired by east Asia and more specifically China and depicting the natives as Pandas…and it was released in 2012.
just saying
What does that have to do with the thread?
Every single race in wow is inspired by an ethnicity in the real world. This isn’t a big secret…
It has nothing to do with the pop culture references.
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it was a reply to Sparkle. She said Blizz most likely won’t reference a political event but then it did some wacky stuff. Meaning they have done something politically problematic/controversial stuff in the past. So i agreed and gave an example.
its not a pop culture reference its a political reference because it references a War.
Unfortuntly true.
But how is that political/problematic? Im just curious cause I never understood that in reference to pandaria. I that why people hated Pandaren?
A lot of the more vocal hate was because people thought it was a Kung Fu Panda ripoff. I’m not sure how much of that was legitimate and how much was just memes though.
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its becuase they are “othering” Asian WoW players by depicting them as nonhuman and using stereotypical iconography associated with Orientalism.
in other words if you ask some one that is from the West or just simply not Asian: “first thing you think of when we say China” most likely one answer will be pandas.
imagine a new race that is Pig humanoid and has a stereotypical Midwestern accent and cultural references. its not cool to see yourself or at least something inspired by your culture “othered”
MoP was pretty brutal actually. Just gets overlooked because of “lol pandas”
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But this makes no sense… Asians, and chinese specifically are MEGA proud of Pandas. And identify with the animal.
What’s more… there are other clear depictions in wow as well. I mean… Worgen for example? Trolls? Zandalari? They all have very obvious, very clear references and that isn’t the same as “stereotyping”.
That maybe true pandas are a good representation of China but only to one ethic group while it is insulting to others oriental groups.
Well, Worgen are British.
WoW suffers from, in many areas, from being unable to go back and make the lore more diverse easily
I.e. they could’ve made Furbolgs be midwestern US culturally but it’s probably too late for that. Humans definitely could’ve, and probably would’ve, been more diverse instead of their current narrow, inaccurate depiction of “medieval Western Europe”.
At least WoW tries harder than most fantasy universes to handle cultural references respectfully. I.e. Orcs seem to be more based on Roman era honorable barbarian stereotype which is much better than their original stereotype.
And ofc the added customizations in SL are a big step forward (even though it should’ve been done long ago) in representation.
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when MoP was released I remember a plethora of articles criticizing Blizz for doing using Pandas to depict the natives of Pandaria.
Worgens are humans that have been cursed into a Werewolf. SO originally they are humans
Trolls are another problematic race because they are obviously inspired by Caribbeans and more specifically Jamaicans and in the opening scene are said to be lazy.
Tuarens are inspired by Native Americans and are explained as “primitive and peaceful”
I’m not trying to start anything I’m just saying from a critical eye you can see the microaggression (one might even see blatant) in WoW.
however I do believe Blizz is trying to Fix it with introducing new skin tones and more customizations to increase representation
Which is hilarious since Pandaren Brewmasters were a thing in Warcraft before Kung Fu Panda came out, so technically Dreamworks ripped off Metzen.
I think you’re just looking for a problem here. China loved MoP.
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I think only people that aren’t asians like to say this. I don’t see any evidence that the Asia market was outraged in any way when Pandaria released. At all.
Another example of this is Tauren. They are litereally Native Americans. And obviously not all versions of Native Americans, yet no one is raging about it. No one is saying they are “stereotyping” it.
THIS.
Darkspear male capoeira dance origins are supreme
I do think the one thing WoW still suffers from, and I don’t think there’s an easy solution, is that the major characters are not diverse at all but people love them so how do you add new characters to be prominent?
and it was released in 2015.
*2012
You must understand most Asians during that time wouldn’t speak out against such reddit for they would appear rude and this practice is still applied today ,especial the elderly.New generation could careless.
So for many rised in the western culture when kung flu came out became victims of society’s ideology of china .I don’t think Blizzard realize the insult it generated.
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Bah, Pandas. When I think of China I think of the awesome Kung Fu movies and martial artists China has given us.