With the advent of the new year and the next content patch on the horizon I have decided to give Alliance RP a go. To my delight Stormwind City seems active as usual, and with some actually decent Role-Play initiatives (like the daily Town Crier events) I wasn’t put off by the general quality after about 10 minutes.
However, at each and every turn where Void Elves (and seemingly only Void Elves) were involved the most random spiel was hurled at anyone who dared voice their distrust or hatred, namely labeling them racists (or fascists, but I won’t address that). Unfortunately I have seen it so often that even the resident and semi-active Guard guild started using it as a cause to arrest others!
When did this silly notion of racism being a bad thing get so widespread? The racial differences and discrimination have been the cornerstone for this entire franchise and is not, under any condition, something the denizens of Azeroth ever considered as an insult or something to frown upon.
Every war has been motivated by the racial and cultural difrerences between the races of each faction (or, before the Alliance and the Horde, simply between races, such as the Troll Wars, War of the Ancients etc). Much like many other fantasy settings these created a history of animosity and distrust (or cooperation and mutual trust) not merely between political units but, as mentioned, entire racial groups which forms the basis to how these races now interact.
Which begs the question, when and why did the “racism” meme as a negative trait become so prominent? Did the vast number of Second Life-RPers introduce this silly concept that not even the developers or the setting acknowledge or target (I haven’t seen the words “racist” or “racism” used within the game’s setting, going back as far as Warcraft 1)? Or is there a lore development that I missed?
Because in wow lore Humans are shown to generally be accepting of there allys. the likes of the racist Paladin in Warcraft III (i think) where shown to be exceptions not the rule. The alliance is based on being accepting of there allies. so the exceeding level of racism shown by player characters is just so jarring.
For the last 33 years ingame we have been fighting a bloody Race War across Azeroth. Specifically Void Elves, don’t forget you were once literally Thalassian soldiers of which the Alliance was killing happily not but one (1x) year ago.
Even if it’s an OOC preference, why would that matter exactly? Naturally it can get annoying if someone flaunts it in your face OOC via whispers, General chat or silly OOC emotes, but if it’s strictly IC interactions what difference will it make?
Can you read my post before you respond? I don’t care about or even mention the human-centric xenophobia, regardless of how popular it is. I am talking about using the terms “racist” or “racism” in a setting where such phenomena are absolutely part of the setting, for both better or worse.
Something as basic as a choice of hiring dwarfs or humans to maintain a bronze mine is already a definitively racist choice, but it’s perfectly standard in the setting. So why is it bad?
Of their allies, yes. Would you say its unreasonable for a human to not view void worshippers who are notorious for switching teams constantly as allies?
Besides, most of these cries of hate speech, racism and fascism ic come from elves.
The Alliance is a massive militaristic nation state that has just come out of a period of brutal war where it’s canonically stated an extremely large portion of at least the Stormwind population has died. Is it truly that strange to believe that not every single person is a 2 dimensional character that goes “Ah yes, king says this is good, so I must love them now.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a character who is racist or bigoted (aside from it being a negative trait). However that doesn’t mean it’s always done well, or that it’s used as a really quick and simple way to make people look like they’re doing “”“big boy”"" rp.
Racism in WoW - a setting where blood feuds between races is a pretty intrinsic part of the setting - is fine.
I think where the problem begins for a number of people is when it comes across like a poor excuse to enact unpleasant, racially-motivated roleplay that feels like it’s motivated more by OOC edge.
It’s not everyone, it’s not even most people, but it’s prevalent enough that it often leaves a bad taste in my mouth when it’s depicted in a certain way.