I think everything I have to say has probably already been said, especially by Xav at the start of the thread and, there are better ways to make a dislikable character than having them throw real world prejudices around, but, I’d also just point out that, while for a lot of people in this thread, experiencing homophobia is a hypothetical, there are those of us for whom it’s very, very real.
If you’ve never worried about experiencing homophobia, in game homophobia is something you can brush off, leave alone, say ‘live and let live’ about, but, for people who can’t? Encountering it in game is crushing. LGBT+ people are your friends, your guildmates your GMs, they exist and play this game and at the end of the day, if there’s one prejudice we should all be above in a fantasy rping game with giant demon robots, eldrich gods and space goats of all colours? it’s homophobia. We’re better than that, or at least we should be. For the sake of the people in the community who can’t escape it in the real world, we shouldn’t propogate it in RP
If you’re still in a stance where you believe homophobia in RP is acceptable to any degree to make your character look like a villain it’s only going to backfire and make you -yourself- the villain.
Day in day out people in the real world are still dealing with problems of being accepted by those around them for their sexuality. When they come into World of Warcraft they want to escape the harsh reality that even to this day we’re still dealing with homophobia so when we have to see in our own game that people are still making homophobic comments either in trade chat or in RP it genuinely is heartbreaking and just leads us down a downwards spiral of emotions because even in a place where we try to escape to, we’re having to deal with thugs and bullies who are set in their backwards ways.
Don’t add to the problem the LGBTQ+ community deal with on a daily basis, help them escape that reality even if only for a little while.
Peculiar seeing as 8/10 AD female chars are lesbian or futa, I would’ve assumed that in-character homophobia would’ve been less widespread. (Even if it’s quite meme-y on AD at this point.)
Or is this more of a issue which homosexual male character’s encounters more as a whole?
I can’t say what homophobia towards lesbian couples is like, given that I personally know more gay male characters rather than gay female characters, but regardless of which group of people has it worse from parts of the AD community, homophobia towards male/male couples or female/female couples should be criticized all the same.
Most of those female characters are just incredibly fetishised views of actual LGBTQ+ people created by guys whose only exposure to lesbians comes from, uh, adult art.
Especially the latter, those types of ERP characters are very demeaning and contribute to negative tropes, speaking as a trans person myself.
I was going to bring this up earlier tbf. There are a… lot… of lesbian couples… Surprisingly so. But I forgot why I was gonna bring it up. But if you’re gonna do LGBT RP then don’t be like those who sit in Goldshire / Stormwind looking for a quick bang of the same sex.
Speaking of such couple’s it seems advances aren’t always well received in-game. htt-ps://wow.gamepedia.com/Sentinel_Amberline is an example, alas it doesn’t essentially say that homophobic views are common Azeroth which its not.
I do blame some such as these guys for not being the best which might’ve reflected in a negative manner on others character experiences and ended up developing such opinions. Such as what you say Quizley. Not that I’m excusing it. ;-;
And my experience has been quite the opposite Obhar! The few male gay character’s I’ve meet has been role-played by women as rare as such male chars are in the first place, tho it’s refreshing to see the opposite.
It might be better not since I can say with 90% confidence that it will just cause them to spout more things that might geniuenly upset people. Pay it no attention other than the report and ignore and move on.
Id like add as a token to the “yeah but it’s another flaw to add to my villain, like being a murderer, or violent.” In Azeroth there are good reasons, or at least reasonable ones, to be violent. The world is full of hostile entities and war, so if a character develops an unhealthy preoccupation with murder or violence, there’s some grounds to it.
There is no real legitimate benefit to a character being homophobic in wow, largely because the topic hasn’t been touched upon. There have been no counter cultural groups to “corrupt the youth” or “spread perversion” or whatever weaksauce reasons are given to legitimise it IRL
That is the difference between making your character violent, a bully or a murderer or making them homophobic to show flaw. One is a flaw acquired through a believable premise, the other is not, almost inserted into their heads from an alien entity with nothing to do with Azeroth. Like most RP standards, the question then becomes what’s the point of it? It just something you’ve given the character for no logical reason that is completely divorced from Azeroth as we know it, unless you’ve invented a ginormous headcanon to justify why your character has been exposed to something that has made them homophobic (a huge amount of effort for something being described as just another flaw)
so here’s a fake one, and everyone else can have one too from now on since we’re all wonderful in our own ways!