If it was me, I’d probably take it IC. I think my character if he was gay would either be unphased or complete 180 and attempt to bludgeon him. You could just pretend its slang for someone who likes males if you really wanted, seeing as slang often seems to just pop up out of no-where.
Take the power from the words, I guess?
If you accept bad rp then that is on you, but no one else has to accept it.
Homophobia doesn’t exist in wow and one isn’t forced to acknoledge it.
The past ~200 posts have just been a protracted scene of dying on the weirdest hill ever
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I understand the sentiment here because I did have a phase not long after I discovered myself where I tried to do a similar thing. I’d say it all the time in jest over voice calls, I’d try and “take the power” out of it.
The problem there is that not everybody is willing to do that. I’d never really been hurt by the word so for me to say “yeah, I think this should be reclaimed” is a fairly easy decision for me. For somebody who’d been belittled by it constantly however, who might have a very visceral and unpleasant reaction to it, they’re going to be a bit more hesitant.
Basically it’s a nice thought to think to take the power from the word, but by taking it IC, you’re just giving the go-ahead for that person then to keep using that word IC. And then maybe if it doesn’t effect me too heavily, it does effect the next person they use it on.
And also I did hurt people by saying it as often and as crudely as I did, and it’s something I’ve come to regret. Even good intentions can have bad outcomes.
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If the ToS apply to IC as well this doesn’t matter. Because the “don’t be homophobic” part is articulated at players as well but seems to apply IC.
Because one has bases in universe and you see Blizzard written material acknowledging the existance of conflict, fights, murders etc. while the other doesn’t have bases in universe, quite the opposite, with same sex relationships being a non-factor on Azeroth and treated as normal.
I am going to assume you are heterosexual. You have never faced genuine homophobic abuse or bigotry in your life. You have absolutely no idea how you would/would not respond to it in roleplay; you only have an idealised view based on your lack of personal experience with the subject.
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It very clearly states that such language isnt allowed, period.
Depends, I’ve been called gay and all words associated with it during my upbringing, in several schools, my best mates were forcibly made to avoid me out of fear of having that sort of stuff attached to them, all the way into my teens close to my adult life. I no longer speak to them. There was a time where it got so bad I wondered if I was wrong and ‘was’ homosexual. However i’ve since grown from that and realise it was hatred of one type or the other. In other words, I learned to get over the harsh words, it stopped bothering me, and slowly it faded from both my vicinity, and my memory. I don’t know if that comes close, maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but its about 4-5 years at minimum or my life that I suffered that.
Genuinely I am sorry that you had to go through that. That very much sounds like the whole “being gay is unmanly and being unmanly is bad” rhetoric that highschoolers and people who never quite grow out of high school tend to go for. But that’s the thing, while you did have to toughen up in order to make it through that process, would you really wish for others to do the same?
I’m going to assume that you think you were treated unfairly for allegations of sexuality (because, frankly, you WERE treated unfairly), and surely then if you hold the belief that what happened to you isn’t fair, then you’d want to see othes avoid the situation that you are in?
Like, I have episodes of anxiety and depression. Sometimes I’m too scared to do things I enjoy, sometimes I’m too unmotivated. And it sucks, and it’s unfair. But I’d rather have myself pushed up to the standards of living of others, rather than dragging everyone down to the experience I went through. Do you not feel the same with your situation?
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It always makes me laugh when people are adamant that “There would be X because it exists in the real world!!”
Like… that’s not how it works? There’s flying ships, there’s magic space lasers, there’s Goblins that will inventions into existence through magic rocks and belief, there’s shape shifting which is totally normal for a bunch of races.
There doesn’t have to be; racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia or r*%&. People putting that into their characters is a choice. And that says a lot more about them, imo, than it does the world.
If the devs turned around and said tomorrow “Yeah, none of these things exist in Azeroth” then that’s that. And yet I’m sure people would, for whatever reason, still argue for their ‘right’ to put questionable content into RP. Funny that…
It stopped bothering you because being gay is not who you are and the people you are around eventually realised that. A mistake from vicious classmates culminating in misplaced homophobic abuse is a terrible thing, and I’m sorry that happened to you, but it does not compare to people who are genuinely homosexual and are having the very fact of their existence abused by others. This goes far beyond just petty playground behaviour, too.
At the very least, though, I would have hoped it would give you a sense of empathy for other’s suffering the same or (very often) much worse.
Characters arent players. Threatening the life of little jimmy behind his pc isnt the same as threatening Ograr the Warrior
Homophobic language however is the same whether its a player or an avatar saying it, because the issue isnt who it is aimed at.
C’mon, you seem clever enough to get the difference.
Nooo why cant they force homophobia into WoW its not fair
Yes, and no. Adversity is what allows you to grow as a person from my perspective. If I did not suffer the hate of others my entire life I would remain as weak-willed and minded as I was in my early adolescence, its similar to the saying of ‘good times breed weak men’ ‘bad times breed strong men’ Because it forces you to essentially face your demons, internally or externally, sometimes both. I’m not saying that’s cause for you to receive hate or seek it out in some sort of misguided attempt to better yourself on that philosophy. And on the other spectrum maybe you won’t need to do such a thing, maybe you lead your life differently with light and love, managing to avoid having to harden yourself to such things. I guess what i’m trying to say is while I never wish something like what I went through on another, I can’t ignore the sum of good it did me in the rest of my life. Sometimes you have to weather the storm to see the sunshine again. If you forgive the happy-shmappyness of that statement.
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I am just afraid that we create “weapons” and precedence cases real homophobes, racists and RP-haters can (and will) use against LGBTQ+ people and us roleplayers. That is my whole reason for being overly cautios and smartassery.
How are they gonna use “don’t bring homophobia into the game” against us
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I understand this. I do. But I still can’t agree with it, not in this instance. Because the thing to consider for people RPing gay or bisexual characters, is that the adversity is already present - it’s their daily lives. It’s having to hide themselves from friends and family. It’s having to lie constantly and convincingly in order to avoid detection. It’s fearing being kicked out of the house by a family that might not accept what they really are. That’s why I’ve remained so adamant on homophobia being a non-factor in roleplay and why I’m going to continue to hold that stance.
You are right in that adversity does build strength, but injecting adversity into people’s means of escapism is honestly quite cruel when you consider those living conditions.
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To add onto this. I’m not going to stop criticising the use of homophobia in roleplay out of fear of the retribution of online incels with an aversion to progressive culture.
As I said. My fear is (which MIGHT be unfounded) that one could report Roleplayers for “Violence” and “Threats”, because they happened IC.