First off, I would have posted in general, but for some reason I can’t?
Okay, so, with all this discussion about racism in the real world and in the games industry, and more specifically in RPGs, I feel like now is the best time to raise issues I have had with the game for a long time.
- There are no non-white heroes or NPCs as far as I am aware, I certainly cannot think of a single one off the top of my head.
It would also be nice to see some non-straight relationships as well. Let’s have some actual diversity in this global game please.
- The idea that if you are a member of one race, you hate and are hated by this “other” race. We’re literally fighting race wars here, and it’s more than a little unsettling how much it’s just accepted.
The idea that a race or culture is inherently bad or evil or lesser has been used to justify slavery and genocide for as long as humans have existed. This should not be a thing in todays supposedly civilised society, even in a fictional setting.
- The extremely racist tropes that the Horde embody. The “Noble Savage” Orcs and the “Primitive Savage” Tauren which seem to be based off of Native American stereotypes, and the “Bloodthirsty Savage” Jamaican trolls.
Caricatures can be extremely offensive as it is, without also implying that the Native Americans are little more than talking animals or ugly human-looking brutes. I don’t even know where to begin with how messed up it is to have Jamaicans represented by one of the most canonically evil races in the game, and to make it worse, Elves are descended from them, and they became “good” which is why they are elves. Think about that for a moment.
- The prevalence of Shamanism among the Horde races, which is another negative trope directed at Native Americans.
The spiritual beliefs of a people, whether accurately depicted or not, are not a quirk, and should be treated with far more respect than they have been.
- The fake “Asian” Pandaren with their fake “Asian” accents.
Chinese people living in China get plenty of representation, and are even depicted as pandas in other forms of media there. Chinese Americans and other Chinese people not in America do not, and this is extremely offensive to those groups.
- The fact that all these “Savage” Horde races are ugly, while the allied races are not.
I already touched on this. The gnomes and dwarves look like humans, even the elves look kinda human. Shoving blood elves and draenei into the mix to “shake things up” does not even come close to balancing things here.
- The fact that the only evil humans are undead, and they are evil because they are undead, not because they are human.
This just compunds the issue with members of a particular racer being inherently this or that, or automatically allies or enemies with this or that “other” race.
- The fact that, among other things, we are frequently asked to slaughter Dragons, particularly Dragon babies. We know both in and out of character that Dragons in this game are sentient and sapient beings, yet we still regularly slaughter them like it’s no big deal, even killing babies while they are still in their eggs iirc.
I don’t really know what to add here, other than it’s messed up and needs to change.