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Forum Science 
strikes again!
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We might.
The pendulum is swinging. Slowly, certainly, though it is swinging nonetheless.
Games such as Dustborn and Concord are launching in such a way as to reveal that the âmodern audienceâ does not exist in any significant number. Theyâre being openly ridiculed and shunned.
Black Myth: Wukong launched very recently and is already breaking records and that is despite the efforts of unhinged ideologues to criticise it for not being âdiverseâ or âinclusiveâ enough.
Iâm gay, but I do not base my purchases around âdiversityâ. To me, itâs a red flag and often equals tone deaf preaching, inconsistent world building and an overly sanitised experience.
The tide can and will change in our favour. More people just need to be vocal and polite when it comes to leaving feedback and making it clear that a return to World of Warcraftâs core tropes and aesthetics would not be unwelcome.
Perhaps most importantly, donât take the bait whenever the usual suspects swoop in and try to gaslight over how nobody wants the game to go back to how it used to be.
The gameâs heights of popularity and mainstream success coincided with the âedgyâ phase after all.
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Think itâs largely just different things for different people.
Like, I have a disabled friend, whoâs often told to play certain games because not only are they accessible, but the developers are pro accessibility and stuff.
But⌠he doesnât always want to play those games, heâs happy to download programs and edit files to make games more playable for him. Which is super cool. He played Elden Ring with a laptop track pad, an onscreen keyboard and a voice command program. Super awesome.
Iâm trans, so I should probably like really current, lgbtqia+ forward games with cute sharks in them⌠But⌠Iâm a trans woman⌠trans is just a part of me, itâs not my entire personhood. My favourite game recently is Days Gone, Which is like⌠Motorbikes, guns, lewd references and zombies. (Theyâre not zombies, but yâknow, that kinda deal.)
Edit: I like when the creators are pro LGBTQIA+, but their games donât necessarily have to have a ton of representation. A little is nice, I wonât complain. But if you have a game with two gay characters in it, and the company is funding conversion therapy, then itâs like⌠okay, so you donât actually like these characters? XD
Canât please everyone. Even if youâre trying to. So different games will have different things in them, and thatâs totally okay.
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Iâm glad to see that game mentioned. I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. Itâs a shame it isnât getting the sequel that was very clearly teased with the endingâŚbut at least it stands as a solid enough experience in its own right.
Youâre correct, though. I think not making a big deal or treating inclusivity as something that has to be present is the best way forward.
To get a little spicy, even if Iâm gay I donât like what passes as ârepresentationâ in many games. Itâs too stereotypical.
I did, however, find myself pleasantly surprised by Dion and Terence in Final Fantasy XVI - theyâre two characters who just happen to be gay but thereâs much more to them than their sexuality and their relationship isnât immediately revealed. Itâs shown in passing later on in the game.
Itâs a stark contrast to, say, the infamous âweâre gayâ quests in Dragonflight which just felt like pure tokenism to me.
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Yeah, even if theyâre not doing a sequel. Iâd love like a graphic novel or something. Just to tie up the story. Would be awesome!
Days gone did inclusion well enough too. There were a couple gay characters, it didnât really come up over much. The crazy colonel guy mentioned being against hatred toward people based on their race, gender, whether theyâre gay or trans. And itâs things like that, that make me happy.
Just a little mention that points out we exist.
But I also donât mind all the weâre gay quests in dragonflight⌠theyâre a bit⌠Theyâre what I think about when homophobes rage about shoving it down their throat. XD But itâs not like, bad or anything. Itâs just a bit crowbarred in.
I prefer when viewers or readers discover the character is gay as part of a story, rather than just. âOh yeah, dumbledore is gay, actually.â or whatever.
But like⌠make it natural. Because we are natural, so that should be super easy to do.
I find that most of the time, representation just riles up the homophobes to start dogpiling people with rage⌠When starfield came out and Heelvsbabyface went on his rant about pronouns⌠that didnât do a lot to help people who mention their pronouns. (Like, mine are in my bio, I do get hate for it, sigh. She/her btw)
And when all that was going on, bethesda didnât do or say anything, theyâre just like âHey, we did our bit.â
Iâm not against progression, but it has to mean something. It canât just be something thrown in there.
If youâre just going to throw in gay people, but then keep funding anti gay politicians and policies and not speak out in support of players who are getting homophobia and transphobia⌠then maybe you shouldnât be profiting off the existence of us?
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WoW is kind of like when a Metal band becomes popular and changes style to make more money.
I doubt it will go back as it has changed so much. Itâs like how the most popular bands people would consider âMetalâ arenât considered Metal by the people who like Metal.
It just splinters off into a bunch of ragers thinking their beliefs as to what is âMetalâ is the only correct one. Itâs the perfect comparison to what is happening IRL.
Itâll likely just get worse.
Lots of hyperboling ITT.
I donât think it has changed that much tbh. The âoverly brightâ stuff is contained just in DF (imo) because itâs supposed to be the new player experience.
The new path is Tutorial Island â Dragonflight where you grow from an adventurer to âthe Championâ so the dialog in the rest of the world makes sense. Then the training wheels are off and youâre sent into the real world.
Itâs not so long ago, when we got NPCs like Grotesque Thrall - âhttps://www.wowhead.com/npc=137748/grotesque-thrall#commentsâ or all the Blood Hunter npcs in Nazmir. So itâs not like the game would have to go back to itâs ancient history.
I donât think there is anyone who is against getting zones like Grizzly Hills, Nagrand or Stormsong Valley. But there simply could be more of the dark, horrory setting, thatâs all.
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A zone full of werewolves and betrayal. A curse afflicting an entire village, as well as slave trafficking. (Samir, trolls)
Nagrand: A zone where ghosts literally walk the roads, to their final resting place, as well as a cursed being of the light, corrupted by evil shadowy ⌠err⌠shadows⌠my brain is sleepy. XD
I dunno about stormsong valley. My brain kinda deleted everything about BFA. XD
But every zone tends to have some darker elements, even if itâs not the theme of the zone.
I do enjoy the happy overtone with a dark undertone.
Everything is jolly and happy looking, but a lot of the quests are dark when you read what youâre actually doing. Itâs a nice touch.
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I donât play alliance, but there was a bunch of old god shenanigans going on in Stormsong as far as I remember.
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Old gods Mold⌠zods?
Theyâre not dark, they just want to hug you⌠with their tentacles.
I dunno, I always went to Drustvar instead. XD
True, I was referring more to the aesthetic. I am aware that there are serious things going on in the story.
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Nonsense, I can see through your lies. Dark robes, spooky eyeballs. Youâre clearly working for the old gods and want more people to go to zones with their influence!
(Joking. =D) Edit: Itâs a lovely outfit btw! <3
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It starts off with Old God shenanigans, has a random Horde invasion in the middle, and then endless quillboar quests in the west. The Horde invasion stood out for a couple of reasons:
- It felt like it should have been the quillboar invading giving you more of a reason to go beat them up in the west.
- A significant number of Alliance adult NPCs ended up impaled on walls in front of child NPCs.
There were also some naga.
Edit And bees. I forgot the bees.
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In fairness, itâs WoW. Those kids have seen worse. XD
Thanks for the refresher. Itâs been⌠many many decades. (The worst thing is itâs been what? 4-6 years?)
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Yes, you are having fun while the game is catered to YOUR vision of the game. How dare we complain when it isnât catered to OUR vision of the game which has been the original one btw.
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Sometimes things change. The people making the game today are mostly not the same people who made it years ago.
But also:
I never, ever, ever saw WoW as âmetalâ. Mostly because I strongly dislike metal, but also because save from a few references here and there; it literally is NOT metal.
Just like it isnât kawaii now; it just has a few references here and there.
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That NPC is pretty Metal. Torghast too was quite brutal. I just hardly went there and kind of forgot about it.
Aberrus was also quite a Metal idea.
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Wait what ? Warcraft dragons always been sociable. Like even on the books that predate WoW and WC3. Heck even in the rpg books
And if you go by real worlds myths.
Chinese dragons always been humanized
Beowulfs dragon was just mindless
Fafnir was a dwarf not a dragon and also very sociable before the gods killed his brothers to make a purse
Smaug maybe ? But basing all your definition of what a dragon is on one dragon from one story is odd
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Thank you! <3
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