Nah it’s an old thread. Wasn’t hard for me to find though (considering it’s my most liked reply ever).
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Its little adjustments like these…I understand representation is important, others are very likely going to agree just like how I, a non-book reader doesn’t even like the flynn/shaw relationship still either. Because its so half-arsed / half finished / the execution is painfully cringe and or involves you having to read a book which tries to justify or clarify a turn of events.
I understand America is a very torn country but its not enriching the game enough to be happy seeing the change cause its never done well.
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Because adding LGBT characters with 0 effort and having their sexuality be their one defining personality trait is just insulting tokenism imo.
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I’m going to tread even more carefully now. 
I absolutely think Blizzard should increase – demonstrably by force – the representation of diversity in their games, including WoW.
No buts or ifs – they should just do that. And I note that they are in the process of doing it, so that’s great.
However, my subjective experience of the game does hinge upon how good Blizzard are at implementing this increased representation of diversity, because it is inevitably a change from how the game used to be (not having a focus on diversity) to how it will be (having a focus on diversity).
And my point is merely that Blizzard don’t seem to pull this implementation off very well most of the time.
And it’s not to single the issue out. I gladly criticize bad writing for other reasons as well.
Take Grommash Hellscream in Warlords of Draenor. Terrible writing for reasons to do with his character development.
“We will be conquerors! …Draenor is free!!”
…Wut?! 
So Blizzard are obviously criticized on that parameter, that they’re sometimes not very good at fleshing out a character’s motivations and behaviors.
And in this case it’s just a matter of – for me – criticizing Blizzard for bad writing for the reason that the point about diversity isn’t told in a satisfying manner.
They can do better, just as they can do better with story elsewhere for other reasons (like Grommash Hellscream in Warlords of Draenor).
Hopefully that explains it a bit better. 
I’m not saying that Blizzard can only add diversity to their games if they do it in a way that I like.
I’m saying that if they do it in a way that I don’t like, then I will criticize them for it, just as I will criticize them any other time they write a bad storyline for one reason or another.
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This was just like J.K. Rowlings way of later on diversifying her already fleshed out stories.
Lazy and rude.
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Good thing it’s never 0 effort, and good thing sexuality is never their defining trait.
Either I’m too happy to see representation, or I’m being realistic when saying that the implementations are just fine as they are. Not once have I been bothered by any of them, nor have my friends. In fact, there was joy among my friends when they found out and they love the story lines, especially the Night Fae one.
As LGBTQ+ is not a single hivemind, you’re entitled to your opinion about that. I’m pretty sure there are gay people who don’t like the stories because it puts them in a spotlight. Just one question though, are you LGBTQ+? The way you talk about the implementation makes me feel like you don’t really feel like you need the representation, or don’t really care that much. Pretty much all LGBTQ+ folks I know in WoW were very happy with it, including random posts online.
Considering JKR is a transphobe, I’m going to disagree with this, she’d have probably done the exact opposite and doubled down on Chromie wanting to have he/him pronouns despite being a woman.
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Why should they? What if they just don’t? In what way will the game become better if they do it?
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Ngl I would be lying if I said I was anyhow interested in these matters, but the flipflopping just gets on my nerves. Same with politicians/media influencers.
Good thing that Blizzard isn’t flipflopping around this then 
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We’ll see.
I can at least remember 4 flipflops from most recent Blizzcon, regarding Classic TBC.
Let’s hope it doesn’t affect other departments. 
Oh sure, it’s entirely subjective. I have lots of disagreements with people about story all the time. There are many cases where I think Blizzard are writing a stellar storyline (Sylvanas) and then lots of other people think I’m wrong and that it is in fact terrible writing.
Story is always going to be a bunch of purely subjective and individual opinions, and we all obviously voice them as such.
For me it adds the same to my gameplay experience as a new race or faction would. It expands on what WoW is and therefore adds more interesting story opportunities.
Beyond that I don’t personally get more out of it. I am not drawn to a game for the way it reflects real-life or my way of living.
However, I do play games with others and I want the games I play to be played by all kinds of people – because they directly enrich my gameplay experience.
So whatever other people want in gaming to feel more drawn into it and welcomed, that’s something I support (so long as it doesn’t go against my own interests), because I want to play with lots of other people.
Answer above. 
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There’s plenty of cases (not in WoW maybe but in media in general) where that is the case though. There are so many overdone tropes that make up for the majority of representation.
You say “why should the implementation be good and can’t just be there?” I don’t get it, why settle for less? Why shouldn’t they create awesome and interesting LGBT characters from the start rather than putting a gay sticker on a character later on down the line. There’s even a trope named after that called “Suddenly [sexuality]” I think lol 
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I’ll take that as a no then? Because I have no idea what that video is about.
I’m not sure you can ever compare adding a gay and/or trans character to wow with adding a new faction or race, seems rather far fetched.
In that case I can highly advise you to listen to gay and trans people and what they think of this, rather than highlighting your own opinion on how this is against your own interests or not implemented properly.
In that case it’s best to listen to the people and what their response is. If gay people are happy that a gay person gets added or portrayed, it’s a good thing. If gay people are not happy on how a gay person is added or portrayed, listen to them as well.
Because it sounds like whenever a gay or trans character gets added, it’s only allowed when there’s a good story reason to do so. This wasn’t the case for all the cishet characters in wow either, so why are others held up to higher standards? It always baffles me how this seems to be the case as soon as a gay or trans person gets added to games.
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Yeah I agree, it’s kinda weird and I’m a little guilty of it myself as well. There are plenty of cases where whoever implements a character like that just can’t win;
A) Cool existing character turns out gay --> why can’t they make an interesting new character
B) New character is gay --> Why can’t it be subtle and why do they make such a big deal out of it gay agenda REEE.
I’m usually more like A in the above, I prefer fleshed out characters that are LGBT. I think Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition was really well done for example. He was confident about himself but didn’t shy away from joking about it either. Even though the not being accepted ‘trope’ was there as well it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
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Could you give some examples of this, because in game most of the major chars who were shown specifically as straight had story relating to it. Thalyssra-Lorthremar, Malfurion-Tyrande, Baine-Mayla. Converting existing characters to LGBT is just low effort. Also, SL additions of Pelagos (being completely worthless and pathetic character, almost everyone hates him from questing) and the couple from Ardenweald campaign feels completely random, that whole chapter felt disconnected from story, just so blizz can show how they “care” about LGBT.
And another thing, why all LGBT npc’s added are friendly or good guys, why not add some evil ones.
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You can take that as me wanting Jito to be a WoW avatar that talks about WoW and isn’t too much a reflection of who the person behind the avatar is.
For my personal gameplay experience? That’s 100% what it is. It just broadens the story possibilities in a way that ideally enriches my gameplay experience and feeling of being entertained.
And if it makes other people more happy for whatever reasons they have, then it makes me more happy, because I have to play with those other people.
Hold on now. I haven’t said that it is against my own interests. I have specifically and repeatedly said that I support it because it is in fact in my own interests (more story possibilities, more people to play with).
And of course if the implementation isn’t very good – which I don’t think it is with regards to Chromie – then I think it’s fair to criticize Blizzard as I always criticize them when I don’t like the writing of a particular story or character or whatever.
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Can confirm, I’m boring as all hell
Not only is Rowling just incredibly bigoted, but she only added these things A) After the series was all but finished, and B) when she had the chance to make Dumbledore explicitly gay in the Fantastic Beasts films (you know, where him being too in love with one of the main villains to stop him is a major plot point) she declined.
That’s the problem- that she only did a lot of this representation when it wasn’t a risk to her, and backed away when it was.
Chromie’s going to be in game for a while, so unless Blizzard remove her completely they’re actually including their representation
This. Suddenly calling someone who’s always presented themself to you as female “he” the second you find out they weren’t always that way is extremely telling about your attitude to trans people.
Yeah, it’s funny how many people are totally fine with seeing X minority character in the story, buuuut only when it’s simultaneously not a big deal (because then it’s just forced into the story) and really important (because otherwise why’s it even there!).
And then when there’s a character who’s been hinted as being it for years, they’re still just suddenly being made X for brownie points. And there’s no way the authors finally feel they can make the character the way they’ve seen them for years without backlash, they’re obviously just making them that to avoid backlash by not having diverse characters!
Oh, and it’s always forcing something into the story that hasn’t been there before. Ignore all the “normal” characters who’ve had that trait be part of their story, that wasn’t important, but now it’s an X character it’s suddenly forcing it into the narrative!
It’s just dancing around the point that they just don’t want to see those types of characters, while trying to find a reason why it’s not that
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Chromie’s always had the question of her being trans hang over her. It’s only low effort in the sense that Blizzard had to go “yeah, she trans”, and didn’t need to do much more than write it as a short story.
Why not? Pelagos being trans might well have been useful for RP’ers wondering if it were possible to not only be trans in WoW, but whether they could/would have a soul that doesn’t match their physical form.
Meanwhile in Ardenweald Blizzard clearly wanted to have the night warrior character have a lover (to show the effects of it on the person’s partner), and they decided “why not make them be gay?”. If it felt disconnected, then either it was generally poor story writing, or the problem with it being gay was on your end.
Oh, and that was “story relating to being gay”. It just happened that the characters involved were both guys, relatively new and minor, but Blizzard could just as easily have made the listed characters gay when they were first concieved.
They even could have, if they weren’t worried that making them important and gay would have resulted in heavy backlash.
It’s usually considered bad taste to make people from an underrepresented group evil without having more developed representation, especially when there were literal writing codes saying they need to be evil.
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She looks hawt in the thumbnail
big ears though
I didn’t even know about it tbh. The only part of the Night Fae campaign that was interesting to me was Bwonsamdi questline.