There’s no real context to it, there is not a specific paragraph describing goblins as such - it’s their lore. That’s how goblins as a race are written by Blizzard.
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So the complaint is that goblins aren’t allowed to have these traits because they’re the same as a negative stereotype of jews, basically?
Those are some of the only traits goblins have along with their massive, hooked noses.
The problem isn’t that they share traits with the negative stereotype of a Jew. The problem is they embody just about every negative stereotype of someone Jewish.
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I see, are you jewish yourself then? Personally I never thought about it too deeply but to me they were just a fun fantasy race that took capitalism to it’s logical extreme, a very wacky, zany race. I would have thought Mike Morhaime being jewish would have taken offense if they were meant to be a representation of jews.
You don’t have to be Jewish to find the depiction of goblins to be more than a little bit problematic at times.
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That’s not what I’m insinuating, I was just trying to find out where you drew the comparison from. When I look at a goblin I don’t go, “Yes… That’s a jew!” because honestly I don’t really know many jews, at all.
Goblins weren’t overly Semitic-inspired until Cataclysm, where their money grubbiness was turned up to a thousand and coupled with some intense Brooklyn accents and even more exaggerated noses. I don’t feel like anyone designing the goblins were intentionally making them as Jewish as possible, but the result is definitely a money-obsessed race with hooked noses and New York Yiddish-tinged accents and lingo. They make the Harry Potter moneylending goblins look positively PC. It’s something that could’ve done with some toning down and maybe a second pair of eyes to spot the obvious comparisons.
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For a blunt comparison, the way goblins have been written, especially in later WoW and in exploring kalimdor, is basically if they would have made the Tol’vir a overtly, zealously religious society that really loves explosions and spoke in very stereotypically “eastern” accents.
Along with every stereotype you could think of when it comes to countries in the middle-east and NO other traits whatsoever.
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If it was a criticism of wahhabists I would probably laugh myself off my chair but in all seriousness I understand the point you’re making, I guess I’m just comfortable enough in my own race not to feel slighted by the concept if it existed because I know there’s more than that even if people in the West only see people like Sayyid Qutb make the headlines.
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It’s spread out over the book too, they talk about goblins having poisoned the waters of the Southfury River in the Durotar chapter, then ofcourse the greedy gold-loving part in the one from Azshara!
:confused_screaming:
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They very much went for a crooked and ruthless New York business angle and forgot to put much of anything else I there making it-- well. I don’t think what people see it as is intentional, not in the slightest. But they certainly need a bit more development from Cataclysm.
What race doesn’t really?
I mean in all seriousness what do we know about humanity in Warcraft? Their various cultures? Orcs? Clan cultures? Customs? Traditions? Holidays? How they have and handle two winters, two springs, two summers and two falls in a single year?
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If you’d not personally feel affected by a depiction like that, all the power to you, but I can imagine many other people would also either be angry or feel really hurt by it as well.
These kinds of stereotypes associated to real-life ethnicities, cultures etc are not good to portray in fiction that way/or at all. Especially when it is the only traits for the characters and said stereotypes have negatively impacted people for thousands of years and even directly lead to & caused several genocides and suffering.
At best it is tone-deaf, at worst it is nefarious.
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WoW is very barren. At most, we know there are some holidays that are just meme/joke/references to real-life Earth and one or two lines of trying to show why they are celebrated in Azeroth.
We know Hallow’s End is worshipped by the forsaken to some extend. We don’t know why the other races celebrate it, or why candy, pumpkins and dressing up is involved.
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Winter Veil… cuz it was a (dwarven?) holiday that the goblins picked up on as a money-making scheme.
No idea what the fire festival, or the Pilgrim’s Bounty are supposed to be tho… something 'murican?
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The thing is as well, I like seasonal events. I think it’s a fun way to do things a bit special during holidays. But I’d prefer if they put atleast some effort in with the worldbuilding for it.
It gets even sadder when you realise that several of the events for the past 5 years or so now has not recieved any major updates. The 2009 Brewfest Stein was given out like…8 years in a row for example, if not more.
Some holidays hasn’t got a new update since even longer. Even the WoW anniversary events went downhill. It went from getting something fun, maybe a little mount, to getting some fun toys, to getting nothing except a mail and xp boost for several years until the big chromie event.
Which has then been recycled again since it came out.
They can’t even be bothered to give these holidays any love from a gameplay perspective.
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When you put it like that obviously it’s a very serious matter, to me it’s always been about having fun with the concepts but definitely I see your point. There’s a lot of stupid people out there.
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Also hate how every race and faction shares holidays.
Factional I can get behind, like every race of a certain faction (or group) could share holidays that other races in the faction are invited too (Loa worship evens for the Horde, or that Oshu’gun one. Pilgrim’s Bounty for the Alliance etc).
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Vixi, need you to check if this link works.
https://imgur.com/a/9qh8jrc
(also sorry for potatoe quality).
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Works, also here is easier link!
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