Something I’ve always been hugely annoyed by when talking about such matters on these forums is the hypocrisy of the community about it. "I don’t want real life religious references in WoW" is what you all say.
Really? Well, we have a gigantic cathedral at the heart of Stormwind.
Now, what’s a cathedral again? https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that is the seat of a Bishop.
The term “bishop” is also specific to the Christian religion. Yet, there are many bishops in WoW. The story behind the word “paladin” is also rooted in christian lore.
Christianity is everywhere in WoW. You’re not bothered by it. I’m not bothered by it. That’s of course because all the Christian-related words, buildings and NPCs in WoW are dedicated not to God and Jesus, but to the Light.
Well, buildings, transmogs and NPCS inspired by the muslim culture could simply be alternative ways to worship the Light. Just like there are different types of Christians in real life, there could be different types of Light worshipers in WoW. Or they could worship it the exact same way, except they’d wear different clothes and have different building aesthetics. What could possibly be wrong about this?
I’m not going to tiptoe around this: besides blatant islamophobia, there’s no reason to be opposed to more muslim inspired aesthetics in WoW. “I don’t want real life religion in my video game” doesn’t work when there’s plenty already and it doesn’t bother you.
I didn’t expect an intelligent answer, and the least I can say is that you did not subvert my expectations.
As I stated, there’s no rational reason to be opposed to this idea.
Why are there plenty of real life references in WoW then?
Why did we have an entire expansion dedicated to Asian culture and beliefs, with monasteries? Why do we get new Asian-themed mounts every single year?
Why are there NPCs to commemorate real life WoW personalities who passed away?
Again: real life is everywhere in WoW. This argument doesn’t stand.
Just say “I don’t want Islam specifically in WoW because I’m islamophobic”, it’ll be quicker.
There are plenty of other church like buildings across Wow in all sorts of forms, however this is a fantasy game (still surprisingly) with a touch of sci fi, it isn’t irl.
Why does the cathedral look like a real life cathedral then? Why do the pyramids look like real life pyramids? Why do the Asian monasteries look like real life monasteries?
I’ll say it again: it’s all hypocrisy. You don’t reject the idea of real life inspired lore, you reject the idea of islam inspired lore specifically.
I’m not rejecting anything, just this is a game not irl. It doesn’t need to reflect irl. However, I’m not going to bite further into this conversation I feel that whatever opposing view is given is going to be wrong.
Thats a thing with pieacez of art or movies, they can focus on telling some specific fantasy narative and dont aim to reflect absolutely everything you know and care about.
I am sure if it would be considered profitable they would make wow: a thousands nights expac with middle east aesthetics and i personally woul like it.
On the condition it wont add more furries to the game*
This “discussion” has been done to death. There are plenty of middle eastern influences within the game, simply look at Blood Elf architecture and Draenei culture.