Why is LGBT representation important in WoW?

Let’s ask white people how do they feel being a black man in America, and is it hard?

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To know that the very game you love at least acknowledges the existence of your “kind”.

I personally dont care about it whether its in or not. But that would be a reason.

Because in some, not all, countries the rights of lgbt people are not well presented yet alone their existence. Or while laws exist they are still not properly protected by the government in terms of people going after them. This however varies heavily from country to country and also the region you live in.

Its not. At least imo. However it doesnt hurt the game that it exists.

Cant answer that since my take on the debate is neutral.

It hasnt. However im naturally cold.

I live in Germany. At best i get gazes (if at all). Nobody would voice direct hatred or disgust at me for me being of a certain type as it is punishable by law. My family doesnt care. And as i said im quite cold in general so i dont care much (however i lack basic emotions such empathy etc. I am quite literally not able to feel it. I can however try to imagine/understand it based on the information provided and on theory)

The amount of people that know my gender are pretty much non existent and those that know dont care and if they would have an issue with it then i would simply put kick them off my friendslist.

Its fine. It doesnt have to be more.

Mods doing their job and removing/banning people more often. From both sides.

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Nah i think it will be some very interesting months coming ahead now.

Puny elf! Empty threats from a weak pitiful creature! You not only antagonize my people but your own! HAH! There is no place for those like you here!

For sure, u still have to get to 60 in Classic

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Any person can be LGBT. Representation has historically been either absent (as if LGBT people don’t or shouldn’t exist) or stereotypical (sassy gay best friend, butch lesbian, suicidal transgender). For me, meaningful representation happens when LGBT characters are introduced that do not necessarily correspond with those stereotypes. The best representation, to me, is when the LGBT aspect of a person is incidental and unproblematic, a sidenote in their storyline. It’s not about the fact that they’re LGBT, because that is just one aspect of their lives.

A lot of people don’t know any LGBT people and base their opinions only on stereotypes, which are based on what they see in media. This can result in harmful interactions when they do encounter LGBT people and disrespectful speech. Calling things you don’t like “gay” is a clear sign to closeted gays that who they are is not part of acceptable society, even though when the word is used in that way, that’s not what people mean. You might have made someone afraid of coming out without realising it. Personally, I stayed in the closet for a relatively long time, because I felt the only option was to become a flaming queer entertainer, and that’s not who I am at all. Diverse representation helps to counter these harmful stereotypes. (Disclaimer: there is nothing wrong with the stereotypes as such, flaming queer entertainers are lovely, the issue is the lack of diversity in representation.)

WoW is a platform/medium and the way it represents LGBT people (if at all) contributes to the overall representation of LGBT people. Of course, it’s a drop in a bucket. LGBT lives are not directly and materially affected by what happens in WoW. But there are many such drops, and together they determine our society’s and culture’s collective consciousness and judgement of LGBT people. So in a small way, it matters.

I don’t know what community you are referring to.

I’m not broken or weak and I do not need help. That said, I enjoy the LGBT characters added by Blizzard. I will admit that I did not see the Shaw/Flynn storyline coming, but having read the latest short story, I love their interaction and am glad it was introduced.

Not that much. Sometimes, a well-meaning but ignorant person makes assumptions about my life based on my sexuality. I complimented someone on a bright pink coat once, she replied “You would like that wouldn’t you”. Another person once said they would “just love to go shopping with me some time”; I hate shopping. It’s minor and infrequent, but a bit grating when it happens. I did end my internship at a firm because people generally treated each other poorly, but also because they used “gay” to describe things they did not like (“I think iPads are so gay”). It made me feel very unwelcome; I now work for their biggest competitor. I realise I am very lucky and live in an accepting bubble of reality, and many other LGBT people are not so lucky, and have to fear for their lives just for being who they are.

Very little. I do have the mature language filter enabled, just to avoid being confronted with nasty language and gay slurs, especially in random group content. In my guild there are people who use “gay” pejoratively and I would rather they didn’t, but I’m not so fussed that I do anything about it. On the whole, it seems a bit of toxicity and trolling is just part of gamer culture now.

This question is phrased as if I am entitled to something and can be the judge of whether it was enough. That’s not how I feel and also, not in line with reality: Blizzard does whatever it wants, regardless of my opinion. I support diverse LGBT representation and am glad Blizzard took the opportunity of the Shadowlands to increase that diversity. I particularly find the inclusion of Pelagos touching, combining the transition from the mortal realm to the Shadowlands with the transition to another gender expression.

I sincerely wish people would stop whining about it on the forums. It’s not a zero-sum game, as if there is limited representation available and LGBT people are stealing slots from others. I don’t know who people saying ‘it’s just a corporate fad, it’s not authentic’ think they are protecting. I have taken to muting all threads about it, as hate-reading them just makes me sad. The only reason I took the time to respond to this one is because you seemed genuinely interested.

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Nice.
Do tell us your evil plan though. What are you going to do? When are you going to do it? Where? What childhood trauma led you to the point where you’re threatening someone on a video game forum? All the juicy details, so that it may be eternalized in song and dance.

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It really is needed.

When my dad explained to me what a gay person is when I was 7 years old, he told me that they put their “thing” up each others poopers. Then he laughed, rolled his eyes and called them lunatics.

My mom being a catholic, told me that I should avoid them because there is a special place in hell for people like that.

I love my mom and my late dad, but their perspective on LGBT culture is a bit out of date as times have clearly changed.

I grew up not knowing any LGBT people and homophobic slurs were extremely common in my social circles, both as a kid, teen and young adult. I’m sure a lot of people can relate as even gaming in its early 2000’s was full of what is today considered disrespectful slurs.

Now as a adult in my early thirties, LGBT culture starts popping up and moves into my gaming hobbies as well. All I have in my backpack is what the media and TV has shown me.

I don’t know much about the culture, the people or why it is important. It’s controversial and there is a lot of emotion for and against it. Rather than straight up reject it, I’d like to keep an open mind to try and understand it first and make up my own mind.

From my perspective, it really feels like I am doing everything I can to possibly revert over a decade of indoctrination. But there is going to be a adjustment period and of course I will be skeptical at first.

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I’m genuinely suprised that you are so open-minded about this. Probably because of the threads I’ve visited the last few days on the forums.
But I want to say thanks. I’m happy that you are willing to learn!

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That’s good, however not the responsibility of LGBTQ+ folks to teach you that. If they want, that’s great. Being part of a minority and constantly having to explain and justify your existence to every single cishet person is exhausting.

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No, I’m pretty sure your dad’s description was accurate and up to date. Well, at least the first part.

There’s no big secret or conspiracy here. Gays are like everyone else. Some are good, some are bad. And I’m saying this as an orthodox Christian. It’s not my place to judge them based on their sexual orientation. That’s between them and God. I reserve that judgement for their actions and that, in my opinion is fair. Therefore I don’t see why I’d have to take special steps to accommodate people, from different point of views, just because they are gay. This representation thing is one of them. If when I ask someone why representation is needed and they give me a half arsed response like “gays have been discriminated against a long time ago” I do not consider that a viable argument.

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Not even remotely similar. But a disingenuous thoughtless post from you isn’t surprising.

Lets phrase it as “I’m not interested in why non LGBT feel its important too”.

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here is my take on lgbtq+ stuff ingame and overall:

I don’t care if u are represented in the game, doesn’t hurt me one bit,
I hope you get all your rights,
I hope you don’t get attacked for this kind of stuff,
I hope you get treated the same as everyone else,
I hope you won’t block the streets and roads to protest so i can get to the location i want to in the same speed with my car

Is this cancel worthy or am i fine? :flushed:

You are not very smart… you probably don’t care about posting on the forums but making threats on it will get you banned form the game…

I really appreciate the detailed reply, thank you!

Same to you Kretías, appreciate it!

Awwwh please stop I’m flattered :blue_heart:

More like “I’m not interested what white people want to say about living as a black man” :laughing:

:joy: Don’t worry, you’re fine.

As for the protesting, I highly doubt something like that will happen, unless the government decides to strip the rights away from LGBTQ+ people. Protests in that scale rarely happen out of the blue.

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Gay people are still discriminated against.

“The gays”. Feel free to say “gay people”.

There is barely any to no representation, that is the problem. You say Gay people are no different, then why are we treated differently? And why if we want to be on equal terms, we have to justify this? Why do you think we should give you reasons to be equally represented when we’re not? Why don’t you have to give us a reason why you are overly represented?

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You’re welcome

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Well at least you finally, without a doubt, have shown your true colours.
Thanks for that mate

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