I watched some of Blizzcon 2011 from home, although I didn't watch the closing concerts, including the introduction to guest singer Corpsegrinder who was going to perform with the Blizzard employee band Level 90 Tauren Chieftain.
This short clip shown at Blizzcon and therefore understood as Blizzard condoned material, has created an uproar amongst WoW fans.
Here's a video of the event in question.
Transcript of what the above video shows, including what was beeped out.
I'm not fucking playing, World of Warcraft is fucking life for me. And I don't play no fucking homo Alliance either, I don't play no fucking night elves or gnomes - fucking orcs and undead. Fuck the Alliance, fucking die you fucking emo cocksuckers
(cut)
You know what, go back to your fucking Alliance fucking character and level to 70, stop fucking going to the Elemental Plateau ganking people, I'm trying to farm motes of air
(cut)
I'm pathetic. When it comes to World of Warcraft I'm a pathetic nerd. But I'm not Alliance, I can tell you that much.
The video was not produced specifically for this show, judging from Corpsegrinder's notion of farming motes of air, the clip is probably from 2007-8.
I've posted the longer version underneath, "unfortunately" still edited.
I think this case exemplifies several aspects, bringing up not only issues of homosexuality and hate speech but also performing masculinity.
If we think of Stuart Hall for a moment with the distinction of overt and inferential racism, the same concept can be applied to homophobia. Corpsegrinder is clearly identifying as a Horde player and is engaging in the play-fight between the two factions. This is the upper layer, but the words he chooses and how he expresses himself reveals another layer. One of the reasons Alliance is so uncool to him is that they're not masculine enough and in Corpsegrinders universe, that is equal to being gay.
In the extended version, you can hear him rant about "homo" gnomes and especially night elves, while dwarves are ok. He then goes on to complain about blood elves saying "I can't believe they gave us fucking blood elves, they're not evil". This description of Horde as the evil and brutal faction versus the Alliance as the good civilized guys is rolled out here as a matter of homosexual and weak vs "real man".
So while some players would argue this clip is funny, that doesn't negate it from being offensive or subject to criticism.
Corpsegrinder is using these anti-gay words as swearwords, as derogatories. For this to work, he has to equate being homosexual to something bad - so bad, it's meant to offend us (or well, Alliance players), so there's also a wider expectation for others to also find it derogatory to be called gay/fag/homo.
It was interesting to hear several others in class saying they didn't really connect fx "fag" with gay-bashing. Language is a dynamic size in constant motion and "fag" has already traveled a long way, having a history from before it was about homosexuality. Quoting the Wikipedia article on "Faggot":
The origins of the word as an offensive epithet for homosexuals are,
however, rather obscure, although the word has been used in English
since the late 16th century as an abusive term for women, particularly
old women,[5] and reference to homosexuality may derive from this,[4][6] female terms being often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen).
Is "fag", despite its current homohobic meaning, becoming a general
swearword? How much of a word's history is evoked when using it? And what does it say about our culture when homophobic slurs can go under the radar this easily?
Language which falls under the following categories is deemed to be
highly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category
can be found by clicking on the links below.
Though we have varying tolerance for repeated abuse of each category,
any language that violates one of these categories will most likely
result in:
Being given a warning
Being temporarily suspended from the game
Possibly being given a Final Warning, any further ToU violations resulting in account suspenion
An explanation of Account Penalties Policy can be found here: Account Penalties
Am I right in sensing a little doublestandard here, when players posting violent, crude or vulgar language on the forum or in the game are risking penalty, while Corpsegrinder openly screaming so many beeps on that video
displayed at Blizzard's own convention, is hilarious and totally ok?
Well, it wasn't okay for long.
Here's the final apology from Michael Morhaime (it took a few tries to get it right):
Dear members of the Blizzard community,
I have read your feedback and comments about this year’s BlizzCon, and I have also read the feedback to the apology from Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain. I’d like to respond to some of your feedback here.
As president of Blizzard, I take full responsibility for everything that occurs at BlizzCon.
It was shortsighted and insensitive to use the video at all, even in censored form. The language used in the original version, including the slurs and use of sexual orientation as an insult, is not acceptable, period. We realize now that having even an edited version at the show was counter to the standards we try to maintain in our forums and in our games. Doing so was an error in judgment, and we regret it.
The bottom line is we deeply apologize for our mistakes and for hurting or offending anyone. We want you to have fun at our events, and we want everyone to feel welcome. We’re proud to be part of a huge and diverse community, and I am proud that so many aspects of the community are represented within Blizzard itself.
As a leader of Blizzard, and a member of the band, I truly hope you will accept my humblest apology.
The session on Gender and gaming this week dealt with three texts in particular:
• Yee, “Maps of Digital Desire”
• Lin, “Body, Space, and Gendered Gaming Experiences”
• Jenkins, “Complete Freedom of Movement”
In game deterrents and barriers
We wanted to play this video in class, but ran out of time. It's a machinima produced by WoW players and can thus be seen as a humorous response to how female players are sometimes treated in WoW (confer both Yee and Lin).
The video brings forward the double edged sword that female players are sometimes confronted with. I find the video funny, but I also consider it a criticism. It wouldn't be funny if it wasn't referring to a pattern and then reversed to expose the ridiculousness of female players acting this way. I'm seeing a message in this video that, besides the giggles, the viewer is meant to take away from this.
On one hand, female players/avatars are sometimes met with a differentiated treatment, where
they are regarded helpless and in need of protection (i.e. from a male
player). Other times female players are treated more generously, help
is easier attained and players can be more forgiving if a female player
makes a mistake.
There is another side to this coin, where forgiveness is replaced by
distrust in the female player’s skills and abilities to play well. It
can be disheartening to be treated as an inferior player, suspected of not being able to fully perform to the standards of male players.
For more on this, consider reading Esther MacCallum-Stewart's articleReal Boys Carry Girly Epics: Normalising Gender Bending in Online Games(2008).
I think the video displays many of these points, both the positive of getting the offer of free materials for a new item, but also the negative. For example when Jesse leaves, one of the women says she wouldn't have liked to carry him through the dungeon and outperforming him anyways.
I also see this video as an example of a deterrent that is operating within the game. So the female player may have made it as far as to actually play, but can find the tag "female" occasionally creating problems.
I've had a few experiences with this myself, but most of the time, being female has not been an issue.
I'm wondering though, in relation to the video, does male players meet any barriers in game? In what way would these barriers intersect with fx age, sexuality, race etc? And how are these different from the barriers girls and women meet?
(Maybe I'm reaching too far into next session's theme..)
Out of game deterrents and barriers
In line with Lin's study on gendered gaming experiences and how they are physically structured around the home, cybercafés and dormitories, this is an example of a larger roadblock, still cultural, but also in the more serious category.
Enthusiasts of military-style first-person shooters are
not well known for their progressive thoughts on the matter of gender.
The organizers of a large LAN party in Texas, scheduled to celebrate the
launch of Battlefield 3, have decided the best way to deal with any slurs hurled at female gamers is to simply forbid them from attending.
"Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of
tension, both of which can result from mixing immature, misogynistic
male-gamers with female counterparts," the organizers originally wrote
in an event FAQ. "Though we've done our best to avoid these situations
in years past, we've certainly had our share of problems. As a result,
we no longer allow women to attend this event.
This paragraph has since been removed, as the stink over the
exclusion went viral, and replaced with: "This event is a 'gentlemen's
retreat'; as such we do not allow women to attend."
This is an obvious barrier, they simply will not let you in. Comparing to Lin's example with cybercafés that culturally was considered dangerous and inappropriate for females, where also the interior layout of the cybercafés acted as a hindrance, here they have tried to solve this problem by segregating the genders and creating a pure male space (notice what they are wanting to evoke by the phrase "gentleman's retreat").
So far, using these two examples, I've painted a pretty grim picture, it sounds like female players are barely wanted in these games by the male majorities and if they get in, their role is clearly marked.
However!
Initial Social Access Points coming to a place near you!
This link was shared on Facebook a few days ago, it's from the Diablo 3 forum and titled How to prepare your girlfriend/wife for diablo III. The problem is: These players are excited about Diablo 3, they know they will spend substantial time when this game comes out and they are already thinking about how to deal with some potential future conflicts now:
"What I mean by prepare is that... You prepare her mentally for all the hours you WONT spend with her and all those hours you will spend with Diablo 3. "
The author ends his post by saying "leave some tips!"
I've seen this dilemma presented on other game boards as well, and this thread looks like a standard "how to deal with girlfriend/wife & gaming" case. What I want to highlight here, is that one of the bits of advice usually given, is expressed as the best case scenario:
"4) Try to convert them to games (best option). Maybe you will even play together?"
And later by another commenter:
"I feel sorry for you guys. You should try to find a grl that loves games :)"
Having/finding a gamer girlfriend is again by a third commenter framed as optimal, this guy considers himself lucky!:
"Guys i gotta tell you,i must be one of the lucky guys :))
My girlfriend,age 22,hardened WoW player,W3 player,and other tons of games,liked D2,and D3 got her quite excited,she`s always asking about that beta key :-<"
We're clearly watching the "initial social access points" in the making as Yee talked about. Notice how forthcoming the guys are in this process, the male players are actively seeking to involve their female aquaintances, here romantic partners, or at least this is the advice given.
When I read this thread, I couldn't help but to also find it endearing. While looking at the negatives on this topic, the previous examples given, this does not give the impression of male gamers aggressively defending their turf, setting up a "do not enter if has boobs" sign as with the Battlefield 3 LAN.
I'm curious about the access points for female players in Battlefield 3, is this not a game that inspires the male players to invite their girlfriends/wives?
Would Battlefield 3 also be able to cultivate a "girlfriend-effect" or why does this game seem to move in the opposite direction?
Is the "girlfriend-effect" an MMO phenomenon only?
And how about expanding the "girlfriend-effect" to also include female players recruiting their female friends? Personally I'd love to have a bigger female player network at my disposal!
And last but not least, bikini plate!
Here's an example of bikini plate from WoW. Should I add, the gear is the same, it just looks different depending on the avatar body.
.
Note: I accidentally misrepresented the avatar sizes, the female avatar is (of course) shorter than the male.
On the topic of audiences and performance, the two case studies we were presented in class were DotA and Guitar Hero.
The first difference that strikes me is that they seem reverted in how they came to be games that supported a player-performance while also attracting an audience.
DotA, a player made mod for Warcraft III, comes across as a very typical computer game. The player sits in front of the screen and uses the keyboard. It's strategic, it's about resource management and it's competetive. Especially the competitive part of the game is easily applied to tournaments, but as we discussed in class, the audience needs to have some knowledge about DotA, they need to be initiated and most likely DotA players themselves to be able to make sense of the performance.
Picture from a DotA tournament (2008). The audience is able to get close to most of the player-performers, but the focus performances are on the stage where the fight is displayed on the large screens above the teams. Photo by Multiplay @ Lowyat.NET
With so many games of the same ilk, it's interesting that DotA and also Starcraft made it as popular tournament games and I wonder if a widespread popularity is so crucial that without a knowledgable and dedicated community around them, they would have ventured no further than your typical LAN party - no show without an audience.
Note the tagline saying "a computer controlled game"
Guitar Hero looks to me as it has come from the opposite direction. Instead of being a game whose performance was able to attract engaged onlookers, it is rather a performance (real guitar or "air guitar") which has been gamified.
We discussed in class how the challenge of the game was akin to Simon the memory game, although tied to rhythm and accuracy. So what is Guitar Hero about, is it really just a button pushing game, "Simon Advanced"? Or are we looking at a golden mix of music, party atmosphere and the sheer opportunity to steal some limelight, even if the complexity of the game only involves pushing buttons in quick sequence. Guitar Hero is not about showing clever thinking, but rather pure Simon mastery preferably while looking cool.
I think the key ingredient here is music and the opportunity to engage with it, regardless of your prowess with an instrument, while the audience can bob along on the sideline without even needing to know what the game is about.
Guitar Hero artwork displaying a concert setting.
I think there's something interesting in how the performances are staged and shaped around also suiting an audience. The ways these performances are presented will say something about what the organizer expects the audience wants to see.
The picture below shows the DotA players on a stage, but almost hidden behing their monitors. Putting focus on a player will have to involve switching to show his/her screen display on the big on-stage screens (I assume). I would be interested to know if these screens also show the DotA players themselves, or if they just bounce between the various interfaces showing the highlights.
A DotA match on the stage. The two teams have been moved so far back on the stage that the distance to the audience looks quite large? Photo by Multiplay @ Lowyat.NET
The biggest Guitar Hero events I could find, that had videos and photos available, also placed the player-performer facing the audience in what looks to be a more traditional stage setting. Because of the dependency on a screen, I get the impression there's a small monitor (maybe several) for the Guitar Hero Player to refer to without having to turn around, giving them much more freedom of movement than a player forced to sit down/face a certain direction.
The Guitar Hero player-performer is on stage and is even facing his audience. Screencap from the video "Riff-Wars Guitar Hero competition"
Despite the concentration being written all over the faces of these players (from the video linked in the picture caption above), they all move away from gamer-with-controller towards guitar-player through their performances - the mimicry part of it.
However, even though the performance of the DotA player has taken precedence over the player in the act of performing, the video we were shown in class, a direct streaming of a DotA/Starcraft player practicing (as I remember it), had two embedded video windows showing his hands moving over the keyboard in one, but also his face in the other, besides the actual progress of the game. Even though I've not been able to find an example of this, I'm not surprised there is still some fascination with the DotA players' facial expressions and how they skillfully operate their keyboards in the same way as the camera will zoom in on the Guitar Hero player tapping at the guitar controller buttons.
Corpsegrinder is using these anti-gay words as swearwords, as derogatories. For this to work, he has to equate being homosexual to something bad - so bad, it's meant to offend us (or well, Alliance players), so there's also a wider expectation for others to also find it derogatory to be called gay/fag/homo.
Is "fag", despite its current homohobic meaning, becoming a general swearword? How much of a word's history is evoked when using it? And what does it say about our culture when homophobic slurs can go under the radar this easily?
As a final note, I'll quote the WoW Harassment Policy
Am I right in sensing a little doublestandard here, when players posting violent, crude or vulgar language on the forum or in the game are risking penalty, while Corpsegrinder openly screaming so many beeps on that video displayed at Blizzard's own convention, is hilarious and totally ok?
Well, it wasn't okay for long.
Here's the final apology from Michael Morhaime (it took a few tries to get it right):