UPDATE – Mike Morhaine, President of Blizzard, has posted a full apology for the incident on the official WoW forums
A few days ago, as part of one of our latter Blizzcon roundups , we linked to an excellent article from Piercing Howl decrying a particularly unpleasant screw-up from Blizzard at Blizzcon.
As part of the Level 90 Elite Tauren Shaman concert, they played a clip from an interview with George Fisher, aka “Corpsegrinder”, from the band Cannibal Corpse, in which he enthuses about his love of World of Warcraft and the Horde – and in doing so, lets rip with an astonishing series of homophobic insults and comments. The video was played bleeped (according to most commentors – although it may have been bleeped on the Live Stream only – see below) on the main stage at Blizzcon.
The results have, so far, been explosive. I’ve heard that the Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have contacted Blizzard about the video. There’s a Change.org petition up with over 500 signatures so far – and I heartily encourage you to sign too if you’re reading this.
And bloggers have been writing some brilliant pieces about the whole affair. If you want to know more, you want suggestions on how to talk about this issue to your guildmates, and particularly if you’re sitting there wondering why I’m making a big deal out of this, I recommend reading:
- Paw Prints At The Portal is pretty damn pissed off. His angry post makes some excellent points, particularly about the WoW Terms of Service and the airing of the video – “What we have is a company which, in it’s ToU, demands a certain level of behaviour from its customers, which is fair enough. Then it goes and smashes their own Terms to pieces and implicitly endorses the levels of mindless thuggery and abusive crap seen day in, day out in the /trade and /general in-game chat channels.”
- Mysterious Buttons analyses how Blizzard could have handled the entire affair, but didn’t – _“They could have edited those clips together, slapped the “…but I’m not Alliance” one at the end (if they still wanted to do the rawr, horde thing) and everything would have been ok … But they didn’t — they chose to include the segment they used.”
- Grimmtooth tears the Blizzard “apology” to well-deserved pieces – “In the name of a joke, a bunch of inconsiderate louts made the environment around Blizzard HQ – and all it stands for – hostile to people that don’t fit a narrowly defined template of ‘normal’. “
- And Pewter of ‘Mental Shaman airs something even more concerning – she says that the clip was aired unbleeped during the Closing Ceremony – “The video above is an old clip, but it was aired un-edited during the Closing Ceremonies of Blizzcon 2011. There was no censoring/bleepouts as they aired it. I was there, I watched this clip. “
Please share these posts with people who aren’t aware of what happened.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Although, to be honest I am starting to wonder if I mis-remembered – either way it was pretty clear WHAT he was saying, which defeats the point of censoring the clip in the first place. The homophobia came through loud and clear.
Appreciates yer helpin’ fer ta get the word out. Thankee.
There is no way one could’ve heard any homophobic slurs in the censored version, absolutely no possible way.
It is incredible how freedom of speech is those days, you cant even tell a joke without [homophobic insult removed] writing a petition to screw you
[Editor's note - I'd normally remove a comment like this. However, since people have already responded to it, I'm leaving it up. ]
Here’s a thought…your freedom of speech is protected. But, my freedom and many other’s freedoms allow us to boycott whatever we want. If Blizz sees that bigotry is costing them money…they’ll do something about.
It’s the American way, bub. Learn your Bill of Rights.
I guess you have to be born in the USA to understand where the problem might be
Ok…as a LGBT person…I have to say the community either needs to quit wow and under “Why” put their ‘Because of Corpsegrinder’ or be quiet. Blogging won’t help, you are still giving them money. However if more people hurt their wallet then they will be forced to act more harshly and learn their lesson. However, if you are unwilling to do this….be quiet. They won’t be repentive especially not with 11 million subscribers and only 500 signing a petition, they will only do one step below laughing you out of their office.
I kind of agree with Jamie that quitting Wow in big numbers would be a strong statement but voicing a complaint and signing petitions is equally important. It helps shape the future to communicate your understanding. The pure fact that a lot of people thought the ONLY problem was that Alliance may have been insulted shows the gravity of the problem. So, let’s say it again and again and again till maybe even people like Oscar get what the problem is.
I’ve written about LGBT issues in WoW before, so it probably won’t surprise anybody to learn that this bothers me, and not just a little bit. There are so many very obvious reasons why this was unacceptable behavior from Blizzard, but I think Paw Prints At The Portal gets right to the heart of the matter. Blizzard can’t control the attitudes, bigotry and prejudices of its players, but it can and should police and mediate them for the benefit of the community. In broadcasting this clip – censored or otherwise – they totally undermine any pretense that such mediation is even on their radar. @Oscar, above, is obviously just trolling and can be safely ignored, but there are people who genuinely do think like that. Sometimes it’s through ignorance, sometimes through fear, and sometimes through plain old-fashioned Being An Idiot, but no matter the motivation the only way to counter this malicious nonsense is by making your voice heard. That’s why I do think a public petition is a worthwhile endeavor. An idiot will always be an idiot if he only talks to other idiots, but if he hears a sensible, reasoned explanation of the real complexities of the issue at hand, there’s a chance he’ll be cured of his idiocy. It may only be a small chance, but education is – literally – the best and only long-term tool in our arsenal.
Thanks for the article. It is the only I’ve found so far that actually explains to my satisfaction what the issue is. I was there at Blizzcon, and they did air the video uncensored. While the content is pretty offensive, I actually take more issue with the entire notion of inviting the Level 90/80/70 Elite Tauran wankers at all. Aside from some pretty awefull music, the lyrics are predictable and childish, and each song is essentially a bad rip of any number of classic metal ballads.
Ok, I have been seeing a lot of people get upset about this entire thing and I fail to understand why. I was not offended and I actually thought he was pretty funny. “Corpsegrinder” just got a little worked up about the topic at hand, and although he may have chose less than perfect phrasing it doesn’t make it a homophobic rant. I swear, some people in the community are just too easily offended. It was all intended to be light-hearted and we have received two apologies from Blizzard at this time, which is more than enough. Mistakes have been made but it must be forgiven and forgotten.
Personally I find the Corpsegrinder video hilarious. And I can also see the tongue in cheek humor in Cannibal Corpse’s music. But it’s definitely not for everyone.
Blizzard probably shouldn’t have played the video at all. It’s just a bad PR move because a number of people don’t find any humor in it and find it tasteless and offensive. And with the issues that gay people are facing these days, that’s understandable.
And on that note, I have to say at the same time, we can’t just place people in little bubbles and keep them protected from everything. Some people are just hypersensitive about *anything* at all. Not saying anyone here is, but just in general.
However those who are expressing outrage over it and want to boycott, I certainly hope they’ve never used any words in negative connotations towards someone. Whether it be calling someone stupid, retarded, or even in game calling someone a “bad” or a “fail” or anything of that nature.
And yes, I am a HUGE supporter of GLBT rights and equality. Same with any race, religion, etc., also.
@Freddie –
I quite agree. For example, presidents of multi-billion dollar companies cannot be placed in a bubble and protected from the consequences of acting like frat boys at a kegger. If they choose to insult their customers, they will need to apologize for it. I was very pleased yesterday to see that Mr Morhaime understands this.
Ok, after watching the whole video. im thinking alot you, are seriously overreacting. This was not a Homophobic rant at all. if anything its more of a pro warcraft, i hate alliance rant. and we know ghostcrawler is a horde fan. so for us hordies out there, this guy personifies how the some of the horde thinks. when he says the hates gay allies or whatever. hes not talking about LGBT or whatever. comeone ppl. Bill Mahar said it best. This in america, we have the right to say what we want, and offend who we want. but we dont, and never did have a right to not be offended. if you dont like what was said dont listen. change the channel. find something new. maybe wow isnt the community for you. play a “nicer game” maplestory for instance. no cursing or mean talk allowed there.
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