Gamers Upset at Blizzcon's Slur-Ridden Speech
Gamers are upset that a video with anti-gay epithets played before introducing a guest musician on the Blizzcon stage.
The members of death metal bands are not usually accused of tolerance of homosexuals. It's just not easy to pronounce LGBT in a screech, a grunt or a scream. The two groups don't usually coexist, so when Samwise Didier played a video of the lead singer from Cannibal Corpse ranting of his hatred of "Night Elf faggots," many WoW-players and Blizzard fans were stunned. Sure, most of the offensive words were bleeped out, and when George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher took the stage to play with the all-Blizzard employee band Level 90 Epic Tauren Chieftain, only normal non-offensive metal ensued. But many forum-posters on Blizzard's website have complained not only about the insulting words but also Fisher's call to arms that all Alliance should die not just in the game but in real life.
"A senior Blizzard representitive endorsed a video saying that the players of a faction should die," said Halcyón, a poster on Blizzard's community site. "We are encouraged to invest ourselves in our characters - and by extension, in our faction. And it gets hard to enjoy it when faction pride becomes anti-faction hatred, especially when it is expressed/endorsed by a Blizzard employee."
The tone of Blizzcon has been marred by the hatred that Horde players display against anyone who may be Alliance, and the Blizzard forums contain testimonials of actual violence committed by Blizzcon attendees this past weekend. "Leaving the [concert] event, two young guys probably in their early 20s came up behind us and pulled on my wife's lanyard seemingly trying to break it off and shouted 'Alliance *****' at her," recounted a Blizzard fan [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424466214#1]. "It did not break lose and instead my wifes' head and neck were jolted downward." The woman was not seriously hurt but her head and neck were sore for many days and the experience took an emotional toll.
Halcyon's thread has reached its post maximum three times with thousands of gamers complaining about the incident. In addition, according to Gay Gamer, gay rights group GLAAD has reached out to Blizzard to take responsibility and apologize showing a video that was so laced with anti-gay language.
In response, Blizzard employees issued a statement claiming that the whole performance and video were not meant to be taken as serious endorsements of violence. "We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun. Thank you all for speaking up. We'll definitely keep this in mind for future shows," Blizzard stated [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424906852#1].
For those of you with morbid curiosity, here is the full un-bleeped interview with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Beware if you are Alliance, don't want to hear Night Elves described "emo bastards" or just dislike metal in general like I do.
Source: Gay Gamer [http://gaygamer.net/2011/10/antigay_speech_at_blizzcon_201.html]
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Gamers are upset that a video with anti-gay epithets played before introducing a guest musician on the Blizzcon stage.
The members of death metal bands are not usually accused of tolerance of homosexuals. It's just not easy to pronounce LGBT in a screech, a grunt or a scream. The two groups don't usually coexist, so when Samwise Didier played a video of the lead singer from Cannibal Corpse ranting of his hatred of "Night Elf faggots," many WoW-players and Blizzard fans were stunned. Sure, most of the offensive words were bleeped out, and when George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher took the stage to play with the all-Blizzard employee band Level 90 Epic Tauren Chieftain, only normal non-offensive metal ensued. But many forum-posters on Blizzard's website have complained not only about the insulting words but also Fisher's call to arms that all Alliance should die not just in the game but in real life.
"A senior Blizzard representitive endorsed a video saying that the players of a faction should die," said Halcyón, a poster on Blizzard's community site. "We are encouraged to invest ourselves in our characters - and by extension, in our faction. And it gets hard to enjoy it when faction pride becomes anti-faction hatred, especially when it is expressed/endorsed by a Blizzard employee."
The tone of Blizzcon has been marred by the hatred that Horde players display against anyone who may be Alliance, and the Blizzard forums contain testimonials of actual violence committed by Blizzcon attendees this past weekend. "Leaving the [concert] event, two young guys probably in their early 20s came up behind us and pulled on my wife's lanyard seemingly trying to break it off and shouted 'Alliance *****' at her," recounted a Blizzard fan [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424466214#1]. "It did not break lose and instead my wifes' head and neck were jolted downward." The woman was not seriously hurt but her head and neck were sore for many days and the experience took an emotional toll.
Halcyon's thread has reached its post maximum three times with thousands of gamers complaining about the incident. In addition, according to Gay Gamer, gay rights group GLAAD has reached out to Blizzard to take responsibility and apologize showing a video that was so laced with anti-gay language.
In response, Blizzard employees issued a statement claiming that the whole performance and video were not meant to be taken as serious endorsements of violence. "We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun. Thank you all for speaking up. We'll definitely keep this in mind for future shows," Blizzard stated [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424906852#1].
For those of you with morbid curiosity, here is the full un-bleeped interview with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Beware if you are Alliance, don't want to hear Night Elves described "emo bastards" or just dislike metal in general like I do.
Source: Gay Gamer [http://gaygamer.net/2011/10/antigay_speech_at_blizzcon_201.html]
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