I try to stay optimistic...

[nosoup4crr]

about the people who make up the WoW population. But, it takes only a quick venture to the general forums to take my two steps back. I think that, up until I started playing the World of Warcraft, I had a good feeling about how far the human-race had some in the area of acceptance and open-mindedness.

I read this tonight:

Warning! Controversial racial comments are inside.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3773318698&sid=1


It's made it nearly 10 pages and has yet to be removed by Blizzard.

[Baboon]

edit: nvm should have read the post first

[snowieken]

What are you doing on those forums anyway? :p

Ah, and then people complain when a gold seller advert here remains undeleted for a mere two hours... :grin:

EDIT: On a more serious note, posts like this might help you keep your optimism:
-------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Yeah, it really is all a bunch of crap. Racism is used for minorities to get special treatment more often than not. Racism doesn't even mean anything any more.
-------------------------------------------------------

Have you been outside lately? Do you watch the news? May I suggest some sociology courses? Are you currently a resident of planet Earth?

[nosoup4crr]

What are you doing on those forums anyway? :p

Ah, and then people complain when a gold seller advert here remains undeleted for a mere two hours... :grin:

EDIT: On a more serious note, posts like this might help you keep your optimism:

What bothers me most is that the community is made up nearly exclusively of sheep. I'm willing to bet that a good number of players, and even some of the posters who made a witty comment were actually offended (at least on some level). And, instead of expressing it, they chose not to ruffle feathers.

No, I'm not black. But, anything I've said which most probably presume was targeted ONLY at the whites who made those racist comments is meant equally for any and all of the black players who said, "I'm black and I thought this was funny." I'm sure some of them might respond, "you have no right to tell me how to feel about these types of comments." But, I would say the same thing to these people that I would to anyone who's getting bullied/insulted. "Stand up for yourself." Insults are insults, even when masked in humor.

All of the 15 and 16 year olds, who play Wow and on the forums, are seeing this and likely developing skewed perspectives on bigotry because people refuse to speak up and say something. It's hours later. And I'm still very angry at what I saw in that thread--not so much the original post as the hundreds of endorsing comments made about it.

[Stowned]

It's likely that this was a b-tard raid.

If you don't know, theres a website called 4chan (I do not reccomend visiting this website for any reason. I'm unsure of the security of doing so, and I will not provide a link.) that basically houses some of the most immature specimens of humanity that exist on the internet. All they do is try to offend people, and generally not in any form of an intelligent respect.

One thing they like to do is flood other forums/ MMOs/ online games with their stupidity. I had a roommate who liked to visit that website and I remember seeing wow discussed as a likely target for a b-tard raid.

So try not to lose faith in the wow community, that's only what they want you to do. I've been playing this game for 3 years now and there are some sharp fellas out there.

Snow's right though, the sharp ones stick to these forums. The official ones do to me what Myspace does to me, I just end up getting angry every time I log on.

[dgrampa]

Try to remember that the majority of WoW players are children that think they know what they are talking about.

Also, when you start feeling optimistic about the WoW population please take 5 minutes to take a look at the rest of the population. You will quickly be reminded that the world is full of stupid people. Not 'he didn't do well enough in high school to get into a top college' kind of stupid, but a 'omg did he just try to disassemble an RPG with a sledgehammer?' kind of stupid.

EDIT: No, not Role Playing Game...Rocket Propelled Grenade. =P

[Naolin]

I'm glad to have found some mature people on my server to play with, but the amount of asshats running around sometimes scares me. Then again I'm sometimes quick to judge by names of characters which in the end doesn't really say anything about the person ( I have a character called Toiletmastar, just for fun he's my bank alt)

[Dhoum]

That was repulsive reading (I only got to page two of the thread) ... almost as unpleasant as the OP were the number of "lol" replies, what is wrong with these people that they think that racism is ever funny?

[Twoflower]

i think that post was a joke. didnt lol though. but comedy is like art, you can only express your personal taste, but you cannot try to get a general consence.

[Tikki]

I'm blown away.
how can these people not be enraged by this? How could the forum moderates let this go on for so long?

I kind of feel sick after reading it. It's so stupid, and mean, and there isn't an ounce of funny in it. A joke may be a joke, my there is NOTHING right about a joke that insults, degrades, and be littles someone/something/some place/etc. I see where you're coming from twoflower, and in some ways you're right, but would someone saying a snuff film is art be correct? would it still be art? Art should never hurt someone....and while it's shocking that this is put up, it's more shocking that no one has said how horrific it is.

[Kugan]

That was repulsive reading (I only got to page two of the thread) ... almost as unpleasant as the OP were the number of "lol" replies, what is wrong with these people that they think that racism is ever funny?

Why do people think sexism is funny? Day to day I’m faced with stupid female jokes, and expected to laugh at it. Sometimes it even manifests itself on these forums.

Why do people think death is funny? After every major disaster you will start to hear jokes about it.

I don’t condone what the OP did. He/she probably wrote it only with the intent to shock and upset (racism is too much of a sensitive issue for them not to know what kind of effect it would have).

But I’m not surprised or repulsed that other people find it funny, the same way I’m not surprised or repulsed when people find baby jokes or sexist jokes funny.

[rgirty]

The official forums are great, you just have to be able to weed out the bad information.

There probably is no more powerful tool OUTSIDE of the game to use to benefit yourself or your guild in game than the realm forums/class forums/profession forums of the official site.

The general boards are really like google IMO, you go there looking for good info you just need to sort through all the crap first to find it.

I like these boards as well, but find myself coming here less and less...I used to have problems keeping up here now with the ads and snails pace its quite easy so I don't post as much anymore as I would be replying to myself.

Yeah, that post is terrible. But I hear that sort of talk all the time in my area, i live in a rural area where people actually think that way. When my senior class in high school went for their "senior trip" (people who don't know what this is, think of a 3 day field trip that an entire class goes on as a reward at the end of the year) a black gentleman was checking our luggage. Out of the 15 students who were on the trip that black man was the first black person that 6 of them had ever physically touched.

Hope that isn't too much for these boards, but i'm not talking about the 1800's i'm talking about 10 years ago.

Things haven't changed as much as people like to think, and that post is a reflection of a lot of people's attitude.

For the record, i'm native american. We are one of the smallest minorities now, Wow players are more numerous than native americans in america now.

Woot a decently long post, my first in days.

[xDarkDrifterx]

Try to remember that the majority of WoW players are children that think they know what they are talking about.

QFT

A lot of young wow players are lemmings waiting to jump off the proverbial cliff when the couple of kids next to them do. They're immature, unsure of themselves and the views they have of topics around them. They jump on bandwagons, curse and drink because they think it makes them more mature and that it's cool. It's really sad actually. They'll grow up and come into their own (hopefully) in a few years. The amount of sexism and racism that is spewing forth from the 20 and under crowd that I seem to come into contact with within wow is frightening. It's like they don't think it's bad, and it's funny to them. It's definitely strange. I just think they're very confused and don't even know it.

As rgirty pointed out as well, many kids (especially in rural areas) may not come into contact with a minority until they leave their area or go on a trip. This is why racism is able to continue to flourish.

Like these girls:

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/khanx089/mediajournal/prussian-blue-brats.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Blue_(American_duo)

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1231684&page=1

It's really sad IMO, and their parents are all to blame for this, as they started them hating and started filling them with white supremacist rhetoric and misinformation as soon as they could.

_________

One thing that I have experienced through the years (I'm 32) has been reverse racism. Racism from black americans directed at white americans, and it's strangely accepted in society and you rarely here anything about it in the media, but it's just as bad, racism is racism and should be eliminated.

[Kaldresh]

*Gives Tikki big hug* How ya doing?

I think most people can read the first sentence and figure out it's meant to be deliberately stupid. The people who really feel this way have much better arguments.

Can't figure out why it's still there though.

[Twoflower]

I'm blown away.
how can these people not be enraged by this? How could the forum moderates let this go on for so long?

I kind of feel sick after reading it. It's so stupid, and mean, and there isn't an ounce of funny in it. A joke may be a joke, my there is NOTHING right about a joke that insults, degrades, and be littles someone/something/some place/etc. I see where you're coming from twoflower, and in some ways you're right, but would someone saying a snuff film is art be correct? would it still be art? Art should never hurt someone....and while it's shocking that this is put up, it's more shocking that no one has said how horrific it is.


the problem is, no matter what you do, someone somewhere will be hurt. someone will be shocked. for someone, it will be totaly against their view of life.

I didnt think that post was funny in the least. wasnt even tempted to laugh. But it will not get me enraged either. Too many different people life on this world.

I met people who seriously think that way the guy posted. I used to think that i would get sick when i even stay in the same room as such people. But somehow i think we need to learn to understand even those people. Even accept that this is the way they are at the moment. Only then we may get trough to them and show them a different way, bring them back to the light. Not that i am there yet ^^ i think you need to become some sort of a saint to be able to life that attitude. Still, it s what i think should be everybodys goal.

That said, i still think that post just was a bad joke.

edit : xDDx, these poor girls. shocking. shows again that we need a parental license. What these parents did to those poor kids is terrible.

[PlayThemAll]

That's why I rarely go to the "Official Forums" and it says a lot about the attitudes of a lot of players.

The post has finally been pulled, but it went on for way to long. It never should have made it to the first reply, bad joke or not.

[xDarkDrifterx]

Here's an interesting read on the topic:

Game operators face social responsibilities in their online Utopias

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=14480

Read a firsthand account of gamer racism

http://www.alwaysblack.com/?p=10

[piscene]

I can't imagine why anyone would go onto the official forums. I have looked in there maybe half a dozen times, and feel the need to rub Purell into my eyes when I'm done. That, and I can feel my IQ slipping with each post that I look at.

If the official forums disappeared today, it would be fine with me. They are horrible.

[Tikki]

*bigs hugs to kaldresh* thanks hunny :)

twoflower: I totally know what you're saying. Someone will ALWAYS be offended by something. The best life lesson to learn is that you can't please everyone. But I just think humour like this is just down right awful. It's targeting a group of people and putting them down for something they can't control.

I have a hard time with humour that boarders on mean and singles out people/persons based on something they can't control.

I like to think I'm a laid back person, but it really bothers me when people are just downright mean. I've been on the opposite side of meanness enough to know that it's not something that feels good.

[rgirty]

I can't imagine why anyone would go onto the official forums. I have looked in there maybe half a dozen times, and feel the need to rub Purell into my eyes when I'm done. That, and I can feel my IQ slipping with each post that I look at.

If the official forums disappeared today, it would be fine with me. They are horrible.

Because there is great info there. Thats why people go on them... and to recruit.

Google is full of horrible search results too, but people use it pretty frequently.