World of Warcraft Twitch streamer Asmongold is frustrated with Blizzard employees once again. This time it’s over some sex-themed jokes being removed from WoW.
Blizzard has been under a lot of pressure since the company was sued for gender discrimination and the alleged mistreatment of female employees. Since then, developers have been making changes to some of Blizzard’s most popular titles. This includes Overwatch changing McCree’s name after his namesake was revealed to participated in behaviors deemed problematic. And now World of Warcraft is seeing a lot of in-game changes.
First, some artwork within the game was changed to be less revealing. Asmongold
talked about this
in September, calling the cleavage removed from one painting “a joke.” Asmongold is now discussing Blizzard’s changes again after some achievement titles were renamed due to their being “sex jokes.”
World of Warcraft community frustrated with Blizzard censorship
Some achievement titles in World of Warcraft were seen as sexual in nature, causing developers to change them after the ongoing legal battles at the company. “My Sack is Gigantique” was renamed to “My Storage is Gigantique” and “Bros Before Ho Ho Hos” was renamed to “Holiday Bromance.”
This has caused some World of Warcraft players to voice frustration with Blizzard. They feel that the censorship of older content won’t accomplish anything, and that the team should instead be focused on combating toxicity and sexism. Asmongold is probably the most prominent voice in the community to echo these sentiments.
“I think that Blizzard is full of a bunch of weird developers that are probably mentally ill or socially maladjusted,” Asmongold said. “Because of that, these people perceive sexual jokes as abuse or harassment and they’re removing it on that basis.”
As the discrimination lawsuit against it continues, Asmongold and the rest of the WoW community applauded Blizzard for removing problematic staff members and creating a fund to settle discrimination and harassment claims.
But some of the company’s choices, such as removing cleavage from a painting, have frustrated gamers. To them, it seems like pandering. Many believe this os only being done to make it seem as though Blizzard cares about these issues during its ongoing legal battle. It doesn’t actually make better the company’s approach to women, some argue, and doesn’t help to prevent the harassment and toxicity that female gamers experience in-game.
Olivia Richman
About Olivia Richman
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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