Slashdot Mirror
Stereotyping the Horde
Terra Nova is having a discussion today entitled Cultural Borrowing in WoW, looking at the cultural references made in relation to the Horde (Jamaicans for the Trolls, Native Americans for the Tauren) and what that means given the Horde's reputation as Evil. From the article: "I want to talk about how science fiction and fantasy often engage in this type of borrowing -- most 'new' things are just old things recoded. For instance, the Wikipedia entry on Klingons points to the Soviets, Mongolians, and Japanese Samurai. In most cases, I think this whole process of cultural encryption, mash-up, and recoding is fun -- perhaps what good art is all about. Looking particularly at WoW, though, I have to wonder sometimes..."
It seems like most so-called 'racism' out there isn't blatant and deliberate, but rather subtle and unintentional, made by everyday people who believe themselves not to be racist but occasionally come across that way. In the strictest sense, what could be percieved as 'racism' in WoW is racist insofar as the developers' consciousness of what they were doing. I mean, if someone at Blizzard observed Jamacians (well, actually Rastafarians, as not all Jamacians are as their stereotype makes them out to be) and then said to themselves, 'well I'll make a character out of that' ...then I'd say that's racism. But if the resemblence was concieved at an unconscious level or was just a coincidence, well, that's not racism at all. I'm not sure we'll ever know which it was. Another great example is Jar-Jar Binks. On one hand, he looks like he's straight out of a minstrel show. On the other hand, maybe he's just a bumbling alien.
My own take on it is that it signifies not racism, but just some lack of creativity on Blizzard's part.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Speaking as a white male caucasian and die-hard fan, Star Trek is pretty fucking offensive in its borrowing of racial stereotypes.
Klingons - black skin, brutish, unintelligent, hyper-aggressive, extremely athletic and possessed of a mystical earthy wisdom that's a direct rip of the "magic negro" phenomenon. They're a condensed version of every stereotype about Africans.
Romulans - intelligent, devious, amoral, harsh semi-collectivist government, yellow skin, slanty features, related to 'emotionless' creatures. Condensed version of every stereotype about Asians.
Ferengi - greed-obsessed swindlers of the lowest sort with bulbous ugly noses, comical ears, and they are constantly lusting for Federation (read: Caucasian) women.
It's all there, plain as day. Obviously in the Klingon case there's been importation of 'good' cultural elements like an honor system, etc., but the basic stereotypes are glaring. Tolkein doesn't score much better, either. At least Dune, as the nerd classics go, has the decency to glorify a non-European race.
--Ryvar
Riiiiight, I think you'll find that there are assholes on both sides. When you get bored with your current character try a horde character and go out to Hillsbrad. Some of the quests out there, like the entire Battle for Hillsbrad chain, are nearly impossibe because of alliance out there ganking.
And Strangle Thorn Vale is just a clusterfuck. Both sides are out there ganking all day long.
In all, I find that the horde players tend to be eaiser to deal with, as allies. Barrens chat is bad, but the amount of crap spewing on the General Channel, and being yelled in Goldshire is just over whelming.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
WoW is not set in middle earth, however its ancestor, warcraft was set in a world of ancient celtic myths, and as a matter of fact, naturally, lotr.
Almost all of the prominent races, and hero classifications there are from celtic myths.
And in the celtic myths, there has never been a time that orcs, trolls, goblins were classifiable as non-evil.
They are still evil. just, many people want to play 'evil' for the 'thrill' and 'charisma' of it, but being good in heart deep down, and hence couldnt be able to accept playing an evil character consciously, they twist it.
Read radical news here
I find it interesting that my own son (age 9) doesn't like to play "the bad guys" in any of these games. He didn't like City of Villains (despite being a huge City of Heroes fan) because you played bad guys. While he messed around with horde characters in WoW, all of his main toons were alliance. In EQ2 he wouldn't make a character on the Freeport ("evil") side.
Maybe at some point when he becomes a teenager this is likely to change and he will make some evil PVP ganking toon and spam "lolrz" everytime he whacks a low level player. *shudder*
Sometimes my arms bend back.
While WoW has a superficial impression of Good vs Evil, it's really rather morally ambiguous, and is better categorized as Us vs Them. Saying that Horde is evil because of the mythological sources is inaccurate, simply because Blizzard is no longer using the mythological sources to define the racial behavior. Arguing the interpretation based on the old definition won't get you anywhere simply because it no longer applies.
With that said, I think you've nailed the reason why Blizzard made both sides morally ambiguous - it lets the players be all heroic (or villainous) on either side without restriction. The distinction is that this is something Blizzard did by design, not something that the players are attempting to superimpose on the game.