Mike Morhaime replies to open letter over diversity in Blizzard games.

[Skalm]

Apparently equal treatment is special treatment. It sounds to me like the argument is "since equal treatment doesn't exist, it has to be applied, therefore the act of carrying out equal treatment is special treatmemt".

No, it's the fact that LGBT people feel that they should be somehow treated better/differently than non LGBT people.

Look at the feminist movement, it has gone way beyond equality.

Same thing goes on with race. Somehow people of color feel that they deserve to be given more money and be hired solely based on their race and not their individual accomplishments. (Affirmative Action: while it's idea is good, it's implementation is terrible).

Same with going to college. Just because of your color, you get an automatic 'boost' to your SAT scores (through weighting your scores differently based on race).

It's stupid.

Race should not even be on an application for anything. And that is exactly the way LGBT is heading.

Applications will have your sexual orientation on it.

Soon you will see shit about how 'Because im an LGBT, I don't get paid as much as the other person that works here, that is straight'.
'Yeah I know they have been here for five years and I just started last month, but we have the same title, I should get paid the same.'

That's what is meant as 'Special Treatment'. People feel that somehow because they are 'different' in their own mind, that they somehow deserve some sort of treatment that goes above and beyond what 'normal' people get.

[AeneasBK]

Should because its "right" or should because it might increase profits? I read most of the PDF that was recently posted, but nothing said that it is a guaranteed bet for video game developers to go out of their way to make sure women work there. Not to mention I think a lot of that PDF was talking about board members, not creative designers, artists etc.

No, absolutely; however did you read the section that explored potential reasons as to why there are fewer women in the boardroom (barriers to entry)? Some of those ideas are probably transferrable. But, yes, there wasn't anything there to suggest for certain that women would write better stories for video games than men would.

[Deleted]

No, it's the fact that LGBT people feel that they should be somehow treated better/differently than non LGBT people.

Tell me in what way gay people want to be treated better than straight people.

[AeneasBK]

Tell me in what way gay people want to be treated better than straight people.

Honestly; I mean I couldn't give much of a crap about football either but surely watching the game is a better use of your time here?

[Skalm]

Tell me in what way gay people want to be treated better than straight people.

All you have to do is watch the news...

[Deleted]

Honestly; I mean I couldn't give much of a crap about football either but surely watching the game is a better use of your time here?

I actually hope Argentina wins.

[Tziva]

Please stay on topic, guys. Thanks.

[Post]

No of course not, but they are not actively inclusive either - and just like in the above example, they could win more by making sure they are, instead of just ignoring it and continuing their slumber.

And perhaps as a bonus, we'd get a better game.

"We just aren't getting the applications" "WELL MAYBE YOU NEED TO MAKE YOURSELF GET THE APPLICATIONS!" Lol. Really.

[Deleted]

All you have to do is watch the news...

Give me an example. It should be easy then. What is it in the news that tells us that gay people want to be treated better than straight people? Is it when they want the right to marry? Is it when they don't want to be discriminated against for being gay? Is it maybe when a kid can't tell her parents she's gay because she's afraid of losing the financial support of her parents and needs to resort to crowdfunding in order to keep going to college? Because these are the only news I hear.

[breadisfunny]

Representation in the media influences real world representation and visa versa.

provide examples.

[Nadiru]

Doesn't the market reseach think they should though?

Transgendered and women do not make a core demographic of the MMO market. They don't even make a core demographic of the console or PC markets. They do not constitute a core demographic of the CCG market, either. Blizzard has basically no stake in their happiness, and they aren't going to risk angering their actual core demographic (males, nominally white) to try and cater to a foreign demographic.

[Post]

So if you start presenting them with a full white straight male cast even they'll start to feel like something just feels too weird.

WoW doesn't have that.

[Clone]

Completely agree with the letter. When I was younger I didn't notice this. Now that I am older I am bit fed up with the same straight white male hero.

[ReleaseDay]

Lovely.

He replies to idiots who create issues out of thin air in an environment that has nothing to do with them, and ignores his actual customers who are angered over changes like Capital city changes and are consistently ignored with no line of communication.

This is probably the best thing i've ever read on this forum. That might not be saying much though, facts given, but anyhow: I salute you sir.

[Velnora]

Going out of their way to include a minority group just to appease them risks the integrity of the game. People keep saying cause it would make them more money, let's look at Square Enix for example. Square tried to take the Final Fantasy franchise and broaden its appeal to the entire world, to make more money, and in doing so ended up losing tons of money and ruining what made Square Enix a household name among the rpg community.

[Wilian]

Why don't these people argue against actual "anti-inclusive" settings. Tolkien's Middle-Earth was written by notoriously catholic white man who believed in Bible and as such as was against this stuff.

That would actually be reasonable, real target instead of just this current "Well there's not been any reliably yet so thus they are anti-inclusive" idiocity.

[Cyriaa]

This is really annoying and I'm really tired of seeing crap like this.
They always talk about the female characters that get screwed over but never the other ones.

So for female players we have Kerrigan who yes got screwed over by Mengsk but is a complete and total badass. We also have Nova, Mira, Jaina (and don't dare tell me she's not a badass either), Alexstraza, Ysera, etc etc.
Plenty of black characters too. Gabriel Tosh, General Warfield, Tyrael, etc (In WoW there are very few and is worth the complaint there, however not in the other series)

This is just more crying from babies that want and expect the world to cater to them. I wouldn't have even bothered writing back to her if I was him.

[Thimagryn]

Going out of their way to include a minority group just to appease them risks the integrity of the game. People keep saying cause it would make them more money, let's look at Square Enix for example. Square tried to take the Final Fantasy franchise and broaden its appeal to the entire world, to make more money, and in doing so ended up losing tons of money and ruining what made Square Enix a household name among the rpg community.

Going out of their way to appeal to the majority and alienating their core also hurts em. MoP arguably was a push to appeal to the Asian market, with mediocre success. I'm just glad WoD goes back to a classic story at least.

[GrieverXIII]

Lovely.

He replies to idiots who create issues out of thin air in an environment that has nothing to do with them, and ignores his actual customers who are angered over changes like Capital city changes and are consistently ignored with no line of communication.

I can't think of a better example of creating an issue out of thin air than that capital city complaining.

[shimerra]

Going out of their way to appeal to the majority and alienating their core also hurts em. MoP arguably was a push to appeal to the Asian market, with mediocre success. I'm just glad WoD goes back to a classic story at least.

You could argue that, if you weren't particularly bright. Complaining about imaginary asian pandering but o.k. with a retarded ass time travel story?