They changed Ji Firepaw :(

[Deleted]

It's no so much about the removal of one or two lines of text as it is the fact that this entire debacle is nothing more than flagrant sexism-baiting created by someone who, at least to me and many others, clearly has an agenda other than making sure that the NPC's have literary quality dialogue.

it seems to have been pretty successful sexism baiting if that was the original intent. I think it was a really innocuous line of text, I think it upset someone who is particularly sensitive, and Blizzard took the simple step of removing it to placate the original poster, and to douse the flames of angry debate that it seemed to spawn.

honestly I think the line could even have been a placeholder. see Wrynn's 'heeeeeey girl' when the first female Pandas got the Stormwind.

[Austilias]

So then what is your stance on the goblin female in razor hill that calls males beefcakes, and females tramps? I think it is a bit of a double standard. Ji is a heterosexual male. Of course he is going to compliment men on their strength and women on their beauty. As a middle ground, why not just take out the "I bet you can't keep the guys off you." line and just leave the compliment? That I think would of been a fine middle ground. But in return, his compliment to males about getting all the girls, would have to be taken away as well.

Straight males are sexual predators for displaying their interest and appreciation toward those females who catch their eye. Welcome to World of Warcraft.

[DSRilk]

A Dwarf Male Paladin in the female equivalent of the Saltstone Set would be hilarious, yet strangely compelling...

I didn't mean to imply that everyone who liked plate bikinis fell into my previously described categorization, but I do believe they form the majority of why there is high demand for such things. Male dwarf cross-dressing lovers aside

[Deleted]

Straight males are sexual predators for displaying their interest and appreciation toward those females who catch their eye. Welcome to World of Warcraft.

oh come on, now who's overreacting?

[gcsmith]

he said plenty of stupid, lopsided things. that link was horribly written and horribly one-sided.

Very different to every femenist ive ever heard /sarcasm

all talks on this point will be Biased, because everyone has an opinion, however he raised very good points on the blindness of femenists and the stupidity of 'historical' arguments.

[DSRilk]

Ji is a heterosexual male. Of course he is going to compliment men on their strength and women on their beauty.

Dude. If a guy comes up to you and compliments you on your strength, whether he tells you he's hetero or not, he ain't.

[Underskilled]

most likely it was this, the concept of blizzard caving into pier pressure from whiny fan on the forums, well to those whining giving them a sense of accomplishment, it doesn't make it likely for them to change something on a whim without serious reason.
That said, I'm still glad they did, I didn't like Ji before, now I think he's got a chance to develop.

I highly doubt this. There's already mountains of racism in WoW, and there's been even creepier sexual advances that have been in the game since vanilla. The female goblin by the zeppelin to grom'gol, basically asks to join you to STV, so you can have lots of crazy sex together. Keep in mind she says this to both male and female characters.

[Hctaz]

You're complaining about this when they changed the whole "drunken brawler" thing from monk tanks? It should be pretty obvious that they are certainly trying to make this game more appealing for children/people who are offended easily.

[Deleted]

I liked his personality and flirting... IT WAS DIFFERENT for a change. Shame Blizzard listened to the females who just couldn't have a giggle about it.

[mercutiouk]

Reading his blurb that's floating around the interwebs, the original quote seems to fit with his personality, and I don't think anyone needed to freak out over it (especially if the freakout was "ew gay").

HOWEVER, I can understand it being out of place for someone who's essentially a faction leader. Imagine rolling into SW keep or Battle for the Undercity and Varian going "Hey baby, what's shakin', you're looking good", etc.

Also, the original line reads kind of awkwardly to me. Not the flirting, but the word choice and grammar.

At the moment he actually does. It's only temporary text but it's like "HEEEYYY GUUURRL!!" and other random stuff.

[Venziir]

We all know about that one infamous line of his. "Wow you are some kind of gorgeous aren't you? I can tell we are going to be good friends!".

Well because a few people for some odd reason got offended at being flirted with by an NPC, Blizzard took that unique npc and nerfed him down to be just like the other stale NPC's. He now says "You seem poised and ready. I can tell we are going to be good friends."

Sorry but that just seems wrong to me. NPC's need to have more life to them. They need to stand out in the world. Ji no longer stands out. He is just another questgiver with almost no personality. It's shameful that they would listen to a few people who were offended over nothing to change him like that.

Rubbish, he was terrible. He had the personality of a 12 year old boy who was just overly exited... HE STILL ACTS LIKE THIS! He is a terrible, terrible terrible npc.

[yetgdhfgh]

heres a good compromise

Let Ji firepaw keep the offending lines

and if you dont like it and think hes a lecherous old fool then just /slap him as many times as you want till you feel better then you go off on your merry way and murder a whole murloc village then burn it to the ground like you have to do in most quests

everyones a winner

[Deleted]

It's a good thing sexism only works one way and there aren't several female NPCs that flirt with males and lay it on even thicker than Ji.

^ made my life!

[Deleted]

Very different to every femenist ive ever heard /sarcasm

all talks on this point will be Biased, because everyone has an opinion, however he raised very good points on the blindness of femenists and the stupidity of 'historical' arguments.

some victims of discrimination can be prone to exaggeration, but we are rational beings and we can easily judge the situation without listening to rhetoric from either side of an argument; not all discussion is biased, that's a pretty pessimistic outlook. that link recklessly downplays inequality at every turn. it's not exactly mein kampf but we must be aware that there is discrimination in all society and do what we can to bring about equality.

edit - the more I look at it, the worse it gets:

5. I am far less likely to face sexual harassment at work than my female co-workers are.

Disputable. I am not aware of statistics on the issue, but sexual harassment of men is not that uncommon

I'm sure he's more than aware of the statistics, but they will absolutely disprove his point

rape hysteria

this one is the most shocking. rape is a very serious issue, I read a Canadian (progressive first world nation) that stated one third of all women will be sexaully assaulted at one point in their lives, but 95% of these cases will not result in conviction.

[Underskilled]

heres a good compromise

Let Ji firepaw keep the offending lines

and if you dont like it and think hes a lecherous old fool then just /slap him as many times as you want till you feel better then you go off on your merry way and murder a whole murloc village then burn it to the ground like you have to do in most quests

everyones a winner

Though not in the exact context, that's actually an interesting idea. I'd love if Blizzard made it, so that if you didn't like what he said, you could simply /slap him, and make him apologize.

Everyone would win

[Time Sage]

Double standards.

Snurk Bucksquick has been flirting with our male toons for years and nobody has ever bothered with that.

With a name like that it's to be expected though.

[Eggowaffles]

if this were facebook I would like your post. I honestly don't see why so many people are SO upset about the removal of the offending line.

This just in, a man liking a woman is offensive.

If Ji said this to men and it got removed, everyone would be all up in arms that they changed a possible gay characters dialogue.

Progression, 1 step forward 12 steps back.

People like you are why New Jersey had to change their state flag:

[thundercles]

it seems to have been pretty successful sexism baiting if that was the original intent. I think it was a really innocuous line of text, I think it upset someone who is particularly sensitive, and Blizzard took the simple step of removing it to placate the original poster, and to douse the flames of angry debate that it seemed to spawn.

honestly I think the line could even have been a placeholder. see Wrynn's 'heeeeeey girl' when the first female Pandas got the Stormwind.

I think that it indeed was pretty successful. Wildly so. And everything else you said I agree with 100%. Including that the line itself may have been a placeholder.
I think that people like myself are not outraged at the change itself. We're outraged at the outrage. I know that seems silly, but it's because be believe that the people claiming sexism and acting outraged by that are at best misguided and at worst intentionally misleading.

[Deleted]

This just in, a man liking a woman is offensive.

If Ji said this to men and it got removed, everyone would be all up in arms that they changed a possible gay characters dialogue.

Progression, 1 step forward 12 steps back.

People like you are why New Jersey had to change their state flag:

whoa why so aggressive? what are 'people like me'?

[Lotharfox]

You know, by example, I once made a post about why blizzard refushes to acknowledge gay sexuality in world of warcraft. As a gay man, its the norm for me, yet blizzard don't appear to follow this, despite having a massive world of characters and stories, they don't acknowledge any form of it.

Many posters replied saying world of warcraft is a game that shouldn't have to give any sexual meaning to anything, so putting in gay characters shouldn't even be a requirement.

So now, people are saying that having an npc who emasculates female characters is fine? and yet having opening gay characters isn't?

This goes beyond the pale here.

In all fairness, I believe there should be characters that sexualize women, characters that sexualize men, characters that insult them both, and gay characters. It takes all kinds. If you haven't offended someone, you're not doing it right.

While homosexuality is becoming more accepted than it once was in media, there is still a strange prejudice against it (living in California, the gay marriage debate is insane). The thing is, there are people who are so offended by it, they will avoid something with it in it. I honestly know a guy who would never watch a Tom Hanks movie because he played a gay guy in one (Philidelphia). Whereas, from what I've seen, gay people won't avoid something simply because they aren't represented in it. I mean, if there was gay bashing, yes, they would avoid/protest (and rightfully so). But the absence of gay people won't keep them away. So while I don't agree with it, the homosexuality being absent or very subtle in WoW is a business decision that keeps the most players.