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

[Austilias]

Sad to see him taking time out of his day to respond to another internet SJW. Also this;

This diversity quota for the sake of diversity nonsense really needs to go away.

[ACES]

I don't see the problem with the game industry as a whole being more diverse in their games, as long as they do it well. Not many things in life that can't be helped with more perspective.

The problem is that diversity for the sake of diversity is a meaningless message. It should come up naturally within context.

[High Marshal Sigismund]

Sure, sure, Blizzard all seem to be white boys from the same backgarden who seem to have big issues with being able to portray more diverse characters.

Look everybody.

A racist.

[xChurch]

Actually its more that the women shown in WoW are usually completely incompetent or are psychopaths. But nice try.

It works for most of the women in Game of Thrones...

The problem is that diversity for the sake of diversity is a meaningless message. It should come up naturally within context.

That's what I mean, if it can fit in well it should be encouraged, but just throwing in random girl hero A doesn't really add anything.

[helmaroc]

If Warcraft was mainly humans only then I would see the problem but there are many races in World of Warcraft, can't get more diverse than that. I'm black and I main a Night Elf. There are no night elves IRL. It is a fantasy game, why should it be tied to the issues of the real world. There are also boss women in Warcraft but a little more wouldn't hurt.

[Abysal]

Women and people of color are present in Blizzard’s player base, and are underrepresented as the heroes of Blizzard’s games. When they are represented, there often seems to be a catch—the characters in World of Warcraft who are black are black dragons and often turn out to be villainous. Diablo 3 had the mother-daughter team of Adria and Leah, but Adria was a manipulative villain and Leah’s life and perhaps even soul was sacrificed to make way for the coming of Diablo.

This is total cherry picking B.S. The majority of the characters in WoW aren't even human so I don't think color is a factor there and in D3, Tyrael has black skin and he is basically the main NPC hero in the game. As for women, how about Jaina? Up until the events in MoP she was arguably the most blameless upstanding character left in the game. Alexstraza and Ysera are both female and last I checked neither of them were villainous and it's not like all the white male characters are without fault either. Can anyone say Arthas?

[Feali]

White hetero sexual men are the most opressed people in this world. Everything we do is eiher against women, gays or blacks. For Morhaime to even respond to this is beyond stupid.

I get the storytelling concerns though..

[OrcsRLame]

*looks over at my female roommate* "Do comic books offend you? No? Okay, moving on."

Some of the most pretentious shit I've read all day. I'm totally okay with Warcraft being like a comic book. Comics are cool. They are not the patriarchy or the white man trying to oppress you. I got 2 things out of that letter.

1. That person doesn't know shit about comic books.
2. That person cares so much about their fucking isms that if a character isn't exactly like them then it somehow makes the whole experience less valuable.

I also liked the part where they accused Rob Pardo of being a liar.

[High Marshal Sigismund]

Your seething disgust of people with whom you have disagreements is the very reason there should be diversity in a lore driven game such as WoW. The very fact that someone expressed views you disagree with while receiving a response from Blizzard officially seems to have gotten under your skin. You are not the arbiter of all that is normal and just in this world and with an such an entitled attitude never will be.

I'm not entitled. Yet another person who has no idea what the word means.

No one here is getting under my skin, actually I find your ridiculous arguments amusing. Please continue to cry and whine while the rest of the world ignores you and your "issues".

[NuLogic]

Your seething disgust of people with whom you have disagreements is the very reason there should be diversity in a lore driven game such as WoW. The very fact that someone expressed views you disagree with while receiving a response from Blizzard officially seems to have gotten under your skin. You are not the arbiter of all that is normal and just in this world and with an such an entitled attitude never will be.

Lore will get retconned in order to get you to do something. Gameplay has always been greater than lore in wow.

[kritisk]

I'm not entitled. Yet another person who has no idea what the word means.

No one here is getting under my skin, actually I find your ridiculous arguments amusing. Please continue to cry and whine while the rest of the world ignores you and your "issues".

You prove my point with every response. For that I thank you. Your ignorant remarks are just as amusing to me as you think my remarks are amusing to you. There's no crying and whining from me. Blizz can and will respond to anything they want to respond to and I won't get twisted. You on the other hand, seem to think they can't communicate with people on different levels without it infringing on your misguided thoughts of what normality is. Please continue to affirm my assumptions as you have done thus far.

[vindicatorx]

Awesome so now something that 1 guy found to be important is now a top priority while important things are tossed aside.

[Dispraise]

So the issues and concerns brought forward should just be dismissed and ignored and we should continue to refuse to make more diverse characters?

What's this "we"? You can do whatever the hell you want.

That's the wonderful thing about storytelling as an artistic medium. The artist is free to tell whatever kind of story they please, and if it's good people will pay for it. You think their story lacks diversity? Then I actively encourage you to tell a story of your own to fill the vacuum.

[IRunSoFarAway]

Read the response, didn't bother to read the long as original message. Since diversity is mentioned, I'm going to guess that this is another meaningless PC movement thing, is that right? It's sad to see so many people being forced to change what they want to do because it's not PC in some way.

You don't have a female hero, yet you have male heroes? Sexist! Misogynist!
You don't have black people yet you have white people? Racist!
You don't have any LGBT characters in the game? Homophobe!

Creative freedom(and freedom in general) is being trampled by the PC movement.

People should be allowed to create what they want to create, we need to stop treating it like everything is a sitcom, and the PC groups are the ones writing notes on what to change.

[Calfredd]

Came to this thread expecting something... else. Slightly disappointed.

[Deleted]

"However, this seems to a lack understanding of Joan of Arc’s narrative; she is martyred by more powerful men."

Really? I mean, really? Joan of Arc wasn't martyred, she was trialed because was the enemy...

[High Marshal Sigismund]

You prove my point with every response. For that I thank you. Your ignorant remarks are just as amusing to me as you think my remarks are amusing to you. There's no crying and whining from me. Blizz can and will respond to anything they want to respond to and I won't get twisted. You on the other hand, seem to think they can't communicate with people on different levels without it infringing on your misguided thoughts of what normality is. Please continue to affirm my assumptions as you have done thus far.

Your whole point is based on assumptions. "Seething disgust' and "getting under my skin" are complete assumptions. And when the basis of your statement is based on assumptions, guess what that means? It means you lose.

You keep putting words in my mouth. It's just funny to read. Please grasp at straws some more.

[Zoaric]

That's the wonderful thing about storytelling as an artistic medium. The artist is free to tell whatever kind of story they please, and if it's good people will pay for it. You think their story lacks diversity? Then I actively encourage you to tell a story of your own to fill the vacuum.

That's my biggest problem with diversity for the sake of it; forcing something the artist
did not intend to exist in that way never ends well.

- - - Updated - - -

"However, this seems to a lack understanding of Joan of Arc’s narrative; she is martyred by more powerful men."

Really? I mean, really? Joan of Arc wasn't martyred, she was trialed because was the enemy...

And all the way up to that point she kicked ass.

[Sunseeker]

If there's a card, this letter played it.

But then if you play all your cards, you lose card advantage and that is a very risky playstyle.

[Goosebump]

Excellent letter and good response from Blizz. Be interesting to see how these topics develop.