So.../spit has been removed from TBC.

[MKGulantik]

just to play devil's advocate here, who said "sexual harassment is okay"?

Considering it is taking a state government lawsuit to get them to do anything, clearly Activision Blizzard.

[Yarathir]

Oh no, not the heckin orange text that proclaims that somebody's online avatar is spitting on my online avatar! How will I ever survive this merciless harassmenterino! Literally shaking!

[Kralljin]

If the internet has taught me anything, then those that clearly want to display their displeasure with someone's action, they are just going to move to another emote.
Classic Wotlk comes out alongside a store mount, people will then suddenly /moon; /cough; /fart, or even something such as /wave, while you have threads appearing "Why do people /wave me when i'm sitting on a mount?".

Words in this context are just a means to convey an emotion or intent, you can ban the word, but you can't ban the meaning behind it.

Also, Afrasiabi reference still exists in the TBC client, haven't checked the PTR yet.

[Sammonoske]

Players abuse emote to harass players.

Blizzard removes emote.

Shocked Pikachu face.

[Easo]

This does not seem like the most productive response by Blizzard to it's problems... I can kinda understand it, but this is clearly knee-jerk reaction.

[Kralljin]

It was seemingly a bug, it tried it on the PTR and i can /spit on players.

Apologies to the random priest known as Spiderblue.

[anon5123]

Yeah, logging onto the PTR right now, /spit works normally.

Funny/sad that people have a meltdown over something so insignificant.

[Zardi]

Not sure if this is a typical "woke" reaction, virtue signalling to try to divert attention from the whole lawsuit ordeal... or they actually think /spit is affecting their mount sales

[kranur]

I can spit on other people just fine.

[C20]

/e spits on you anyway, because this emote still exists.

The difference is that it won't show up to the other faction. There are a certain bunch of players who create macros for common abilities that also spams spit and then go ham in PVP.

Never really understood why it was in the game to begin with to be honest. Never seen it used for anything other than to try and piss off other players.

Players abuse emote to harass players.

Blizzard removes emote.

Shocked Pikachu face.

This right here.

[cozzri]

I bet they will remove /rude next. I mean ok lets play devil's advocate here: /spit as a show of resentment could be seen as "provocative" etc. However, being realistic and HONEST: Does anyone go around using /spit for no reason? Or do they use it to show resentment against UNFAIR PLAY.

But hey Im sure in between legal battles for discrimination and sexual harrassment (among other things) it really fixes the company image to remove emotes that could be used to trigger any sort of negative emotion. Such laughable hypocricy blizzard...

Blizzard has become too big. They have too many hands in the pot, and the company has, for a while now, started to show all the ugly cracks heavy corporate oversight has brought upon the company. There's a reason this harassment deal took so long to surface, corporate leaders in the know covered this up to save the company image and continue to make money, and most big names at blizzard just so happened to drop out one by one before the big fallout. This whole matter could have been dealt with years ago, but greed got in the way of justice.

Blizzard is barely a company that creates fun content anymore, the company is just a tool to make money for stockholders. You can't blame them for wanting to try to fix their image on all aspects of their services. They aren't making these changes to impress anyone.

[Avellon]

In 16 years I used it maybe once or twice and felt terrible about it.
But will they go after rude next?
/kiss also since someone may not want you to blow them a kiss? Will it be harassment?
Wanton murder of their character is ok thou, right?
Well, now PVP servers no longer exist in wow and pvp is 100% optin on all levels (overworld too)

All hop on the slippery slope.. maybe.

[Alamhaoingaturlife]

Blizzard, considering they knew this was happening for years and didnt do anything until word got out to the public

Well done bizztard. You removed spit. You did it, sexual assault is solved.

[Beuargh]

was fine for more than a decade and a half. all of the sudden it's not anymore.

... maybe the emote was afrasiabi's idea!!!

feels weird to see all that virtue/appropriate stuff getting into a fantasy game that's about killing dwarves or cows by completely fucked up means, bigass axes or hellfire and shit. kill 250k and be rewarded with a title: the bloodthirsty... somehow /spit is a red flag now. because some devs of the game think with their dick. makes sense!!! problem solved lol

at this point I'm just entertained by the current blizzard shitshow. that's the only reason I'm still following blizzard related stuff, they managed to ruin what was left of my interest in WoW. let's see what's next!! /popcorn

[Sithalos]

I hope everyone on their stupid boost mounts enjoys not being spit on anymore, on their dead empty servers.

Not sure if this is a typical "woke" reaction, virtue signalling to try to divert attention from the whole lawsuit ordeal... or they actually think /spit is affecting their mount sales

Probably both.

[arkanon]

We all knew this was coming, and we all knew some diehard fanbois would and will defend EVERYTHING Blizzard do. This is beyond idiotic, I am genuinely embarrassed to have any kind of connection to this game and company right now.

[Avellon]

was fine for more than a decade and a half. all of the sudden it's not anymore.

... maybe the emote was afrasiabi's idea!!!

feels weird to see all that virtue/appropriate stuff getting into a fantasy game that's about killing dwarves or cows by completely fucked up means, bigass axes or hellfire and shit. kill 250k and be rewarded with a title: the bloodthirsty... somehow /spit is a red flag now. because some devs of the game think with their dick. makes sense!!! problem solved lol

at this point I'm just entertained by the current blizzard shitshow. that's the only reason I'm still following blizzard related stuff, they managed to ruin what was left of my interest in WoW. let's see what's next!! /popcorn

The removal is pure bs. But I believe it is entirely unrelated, more like preventing people to easily insult the cash shop clients.
Not like you can't just "/me spits on >player name here<"

[Yarathir]

Players abuse emote to harass players.

Blizzard removes emote.

Shocked Pikachu face.

If only Blizzard knew how to remove harassment from their own studios as well as they knew how to remove "harassing" emotes from their game. :^)

[azka]

Well, this thread is a lie. I Just went and spat on an old sport that was around.

Proof: https://pasteboard.co/KdBRFF1.png

[Coolascancer]

I use /spit to spit on the other faction, seems pretty appropriate to me. I use /spit to spit on my friends to let them know i like them, seems pretty appropriate. I use /spit to spit on people who steal my mob i have dots on but they instant cast tag it, seems appropriate. It is a change that has no meaningful impact on real world issues but is supposed to make us think that blizzard cares? news flash, no corporation gives a shit about anyone ever and people in power abuse their power.

Hell i use to /spit on a person in my guild back in cata and turns out it was a real woman and we became friends because of it, almost more but i was too young and immature

edit: also.. unless they remove /e and %t then honestly they just made the problem worse, now i'll have a reason to keybind or click a macro that i can spam much faster than i could type /spit