ZOMG Horde Favoritism?Follow

I'm seeing a bunch of reference to a bit of an "incident" at Blizz-con that I hadn't seen referenced here and I'm curious if anyone's heard of it, and more importantly, your thoughts. Mostly because I'm bored at work right now.

It seems as part of one of the performances of whatever L##ETC is calling themselves these days(I'm just gonna call em ETC for short), they brought out the lead singer from Cannibal Corpse and he said some things that are really upsetting some folks. Mostly because members of ETC are Blizz employees, which renders their endorsement of what he said as Blizzard Endorsement in their minds.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/203999/official-alliance-hate-from-blizz-at-blizzcon

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424796168

The Video NSFW!


Which, tbh, sounds like something from years ago. Yet still it's blowing up the Oboards with cries of ZOMG HORDE FAVORITISM.
Anybody actually heard of this? Or are the oboards being silly as usual?

And that's ignoring the number of threads calling out the things said as being pretty homophobic. Which they could certainly be seen that way.

So anyone else following this? Or barring that, anyone wanna post something in one of the other threads? Because really, I'm bored. Post something.

Maybe because I'll never attend one of these events or because I lack team spirit (I'm alliance because a) they have gnomes, b) my guild is alliance and c) even if my guild died I've put in too much effort on my toons and it would cost too much to faction change them all) but I don't see why people are getting upset about what someone said about the faction they play. Even if that guy truly believes that alliance players are worse than horde ones I take that as a reflection on his personality, not on mine as an alliance player.

Had a quick break to watch the video to see it in context. Yes it is old, I saw it a couple of years ago or more. I didn't see that as Blizz condoning that behaviour, I saw it just as an introduction for the person who was coming on stage and who they announced as the unofficial ambassador of the horde (so not surprising that he had a little rant about alliance). Also horde as the 'evil' faction sort of fits in better with that sort of music than the alliance races (in a stereotypical/persona way, not zomg horde is evil and so is metal/rock music, just the style of them fits a bit more smoothly together), maybe next year they could bring out a blood elf boyband to balance things out :P

In short, I don't have a problem with what was said or how it was presented. It didn't come across to me in anyway as Blizzard supporting one faction more than the other.

As for treatment of alliance players at conventions, if there actually are incidents of assault then these should be dealt by security and it should be made clear that aggressive behaviour is unacceptable and won't be tolerated (I'm assuming that's the case and there isn't some special conference ffa rule that lets you get away with abusing other people). I don't see that as being a "calm down alliance vs horde mentality" thing but instead a "don't be a moron" thing.

Really?

Imagine your government holds a public concert to celebrate the nation. The band playing at said concert consists of government officials. They invite a person from another band up on stage and he immediately starts verbally assaulting homosexuals and people of foreign ethnicity.

You'd not understand why people would be upset by this?

There was an attitude - way back in Vanilla - that because in general Alliance had "prettier" characters than Horde the people who chose Horde were more into the gameplay. And with Alliance having the only Paladins which were a strong magnet for the immature it all contributed to an attitude.

But then Horde got Blood Elves and now we have Tauren Paladins (OMFG I can be a Holy Cow!!?!!) its all kind of balanced out.

That old video looks like a rather pathetic attempt to stir up something that has passed its sell-by date.

Except, it's not really like that. A group of Blizzard employees that prefer Horde over Alliance made a WoW-themed band. To my knowledge, there is no Alliance equivalent. Blizzard gives them some time at BlizzCon to put on a show. If there was an Alliance-themed band, I'm sure they would get equal stage time. Hell, they might even have a mock "Battle of the Bands". I take what they guy said as mostly parody, and the whole stage show as part of an act.

That being said, in the last 20ish years, there's a whole group of people that I think actually enjoy being offended by something, and will blow even a mild "That's not really appropriate..." into "OH MY GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID THAT! SOMEONE SHOULD SUE!" Someone with Blizzard's PR department dropped the ball on that one.

Also, Maz? How long have you been Sage?

Sounds like he's as bored as I am.

Eh there was a time when I believed that the Horde was favored. When I looked at quest rewards it seemed that the Horde got much better stuff.

Then I realized that I was playing a Draenei Shaman and the quests I was doing were never set up to give rewards for Shamans. So I stopped believing the preference.

If in today's crazy REAL WORLD you are actually worried about Horde vs Alliance you are mentally deficient and should probably be put in a home where someone can change your diapers for you.

In all honestly, this makes me very very sad, enough to intimidate me into never attending a Blizzcon event if people are this passionate into assaulting one another over a video game that was intented to be a online community where we all could share common interests and play together.

I had to take a month hospital stay because of my dialysis and dying to come back to my online community because of the people I grew up playing with after 6 years and I come to this kind of stuff? I wont see L70ETC the same way now, just dissapointed. If people now see this game as a competition to become better than the other by all means and put others down this way to feel superior to others, then the spirit of WoW is spoiled for me. People forgetting theres other people in the other side of the characters and they act as if theres no consequencies for their actions. The anonymity of the internet has spoiled people to act any way they want without remorse or conscience because "nothing will happen to me, they are over there and Im over here and they dont know me".



TLDR version: Im very sad that people taking this horde vs alliance thing way too far.

I've seen family members get into heated arguments over sports teams, and strangers get into fights at bars. If what the OP described actually happened, I would attribute it to the same idea. That's not to say that it's in any way good behavior, but it's not something unique to Horde players or WoW.

Wizard's second rule.

Wizard's first rule also applies here.

People believe Corpsegrinder is being serious because they are afraid he might actually be serious.

Edited, Oct 26th 2011 12:37pm by Bigdaddyjug

I've started a female, pink-haired Gnome on Kazzak. The whole "kids play Alliance, grownups play Horde" thing kinda died when the Horde got Blood Elves, Paladins, Ret Bull gives you wings! etc.

Didn't realize I'd missed the Alliance so much until I set foot in Stormwind and the theme song played. The white stone, the blue banners, the PAVED ROADS... yeah, memories thought lost.

And my favorite part is that there are no Goblins asking me "What do YOU want!" whenever I try to access their shops/auctions/banks. God, the Goblin voice is annoying.

Only thing I miss Alliance side is a proper race for my Shaman. Dorf and Squidface is just not amazing choices when you're currently a tall, muscular, green-skinned Orc with a purple braid and blue eyes... I mean, sure, female Draenei are kinda hot, if you ignore the hooves and the broken spine, but their totems... ugh!

Second the suggestion of Female Draenei. It's fun watching them run. =x Swaying hips, jiggly butt and swishing tail. I'm not a furry, but the tail is definitely amusing.