Blizzard’s annual Blizzcon is, for the most part, a friendly get-together for like-minded fans, a place where people can hang out and revel in the fact they all love the same games.
It’s a shame, then, that this year’s show was closed out by a video featuring little else but homophobic slurs and a guy saying fuck a lot.
Warning: the above clip is NSFW.
The guy in question is George ‘Corpseater’ Fisher, lead singer of metal band Cannibal Corpse, who performed on-stage at Blizzcon’s closing ceremony.
In addition to lending his talents to the closing gig (it wasn’t actually Cannibal Corpse playing), Blizzard also aired an interview with the guy, a devoted World of Warcraft player and passionate member of the game’s Horde faction. The version shown at Blizzcon was “bleeped”, but we’ve posted the original here, just for the full effect.
It’s awkward viewing, especially the “homo” and “die” parts. As you’d expect from a game with over 10 million players, there are a number of World of Warcraft subscribers, gay or otherwise, not happy with Blizzard’s screening of the clip, viewing it as a passive endorsement of sorts of Fisher’s behaviour.
Additionally, gaming website GayGamer has been contacted by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) about the matter.
IphStich
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:12 PMHe’s a red-neck. It’s to be expected. Can’t we all just ignore this kind of crap? It’s really not worth all the fuss.
Phœnix
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:23 PMIt’s worth all the fuss when you’re part of the minority who is being slurred against… especially when this kind of attitude has become common place within the entire gaming community.
redartifice
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:13 PMThat’s pretty dense from a PR point of view.
Matt
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:21 PMI don’t get this. It’s not being aimed at gay people. All the gay people I know use the word faggot as an insult as well. It’s like when someone says f**k you are they saying the want to make love to them? The English language has evolved to have curse words which are used as insults but the current usage for most does not have the original meaning behind them anymore. In their mind they are just “insults” that have no meaning behind them.
Mercas
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 9:22 PMBy your reasoning mate, we should be able to call people ni**ers, because, hey, they call themselves that and it’s lost its conotations right?
Matt
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:30 AMI am Australian and I don’t know as much about that. I believe that word was coined in a different context and as such has a different rate at which the word changes. I think you missed my point. Words change. Some people will allways take offence to words. What I am saying is that a lot of people using the word faggot are not necessarily using it as a gay slur. I don’t think it is a good thing, I would rather there be polite people in the world and everyone is nice and respectful to each other. I would rather there be no discrimination of any type and I can see how there are two sides unfortunately the rude dumb side will win because there are more of them, and that’s how humans work they stick together and discriminate minorities. But my original point stands and that is the meaning of words change as society changes and all though I do not agree with it, people I know use words as generic insults and don’t really understand the meanings behind them. A sad fact.
Dingle
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:23 PM‘Corpseater’? At least take a minute to get your shit right when it’s right there as the tile of the video…
Dmoli
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:17 PMThis.
Weresmurf
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:34 PMDang… Way to drop the ball blizzard!
mikezdoesit
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:36 PMI agree with iphstich, lets just get on with our lives, underlining this crap is worthless. We all know talking down about anyone is wrong (gay or straight), just do the best you can to get along.
Dire Wolf
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:37 PMYou’re about a week late Kotaku. The WoW forums have been exploding for days over this.
L90ETC already issued an apology yesterday. Most people have accepted it. I doubt anything like this is going to happen again.
Trjn
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:40 PMWho would have thunk that the lead singer of Cannibal Corpse, who has released such songs as Meat Hook Sodomy and Necropedophile, would say something offensive.
squid
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:43 PMI know… it’s going to take me a couple of years to get over this…
Ty
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:45 PMGlad I’m not the first one saying this. Cannibal Corpse is not known for being inoffensive, more for songs intentionally about offensive material. Fisher is laughing his ass off right now.
SunSkorpion
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:56 PMProbably, but to me he comes across not as an offensive provocateur but just an inarticulare idiot.
Let’s move along shall we?
Michael
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:32 PMThe more salient point here I guess is that it was probably a mistake for Blizzard to hire this guy to perform. They must have known what they were in for.
Aidan
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:35 PMThen to air the interview seems like a bit of a PR fail.
They could’ve buried it easily and avoided a headache, once they realised what he’d said.
[Razor]
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:00 PMIsn’t it funny that often when you hear GLAAD mentioned, in the context they’re usually anything but?
AerintheADEQUATE
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 3:10 AMhaha, high-five to you sir
wes
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:00 PMonly jealous people would be able to rant that long about something that they hate
Dmoli
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:18 PMHe just seems like one of the typical WoW player groups, which we all know are there when we play.
Working Dog
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:42 PMHmmm…an abusive hate-spewing intolerant homophobe…seems like a typical WoW player to me.
Aaron
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:06 PMOn WoW hate spewing homophobes aren’t nearly as common as on Xbox Live or PSN.
The WoW player base is actually more mature than most MMO’s.
drew
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 8:53 AMoh yeah, because that isn’t a glaring generalisation there.
obviously there are LGTB players in Wow just as there is a myriad of demographics represented in the game.
Working Dog
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:38 AMYour right…it was a throw away line. Should have thought more about that one.
Still amazed that Blizzard made use of this.
bulastar
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:48 PMCan I just say to the commenters who think this isn’t a big deal…yes it is. Brushing off offensive stuff like this is saying that it’s OK behaviour. I’m assuming you guys aren’t gay and therefore don’t deal with this stuff on a daily basis.
Really?
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 11:46 PMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW_Lv0r-l4c
This is old old news
Uploaded by Luciferium on Aug 17, 2007
Sharpy
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 5:50 PMWHere is the slow motion blurry deep voice “BBBERFUCKK BEERRRYOU BBBBERNIGHTTT BEEELFF”
Exaemo
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:02 PMRemember when gay meant happy?
Josh
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:11 PMWow, as a long time fan of Cannibal Corpe, it saddens me this guy is a basement-dweller quality of nerd. I thought metal bands were supposed to be hardcore?
“FUUUUCK THE ALLIANCE!” lol that is all
lance
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:12 PMWhat a fat piece of shit. Ponytail doublechin garbage waste of space. Should just kill himself. What a waste.
Steven Bogos
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:58 PMThis guy knows that the only way to combat hate is with more hate
Gunny
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:33 PMSo how did this fabulous gentleman not cancel his account in a rage when they unveiled pandas?
Jack
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 6:55 PMBecause Pandas are f**king homo awsome!
They look cute at first but when you approach one, they’ll claw the life and crap out of you with your anus in one corner of the room and your torso down its mouth.
matt
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7:02 PMis this the video with the guy from cannibal corpse? yeah i saw this like 2 years ago.
Scott
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7:43 PMIf I worked for blizzard and was repsonsible for this video airing, I’d be less embarrassing that he utters two homosexual slurs and more embarrassed that he carries on like a complete unintelligible wanker.
matt
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7:59 PMim fairly sure the full video is like a half hour long too lol
4len
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 8:18 PMIt saddens me that people give 2 shits about this.. Corpsegrinder is a vocalist of a band that specifically aims to shock and deisgust, so his comments aren’t surprising nor are they particularly malicious.
However, for Blizzard to ACTUALLY use this on any official media they own, was a STUPID move! *clap clap clap*
StudiodeKadent
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 2:32 AMAbsolutely agreed.
Fisher’s comments are to be expected from someone that is the frontman of an ultra-transgressive band. I think his comments aren’t particularly mature, but the argument that “not all uses of the word ‘faggot’ as an epithet necessarily imply ‘you are homosexual and that’s bad’ is the thought process of the person using the word” is a reasonable argument. After all, people often use words in a manner detatched from their meanings; when we tell someone we dislike to “go fuck themselves” we aren’t literally advising them to “go away and masturbate.”
That said, Fisher’s comments could easily offend a portion of Blizzard’s target audience and as such the use of these comments is an absolute PR fail.
But Blizzard using this for PR
borzale
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 8:27 PMDon’t know why it hasn’t been pointed out, but he looks fairly drunk. I’d love to see some of you act sanely when you’re pissed out of your brain
Jamie
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 1:19 AMHe probably was, but it isn’t like it was a live interview. The interview is years old. This should never have gotten onto the screen at Blizzcon, period.
I am a trans lesbian, and while WoW does have a reputation for homophobia, I find it is mostly just not understanding. I’ve talked to many about my side of things, and dramatically reduced the casual usage of slurs and pejoratives. And some of the people who latched on hardest and passed that knowledge on were people who seemed at first to be the strongest offenders.
This was a disgrace, but I cannot say I am surprised. They have Jay Mohr hosting the costume contest for years, even though he is very hostile and mocking of the fans. Last year, he was also either drunk or high, and said many things that were racist, sexist, homophobic, and everything else. Many people complained… But sure enough, there he was again this year. He was much ‘nicer’, probably because he was sober, but he still said some pretty nasty things.
I would like to add props to the people at the QA, both on the panel and in the audience. When asked about GLBT representation, they were clearly in favor of it, and the crowd was very supportive and gave the question an energetic round of applause.
There are idiots in trade and whatnot that will use whatever offensive thing they can. But I think the vast majority of WoW players are nice people, and who when they are explained why it hurts, stop.
Blizz needs to step up their inclusiveness. They still struggle with dealing with their female players at all, GLBT people even less so. There’s a few good characters suspected or hinted to be GLBT, it is probably time to bring a handful ‘out of the closet’ so to speak.
Black Dahlia NZ
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 10:49 PMIts actually Corpsegrinder not Corpseater, and this is years old
Supreme
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:46 AMGo listen to Cannibal Corpse, then talk to me. This is baby talk and don’t take this shit seriously George fisher is just passionate about what he does.
Also how can you dispute what he says, alliance is often referred to as what he says by horde players anyways.
Dain Bramage
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 2:31 AMI can’t think of any blizzard games worth my time and money, so I am glad I am not handing my money to homophobes.