An unofficial World of Warcraft Discord server has been lit ablaze in recent days. Right now, Twitter is full of screenshots showing people decrying Blizzard adding people of colour to the MMORPG, with one particular comment complaining about how there are “too many Black humans in Stormwind.” This caused an expected community backlash, but the discussion around the addition of BIPOC NPCs to the high-fantasy game requires more explanation.
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In November, Blizzard went out of its way to create a community council with the goal of soliciting player feedback for detailed ways to improve World of Warcraft. The community then splintered off on its own, creating an unofficial Discord server called Seat of the Council. This new community was partially populated with members of the official one, and also home to the two protagonists of this story.
So, WoW players recently began noticing that NPC humans in the city of Stormwind appeared to suddenly become BIPOC. Characters who were white when the update originally dropped back in 2020 had their skin change, now appearing to be Asian or Black sometime around September of this year. This apparent BIPOC-washing pissed people off. The Seat of the Council Discord server blew up in outrage at the time. While that was a couple of months ago, for whatever reason one member has kept the fight going into December. According to a member present at the time the comment was made this week, a user called chamomile said on Discord that there were “too many” Black people in the game. Now that comment is all over social media.
Wow community council: so are you racist or is Blizzard *really* putting too many black people in video games? ????????????@blizzardCS really interesting people you’ve vetted for this program. pic.twitter.com/JJgVE9yfKS
— Freya Lily (@Fruggiee) December 15, 2021
I get the anger from the community. Saying there are “too many” of any one identity or ethnicity is an exclusionary and separatist ideology–unless you’re of the majority, which makes you par for the course. Since the spread of the hateful comment, the Discord server has since been closed, scrubbed clean, and reopened with a new name (Vacant Seat of the Council), but the arguing continues.
Much of that ongoing discussion appears to be spearheaded by another user named Asjon, who has been arguing on Discord that it’s “lazy” and “pandering” for Blizzard to just Blackface/Blackwash a bunch of white NPCs and call it diversity and inclusion. Asjon’s expectation is for Blizzard to create “cool lore” around how and why BIPOC NPCs get added to the game. The Discord community appears to vehemently disagree with this thinking, which makes sense.
Yo, World of Warcraft, are these people really who you wanted to represent your community council? Cause holy shit is this atrocious. pic.twitter.com/p20wvVnnLR
— ❄️????Monica Shieldbreaker????❄️ (@MShieldbreaker) December 16, 2021
We’re reached out to Blizzard for comment and will update if we hear back.
My mind is torn in a few different directions, though. First, it’s egregious to say there are “too many Black humans,” whether trolling or not. That specific person got banned from the old and newly reopened server — as they should! It’s racist. I also happen to agree with Asjon, kind of. To Blackface/Blackwash white NPCs as if that’s a diversity solution is mere appropriation. But I don’t subscribe to Asjon’s desire for there to be some explanation or “cool lore” that justifies BIPOC inclusion.
As a Black person, I shouldn’t have to explain myself. I shouldn’t have to provide context and reasoning for why I am where I am. I just am and that’s enough! Black people get tired of constantly justifying themselves as it’s what we’ve always done. Explaining why racism is bad, explaining how BIPOC writers are important, explaining why cultural appropriation is harmful. It’s unnecessary for there to be an explanation for how more BIPOC NPCs showed up in Stormwind, and if you need a rationale, you can chalk it up to migration. We live in the real world, after all!
You probably see people of colour all the time, and their existence just makes sense because people of colour are real. Besides, World of Warcraft is a high-fantasy game with elves and orcs. Do we need to explain why green-skinned people walk around any of the game’s cities? If not, then we certainly don’t need to justify why BIPOC NPCs are more noticeable.
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The topic is a complex one, to be sure. There’s a lot to be said about what Asjon is arguing for. I would love to see more BIPOC NPCs written into the game from the get-go, with thoughtful consideration for aesthetics and background. But at the same token, there isn’t an explanation for white people — other than that the game is coded “eurocentric.” Still, this is a high-fantasy game with limitless possibilities. Justifications aren’t required.
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