Blizzard, Diversity and Double Standards
Sarah Kerrigan and Sylvanas Windrunner. These were the women that stole my queer little heart in my early years. While the scantily-clad heroine-turned-villainess appealed more to my disenfranchisement with an industry that churned out cookie-cutter straight, white males protagonists than it did for my hormone levels, they undoubtedly molded my world view in their own unique way.
Following a somewhat decent career of writing women at a time when the industry simply didn’t, Blizzard continued to break ground when releasing Overwatch. By now, we’re all probably familiar with Overwatch’s increasingly diverse character line-up. In addition to well-researched characters from backgrounds around the world and disabled heroes, Overwatch proudly boasts two prominent queer characters. Overwatch’s developers have since stated that their commitment to diversity in all forms was a driving force for the game’s mammoth success. I’ve grown to admire Blizzard greatly for their championing of diversity.
So then why, I ask, the stark lack of queer diversity when it comes to World of Warcraft?
Depending on how you count them, a look at the thirteen Alliance leaders who often headline World of Warcraft shows that nine are romantically paired up with a member of the opposite sex. The remaining four leaders? They coincidentally haven’t had much story spotlight at all.
While the cynic in me wants to say that these remaining four haven’t been written as straight simply because they haven’t been written much at all, this does leave us with somewhat fertile ground should Blizzard wish to start writing meaningful queer characters.
Blizzard clearly has no problems writing relationships into Warcraft; with a franchise spanning 26 years, multiple games, a movie, and countless books it’s kind of expected. So, exactly what tiny tidbits of queer representation do we actually have? You’d be forgiven for thinking zero. Most examples we do have are sparse, tongue in cheek and limited to missable sidequests with characters we’ll never think twice of again past our five-minute encounter to provide them with boar tusks in exchange for barely enough gold to hail a taxi.
Back in 2008 with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, we got one of our first examples of inclusion in the form of the Sentinel Sweetspring. The Alliance-only event, which excluded 50% of the player base, would every now and then see the NPC “waggle her long eyebrows suggestively” at Sentinel Amberline. That was about all we got.
We’d have to wait until late 2010 for our next queer-snippet. A similarly insignificant imprisoned quest NPC would accost Horde players, offering to sell you her wife if you help her out of a cage. The pattern of similarly small examples would then follow every couple of years. Not quite on the same level as Malfurion and Tyrande: the Night Elf leaders whose relationship has been an integral part of multiple games and novels.
A noteworthy bookmark in the (very brief) history of queer representation in Warcraft comes in the form of the dragon Theralion. In 2010 the game’s beta introduced the raid boss with a ‘comically’ flamboyant voiceover, who quickly became a lightning rod for homophobic jokes and abuse. The game’s most prominent example of implied homosexuality arguably to this day was only allowed as the butt of a joke. In Blizzard’s eyes, queerness only had value when it had something to offer heterosexuals. Perhaps seeing the error of their ways, the queer-portrayed villain’s voice was recast before his official release, removing any hint of his former campness.
Ambient inclusion of queer characters like Sentinal Sweetspring does have a role to play in the bigger picture of representation. It can indeed be a powerful tool, but completely loses its purpose when not backing up meaningfully written and complex queer characters. Blizzard has shown with Overwatch that they can tastefully write a diverse cast of characters that champion all sorts of gamers. So, why not take successes learned from one game and apply it to another?
To Blizzard’s credit, these examples have gotten slightly more frequent over the last two expansions. We’ve gone from one quest per expansion in our early days to five subtle examples. But this is still drop in the ocean compared to the over 15,000 quests currently present in the game.
I mentioned my love for the headlining badass women of Starcraft and Warcraft at the start of this article. These women took on the same male oppressors that I was facing in the playground. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This was powerful and emotive for a small queer child in the 90’s and 00’s. I thank Blizzard wholly for that; but god damn I wish I could have had a queer hero to look up to as well.
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