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From the Blizzard forums, a plaintive little note:

Dear Blizzard,

I would like to complain. I got some new armor for my blood elf and I put it on, and then I put on my new chestpiece. When combined with my pants…I look like a stripper or like I belong on a corner rather than fighting for the Horde.

These aren’t contrived to make it look worse…Also, look at my armory and you will see that the pants and chest are close to my level.

Is it possible to maybe a get a review on at least the chest piece? I am not sure how this is supposed to protect me from anything.

A month ago–yeah, okay, I’m a little behind on the blogging–I got a nice email from somebody who reads us (yay!) who, after sharing that he and his wife are also World of Warcraft geeks like Yours Truly, noted the following:

The [World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King] quest is “Prisoner of War.” I won’t tell you exactly what goes on in case you have not done it yet and/or do not wish to have a seriously disgusting quest ending being revealed to you…to make a long story short you kill a female dragon because a male [dragon] in the game doesn’t want her to suffer the indignity of being the consort of another male dragon. It took about a day for it to sink in because I don’t usually read quests that thoroughly,* but as far as I can remember it is the most misogynist quest I have encountered in the game. It is a sorry shot from honor killings, especially given the prevalence of magic in their game you’d think they could have figured out a less hateful and violent way to deal with that. I expect intense woman-hating from most of the people who play the game, but as far as I can recall I haven’t seen that much of this level from the game designers itself.

To give World of Warcraft (or rather, Blizzard, which is the company that created the game) credit where credit is due, the vast majority of their quests are not misogynistic; they’re usually gender-neutral enough to satisfy the most irritable and/or sensitive of feminist gamers. The only distinctions the game itself makes based on the gender of the character tend to be along the lines of having the bluff dwarven quartermaster, say, address a female character as “lass” and a male character as “lad” during a quest conversation, for instance. The biggest complaint I’ve had to date in that department would be the, erm, creative way that the game graphics sometimes pan out when armoring a female character, a very small sample of which I have posted at the beginning of this blog (as you see, I am not the only one who finds this aggravating!).

However, the players themselves…well, sigh. The guild I recently joined (for those of you who don’t spend hours glued to your computer slaying monsters and looting treasure, the “guilds” are internal groups of players that form up to quest together, exchange skills and be sociable–even gamers need some real live human interaction) is starting to look a little dubious. I personally haven’t encountered too many issues–the one misogynist conversation that has occurred in my presence got massively derailed by somebody (oh no, not me! ::cough::) and has not yet been repeated when I’ve been around. However, my husband said that I missed a real doozy of an asinine one the other day–so, depending on the continuing trend, I may take myself off.

I was curious about the particular quest that reader Kiwilemoncat** was talking about, as indeed I have not come across it yet, so I looked it up on the ubiquitous thottbot.com:

Level 71 Location: The Nexus
Obtained at level 71

Raelorasz (a male dragon) at the Transitus Shield wants you to enter the Nexus and release Keristrasza (his mate, a female dragon).

“Malygos has taken Keristrasza to serve as his consort!? Unthinkable!

She’ll never cooperate willingly, but Malygos is a powerful aspect, and will eventually bend her will.

This cannot come to pass, . I refuse to allow her to suffer this indignity.

You must enter the Nexus and do whatever is required to spare her this fate.”

Quest goal: Keristrasza Laid to Rest: 0/1

Upon completion of the quest–and as it turns out, the only way to complete it is to kill Keristrasza:

“So, it is done then….

Our kind shall never forget the sacrifice Keristrasza has made for this cause. Nor shall we forget the part you have played.

May this tragic event serve to further steel our resolve against the threat we face.

On behalf of the Red Dragonflight, please accept this gift as a token of our gratitude.”

Yes, lovely. “Spare me from the Fate Worse Than Death!” Because, you know, having sex with Teh Enemy is much harder to get over and get on with your life than being decapitated is; I know what I’d prefer, but hey, don’t let me make that decision–base my fate on what some other dude would prefer!

Women have always historically been encouraged to only two heroic martyrdom options –dying in childbirth and dying to preserve either the intact state of their hymen (for the virgins) or the sole ownership state of their vagina once in use (for the wives). (Unmarried, unwidowed non-virgins have historically been creatures utterly without honor of any description.) Thank you, Blizzard, for continuing that glorious meme! We wouldn’t want to forget that ultimately, any sentient female’s honor or nobility of spirit is primarily parked between her legs.

*They start to blend together sometimes, especially the simpler ones like “Kill 12 Shovelhorns and return to me at the Frostpeak Camp” or “Collect 5 Winterberry Branches from the kobold village.”

**His WoW character’s name, of course! He says it is based upon “two fruits and an animal, since no one can ever figure out how to pronounce it and they all try to make it sound French.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Feminism, What Patriarchy?, World of Warcraft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.