In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, a discussion has erupted about what kind of tone actually prevails in successful raid guilds. 70 screenshots have been published showing the behavior of members in 2 top-50 guilds in the USA. They are rife with racist slurs. The discussion highlights that this is a problem many players encounter in WoW – not just in the top guilds.
This is how the discussion started: This week, a gallery of images was uploaded with 70 screenshots (via imgur). It mainly concerns statements from current or former members of two US guilds:
- Instant Dollars (Horde – Mal’Ganis) is number 16 among the US raid guilds
- Clout Gang (Horde – Zul’jin) is number 38
In the screenshots, Discord messages from members or images from the WoW chat are predominantly visible. The screenshots reveal the excessive use of the racial N-word. It is often mentioned in connection with “lynching” or other violent actions that one might want to inflict on someone: The head must go down and similar. A few times, this is also linked with the well-known anti-gay word “Faggot”.
So in principle: “The gay, black people we have to lynch” – but with the well-known hate words.
“Let’s gas the Jews”
This is the discussion: In the WoW subreddit, the discussion was supposed to be shut down because it violates the rule against attacking individual players. But ultimately, the discussion was allowed (via reddit).
The discussion reveals that this “racist language” is not a problem that only pertains to these two raid guilds, but rather a general problem many players encounter in WoW.
- A user says: “We are a rather mediocre guild, and even we receive applications from players who say they want out of their current guild because it’s racist, and people simply use the N-word in the raid. That’s crazy and really disturbing.”
- Another user says: This behavior is much more widespread than people think. It is not new. It is hard to find a raid guild without such everyday racism. Sexism and homophobia are often dismissed as “jokes” in many guilds.
- A player says: He was once in a guild, and as they approached a boss, one of the guild members said, “Let’s gas the Jews.” Nobody seemed to have a problem with that statement. He himself is Jewish, and it is just garbage that one cannot escape such statements, not even in a game where one runs around as a space goat. He then immediately left the guild.
- A player adds: She hears people jokingly say, “Let’s rape the boss,” and she always feels like her soul is leaving her body.
- An apparently older user continues: “And this is not gaming culture or whatever bullshit comes to defend it. I’ve been a gamer longer than these guys have been alive, and that has never been part of any culture. When I played Legend of the Red Dragon back in the day, it was like this: Anyone who posted racist crap in the forum or anywhere else was banned immediately.”
This is what the guilds involved say: As one of the reddit moderators says, the head of Instant Dollars contacted them. He says: The people in the screenshots were in other guilds at the time.
Everyone expressed their regret over their behavior except for one player. He was then expelled from the guild while the case is being investigated.
The discussion comes 8 months after the best raid guild in WoW had to dissolve. There had been allegations of rape against a raid member that finally escalated in the summer of 2020 and led to the collapse of the guild Method.
WoW: Scandal at top guild Method – Partners, streamers, sponsors are cutting ties
