A BlizzCon clip made headlines. The woman shown now says: She didn’t find it that wild, the audience’s reaction back then was worse.
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of talk at Activision Blizzard about the sexism and discrimination scandal. Particularly, the development team of World of Warcraft is under criticism. Alongside serious allegations against the already dismissed Alex Afrasiabi, a video has also gained symbolic importance: A clip from BlizzCon 2010, where a woman asks a question about character design in WoW. The video went viral and serves as a prime example of everything that is going wrong with the developers of WoW.
What kind of video is it? The video comes from BlizzCon 2010. Even back then, there were “Q&A” panels where players could ask their questions directly to the developers. Particularly the passage with a woman has now uncomfortably stood out. She praised the developers for having so many strong female roles in World of Warcraft, but asked if they all had to look like they came out of a “Victoria’s Secret” catalog.
At first glance, there is audible applause from the women in the audience, but then the booing from the men takes the dominant role. The developers do not take it particularly seriously and ask “Which catalog should they come from?” Shortly after, it is clarified that they understand her and are trying to include many different types of women in the game.
Since then, the video has nonetheless been taken as evidence that there is a “Bro Culture” at Blizzard.
What has happened now? The magazine Kotaku has tracked down the woman and conducted an interview with her. Xantia talked a lot about the current and past incidents and provided some interesting insights. She also clarified how she perceived the whole situation back then.
It’s really strange to see that this whole thing is being covered by the press concerning a question I asked 11 years ago.
When asked what she thought when the developers brushed her off so simply, Xantia replied:
I’ll tell you, it’s actually funny, I didn’t think too much about it back then because it’s so discouraging. You go up there, you’re nervous because you’re being filmed, you’re live-streamed, and you’re standing in front of an audience of several thousand people. It’s hard to clearly articulate your thoughts. And I managed to sum it up, came to the question, and they turn it into a joke.
I kind of like how I laugh there and then they just carry on. I thought, okay, I guess I’m not getting a chance at a follow-up question. Okay, I’m being sent away, wonderful.
She mentions that afterwards some women and a few men came up to her and said they liked her question and considered it important.
What stuck much more in Xantia’s mind was the audience’s reaction back then:
Honestly, the sound of so many guys booing me bothered me way more than being sent away. You had this initial cheer from the women in the crowd and then a huge wave of boos.
Despite everything, that didn’t weigh on Xantia as heavily as some portray today.
I didn’t think much about it because there has always been a certain amount of sexism in the games industry, and you just learn to roll your eyes and ignore it and enjoy the things [in the games] that you like.
Xantia criticizes ex-developer: However, Xantia criticizes Greg Street, whom many know as “Ghostcrawler”. He was once an important WoW developer but is now working on the LoL-MMO for Riot. He had commented on the incident in a series of tweets, later regretted the whole thing, and also explained that they didn’t perceive it that closely at the time because they couldn’t see the face of the questioner well due to the lighting. To this, Xantia said:
I believe Greg Street now knows who I am. Cool. Okay. Also, that wasn’t really an apology, but do what you gotta do. Whatever lets you sleep at night.
I joked about it with a friend when I saw it and everything he wrote: ‘Oh, I couldn’t see her reaction, I couldn’t see her face’ and how he’s now disappointed by it all. But hey, your ears worked just fine. Didn’t you hear the hundreds of people booing me? What would it have cost you to say: ‘Hey, guys, that’s really not cool?’ When you justify and explain yourself to that extent, it stops being an apology.
In the meantime, Greg Street is also in the midst of accusations due to some leaked chat protocols.
Xantia wanted to work at Blizzard: For many, it might be hard to imagine, but despite the incident, Xantia wanted to work at Blizzard and applied in 2012 for a position in the “Strategic Initiatives Department,” but ultimately was rejected. In the end, however, she is probably glad about it:
I was quite shaken [about the rejection] back then, but hey, you can have so much luck in failure. It feels like I just dodged a bullet.
