Rob Pardo: More of a Sexist Asshole than I Thought.

The more I think about Rob Pardo's words the angrier I am. I tried to wait a week before I posted my thoughts to see if I cooled down, but I've actually only gotten more angry.

I really can not emphasize how FURIOUSLY ANGRY I am about Rob Pardo's attitude on workplace hiring: Yet in discussing this workplace gender imbalance, he notes "It's not because we don't want more women developers, it's just what the industry is," but then follows this up by arguing that when it comes to hiring women game designers, "I just don't get the applications."

I want to give a big FUCK YOU to Rob Pardo. As a woman who has been in software development for 11 years, this attitude almost seems designed to enrage me. Yes, there are fewer women than men in game development. There are fewer women in general in software development, and where the fuck does he thing they are going to come from if he spouts of sexist shit like that?!?

I am so amazingly angry I am almost in tears. There are very few things that make me angrier than someone telling me I DON'T EXIST. I'm not in the gaming industry, but I still write code for a goddamn living. I look at the Blizzard software job descriptions and there are a bunch in SF that I could qualify for. I wouldn't apply because it's absolutely clear to me that they have a toxic work environment if their Chief Creatice Officer is such a sexist asshole.

"However... today's gaming industry is not very diverse. I see hope with all the students in game programs" -- @Rob_Pardo

Fuck you asshole. How about you try to recognize the existing talent and make some effort to attract them? You know, instead of making the vast majority of women (and men who enjoy diversity) not want to touch your company with a ten ft pole.

Rob Pardo is a sexist asshole

It's not a secret that I'm more than a little burned out on WoW. I haven't really raided since mid-March. Being a woman, I'm only vaguely looking forward to the boy's trip (look at Fan #16) of the next expansion.

However there is a big disturbance going on in the internet. Rob Pardo made a presentation at MIT Media Lab. In this talk, Pardo noted that Blizzard games aren't a place for "real world issues", and because they are all boys who grew up reading comic books their representations of women are "offensive to, I think, some women".

He thinks it is offensive for some women!

Just think of Noblegarden and it's terrible Shake Your Bunny-Maker achievement. Think of all the armor that is actual armor on males and bra and panty sets on females. Think of how even though Tyrande is allegedly the leader of the Night Elves Malfurion seems to entirely sideline and ignore her whenever he is present. Think of the quest in Valley of Four Winds where a Pandaren woman is forced to dance for the virmen ogler. I could go on and on and on.

A number of people have pointed out how Pardo's words are sexist and homophobic. Kurn is displeased. Cynwise is quitting. Rades is unhappy. Matthew Rossi at joystiq has an extremely eloquent write up that points out that including diversity doesn't mean you have to make it a focus and doesn't mean you can't keep the story fun. His point that including more people in a MULTIPLAYER game just increases the fun for everyone really resonated with me.

I would like to make the point that Pardo's insistence that "We're not trying to bring in serious stuff, or socially relevant stuff, or actively trying to preach for diversity or do things like that" is perhaps something that Blizzard needs to reconsider.

Something they need to strongly reconsider.

More than a week ago Friday some asshole, who hadn't gotten laid, murdered a bunch of people in Southern California. He played WoW. The juxtaposition of Pardo's remarks about Blizzard's disregard for women and lack of care for "real world" issues with this shooting looks really bad for Blizzard. The shooter this Friday was a racist and sexist and homophobic asshole. However, I have to wonder: if his primary leisure activity (marathon sessions playing....World of Warcraft, "The only thing I have left to live for") hadn't been as sexist in it's representation of women, would he have been quite so likely to go on a murderous rampage?

And this isn't the only mass-murderer to be called out for playing WoW. The Newtown school shooter played WoW. And Anders Breivik, the racist who went on a murderous rampage in Norway, played a lot of WoW as well. I don't think that WoW turned these men into murderers, but I do think it could have helped them not be murderers.

I'm sure that people will jump up to say that there are 7 million people currently playing WoW, so of course there are some people who go on to do bad things among them. To that I'd like to point out that A) there used to be 12 million people playing WoW and B) a lot of the quests that included and empowered women were removed with the revamp of the world during Cata and replaced with ones that didn't include women. Coincidentally Cata was the expansion where Blizzard's subscriber numbers really started to trend downwards.

So perhaps Pardo and the other sexist leadership at Blizzard could get their heads out of their asses and treat women and other minorities like people.

I am seriously considering canceling my own WoW subscription. I engage in a story when I can identify or at least like the characters in it. I'm no longer confident that that characters and story of Warcraft is something that I want to interact with.

Beta

I just received a Mists of Pandaria Beta Test Invitation. I'm not surprised, I did sign up for the year long pass, after all. However, I will not be taking advantage of this invitation.

First of all, I'm not interested in spoiling the story for myself. I am paying a certain amount of attention the new features, like looting and talents. But I really want the first time I see the story to be when Mornara and Kuan head off to Pandaria.

Secondly, I am a software engineer, and have been a software tester in the past. I can write a fine bug, but I do expect to be handsomely compensated when I do so. I'm uninterested in providing free QA.

I know that some people signed up for the year long pass solely to get a beta invite. However I am more interested in the free Diablo 3. That, I'm looking forward to.

MMORPG

We all play WoW. (If you don't why are you reading this?) It's an MMORPG. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. People forget this simple fact all the time.

It's annoying when people forget about the RPG part of WoW. Depending on how much they forget it can pull me out of the game myself.

But far more annoying is when someone forgets about the MMO part of the game. It is extremely important to remember that the other characters on the screen are played by people. People who may have had a bad day. People who may have just had the most awesome day ever. People who are snatching an hour or two of fun or de-stressing before they go to sleep or do yard work or whatever.

I've said it before but it makes me froth at the mouth with anger when someone treats me or others like we're not people too. Like we're just NPCs in their game. The people I play with are real. Some of them I've met. Some I haven't. All of them are still people, and deserve to be treated with basic respect.

So next time you talk to your guild or run a random, remember that everyone else is a person, too. They deserve the same respect that you want.

Volo, I miss you

WoW is hard sometimes. I have guildies and acquaintances and friends and a few real friends in the game. Sometimes a friend up and disappears one day. Maybe they went to a different guild. Maybe they quit WoW. Maybe they stealth server transferred, or deleted that toon in a fit of rage. Maybe they died.

No matter what happened, if they were a reasonably nice person their loss will be felt. More the closer you were with them.

It seems like I wouldn't have to spell out that the people I know in WoW are friends. We play a video game together. ISD. Gnoxen. Woonie. Smoovesta. Ariyn. Babzy. Ratrider. Nothinman. Drognin. Jataka. I know them by their character's names. A few of them I've met in person. But even the ones that I haven't met in person I consider friends who have fallen out of my life. And I miss them. Just as much as if we'd met in person and had taken classes or worked together.


At the end of July Clariana/Oldbw/Ildiavolo let everyone know that her account would expire in early August and it wasn't going to be reactivated. Volo was bored of WoW and wasn't going to be coming back.

We all took screen shots together. There were a few last hurrahs, as we ran a last dungeon or raid as a group.


Because WoW is all character names it's next to impossible to keep in touch with any of the people who leave WoW. (Unless you go RealID, and I'm only doing that with four people who I don't mind knowing what character I am on all the time.) It's like a friend moving to another city and changing their name. The person you know has disappeared and you have no way to get in touch with them again.

Maybe he or she will start playing WoW at some later time. Maybe years in the future you'll find each other in some other game. But probably not. Probably they and you are forever swept apart by the Real World, which doesn't even count that your friendship was real.


This is the last time I saw Ildiavolo online. She was planning on logging out sitting right there at the base of the falls in Orgrimmar.

Bye Volo. I miss you.


EDIT: Between the time I wrote this and posted it Volo got in touch with me! Totally made my day! Maybe sometime DraNgNon and I will get to meet up with Volo.

RIP Gnoxen

There are some people that I know because of WoW and only through WoW. Gnoxen was one of them. I've known him since Vanilla WoW, when he answered my trade spamming and crafted herb bags for Kuanchichi and Viljo. I added him to my friend list then and kept in spotty touch with him after that. I remember being so pleased when he joined Darkfall in Burning Crusade.

We lost touch for a little bit in Wrath when DraNgNon and I left DF for a bit, and he left not long after due to schedule conflicts. But he was always on my friend's list. And when we did our Ulduar drake runs he was along for about half of it, I think.



I logged in last night to find that Gnoxen had passed away.

BRIAN PHILLIP BAKER
August 28, 1980 ~ January 31, 2011
"We lost our dear son, brother, uncle, grandson, and friend."

Brian Phillip Baker of Vancouver, WA, passed away on Jan. 31st.
He was most proud of his work as a mason. Brian loved fishing, was an avid music fan and movie buff, and could make anyone laugh with his wry observations about life and people. Ever the gentle soul, Brian was loved by anyone who met him and was honored to share his light. He adored his dogs, Chip and Eddie, who were his fiercest defenders, though each only weighed five pounds.
A graveside service will be held Sat., Feb. 5, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. at Park Hill Cemetery, 5915 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, WA.
Donations may be made in Brian's name to Q Center at www.pdxqcenter.org.
Please share your condolences at www.columbian.com/obits.
Published in The Columbian on February 4, 2011

I'd never known his name, or age, or where he lived. I knew him as Gnoxen the Tauren druid. I had fun playing with him. I didn't know he was depressed.

I'm sorry Gnoxen, you'll be missed.

A month's hiatus

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last month. The non-Wow life has been busy, and my laptop has been rather ill.

Last night I updated my desktop so I could play some anyhow, but the frame rates never cleared 15fps. So I didn't instance but instead (after dealing with most of my mail) got Ikoli her last point in Tailoring (the screen shot didn't work, it just snapped a black image) and then Northrend Explorer.

Tonight I get to log in and explain why no, I am not interested in trying ICC with single-digit frame rates. I am promised my laptop back tomorrow. We'll see.