Gamescom 2009 - Blizzard Entertainment

The Core of Blizzard’s Problems

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4 mins read

by

Den Blonde Ulven

Blizzard Entertainment is a video game company that was responsible for iconic franchises such as Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. They have recently come under media fire due to the State of California performing a multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct within the company.  I will make the case that their improper behavior is not what the media describes it as. Nor is the general discontent of their fans over the narrative direction of the game without merit.

Watching the responses to this situation has been an enlightening experience. There are two types of people discussing it. Those who are “journalists” and are merely covering a hot topic, and those who are passionate gamers who feel betrayed by the company they once loved. These gamers extend to those who create videos, write articles, stream, and inspire additional user-made content. The former can easily be ignored because they are irrelevant to all but the most boomeriest of boomer investors. The latter, though, is where things get more interesting.

Being hardcore gamers inside a massive multiplayer online game, the primary demographic of World of Warcraft’s (WoW) audience belongs to Deltas, Gammas, and Omegas of the socio-sexual hierarchy1. They also have a higher than average IQ. These two facts are important because those lower on the male totem pole do not understand the intersexual dynamics at play. And being slightly above average IQ, they can sense problems but cannot accurately describe what is happening to the story they once loved.

The sexual misconduct occurring at Blizzard is being heralded by the media as a “frat boy” culture where guys goof around, drink alcohol, get their female cohorts to do their work, hit on and harass the females, and other such debauchery. Most of the gamers discussing this accept it at face value, mainly because they have never been part of a fraternity, let alone desired by the opposite sex. Here is what they get wrong. No woman ever regrets sleeping with or getting hit on by the top dog. Sure, modern women might complain to the media in order to destroy said Alpha if he casually walks away after attaining his goal, but that’s because she wanted him and couldn’t have him.

How is this different from the Blizzard situation? Blizzard is run by Gammas, not Alphas. An Alpha does not wax poetic over girls. He does not sneak around and attempt to befriend them. He shows up, makes sure he is in full view of all, loudly proclaims his territory, and marks it either metaphorically or physically. Gammas aspire to be like this, but can’t pull it off due to any number of factors. And women in the workplace are prime territory for a Gamma on the hunt. Hence when you mix Gammas in power positions with female workers, you get sexual harassment.

So, gamers, it’s not “frat boy” culture. It is Gamma predation. Don’t allow these lowlife scum of the hierarchy to give the media and broader discourse additional fuel to remove yet more masculinity from life. Just because you don’t understand girls does not mean the rest of us do too.

Concerning the narrative hijacking devolving the beautiful to the grotesque, the narrative of WoW has been on such a sharp decline that the driving force behind it has to be malicious instead of just incompetent. Diving into individual scenes, specific character dialogue, motivations, and actions, the case can be made. But it is much easier to show via the foundational beliefs that have been driving the company for a while.

The current President of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, sent out a company-wide email concerning the sexual allegations made from the State of California. It contains standard corporate-speak dribble about valuing women for women’s sake, discrimination is bad, blah blah blah, but there was one phrase that stood out:

“Stepping back- when I talked with Bobby about taking this job, one of the first things I mentioned was a revered saint of the Brack household- Gloria Steinem.”

The President of Blizzard had canonized a wicked female jewish revolutionary feminist. I may not be a Catholic or Orthodox Christian, but even I can see how many rules that breaks for being considered part of the sainthood. In fact, it is so upside down, it meets the exact definition of inversion that we were warned about.

The Bobby referred to in the quote is Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, essentially the President of Blizzard’s boss. His name shows up on Epstein’s logs, and he has a history of gutting companies that he buys before moving on to the next. He had a hand in hiring Brack, and from the above quote, it is clear why he did so. Being one of Satan’s little minions, promoting those who serve the Vile, the Ugly, and the Lie is a no-brainer.

So, it should come as little wonder why the narrative shifted. Warcraft used to be paladins glorifying the Light, adventurers questing to unknown lands helping those in need, elves reconciling their existence with nature and other races, and heroes teaming up to slay gold-hoarding dragons. Now, it is females dethroning kings, the Light being just another deity to worship, the afterlife just another realm, “good” and “evil” being relative, and even “perspectives” of which everyone has “their own truth”.

Since the glory days, Blizzard has been working tirelessly to destroy this beautiful recreation of the Western mythos. The narrative descended from a Tolkien-like fantasy world based on Western Christian motifs of good battling evil, to an Eastern style philosophy trying to balance good with evil, to a Jewish fever dream in which reality was constructed on a false premise and so must be remade in a more fair and equitable state where evil usurps good2.

To the gamers who recognize Warcraft’s story sucks but did not used to, know this. It is not incompetence. It is not corporate greed. It is not veteran developers losing their edge. It is not bureaucracy getting in the way and slowing things down. It is intentional, malicious inversion of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True.

1- Refer to Vox Day’s Socio-Sexual Hierarchy for definitions

2- This being doubly ironic, seeing as the means to accomplish this goal was through genocidal warfare targeting civilian cities. Who wants to bet they required 6 million night elf souls to power their afterlife engine?

You can find me on Social Galactic. I attempt to post at least once a day-

@DenBlondeUlven

You can also email me-

denblondeulven@protonmail.com

2 Comments

  1. I knew some early WoW devs, since it was a small circle in game development and I’d known people that worked on Ultima Online that transitioned over. This is just like things were then, but the company is bigger (and more women in the company rather than the volunteer corps — as I recall back when I followed game media there were a few in producer or coordinator or public relations slots at various times but that was about it). UO had paid Game Masters who tended to have side pieces in their volunteer corps that they called Counselors (who tended to have very expensive game real estate on their player accounts…).

    Pegging it to the guys in the game development world being Gammas or Omegas is pretty spot on. Even in the people that I liked from that world, on reflection that’s a pretty good descriptor.

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