Canadian ex-pat California resident Holly “Windstalker” Longdale has always had a flair for the dramatic. During her long tenure at SOE/Daybreak/Darkpaw Games she’s been a much appreciated force of nature and an enthusiastic spokesperson for the geriatric EverQuest franchise. She’s since left Darkpaw Games and is now in charge of producing World of Warcraft: Classic.
A few weeks ago a lavishly produced promotional video was released that heralds the now released first expansion for Word of Warcraft: Classic — the Burning Crusade. This video is similar in theme to the Classic launch promo spot released in 2020. The spot features an Usher look-alike singing a medievalesque bard song. I had no idea that black people were bards in medieval times.
Holly has a small role as a woman celebrating the humiliation of an old white man who’s locked in a stock — a medieval form of physical punishment for small crimes. Imagine the outrage that would ensue if a minority, or women of any color, or God forbid a LGBTQ humanoid was locked in the stocks and ridiculed?
Here’s the video cued at the moment when aspiring thespian Holly makes her brief appearance:
The video has a racially diverse cast that seems to go out of its way to showcase blacks and Asians. Both of these real world races have been officially retconned into the newly woke Alliance as both playable characters and NPCs. There can be no doubt that Blizzard’s hand-picked diversity and inclusion committee were behind most of the casting decisions. With the exception of Holly, a minor role played by WoW producer John Hight, and a guest spot by unhinged blabbermouth leftist actor Ron Pearlman, most of the white people in the video are relegated to non-important roles such as peasants, vagrants, and criminals. No white privilege in Azeroth!
Thankfully missing are Blizzard employees playing drag queens and flamboyant homosexuals; perhaps they will be included in a future Wrath of the Lich King promo in an underground Dalaran cabaret or bath house. I’m sure woke Blizzard devs Steve Danuser and Johnny Cash are hard at work on this vitally important task as we speak.
In a time of financial austerity and layoffs at Activision-Blizzard, wasting money on a foolish promo video while their employees are paid below industry standard wages seems like an extravagance but it’s good work if you can get it. We wish Holly all the best of luck with her acting career. If Blizzard continues to hemorrhage subscribers to Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG she may end up out of a job and her acting abilities may be very useful indeed.
There was already 2001 movie “Black Knight”, the Wikipedia entry has an interesting line:
>Addressing it as one of the few contemporary films that cast African American characters in medieval settings, Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman noted that the film provided commentary on early 21st-century race relations in the United States, noting that despite his triumphs in the medieval setting, by the end, Jamal “continues to live in white America, which requires hybridity, not dominance, from African American men. He may be a better man for his excellent medieval adventure, but he is still black, poor, underemployed, and living in the hood.”<
There is also something else that makes diversity and female characters attractive, particularly for mass produced TV series (esp. on streaming services) lately: They are just cheaper than a white guy in the same role.
The funny thing is, the old WoW was already pretty inclusive, despite being created mostly by angry white men with a forum post history that would have had them hanged today.
When all a company does is to send strong virtue signals, it has nothing to say anymore.
The thing is, you are probably right, this video was too much infused by this, which didn't make it any better, rather worse.
The Alliance humans are based on traditional medieval Europeans who happen to be white. This has become an embarrassment to the ghouls who run Blizzard so they had to retcon the humans into being multi-racial. This was needless pandering to people who aren’t the target audience for your game.
The Lord of the Rings has been translated into every language known to man and is beloved by people of all races despite the fact that it was based on an a pre-history of white Christian Europe. Tolkien never worried about appealing to all races.
Yeah, the vid is pretty cringe-inducing, like a bad SNL skit. Does not look like it was money well spent. I’ve done any number of mmo’s over the years, and so glad I never played WoW. Please tell me what I’m missing?
I worshiped Blizzard back in those heady days of the original Starcraft and Warcraft 3. Those were some amazing games. I think what started me souring on Blizzard was how bad Starcraft 2 was, what with its uninspired gameplay, cheesy/cliched storytelling, and overall bloated pretentiousness.
On a related note, I knew something was not right at Blizzard when Morhaime weighed in against Gamergate. I mean, there was something so wrong about game devs/publishers siding with leftist game journos (and I use the term ‘journo’ loosely) and the woke Twitter mob against their best customers. Surely it was a case of the lunatics taking over the asylum. But I digress.
BTW, I wish I could unsee that picture of J. Allen Brack (photoshopped I’m assuming) in the rainbow pride suite. lol
Agree completely with this from AnonEntity: “When all a company does is to send strong virtue signals, it has nothing to say anymore.” Amen.