In the most recent patch to the game, World of Warcraft, a stealth change was slipped in with all the other publicly announced changes. In this game, you can find or buy non-combat pets that follow your character around. Some of these pets include mechanical chickens, pandas, tiny little dragon whelplings, and cats. One cat in particular was highly prized: the Maine Coon. When players with Maine Coon cats logged into the game post-patch, they were surprised to find that the Maine Coon was replaced with a Black Tabby.
Their reason? “This non-combat pet name was changed as there were a number of concerns expressed by players that had never heard of this particular breed of cat. To them it seemed offensive, which was never our intent upon introducing this pet.”
Yes, that’s right. People too stupid to do a little research complained about a perceived racism in the name of an animal, and rather than inform these idiots, they gave in and changed the name.
I will generally defend Blizzard. I think they’ve made a great game, and some of the lag issues and other things don’t really bother me that much. They’ve got their hands full, and I think they do a pretty good job of keeping me entertained for the last 6 months. But this. This has got to be the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of. They need to grow a collective pair and IGNORE the idiots.
What’s next? We wipe raccoons off the planet in a bid to be more sensitive to people offended by…what? The inclusion of a syllable in a word where the consecutive letters happen to be “c-o-o-n”?! What, then, do we do with all the PETA fuckers who will be freaking out over the mass murder of cute (albeit vicious in their own right) furry woodland creatures? After that, who else is in line? Where does it end? Someone should be ashamed of themselves, starting with any stupid asshole who is offended by the actual name of the cat, and ending with the stupider asshole who gave into him.
If I were the type to make a virus, I’d make one that patches the breed of the cat to “ChinkyKikeSpick McNiggerWop”. Give 'em something at least halfway valid to bitch about.
(I suppose I need to make a disclaimer here so I’m not accused of “hate speech”. I do not hate the ethnic groups that are the targets of the racial epithets used above, at least one of which I belong to. It’s just an attempt at a humorous description of a hypothetical prank to piss off overly-PC people as descibed in the OP)
How about dwarves? They’re inherently offensive to the vertically challenged and stereotype all Scottish people as thuggish drunks! I’ll have to shoot off an email forthwith.
Oh MYGAWD…You’re right! I am a gnome! Garden Gnomes everywhere will be reenacting those awful commercials where LEGIONS of them wake people up in the middle of the night with menacing looks on their faces!!
While I agree that, generally speaking, it’s far better to fight ignorance than to cave to it, in a way I can understand this company’s decision. They’re in the business of producing and supporting a game. In that regard, they only have so many resources to go around, particularly in man-hours dedicated to customer support. I’d imagine that they’d like to direct those resources towards issues that are germaine to the actual playing and functionality of the game itself. If, after a period of time, they find that they are over-burdened with having to respond to ridiculous complaints about a non-technical aspect of the game, it simply makes sense to eliminate the source of the complaints, so as to free up resources for more important company business. While there will be some initial blowback from the decision, eventually it will die off, as will this particular time-stealer for the company, and they can get back to providing support on real issues to their customers. Problem solved.
I am waiting for the day inwhich the actual breed’s name will be changed. “North American Long Hair Cat,” or something I suppose. Sadly when this happens I will not be at all surprised.
Well, the folks who complained are idiots, but idiot money spends as good as anyone else’s. Some of these idiots might have cancelled their subscriptions over mis-percieved racism. No one is going to cancel their subscription because they changed Maine Coon to Black Tabby. Good business sense says make the change, even if common sense says it’s fuckin’ stupid.
I sent them a (rather sarcastic) complaint letter about the change. I figure if they get complaints about the name, I’m going to help to make sure they get as many complaints about the change.
