# Blizzard Corp. caves to stupid people. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559 "2005-07-14T18:56:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/61 "2005-07-16T14:27:51Z")
> [@Dragonblink](#): > > Isn’t he opening at the Hollywood Bowl next week? > > The point that there is no Maine in Azeroth would be more valid if the game didn’t also contain Siamese cats and Alterac Swiss cheese. Oh, and Zerglings. I heart my Zergling! All they really had to do is give the name the standard Fantasy treatment: MayHne K’ahun or some other vaguely rune-like transliteration. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/62 "2005-07-16T15:18:11Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > I just have to mention that Frisco, a quickly-growing suburb of Dallas, recently changed the name of their high school sports teams away from “The Fighting Coons.” They had a big racoon face painted on their watertower and everything. Good thing they didn’t by cheap paint when they painted over it, otherwise someone might have called them “[niggardly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=133943&highlight=niggardly) .” Well… they changed the name from “The Fighting Coons” to the “Fighting Raccoons”. Not much of a change in terms of logos and mascots, but definitely a lot less double-take inducing when you hear it on the evening news. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/63 "2005-07-16T20:08:53Z")
The same thing (more or less) happened in Dark Age of Camelot which is run by Mythic- in patch 1.37 they had to change the name of a named ghost-horse thing from Spook to Shadowgnash, allegedly because of complaints over the racial slur. Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/64 "2005-07-16T21:02:14Z")
**Idlewild** , was the horse black? ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/65 "2005-07-16T21:23:12Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > **Idlewild** , was the horse black? Yes. But so were all the other pookas, which was the kind of ghost horse thingy that it was. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/66 "2005-07-18T02:40:22Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > Yes. But so were all the other pookas, which was the kind of ghost horse thingy that it was. Balderdash! Everyone knows pookas are six-foot-tall _white rabbits_. They are also very personable and quite good companions. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/67 "2005-07-18T03:05:10Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Balderdash! Everyone knows pookas are six-foot-tall _white rabbits_. > > They are also very personable and quite good companions. Yes. Maybe the ghosty-horse thing was actually a kelpie? Link: [http://www3.sympatico.ca/maelstrom/elecmag/scout.htm](http://www3.sympatico.ca/maelstrom/elecmag/scout.htm) ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/68 "2005-07-18T15:56:23Z")
> [@](#): > > in patch 1.37 they had to change the name of a named ghost-horse thing from Spook to Shadowgnash, allegedly because of complaints over the racial slur. Huh? This one went over my head. Is there are common word not used as a racial slur somwhere? Anyway, black horses are called pookas in some places. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/69 "2005-07-18T16:10:26Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Huh? This one went over my head. Is there are common word not used as a racial slur somwhere? > > Anyway, black horses are called pookas in some places. “Spook” is an older epithet for African-Americans. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/70 "2005-07-18T16:12:28Z")
Although I’d like to note that I think the oversensitivity of seeing any possible word choice that even vaguely has any connection to slurs that haven’t been used in a generation by more than an extremely tiny subset of the population as denoting intent to insult is silly and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/71 "2005-07-18T17:04:16Z")
Bad language drives out good. We need to be vigilant about this. Whoever complained about Maine Coon now has justification for this belief, as well as supporting evidence. When “vinegar” gets changed to “vinegro” we will know the battle is lost. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/72 "2005-07-18T22:41:06Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > “Spook” is an older epithet for African-Americans. You’re kidding, right? What if I call Valerie Plame a spook? After all, she was a CIA agent. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/73 "2005-07-18T22:44:44Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > You’re kidding, right? What if I call Valerie Plame a spook? After all, she was a CIA agent. He’s not kidding. It was a derogatory term for blacks, although it’s hardly ever used that way any more. Obviously, calling Valerie Palme a spook is not a racial slur, because the word has an entirely seperate definition in that context. But as the OP of this thread indicates, a lot of people are too dumb to make that distinction. ---
**Author:** ![VegemiteMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/df788c/32.png) [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/74 "2005-07-18T22:50:44Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Bad language drives out good. We need to be vigilant about this. Whoever complained about Maine Coon now has justification for this belief, as well as supporting evidence. > > When “vinegar” gets changed to “vinegro” we will know the battle is lost. Umm, vi **negro**? My irony meter is broken so I’m not sure if I’ve just been whooshed. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/75 "2005-07-19T03:16:36Z")
> [@Sierra Indigo](#): > > It’s certainly not in Australia. We even have a brand of cheese called “Coon” cheese. Uh, coon is a rather common slur for aboriginals in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![beergeek279](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@beergeek279](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beergeek279)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/76 "2005-07-19T03:17:48Z")
> [@VegemiteMoose](#): > > Umm, vi **negro**? > > My irony meter is broken so I’m not sure if I’ve just been whooshed. Cut off the first syllable of the original word and say it again… Irony for now, but sadly people think these sorts of things all the time! As a paladin engineer who had no time for…BAH! living pets!! …I still think this is utterly ridiculous to pander to idiocy in this way. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/77 "2005-07-19T03:26:06Z")
> [@beergeek279](#): > > Cut off the first syllable of the original word and say it again… “Nigger” and “negro” are both considered politically incorrect. Obviously, it will be changed to viafrican-american. ---
**Author:** ![VegemiteMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/df788c/32.png) [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559/78 "2005-07-19T03:34:31Z")
Thanks **beergeek279**. I’d kinda guessed that since I posted last. But I still don’t get why going from 'vi-nigger" to 'vi-negro" shows an improvement. Is it because it’s one step up the “offensive label ladder”? Maybe I’m trying too hard to get a simple witticism. Ah, and on preview; what Mobo85 said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blizzard-corp-caves-to-stupid-people/312559.md?page=3)