Female gamer mocked by all-male World of Warcraft panel in ‘heartbreaking’ and misogynistic video
The female gamer was mocked and jeered at by the crowd after asking a question about the sexualisation of female characters (Twitter: Chris Bratt)
In the wake of the Activision Blizzard sexual harassment lawsuit, a video of a 2010 Blizzcon panel has gone viral.
In the video, a female fan asks the all-male panel if there’s scope for female characters in World of Warcraft to not be sexualised.
“I love the fact you have a lot of very strong female characters,” she says,” however I was wondering if we could have some that don’t look like they’ve stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalogue.”
She’s met with jeers from the crowd.
Oh god, I'd not seen this before. It's heartbreaking.
Here's a 2010 Blizzcon panel in which a fan was brave enough to ask a panel full of men, including J. Allen Brack (left) & Alex Afrasiabi (right) whether there's scope for some of WoW's female characters to be less sexualised pic.twitter.com/Elaf3K7KVc
— Chris Bratt (@chrisbratt) July 23, 2021
“Which catalogue would you like them to step out of?” responds one of the panelists.
“Could you see Sylvanas looking any other way?” responds another smugly.
The responses barely answer the question and instead continue to ridicule the brave fan, who shrugs and walks away.
Greg Street, who now works for Riot Games, was a member of the panel and has since responded to the video on Twitter.
“Look, it was a sh*tty answer at the time and it certainly hasn’t aged well. I wish I had said something better then,” he said.
“You can’t really see the people asking the questions well from the stage, and I feel terrible now seeing the look on her face. I have more experience now answering questions live, but no doubt that won’t be my last shitty answer. I apologise for those as well as for this one.
“I find the video embarrassing and I apologise to the player who asked the question and all others who were disappointed with our ‘answer.’ I think there are more important voices that we need to hear right now. But the video can be a reminder that we can be better.”
I find the video embarrassing and I apologize to the player who asked the question and all others who were disappointed with our “answer.” I think there are more important voices that we need to hear right now. But the video can be a reminder that we can be better.
GC out— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) July 25, 2021
Since news of the lawsuit broke, there have been plenty of responses from both in and out of Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard co-founder and former CEO Mike Morhaime has spoken on Twitter of his shame.
“I have read the full complaint against Activision Blizzard and many of the other stories. It is all very disturbing and difficult to read. I am ashamed,” he said.
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