Discrimination and WoW
by Jennie Lees 
Jan 14th 2006 at 1:00PM
Murmurs of player discrimination have been surfacing recently; a forum thread on Tales of Warcraft has apparently grown to over 7,000 replies with many Chinese players posting that they have experienced racial discrimination from other players. This ties in with something I linked to here recently, an exploration of our attitudes to gold farming--it seems many players are assuming that broken English equals gold farmer, and shunning others totally based on this assumption. In Nick Yee's article, he points to a case where a French speaker was labelled as a Chinese farmer by an ignorant interlocutor.
As Game Tycoon points out, this isn't a new phenomenon. However, it is a worrying one, as it seems ignorance is overtaking good sense and causing problems all round. On the European servers, which are separated by language--English, French or German--many people play on the English servers without English as their first language. I frequently see adverts for Danish or Swedish guilds, and non-English chat in General, both of which are met with huge amounts of flaming from other players. However, English speakers don't shun these Europeans because they're suspected gold farmers, but because they don't obey the "rules" of the server.
Is the anonymity of virtual worlds a good thing, providing us with a mask to hide our racism and hatred behind? Or is it simply a love of the game and an adherence to rules that cause us to strike out with such a huge backlash against those who don't speak properly? Have you experienced or seen problems like this in-game?
Filed under: Virtual selves, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gianni Jan 14th 2006 4:09PM
Interestingly enough, I had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago. Not so much of my ignorance but curiosity. I was doing a quest and grouped up with a guy whom knew where to go and what to do ALWAYS, his english was broken and I had to ask... I suspected he was one of those farmers. So I said, "Where are you from..." he said sweden. I only assumed the people EU and abroad had their own servers...
Hedwig Jan 14th 2006 5:35PM
While I agree that the presence of farmers is annoying (our guild just calls them "Rang Rang" rather than the far more offensive "Chinese farmer" IMHO), I think many of them get a bum rap. I've had several encounters with them, and in general they can be rather helpful. They are usually lvl 60 characters with a lot of armor who constantly run through mob-laden areas (Like Jaedenar), and I've had a few who have invited me and run me through a cave or tunnel or other scary place so I could finish my quest.
Sure, not the greatest conversationalists, but they don't mind you tagging along for the xp ride. As long as they get all the loot, they're not heartbroken, and you get half the silver off the mobs anyway.
I think the general feeling is that they aren't "real" WoW players, which I can surely understand, but rang-rangs do get the short end of the stick a lot more than they deserve.
Aurielias Jan 14th 2006 6:22PM
My guild is based on one of the Oceanic servers and we have a multinational, multiethnic membership. While mostly Australian or American we have a couple of East Asian members, who *gasp* are playing for fun. Because of our status as an Oceanic server we possibly have a higher ratio of East Asian players, but to be honest given the way everyone types (myself included 8->) I can't tell if people are writing in broken english or not.
And maybe I'm immersed in the game a little too much (my wife would say yes), but all I really see is Guild, Undead, Orc, Troll, Tauren and Alliance scum. What people are behind their monitors doesn't faze me.
As for Gold Farmers, pfff. Who cares? They let a few people cheat the system. As long as they behave ethically, i.e. not Ninja Looting when grouped, not stealing mobs etc. who cares how they earn their few bucks a day. Beats working for a living.
L'Emmerdeur Jan 15th 2006 11:27AM
Alas, I was in Lake Kel'theril in Winterspring killing a few mobs to level while waiting for a friend to come online. A dwarf hunter with an obvious farmer name ("Love+something") was in the same area. For about 10 minutes we quietly went about our business, not bothering each other, But then a chest spawned (they do so in one of three locations every 15 minutes or so in this area, and they can contain some really nice loot). He immediately trained some mobs on me, and got me killed.
I've had farmers ninja the Stratholme Key to the City (and I warned the raid leader he was a farmer), get me in trouble numerous times to protect their farming zones, and spam duel requests on me to get me to leave an area. I have zero tolerance for them. They are further proof that just because something CAN be done for profit, doean't mean it SHOULD be done.
As for non-English-speaking non-farmers, it is hard enough getting native speakers to follow orders and not screw things up, adding a language barrier on top of everything else makes this game unplayable (and I speak 4 languages).
Dave Jan 16th 2006 5:45PM
Frankly, I won't play with someone who won't speak english. Look, I'm not racist here. I really don't care ordinarily, and I actually turn off my mic when playing on Xbox Live. I don't care who I'm beating, or who is beating me... but...
WoW is different. I want to be able to communicate with the person I'm playing with, that's why I'm playing an MMO in the first place. I've got the same amount of patience for people who speak "leet" or whatever.
I play on an RP server now, and if you don't speak english, I'm not going to play with you, nor should I be expected to. You can't RP effectively without having a comprehensive knowledge of this language, and you don't belong on that server.
Gunn Morrison Jan 19th 2006 7:36AM
First off, Let me just say that discrimination and racal sterotyping are in this case, the same thing. There no need for that, YOUR IN A GAME! People who feel they need to do these things are mentaly and emotionally underdeveloped, which tell me that their lives are too.If you must make yourself feel good by degrading another race or group of human beings, then your no better than the slurs your vomitting from your mouth, and like vomit no one with any repsect or self-respect wants to hear or see it!For the people who head and hearts are to hard to listen to reason, my advise to you is to go to a nearby department store or hardware store buy a pair good thick, durable gloves, put them on, and get a grip! GROW THE HELL UP!! Life is to short for this nonsense. It will consume you. Maybe if you start being adults, these CHILDREN will follow your example...hmmm! Think about it.
DmAnGuS Jan 19th 2006 9:49AM
It is wrong to stereo type people because of there race. But it is hard to not do it on a game server. It is not because the people doing the stereo type is lacking in there real lives, it is because of the frustration dealing with people who rune the game for there own personal enrichment. One thing I notice missing from this article is what exactly a ?gold farmer? is. A ?gold farmer? is any one, not necessarily a non English speaker, who grinds out in game money to sell for real world currency. Gold farmers are shunned upon just as worst as the people who exchange game money for real money.
This creates a problem where people who pay there money to play a game for the content of the game. Unfortunately the people who buy there items and money with real money are always the strongest in game, while the people who work hard in the confines of the actual game, goes nowhere.
It?s like playing halo against some one who has hack access into ?god mode? a mode where he/she can not be killed. What can the normal halo player do against the player in ?god mode?? Given enough people acquire this mode then there is no reason for the normal player, who enjoys the actual game, to pay to play it.
Dave N Jan 19th 2006 10:36AM
Where do you draw the line between comtempt for a group of people who ruin your gaming experience and racism?
Sure, it's stereotyping. But how many Chinese are out there breaking the mold?
Don't speak English? Stay off an English-speaking server. I have more problems with the players from Quebec (who speak French instead of English) than the Chinese.
Mike Barton Jan 19th 2006 10:53AM
Interestingly enough, most of the people I have played with that have been the most vocal about gold farmers, have used their services to either purchase gold (to get an epic mount or other item), or used leveling services. They didn?t seem to mind the benefit of gold farming, unless it impacted their playing. Some people just take their games, and themselves too seriously!
Internet Jan 19th 2006 11:28AM
I have a problem with this article. Why does it not explain what a "Gold Farmer" is or what it is about them that people are frustrated with.
From my understanding, which may be wrong, the general frustration with users is that there are Chinese (and other) companies that hire people to play WoW, collect gold, and then sell the video game gold to real people for real dollars.
If I am trying to play a game for fun, but I can not because someone is working for a company killing and collecting content that I am trying to enjoy I would be frustrated as well. If I was playing a game and ran into a few hudred people like this that were all working for the same company from Yonkers New York I might even say that I don't like gold farmers from Yonkers. This does not mean that I hate all Americans or all people from Yonkers.
To put this in a more tangible 'real world' light:
Lets say that I go with my friends to our favorite bar once a week to play pool. One night we go there and there were suddenly 200 inside taking every table up. They also plan on being there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We find out that we can't enjoy our game or our hangout because somewhere in Yonkers some company said they would pay people 5 cents for every ball they dropped in a pool table pocket. The people in our hangout aren't even playing the game. They're just racking balls and then taking them out and manually dropping them in the pockets. The employees then mark on their score card that they sunk all the balls in one shot on the break. This is done over and over.
The company they work for makes money in turn by being able to sell the score cards to people who want to compete in pool competitions but need credentials that they have not earned.
Then we find out that this is going on in every bar in our state.
I think that the article and the author would serve themselves better if they informed people more and tried to throw the "racism" card around less.
I don't even play this game and understand why people are mad. How hard is it to try to educate instead of instigate and enflame people's emotions?
Elidyr Jan 19th 2006 11:47AM
First things first, obviously all farmers are not chinese. Farmers are a general nuisance, they loot items they do not need to sell on the AH or vendor Bind on Equip items to sell to NPC vendors where as someone in the group may have needed it, who cares you just bought that farmer dinner.
People are suspicious of non english speaking players because of these times.
Yous can tell by inspecting someones gear whether they are a farmer or not though, if someone is level 60 fully clad in greens A. they are a farmer. B. they are a product of a recent powerleveling. Farmers severely inflate the game economy and create a general nuisance in various areas where people quest/grind forcing people to buy their gold so they can afford auction house items that otherwise would take weeks to earn the gold to be able to afford due to the inflation.
As far as people getting shunned from groups for being suspected gold farmers, thats not the only reason they get kicked. There has to be a line of communication during things such as instancing. You can just have someone who doesnt understand doing whatever they want. It causes wipes, wasting my time and the other 5-15 players times. Blizzard has oceanic and non english speaking servers. If someone is finding that they are being shunned for not being able to understand, follow directions, or just being tagged as a gold farmer they should look into these realms to save themselves, and others alot of grief.
On that note i have also been party to the ol' farmer griefing. I was level 47 grinding in Azshara fighting my way to a chest when a KNOWN level 60 rogue farmer trained mobs to me and vanished forcing me to fight even more mobs while he took the chest.
Liz Jan 19th 2006 12:35PM
I am one of those who has a problem with gold farming, regardless of where they are from. While playing yesterday, I was spammed with whispered advertising from no less than 4 different gold farmers.
On the other side of the coin, I took a player to task uesterday on my server's main chat channel for telling someone to learn how to speak English.
Don't lump all WoW players into the same mold.
J Wong Jan 19th 2006 12:58PM
It's not a racism card. It IS racism. When there is a general assumption that A) all broken English is because the player is Asian, and B) All Asian players are gold farmers. If people would stop and take a look at the world around them, they can see that not all Asians speak in broken English. Not all Asians are in Asia, and not all Asians are Chinese. When one makes any of the above assumptions, it's racist. (kinda like the assumptions that asian females are docile submissive "china dolls") It's a prejudiced assumption about a Asians - Chinese in particular.
I'm pretty new to the game and I haven't had the the pleasure (
Jaberwock Jan 19th 2006 1:21PM
I agree with comment 9 specifically. He pretty much hit the problem on the head. The problem is not that these WoW players are racially stereotyping the asian community, it's that the asian community has stereotyped themselves. If an asian player doesn't have a name like "jhkjlshd" or has not been black flagged for farming or ninja looting and can communicate correct english, no player would have a problem. The fact is you cannot tell an asian player from an american player without these specifics. The problem rises when a player joins your group and can't speak english, therefore he cannot follow precise important directions and may end up getting the party killed or he/she will "steal" and item that wasn't specifically theirs. Players do NOT want to game with "farmers" like that. It's simple, if you do not want to be stereotyped as a Chinese Gold Farmer, try to learn proper english, do not Ninja Loot items that don't belong to you yet, or move to a server than can better accomodate you.
In a game where communication and team work is important, everyone must be on the same page. If you are "asian" and being stereotyped in playing this game, it is because of one of these situations or a situation that has happened in the past.
WoW players choose to deal with people who cause problems or strife by making sure they don't do it again. Those who do cause problems with gameplay will be "blacklisted" and everyone will know who they are. "Hey that's "Lovetrub" he ninja looted last time we grouped, don't group with him." It's as simple as that. Don't ninja loot, be able to communicate, don't hang out with those who farm gold for money and try not to tarnish your ingame reputation. This is not a racial problem...
JD Jan 19th 2006 2:39PM
Let me admit first off that I didn't play Wow for very long so there may be some facts I could be missing. I played for about 2 months and right off the bat more than anything the game was all about competition for resources. When I did finally get to a level where I could finally get to high resource areas all I would see are just a bunch of dead npcs. I think all the griping just comes down to not having a choice to play on smaller more local servers. Unless your playing PvP and your looking for the best its just not worth it playing with international groups. The fun of the game is communicating. And when people arent into the game for the game there definately isn't communication going on. I think Wow would definately benefit by following what guildwars has done with cities being the hub of connection with other people to form parties with and once you exit you are in your own world basically. It is much more immersive and you don't have to deal with alot of the problems of gold farmers or constantly waiting in line to finish with popular quests. Crowding can definately take away from a game and makes me miss the good ol days of single player rpgs. If it can't be done, then put up more local servers. People mostly want to play with people close to home anyway.
BaneTek Jan 19th 2006 2:43PM
The problem is they do not belong on a english speaking server. If found to not speak any english, they should be transfered to their language server if their is one. This will not only insure they have a more pleasurable expercience( being able to understand the game) I know you are going call me a racist due to lack of backing an arguement... well lets just put it this way. If they just happened to be a white person raised by chinese parents and did not know english than I would say the same thing for them too.
BE REALISTIC HERE WHY WOULD AN ASIAN PERSON WHO DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH PLAY ON A US SERVER FOR A HIGH PING?
DO WE NOT HEAR AUSSISE ALWAYS COMPLAINING ABOUT HIGH PINGS, CRAPY MAINTENCE TIMES AND THE FACT THEY DON'T HAVE THEIR OWN SERVER?
Fact is enough people have come accross chinese gold farmers and yes understandably alot of us call them chinese farmers. While its not fair that every chinese person gets called one, its also not fair we come to play a game to escape reality just to have to deal with them. If people wish to escape the reality that not every one likes asians than all they got to do is shut their mouths. I don't go play wow to hear some guy talk about how he is gay or how he hates blacks or some black guy to talk about how he hates white etc. I come for one thing and one thing only talk with friends, game enjoy my self.
go ahead flame away, I'll be sure to tell my Japanse fiance I've been a bad boy and to take away my nooky points for the week
BaneTek Jan 19th 2006 3:36PM
Jaberwock: You hit it right on the dot with your last comment. No one will know anything about you that you do not tell them in game. Its funny how often these left wing Political cowardice people will make a comment like " I'm gay " just to get some one out there to say " fag" just so they can report, cry about it in general chat etc. No one will know you are a chinese person who does not speak english unless you open your mouth. If you open your mouth every one will know and most won't want to game with you for obvious reasons. Calling me a racist for not wanting to game with a non english speaking person is just stupidity on the persons part for calling me a racist.
What most people need to understand is that people who throw arround the " raciest " name caling do it in such because it will demonize you and because they lack the ability to argue why you should just sit back and be nice to the person who just jacked your boss loot and can't speak english. What better way to feel like you won an arguement than to yell " you're a racist " and get that person to shut up. This is a tactic used by the left for quite awhile now.
People(s) who have a character sit in a zone 24/7 should be looked at by blizzard GMs. If they don't speak english and have a server in their region than yea send em there. Since this article seems to state that not all chinese speaking people are gold farmers then its safe to assume that they would enjoy being able to enjoy the game, quests more because it will be in their chinese language. If they speak engligh and chinese than no worries. This would solve the problem and is NOT racism because as I said before it could be any one on the other side of the computer. Ya never know, it would just very well be a white kid born to a red neck family who traveled to china to drop their kid off on some chinese persons porch and that kid was raised by chinese parents who did not know to teach the kid english so someday he would not be accused of being a chinese gold farmer. As silly as it sounds, being pissed at someone for not speaking your countries language when that person is clearly on an english speaking server does not ammount to racism.
Hemore Jan 19th 2006 4:23PM
I find your article to be sorely lacking in informmation. You didn't explain what a gold-farmer is, first off. For those who don't know... a gold-farmer is someone who plays the game for a business venture by obtaining items, high level characters, and gold and then in-turn sells them, thereby cheapening the difficulty, importance, and skill of the game. Real players are often offended by this.
Secondly, you claim that approximately 7,000 players replied to that article? I would like to know how many subscribers there are in China, overall. I'd be willing to bet that 7,000, while seeming large, is actually minute in comparison to how many chinese subscribers there actually are. I'm not condoning racism, but if it's as small a percentage as I assume taht has felt like they were the recipients of racism, it lessens the blow.
I think it's debatable if what these people have encountered actually IS racism at all. If someone is harassing another player solely for their nationality then perhaps it's racism, after all chinese is a nationality as well as a race, I'm of european ancestry but if I were born in china, I would be "chinese". In instances where I've actually seen harassment occur, people were upset about the person actually being a gold-farmer, they couldn't care less about someone's race.
I wish people would quit playing the race card whenever they get a chance, and articles were better researched.
JC Jan 19th 2006 4:26PM
i understand how annoying it may to encounter gold farmers, but cmon people! how in world can a race "stereotype themselves"?? if a person cant make a living with any other jobs, are they "stereotyping their own race"? asians dont speak english well, so its stereotypical? they have names as "hshewwegjig?" how can a small group of people bring judge to the whole race? american gangs and racist organizations should convince me to hate america, then? because, so you know, they bring the whole country of the United States into view as horrible.*sarcasm*
there is no such thing as sterotyping themselves. OTHER people stereotype. not the victims. im sorry if that seems as a shock towards you. and to classify chinese and non-english speaking players as farmers? that is discrimination. maybe my being asian myself would set me on a bias. but i speak perfect english. so does it really matter what your race is? if you talked to me on WoW, youd think i was just one of those other lifeless white guys. but im chinese. and proud enough of my people not to tolerate them being prejudiced.
Mike Jan 19th 2006 4:58PM
Due to the inflammatory nature of some comments recieved, we are locking this comment thread for now....