I'm far more offended by companies that use sex to sell hamburgers, beer or shoes. Do you complain when a book as sexuality in it? A movie? RPG's, especially as huge as WoW are going to have sexuality all over it. Whether it is overt or covert or completely misconstrued or fully intentional. I don't think there was anything distasteful in the quest text there. Could they have done without it? Absolutely. Is it bad editing? Maybe. In a company as big as WoW, I would imagine it would be better off not to even go anywhere near there. Even as innocent as it was. Funny though, I don't think Garrosh calling Sylvanas a bitch got this much scrutiny, this fast. To me that was far more demeaning and unnecessary.

Except this isn't just an aspect of sexuality in fiction. It's a lopsided presentation of sexuality that provides one gender an inequal, lesser experience. As bad as books can be about gender issues sometimes, at least everybody reading it is going to read the same words. That isn't the case here. The text is custom tailored to provide women (or woman characters) a worse experience.

And Garrosh calling Sylvanas a bitch actually did quite a bit of attention, though you're right, I don't think WoW Insider addressed that when it released. It's still a relatively shameful line of dialogue that never should've gone live.

I would strongly debate that the two texts contribute to an "inequal or lesser experience". If you are forced to play one gender based on your own, I would say you had a very mild case. Since everyone is equally able to play male or female, much like horde or alliance, that is just not the case. We can agree to disagree here, nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a pretty cool thing to do. Makes for excellent discussion :)

Oh noes! An NPC noticed my character's gender! And he reacts differently to men than women!

That's what I'm hearing there. Surprise! Most people do that most of the time. And it isn't as if there aren't good reasons for that; women and men value different things... well... differently.

Heck, reading Josh's transcript of the lines he's saying pretty much the same thing; telling a guy he 'looks strong' is about as close as is socially acceptable for one guy to tell another he's handsome. So yeah, in either case Firepaw says "Hiyas! You're attractive! I bet you can pick and choose among the opposite gender! Let's be friends!"

I can see an argument that it's insensitive to homosexuals, I guess, but it isn't particularly unlikely that that thought never crossed Jin's mind... nor does one's preference preclude difficulty in avoiding unwanted attention by the opposite gender.

None of this addresses the armor model issue, though; that's an out-of-character choice by the art team.

"Most people do that most of the time."

But they shouldn't.

I'm sorry Alex, but the idea that we shouldn't treat people differently because of their gender is, frankly, rather thoughtless. To do so is to refer to everybody by gender-neutral pronouns, to not address the fact that there are REAL PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES between men and women, and those are GOING to affect perception. disregarding a woman's gender as far as job applications or consideration for hiring is a desirable state for a society. Determining that a woman's gender makes her unfit for a function is wrong. Disregarding the fact that a woman who is, at the time, pregnant might be unfit for certain tasks in the name of gender equality is just foolish. Gender exists, sexes exist, and to refuse to recognize them is not helpful in the slightest, and on the same level as keeping your head in the sands.

The fact remains that Ji essentially gave the same compliment to both characters after recognizing that he is male, and they are the sex they appear to be, which adjusted the wording of his compliment accordingly.

Totally agree, Alex.