Despite some steps taken by the gaming industry towards being more gay-friendly (see: permitted homosexual marriages in Dragon Age, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Fable), not everyone is so open-minded. You may have heard of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher’s (member of the band Cannibal Corpse) rant against the Alliance, which was saturated with f-bombs, passionate hate, and homophobia.
Blizzard allowed the band to play on the main stage of BlizzCon, and played an edited version of the clip. You can watch the unedited clip here, but beware, it is definitely NSFW. Along with his opinion that Alliance players are homosexual and often partake in the act of fellatio, he encourages Nigh Elf players to “cry in a river and tell me how you’re going to slit your wrists.” All the while, the interviewer just laughs along.
After a severe backlash from Alliance players, homosexuals, and people with rational thought, Blizzard sent a letter to blog Gay Gamer, apologizing and taking full responsibility for the video showing. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment and member of Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain, wrote the apology, which reads as follows (from Gay Gamer):
Dear members of the Blizzard community,
I have read your feedback and comments about this year’s BlizzCon, and I have also read the feedback to the apology from Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain. I’d like to respond to some of your feedback here.
As president of Blizzard, I take full responsibility for everything that occurs at BlizzCon.
It was shortsighted and insensitive to use the video at all, even in censored form. The language used in the original version, including the slurs and use of sexual orientation as an insult, is not acceptable, period. We realize now that having even an edited version at the show was counter to the standards we try to maintain in our forums and in our games. Doing so was an error in judgment, and we regret it.
The bottom line is we deeply apologize for our mistakes and for hurting or offending anyone. We want you to have fun at our events, and we want everyone to feel welcome. We’re proud to be part of a huge and diverse community, and I am proud that so many aspects of the community are represented within Blizzard itself.
As a leader of Blizzard, and a member of the band, I truly hope you will accept my humblest apology.
- Mike Morhaime President, Blizzard Entertainment
Fisher issued his own apology, which was mentioned in Morhaime’s letter. It reads as follows (from G4):
Hey guys, we read and heard all the feedback from BlizzCon this year. The Corpsegrinder bit was never intended to be taken seriously. We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun. Thank you all for speaking up. We’ll definitely keep this in mind for future shows. Our humblest apologies, Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain.
I don’t know what kind of society we have when encouraging people to slit their wrists, and using homosexuality as a perceived heavy insult, is considered “fun”.
I’m only going to say one thing in regards to this whole deal:
Words are only as offensive as the intent behind them.
Negative, sir. Intent is only a small fraction of the equation.
I wish that were true. He obviously meant to insult somebody. And using insults like those only perpetuates what they imply, which is that being homosexual is wrong and looked down upon. And suggesting that someone should slit their wrists is never not offensive, especially considering the uptick in child and teen suicides from bullying of gay, or perceived to be gay, kids.
It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen the video an my memory is awful, so I’m just going to go on the assumption he says something along the lines of “Alliance R faggots lol”
The way I see it is, a lot of people use that particular word as an insult, when in reality they don’t mean any ill towards homosexuals. Should they? Of course not, but people still do, and I assume that’s what he was doing. So I think the apology was entirely appropriate. However, there’s the people who are acting like he got up on stage and set fire to a mannequin dressed as the pope that need to cool it. JUST MY OPINION, THOUGH.
Also, a little violent hyperbole is to be expected when you’re interviewing a guy that just got done singing a song entitled “Meat Hook Sodomy”
WAIT, I SAID I WAS ONLY GOING TO SAY ONE THING
Years? This happened at this year’s Blizzcon. And he explicitly uses the word “homo”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eg3N3TayP8&
Did they not just play that video on the projector? That interview is a few years old, I remember it seeing during Burning Crusade.
And you didn’t hear the word “homo” at blizzcon. What people did, to try to further their cause, is take the original video and plaster it everywhere because the blizzcon version didn’t have any of that. People are purposefully misunderstanding him. To further their own whiny ass agenda’s. Everybody knows in the original video he was smiling, and having fun talking about something he enjoys. Everybody knows that he wasn’t spewing hate toward people. But again, that doesn’t fit anyone’s agenda.
“Words are only as offensive as the intent behind them.”
if you honestly believe this, I invite you to die, reincarnate as a lower or middle-class black man, though for the purposes of this experiment any minority will work, and re-evaluate this statement
jake, you can just go ahead and kill yourself, you illiterate paranoid manchild
ROFL. The hypocrisy. Look at all the hate you’re spewing. You intolerant, holier than thou bigot. People love to look like a victim of something. And they’ll twist it into whatever mold they want to support their agenda. But go ahead. Keep spewing hate hypocrite.
So let me get this straight. And I’ll try to keep a straight face. You’re ok with telling someone to go kill themselves, but when someone else does it, it’s wrong?XD. That’s the most awesome shit I’ve ever heard. And nice analogy. “If you believe that, then you should…(make up some bullshit about dying and coming back as someone else to make yourself sound intellectual)”. People like you are worse than anybody. You try to make it sound like you know someone’s intent, and that they’re “not just words”. But it’s okay for you to tell people to die. The sweet, sweet, irony. So delicious.
“Jake”, get back on the ritalin bus because you’re one crazy motherfucker. but please, continue to go on vitriolic rants that, in a manner apart from the ones I engage in, aren’t actually predicated on things that exist.
in reality.
really, though, go on. if you really want something that will make you put your tinfoil hat on and sperg out, know that there are a great deal of us who take delight in watching you self-destruct in front of a dispassionate, apathetic internet
And yet, here you are. Enjoying the drama. Feeding it. So delicious. And the irony too. You actually told someone that said “words are only as offensive as the intent behind them” to go kill themselves, then come back as a “lower income middle class minority” and re-evaluate that statement. And that was your argument. To come up with an impossibility because you lacked anything else. When in reality, he was exactly right. But keep it coming with the comedic gold.
Oh yeah, the video was from 2007, but they played it at this year’s Blizzcon, and had his band play. I think when it was just a video, nobody cared too much because it was just a performer. But then Blizzard as a company, by playing clips of it, came off looking like they supported it.
Agreed. It was an idiotic move, but an honest mistake.
Cannibal Corpse is hardly a group of people I’d take seriously. They’re a heavily theatrical band and play off their “extreme metal” personas, and probably like to keep a piece of that during interviews. Hell, he calls himself Corpsegrinder. The whole thing is a joke.
He labels himself as a pathetic nerd in the first couple sentences of the interview. He’s just blowing off steam, and he’s obviously smiling and playing his crazy persona up for the camera. “Passionate hate” is pushing it. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great idea to play it at Blizzcon, but I’m sure Blizzard wasn’t trying to offend anyone. They probably just thought the video was so absurdly it was funny.
I agree with you, I’ve heard in the past about this guy he would always shout “fuck alliance” or “for the horde” after alot of his band’s performances. I can tell this man was just joking and anyone that takes this seriously should calm down. Lol passion hate.
Just because you aren’t trying to offend someone doesn’t mean that they aren’t legitimately offended.
It’s pretty simple, really — don’t be a dick — and if you get called on being one, don’t get defensive about it. Just earn up to your mistake and learn from it. That’s what Blizzard has done, and a lot of the gaming community could learn from them.
“Just because you aren’t trying to offend someone doesn’t mean that they aren’t legitimately offended.”
At the risk of sounding like a dick myself, I think people need to chill out. There are plenty of people in this world that preach legitimate hate messages, and it just seems silly to get worked up over the lead singer of Cannibal Corpse saying some stupid bullshit.
I guess my point is that a lot of people would benefit from letting something like this roll off their back instead of getting outraged by it.
Kudos to Blizzard for admitting it was a bad idea and issuing an apology, though.
I don’t think it’s fair to distinguish “legitimate hate” from “playful hate”. I know people think that it’s just a drive for more political correctness, and that being PC is passe or works against what Corpsegrinder is as a persona. I understand that, and I don’t care what Corpsegrinder said. Just like not too many people care about Gwar’s antics anymore. But it *is* important for Blizzard to be PC, because they’re a professional company with millions of customers. It was a poor choice to air even an edited version of the clip at their largest annual event.
he sings for a cannibal corpse. he can say whatever the hell he wants. If you’re offended, suck it up like a man.
Also, it’s worth noting that Cannibal Corpse didn’t preform during Blizzcon. Corpsegrinder was just a special guest during one of Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain’s songs, so that bit of the article is inaccurate.
Duly noted. All articles I saw said he was a member of the band, and nobody even mentioned that he was in Cannibal Corpse. I only learned that from looking him up. But thanks for the correction.
Haha, it’d be crazy if Corpsegrinder was actually in L90ETC. The band is actually made up of Blizzard employees. Samwise Didier is the lead singer, Mike Morehaime
is the bassist, etc.
CORPSE GRINDER FTW!