Blizzard is looking to diversify the skin tones that players have access to in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands by adding in options for blood elves on the horde to include darker skin—and opinions have already flooded the forums.
While some players have questioned the decision to diversify, noting that there isn’t a lore-based reason for there to be black-skinned blood elves, Asmongold defended Blizzard’s decision on his stream today.
Pointing out that Blizzard can manipulate the lore to effectively be whatever it wants it to be, Asmongold was quick to criticize people who were against the added option, suggesting that arguments had some racist undertones to them.
While Asmongold understands that some people perceive this upcoming diversification as Blizzard trying to bring forth a political agenda, he doesn’t see it that way.
“The whole thing seems so stupid to me,” he said. “The problem is that you have these times where you do have somebody who has a political agenda and goes out of their way to make a video game reinforce the current social norms or political agendas that reflect their real-life politics, and it’s disgusting, annoying, obnoxious.”
For Asmon, having black characters in the game doesn’t change his experience in any way. His goal of using WoW as a way to engage in a second fanciful life isn’t hindered by the skin tone of others.
“But for me personally, I play video games for escapism, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that I play video games to escape from being able to look at black people,” he said. “I know I’m getting a lot of clips here that could be put out of context, but I think that we should just talk about it in a real sense. Let’s just be honest. I’m so sick of talking around things. This is clearly what it is.”
Furthermore, Asmon said that the feature could help some of his friends make characters that they feel are more relatable to them personally.
“There are black people who play this game,” he said. “I know that. I know some of them. They’re real, and I don’t see a big deal of having some black characters in the game. It doesn’t really matter.”
Asmongold is known for having some strong opinions as it relates to political agendas seeping into video games. But as far as he’s concerned, this isn’t about politics or inconsistencies in WoW lore. For him, some players’ problems with black skin on characters is a deeper personal issue on their part.
