WoW Becoming Unfriendly To Women?

[Bulletdance]

I must admit I'm somewhat old fashioned in my way of thinking,but I've noticed some things from the beta (which are all subject to change anyway) that I don't think anger would be the right word,but kind make me /raise eyebrow as one of the many women who play WoW. I thought I'd point them out to see what everyone else thinks. I may just be being a bit over sensitive.

First we have the one that really I must admit does get under my skin a bit. In one of the new zones there are topless trees. For no reason, I can't even say they look pretty art wise to me.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/download ... ss1366.jpg
Honestly we don't have male trees with...(well I was going to make a horrible pun,but I'll leave it to your imaginations)
And this is the best pic I could find it doesn't show it entirely.

Then we have the female naga which have mysteriously lost their tops. I actually think they look better this way tho.
http://www.youtube.com/user/InicoWc3#p/u/30/esDIuCLYiIU

And lastly there is that strange naked pregnant looking rock thing which I thankfully could not find a screen shot of. And I'm not really trying to complain or anything I'm not canceling my wow sub over any of this or think its a reasonable response,but I am really curious as to what other wow girls and even guys think about all this?

[Saturo]

None of those things are actually new,they all existed previously. The topless trees are present near a dryad shrine in Northrend, and I think their model is called dryad as well. None of the naga before TBC wore clothes, BTW. The pregnant rock is a boss in Maraudon, so she's been in the game since early vanilla.

I'm not so sure what to think. The women in WoW are much better proportioned than in most other games, for example, and if you ignore TBC and small parts of vanilla, they dress better too. I mean, for the naga, clothes would probably be pretty cumbersome, since they are serpentine and live under water. Having topless trees is definitely better than having topless women running around.

[Teigan]

The "topless trees" were there before. In Northrend there are two groves of them. I actually think they're quite beautiful. Puts me in mind of dryads and sacred groves.

The naga look better and much more natural. Saturo summed it up pretty well where clothing is concerned for them.

Having not seen the "pregnant rock" I can't say, but am kind of amused by the idea.

Overall, sure, some things annoy me about being female in this game. My dwarf needs a bra...I wish I could choose the male version of some armor...etc. But, it's not that bad, in my opinion.

Now, the attitudes of some players towards women...that's another story!

[Noor]

Actually, I was just complaining the other day on how discriminating it is that men are allowed to walk around topless in this place called real life, but women are not. We both have breasts. Heck, I've seen men with bigger boobs than I have! But no one complains about them. But if I was to toss my bra and t-shirt, I'd get a ticket.

Personally, I think people are too uptight about bodies and should just chill. Especially since the female body is just gorgeous!

Now, how women are treated in WoW, is another story, indeed, Teigan

[Redith]

Actually, I was just complaining the other day on how discriminating it is that men are allowed to walk around topless in this place called real life, but women are not. We both have breasts. Heck, I've seen men with bigger boobs than I have!

I suport your right to walk arround topless.

[Saturo]

Actually, I was just complaining the other day on how discriminating it is that men are allowed to walk around topless in this place called real life, but women are not. We both have breasts. Heck, I've seen men with bigger boobs than I have! :shock:

I suport your right to walk arround topless. ;)

*Is hardly surprised*

[Mania]

Ah, I thought this was going to mention a particular part of the newbie goblin experience ... which may well keep me from starting a goblin in live.

[Saturo]

Ah, I thought this was going to mention a particular part of the newbie goblin experience ... which may well keep me from starting a goblin in live.

And what, exactly would that be? I'm not a fan of the goblin zone already, if it's sexist too...

[Siliverin]

Now, the attitudes of some players towards women...that's another story!

so freakin sad but so true

[Sochi]

Player attitudes sure, though I have been lucky not to encounter much of this. Usually, unless I know the group I'm with, like my guild, I keep my real world gender to myself. I'm a woman, I know it, the general wow population need not know it.

Never ever noticed the 'topless' trees though. And even seeing them now, not bothered.

As for the goblin starter zone, not sure what's being ref'ed but I'll work Copperpin past it and out into the res of the WoW world.

[cowmuflage]

As a female i don't find any of those things you said unfriendly to woemen i mena if you think about it something that lives under water would not wear clothes in the first place!.

[rubybeam]

these all exsited in WoW alreadly and it's right it's okay to show pg 13= birthday suit stuff all long as it's cesored and they are, for those who don't don't it means to detail just a bump or something of that sort. also the naga naga models are ugly ugh I can't can't stand it i liked the old one's more

[Bulletdance]

I think Wow does depict women better than in most games. I hadn't noticed some of this stuff before I guess it just made me worry a bit that WoW might be starting to go in the other direction. Some of the new jokes are a bit much,but I know they won't make it to live anyway. And as for other players I can understand frustration there. I've yet to find a guild where some idiot doesn't go "lol boob" when the shield icon goes over the tank.

[Cerah]

Actually, I was just complaining the other day on how discriminating it is that men are allowed to walk around topless in this place called real life, but women are not. We both have breasts. Heck, I've seen men with bigger boobs than I have! But no one complains about them. But if I was to toss my bra and t-shirt, I'd get a ticket.

Actually, there are quite a few places IRL, my home province of Ontario included, where it's perfectly legal for women to walk around topless if they want to.

As far as WoW goes, however, I personally find that the game does treat women with a lot more respect than the vast majority of video games I've seen, i.e. any and all 3D fighting games. Most female characters are at least somewhat realistically porportioned, and I've seen a definiate reduction in the number of "chain mail bikini" armour sets as the levels have gotten higher -- most Northrend gear shows off nothing. Blizzard is one of the few video game companies that realizes that their audience is made up of more than just nerdy guys hiding in their mommy's basements -- that people of all sorts, men and women, enjoy their games and they animate characters accordingly. And that's not even mentioning the number of strong, female NPCs. Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanus, Kerrigan in the Starcraft Universe, etc.

There are a lot of games out there that are sexist, either intentionally, or unintentionally in pursuit of the ever-important 18-35 male demographic. World of Warcraft, and other Blizzard games I have played, however, are not in that category.

[Redith]

Well at least theres not like "wow-nipples"

[kamoodle5]

Unfortunately, I have learned there is a program for making your characters and others around you nekkid if you wanted to. Whoever made that should be hanged.

I really don't think female characters in WoW are all that bad, although the final boss in Maraudon and even those women npcs with the multiple arms is a bit excessive. As long as we don't see something that is very disturbing, it should be all right, and I think the female nagas are okay.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

I'll take WoW over a lot of other games. Women are pretty much established to be a major power, and very formidable in the WoW universe. A lot of games would probably die if they had to have a strong female.

[Fael]

My biggest women problem with WoW is how they don't make unique female models for npc races. Nearly everything is male. There are no females amongst the Tol'vir or Ramkahen (the new kitty people), there are no females for the Tuskarr. For the Taunka they didn't even make an attempt of having the females look like anything other than female Tauren. They made new male Troll models for the different tribes but did nothing for the females. I think the only npc races that have females are those that were developed for Vanilla WoW, such as the Naga and the Centaurs. I'm really disappointed that for Blizzard it's "enough" to make up a race and have it represented by males.

[Redith]

Yha well Im glad there arent alot of female enemys. It bugs me I have to kill the females in raids as is

[Mr. Perfect]

What did they do to the Naga?! They're both FUBAR now! The females no longer look menacing and seem somehow bloated. The males have had all of the decorative fins shredded from their backs and look more like a dragonkin or something now. They used to be dangerously ornate snake people. Hopefully they don't do any re-imagining of the player models, else the Tauren will end up looking like rabid cow demons like they do on the cards.

Heck, I've seen men with bigger boobs than I have! But no one complains about them.

Thank you for that mental image...