I know a lot of us have had this problem in some form or another. You’re puttering around Stormwind or Orgrimmar going about your business when you happen to see something on your screen that makes you do a double take. Something someone said in General or Trade Chat made you wonder just what was going on, or maybe you spotted the name of a character or hunter pet that made you slow down and say, “Hold on a second, here. Did I just see what I thought I saw?” So you turn to check again, and sure enough, there sits a Worgen Hunter with a wolf pet named Jewbiter. Or a Dwarf Paladin named Mikehunt (if you’re confused about this one, say it out loud really fast). I’m not making these up – these are people I’ve actually reported before.

In days past, you would be able to click the trusty red question mark in your UI, open up a ticket, and file it with the GMs so that it would be looked at. You’d receive a nice little in-game message that showed that it was responded to and being investigated. In the case of Mikehunt, I added him to my friends list to make sure that the name was changed, and if not, I could report him again later (I had to report him several more times for other versions of the same name, until he finally received a final warning, I suspect, and changed his name to something more appropriate). With Jewbiter, however, you just had to make your report and hope that it would be resolved. Not the greatest option, but for me, it was enough. The in-game mail response at least indicated that it was being investigated, and in my experience, turnaround time on these issues was typically within a day or two.

The new system doesn’t work in the same way, and in some cases, it’s a little bit better and more user-friendly. The option for making a report on bad player names, bad pet names, bad guild names, or unacceptable language in chat is now reduced to a click-to-report option. Right-click the character portrait or character name in chat, choose “report player,” and the UI comes up. Now, the UI for this feature is great. You can choose one of four radio buttons: Bad Player Name, Bad Guild Name, Language, and Cheating ; add in a short description of the incident in the provided text box, and that’s that. Report finished.

On paper, it looks like the perfect way to manage these reports. No more having to remember what a character name is, or figuring out just what alt code you need to get that umlauted u. I don’t get updates from Blizzard anymore to say, “Hey, we got your report and we’re gonna look into it. In the meantime, have a Pudding Pop,” but when this feature was first released, I could live with it. They’ve done right by me in the past, so no big deal.

Then something went wrong.

Back on Azgalor-US, I was running through Stormwind one day on my hunter. I happened to run by the blacksmith’s area and ran past a Worgen Warrior rocking the DS5 instance plate armor. That armor looked pretty good! So, like any fledgling transmogger (damn you Rades and Rhuan) wanting to check it out and see what it would look like on a Draenei, I clicked his name and did a double take.

Ibitanegar.

I was shocked. That’s not even skirting the line of racism, that’s taking the running long jump right into I-dare-you-to-ban-me-ville. So I brought it up in guild chat. Encouraged everyone to report him, and filed a player name report myself. Added him to the friends list to keep an eye on the name change, and went about my day. In my heart I knew it would get handled; Blizzard would bring down the hammer.

The next day, I logged in and saw no change. No big deal, I thought, it’s probably backed up in the system, but I filed another report anyway. The day after that, no change. No big deal, I thought again, it’s probably backed up in the system. I filed another report anyway. I was away from my computer for a few days after that, working on my D&D/novel project, so I wasn’t able to check in to see if there was a change. However, I’m sure you can imagine my surprise and confusion when, a week after my initial report, I logged in to find that Ibitanegar was still on my friends list. I reported him again. I encouraged others to do the same. I mentioned it in guild chat. Standard operating procedure, right?

A week later, after reporting daily, Ibitanegar was still on my friends list. Alright, follow standard operating procedure. Report, encourage. Report. Encourage. Report. Encourage. It was then that some people in my guild mentioned that they couldn’t report him without being able to click him or his name. So, after forming a group with everyone who wanted to report him but couldn’t because they weren’t in Stormwind, I used HGWT to bring them to his position (and I’m sure if he was at his computer, he was confused as to why half a dozen people just teleported in on him, but I digress). Reports were made, and I went on about my business.

On one occasion, I decided to see what would happen if I were to use the old way of reporting. Choosing the “report a player” option simply gave instructions on the click-to-report procedure, but what about another method? I sent in a complaint through the original system, indicating that my numerous reports on the new system had gone unanswered, and that this player name was something that should be addressed. I received a wonderfully copy-pasted response detailing that all player reports must use the new click-to-report procedure, and no escalation option. Glorious. (Note at this time that I didn’t use any of the reporting options on Battle.net. Why? Because until the time of this writing and discussions with Rades, I forgot they even existed.)

More than a month after my initial report, Ibitanegar was still unchanged. I was absolutely baffled. I could not understand why a racial slur of this magnitude was allowed or just glossed over.

Some time later on Twitter, Blizzard posted this:

And I responded:

A few hours went by without a response, and I logged off for the day. I got up the next morning to see an update in my twitter feed, a response from Blizzard:

My jaw dropped. Are you KIDDING me? “The atmosphere on a realm is determined by its population.” My problem with this response is two-fold. In the first place, it doesn’t explain WHY they would allow a name such as this to persist, and second, does this mean they’re okay with a racial slur as a name so long as everyone else on the server is fine with it? I responded to this utter ridiculousness, only partially addressing the requirement of having to click to report:

Now, I’ve seen @BlizzardCS respond to tweets they’ve received about people having problems and questions on tickets and so on. Not once did I ever receive a follow-up from them on this for more clarification, and I’ve been grinding my teeth about this whole event since it happened. It’s been almost two months since my initial reporting, and Ibitanegar is still playing his happy little racist heart out on Azgalor-US, but I’m no longer there to continue reporting him.

This ties in neatly with the post made by Stubborn  where their letter to Blizzard about votekicking says:

“I understand your secretive punitive measures that are to “protect customer’s privacy.”  Fine.  Those of us who are actually trying to maintain some semblance of civil community are constantly frustrated by it because one job of a justice system is deterrence, which can’t happen if justice takes place in secret, but fine.  Okay.  However, when the one tool we’re given where we can see swift and cold justice happen is gimped in such a way as to make it unusable, it calls into question your own stand on bad player behavior.”

My problem with the reporting feature is the SAME THING, but on a much more potentially damaging scale. Blizzard has given us a tool in order to help “police the community,” as Stubborn indicates, but barring one tweet from @BlizzardCS which is removed from the original issue, I’ve seen no results. On top of that, it feels to me as though that the customer service department is suggesting that if I’m the only person who has reported it (I know that I’m not), then it’s not important enough for them to investigate. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to take away from “The atmosphere on a realm is determined by its population” other than a casual dismissal.

Clearly, this isn’t working. So how do we fix the system? Honestly, click-to-report is a great feature. What’s not great is that it is the ONLY way to report. You might be able to get around distance restrictions by doing some fancy target-of-target work, but if you’re reporting in Stormwind and your guildmates are in Felwood, that’s just not possible. This requires the person in Felwood to come all the way back to Stormwind to report cases like this, and why in the HELL are the ones who are following the rules the ones who have to be inconvenienced in order to police their own community? I know that Blizzard doesn’t make public how many people they have in their GM system, so I know that some of the issue has to be with the sheer ratio of reports to personnel, but there HAS to be a better way.

Changes that I think would make this system run a little better:

• More options than click-to-report, OR make it so that you can /who [name] and click to report from the /who window. Being half a world away unable to report something your friend or guildmate mentions automatically forces you into a silent majority. I know Blizzard wants us all to use their shiny system, but if part of the system is broken, responding to “it doesn’t work” with “use it anyway” is flawed.
• Reports about bad character/guild names must be treated with the same level of concern as you would over someone reporting a hate crime. It might be something that severe, anyway.
• Reports about language must be treated with a high level of concern, though honestly, I’m less worried about someone saying “fuck” where a kid might see it than I am about them being exposed to racist views. I’ve personally witnessed other players talking about the “gook delivery driver” that just brought them take-out in general chat, or that some “goddamned Jew” ripped them off in trade. Put the four-letter words (or others like them) on the back burner, and address the racism first. I’m not saying the language is any less valid a complaint, but as a personal opinion, I think racism is much more damaging to the community than a rampant swear word.
• Implement and maintain a zero tolerance policy for racism. I’m sorry, but if I were on Blizzard’s GM squad, I’d be pushing for automatic perma-bans on anyone spouting off racist remarks or offensive names. I know there’s a bottom line to consider here, but what would you prefer? Banning one racist and scaring another ten into line, or letting one racist run rampant and losing ten paying player accounts because you’re not heading this behavior off at the pass?
• More escalation options in-game. It’s too easy to forget that there are other reporting options outside of the game world (I have a pretty good memory, and *I* forgot). Also, getting an automated response from a filter-based servicebot with no way to actually talk to a human being doesn’t contribute to the betterment of the community.

In closing, I’d like to point out that I’m not some raving censor out to quell every little thing that people do wrong. If someone swears in a public channel, I’ll let it go. I swear to express frustration or disbelief, and I’m not about to tell someone they can’t get a word in for emphasis if they really need to. However, if they’re on a major rant-bender where every other word requires an eye-covering of any nearby child, then I warrant it necessary to report it.

But this isn’t the 1800s anymore. It’s not even the 1900s. Any racism, even casual racism, confuses and upsets me a great deal. I just can’t wrap my brain around a blanket hatred of a group of people because of the color of their skin or a stereotype. Beyond that, though, I think what I’m shocked at most was how this whole situation was handled. Not once was I contacted for further information; not from in-game chat, not from in-game mail, not from @BlizzardCS after a half-hearted “show some server solidarity – power to the people” response. After two months, it makes me feel like my concerns for keeping up a good community were just swept under the rug.

I found out that I’d be writing for Pix – who I don’t know very well, but through some careful sleuthing have discovered at least two things:

1) We both like food (I’m guessing from involvement with Nourish, here)
2) We both like draenei.

This post begins and ends with one and has plenty of the other in the middle.

Accordingly, here’s a gingerbread Lelissa.

Yes, Christmas at my house included Ginger Draenei, and one of them customized for Pix. I have no regrets!

(Pix’s Note: I MUST HAVE ONE. This is by far the best Christmas present I have EVER received.)

There was a question asked at Blizzcon for those of us who especially enjoy draenei and their lore, and I’ve been thinking about it since. Basically, the question boiled down to this (I’m paraphrasing, here)

“We haven’t seen or heard much about the draenei since TBC and they were hardly visible in Northrend at all. Is Cataclysm going to remedy this, and can we expect to see more of the draenei?”

When I heard this question, I cheered, because I’ve asked it myself on many occasions. Unfortunately, the answer was essentially: “There isn’t much more about the draenei in Cataclysm, but we’re aware that they’ve been a bit neglected.”

I have been inclined to complain about lack of draenei involvement in the events of Northrend, but since giving it some thought, I’ve been realizing that it actually isn’t all that bad.

The Burning Crusade
For someone making a fresh draenei character in TBC, the opportunities were boundless. In my opinion, draenei have had the best starting zone for years. The quests do an excellent job of laying out the adversity the draenei have faced, establishing their opposition, and culminating in a series of quests that actually pit you against elite enemies. Even though you’re only level twenty, you leave the draenei starting zone with resolve and a very clear goal: you must go to Outland and defeat the Burning Legion. These quests are only available to draenei characters, and they reward you with a unique tabard.

Throughout Azeroth the draenei presence is low – despite the player population, they really aren’t supposed to be a high-population race, but there are subtle nods to them in many places. Ambassadors are working with the kal’dorei in Forest Song to help rebuild. There is a lovely (but tragic) pocket of quests in the Swamp of Sorrows that deals with an Anchorite trying to find a way to rehabilitate the Lost Ones there.

Of course, once you go through the Dark Portal, draenei are the primary focus. The main “hub” city for the expansion was Shattrath. Most of the zones are rich in draenei lore, whether giving an insight into the past (as in Hellfire), getting involved in helping the small community of Telredor (Zangarmarsh), forging an Alliance with the Kurenai in Nagrand, or helping the restless spirits of Auchenai.

Draenei are at the forefront of many initiatives, including the Sha’tari Skyguard, the Shattered Sun Offensive, and of course – The Aldor. They were central to the main conflicts of the expansion. At the risk of repeating myself here, this expansion was an awesome time to be a draenei, whether you were a roleplayer or just had an interest in the game’s lore. It’s natural then that when Wrath came out, we were a bit shell-shocked to suddenly be thrown into the back row.

A draenei in TBC also had many race-appropriate fashion and accessory options for bashing skulls or whatever else suited their purpose.

Wrath of the Lich King
The presence of draenei characters or stories was pretty low in Wrath, it’s true. There’s a small contingent of them at Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra. There’s a shaman in Howling Fjord who charges you with inhaling some pretty powerful incense that lets you walk around outside of your body. There’s good old Modoru at Star’s Rest – the Sentinels there are making fun of his extremely draenic clothing.

Hakmud of Argus can be found cruising around on the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth (it’s a nice little bonus that you can purchase the robes Modoru is wearing from him for a mere 50 gold. Hand-sewn draenic silk doesn’t come cheap, you know!).

The infamous Jadaar and Asric made an appearance in Dalaran and later at the Argent Tournament grounds. If you haven’t listened to them it’s worth it – they have a history stretching back to Jadaar’s peacekeeping days in Shattrath. The two of them are hilarious.

Vindicator Maraad (from the comic series) is flying around on the Skybreaker, although he doesn’t have much to say, and I’m sure I remember a draenei Death Knight up in Icecrown.

It used to bother me that draenei had such a low-profile in this expansion. After all, they’d thrown their lot in with the Alliance. They came to Northrend to help with a common foe, and they’ve made Azeroth their home. Didn’t they deserve at least a little bit of screen time? The more I’ve thought about it, though, the more I am comfortable with them throughout this expansion. There were many NPCs present in the various Argent factions that were draenei. They didn’t have any major lore characters or major lore moments, but their presence was felt.

A story can’t have all major characters, someone has to play a supporting role. The draenei were playing this role as the native races of Azeroth fought an enemy that had devastated their world and their people – just as the Alliance helped the draenei strike back against those who had devastated their world. It wasn’t really about us this time around, and that’s okay.

While somewhat out of their element in Northrend, Draenei could still be equally badass.

Cataclysm
So how is the presence of the draenei shaping up in the latest expansion? Despite the developer’s answer to the question above – that there isn’t much about them in the Cataclysm – I have to admit that I’ve been pleasantly surprised! The Earthen Ring is playing a prominent role in recent events, and there are draenei and Broken representatives among them, many of them high-ranking. That is primarily the extent of draenei involvement so far in Cataclysm. They aren’t central to the story, but they are around, and that’s actually about right. It’s not about the draenei any more, except that they are invested in the world the same way that all of the other races are. They’ve been integrating all this time, a notion that is borne out by the new Draenei cinematic. Here is a transcription for you:

Empowered by the Holy Light and the undying strength of their convictions, the draenei led the charge against the demonic Burning Legion in Outland.

Now, with the Legion’s defeat, they have completed the desperate mission that first brought them to Azeroth. Though some draenei were sent back to Outland to revitalize their former civilization, the majority have vowed to remain and uphold their sacred commitment to the Alliance.

Driven by a powerful vision, the immortal Prophet Velen believes that a great war between the darkness and the light is fast approaching, and that Azeroth will be its principle battleground.

As one of Velen’s chosen you must stand bravely against the shadow and ensure that your people are ready for the war to come.

I like that the starting cinematic was actually updated to reflect the events of the Cataclysm. Unfortunately, the zone itself wasn’t – new draenei are still stuck in a “time capsule” of sorts, where the questgivers are all in awe that you survived the crash and have been in stasis all that time (a really long time at this point, considering the events of the Burning Crusade are concluded and most other draenei helped defeat the Lich King in the meantime.) Can you imagine that conversation?

“Sooo, while you were pulling a Rip Van Winkle, we found a new world, but we crashed on it, then we defeated the Burning Legion on our old world, but then some undead threatened this one…but we killed them, except there’s this dragon, fire, flood thing going on here now…”

Hey, it’s not called World of Settle Down and Open A Bakery-Craft, right? Although at least one of my characters would love to do just that. So the draenei are a small part of the story again; Outland suffers from similar continuity issues but Blizzard has said that it’s not high on their priority list to fix and change it. I can’t really blame them, either – overhauling Outland to make sense with the current story would be no small task, and they’d rather put that effort into developing new content to attempt to appease the insatiable appetite of players.

Speaking of Outland, one very nice addition is the inclusion of draenei artifacts in the archaelogy profession. I won’t spoil them here, but if you have any interest in Archaelogy and/or draenei and orcs you’ll know that once you hit “Outland” levels you can find some interesting lore items. It’s a small thing, but I know I appreciate it greatly. In fact, generally when it comes to draenei lore I’ve been counting my blessings. It’s not as if other races like gnomes and dwarves had an entire expansion more or less dedicated to them. Many races play bit parts in the overall story and have few major lore representatives, so it really isn’t that bad. Meantime, those of us who are draenei fans will continue to play our characters, roleplay our characters (if that’s your thing) and/or make baked goods in their likeness.

The only problem with character-shaped cookies is bringing yourself to actually eat them.

That might just be me though. What do you do to celebrate your love of draenei (if you have one?) What do you think Blizzard could have done differently in Cataclysm? I would’ve actually liked the Stormwind Jewelcrafting contingent to be draenei. It wouldn’t be tough to do, it’s not implausible that some draenei would be living in Stormwind, and we do have a racial bonus to Jewelcrafting, after all!