And in today's April Fool's gag, the joke's on us with the new female draenei models. Today's draenei are the most sexually dimorphic of the lot, with male models that are extremely muscled and female models that are slender -- but still heavy on the cleavage (seriously, they must have so many back problems). Releasing this so-called ugly draenei model as a joke -- though it might have been intended to poke fun at the gamers who insist on sexualized game characters -- just says outright that any women who aren't the height of perfect beauty are a joke.
As someone who's played World of Warcraft nearly since launch, and Warcraft and StarCraft and Diablo before it, I'm just left wondering why Blizzard feels the need to make jokes at my expense -- and the expense of so many other female gamers. Women get told often enough through television, movies, music, magazine covers, and in stores that their bodies aren't good enough. We really didn't need to get the message in our video games (even though we do, constantly), but it's clear that you're not only happy to continue the same tired gender tropes but you think they're a funny joke, too. That's just not okay for women who have to deal with this garbage all the time in real life.
Though it may come as a surprise to some, we live in a world where nearly half of gamers are women. And, Blizzard, if you can't come to terms with that fact, maybe you could at least stop actively insulting women -- it would be a step in the right direction.
Editor's Note: While we appreciate the many thoughtful comments on both sides of the coin, the conversation turned more toxic than we would like. We are not interested in providing a platform for threats or abusive language. We've disabled comments on this article.