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Last week, the Internet was forced to educate the folks at Blizzard on ethical behavior. During the closing ceremonies at last week’s BlizzCon, a band made up of Blizzard employees called “Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain” made its way onto the stage. The group was joined by George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher of Cannibal Corpse. Obviously, the entire performance was meant to be some type of joke (Fisher’s lyrics were mostly about how the Alliance should “die” and how much the Horde ruled). However, fans weren’t exactly laughing and many found particular offense in the band’s use of homophobic slurs. Blizzard’s forums suddenly became a hot bed of anti-Blizzard rhetoric, which prompted the band to respond with an apology: 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. 
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 I appreciate that Blizzard is going the extra mile to stitch the community back together, but I can’t help but wonder how something like this could have slipped through the cracks in the first place. By Josh Engen |