Frederick Nietzsche Would Roll a Blood Elf
Written by Mark Osborne
Published on 03/14/2007
Originally from Binary Culture / [the-lowdown.net]
http://www.binaryculture.net

I'm all for exploring the concept of cyberspace as being more relevant to human nature, interaction, and evolution but sometimes I just have to roll my eyes and say "Bitch, please."

There's a whole lot of academic whinging about the consequences of races and their portrayal in online gaming, most notably World of Warcraft, talking about the difference between the "good" and "evil" races. The closest thing the game has to an "evil" race are those goddamn murlocks and they aren't even playable. If you're going to whine about the orcs or the undead being evil, either you've no appreciation for anthropology or you just aren't paying attention.

A recent Wired article on the subject references a Terra Nova blog by Edward Castronova entitled "The Horde is Evil." It's one of those instances that actually justifies Nietzsche's condemnation of the whole idea of good and evil. If anyone is being racist or whatever here, it's the blogger because he's engaging in some very elitist classification in terms of what he defines as good and evil.

Take the undead for instance. It's all well and good to go saying that they're evil because the Undercity is a gruesome place and they're all dead bodies shuffling about, but it's alot of fucking nonsense as well.

He's ignoring the basic point that the Undead, if you either played Warcraft 3 or actually paid attention to the opening cinematic when you roll an undead character (say nothing about the first half dozen quests you do as an undead), are victims of fate and not a ghoulish troupe that thought it'd be a lot of fun to be shambling zombies. The undead were the massacred civilians brought to life to form that demon guy's army. The one that cut that big nasty swath through elf territory you see when you play a Blood Elf.

When the demon was defeated at the end of Warcraft 3, the undead had nowhere to go and were being slaughtered wholesale by the humans, their countrymen. So they banded together and fought back, then joined the Horde, who they mistrust, out of necessity. Where's the fucking evil in that?

Then again, the main thrust of his argument vis a vis the undead was that he's a father and the Undercity scares his son. Give me a fucking break. It's a pathetic appeal to emotion argument.

As for the orcs, you can whine about their ethics all you want, but you better not be going to see 300 in the same weekend. If you can't see the parallels between the orcs and the Spartans, you need serious help. I've seen more evidence of ethical behavior from Thrall than I have the current President.

Then there's the Tauren. Are they some quaint, backwards little tribal enclave of bloodthirsty savages? I think not. They're a spiritually centered and highly ethical hunter society. The Tauren joined the Horde because Thrall and his party saved them from the centaurs. The only race that really challenges the Taurens for being more ethical or respectful of nature and wildlife are the Draenei, and even they are internally divided and have a dim view of the mystical aspect of their culture, generally celebrating pompous paladins over the shamans who are guided by the shunned Broken. The Night Elves with their skullduggery and contempt for the Blood Elves don't even rate.

If self indulgence or hedonism are equal to evil, then one could postulate that the Blood Elves are evil, but then the dwarven single mindedness is generally focused on bloodshed or greed. Also, the Blood Elvish drive to consume magic isn't so much of a consious choice as the consequence of the damage wrought by the Scourge.

All this whinging is just a pathetic need to overlay modern ethics and values on worlds in which they aren't relevant. Besides, the Alliance are mostly douchebags. They shunned and hunted down the Undead and Blood Elves, they fucked over Edwin Van Cleef (even if he did retaliate in a uniformally shitty way), and they're just as fond of bloodshed as any of the Horde are. They hang a big fat dragon carcass from the gates of their capital city for fuck's sake.

For the Horde, motherfuckers. We'll give you Alliance bitches something to cry about and it won't be ethics.