Heard lots of rap lyrics reference "The game", so while running I came up with an MMO rules structure for "The game". #lookoutWoW
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
Name generation in "The game" begins with a normal name, Harold Douglas for example, which is then randomly altered to be contextual.
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
The name database will create a combination of words from "young", "yung", "little", "lil", "big", "old", and random "z"s thrown in.
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
Character classes depend on gender selection. Males can choose from "gangsta", "pimp", "hustla", and "playa". Prestige class is "real".
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
Female classes include "ho", "skank", "bitch", and "meat receptacle". Prestige class for women is "fly honey".
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
"The game" will have permadeath, because YOLO. Unless, of course, you unlock the extremely rare [Tupac] perk. All dungeons are autotuned.
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
Any out of game communication on strategies or hints will result in loss of level, because snitches get stitches. Now to find a publisher...
— Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) November 23, 2012
I would ask if all of this is racist, but I’ve always been of the opinion that if you have to ask if something is racist, then it almost certainly is. This is unfortunate, because I don’t think Kluwe was intending to be racially insensitive. This is an attempt at satire, and taken from a certain point of view it’s actually kind of funny. Kluwe is making fun of “gangsta” culture, something that I’ve always found stupid, offensive and deserving of all the scorn and ridicule we can throw at it. Unfortunately, many people see “gangsta” culture and African American culture as one and the same. There are just far too many people who will read something like this and just assume he’s making fun of African Americans in general. To make matters worse, many of these people will “agree” with him that all black people are like this and find it hilarious.
In other words, Chris Kluwe wasn’t trying to be racist, but he ended up feeding into the racism inherent in our society.
This whole thing got me thinking about “gangsta” culture and what it really represents. I’ve already said that I think it’s stupid and offensive, but I didn’t talk about why I feel this way. The way I see it, “gangsta” culture, or the version of it that has been glorified by rappers since the 1990s, is just one example of institutionalized racism. It delivers the message that African Americans are violent criminals, and it tells poor young black people everywhere that this is the best kind of life they can hope for. Meanwhile, predominantly white businessmen make millions of dollars by perpetuating negative stereotypes and giving an entire race a bad name.
Like I said before, I’d love to see someone use satire to tear down “gangsta” culture and reveal the racism behind it, but Chris Kluwe isn’t the one to do it. Kluwe is a smart guy who can be very insightful and funny, but the fact of the matter is that as a white male he’s not in the position to make these kinds of jokes. Too many people will see him as just another racist making fun of black people, which is really sad.
In a perfect world, it wouldn't matter that someone is making these kinds of jokes. People would understand that Kluwe is making fun of a certain subculture that happens to be related to African American culture but isn't representative of African American culture as a whole. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world where racism exists, and where people like to believe that the worst stereotypes of an entire culture are true. Since we live in that world, I can't read something like Chris Kluwe's tweets about "the game" and find them funny.
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