For the past year, World of Warcraft has been under a great deal of scrutiny because of the sexual harassment and discrimination accusations levied against it. It seems one World of Warcraft guild is unbothered by the writing on the wall, using a recruitment pitch that has gotten them some negative publicity.
The guild recruitment pitch was sent to World of Warcraft player and Redditor AtlasDestiny. Though they blurred out the name of the guild, the recruitment pitch was widespread and notorious enough that other players identified the guild as Desperate Degenerates on Moon Guard–one of the two major role-playing servers in the North American region in World of Warcraft.
To be fair, the pitch itself is relatively tame. After claiming the guild is “new-ish” and accepts all players, it boldly stated, “moderately attractive women will be given special treatment.” Beyond the one questionable section of the pitch, the statement itself is reasonably polite and inviting–it is simply that this tongue-in-cheek joke is in poor taste in World of Warcraft. Though it is likely not enough to attract punitive action against the guild members on its own.
Though this comment might have been slightly funnier 15 years ago, when the false belief that women did not play video games was more widely-believed, it feels pretty tone-deaf today–especially in light of World of Warcraft’s recent atmosphere. Many fans agreed, with the callout post receiving over 300 comments in less than 24 hours. Most of the comments mocked Desperate Degenerates for the pitch and made jokes about what constitutes a “moderately attractive woman” in the first place.
Desperate Degenerate's recruitment pitch was almost certainly supposed to be a light-hearted joke, especially considering the name. Some fans came to the defense of the guild, claiming the joke was almost certainly self-aware, rather than serious. With a name like Desperate Degenerates, it is more likely a guild full of guys trying to be funny, rather than a group of actual creeps.
Unfortunately, creepy is exactly what comes off from a guild advertisement like this. Despite their attempts, far more players found the advertisement as disturbing, off-putting, or embarrassing than actually funny. To make matters worse, some players who had experience with Desperate Degenerates claimed some of the guild members had, in fact, been creepy to them in the past. It seems Desperate Degenerates might want to consider revising its guild recruitment pitch if it actually wants to attract new World of Warcraft players to join in the future.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.