World Of Warcraft, the multiplayer fantasy role-playing game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has announced that it will be changing the name of a non playable character (NPC) named after Cannibal Corpse vocalist George 'Corpsegrinder Fisher, due to homophobic comments he made about the game in 2007.
The character, known as Gorge the Corpsegrinder, was introduced to the game after Fisher spoke passionately about the game in interviews, but requests for the character to be axed from the game began in September, with fans and players taking to Twitter to express their concerns. One wrote, "So when is Blizzard going to remove Gorge the Corpsegrinder, character named after prominent Horde player who threw homophobic ableist slurs and death threats to Alliance/Night Elf players on the BlizzCon stage?”
The comments in question were made by Corpsegrinder were issued in 2007 during an interview that was aired during the 2011 BlizzCon event. During the interview, while speaking about his love for the game, the Cannibal Corpse frontman can be heard referring to "the alliance" as a "homo-alliance", calling players who choose to play as part of the alliance "cocksuckers". The company's then-president and co-founder, Michael Morhaime, immediately issued an apology following the event, but the decision to change the character's name has only just been confirmed.
The name change arrives following increasing pressure surrounding Blizzard to address their behaviour as a whole, after a lawsuit was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing describing the company as having a “frat boy culture” that is a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”
Gorge the Corpsegrinder's name has now been changed to Annihilator Grek’lor.
You can watch the 2007 interview with Corpsegrinder below:
