Ok, Mr not-so-anonotroll, you want analysis? I’ll analyse your face off.

First, let me say that I fully expect a bunch of troll comments telling me that I’m getting worked up over nothing, I’ve got too much time on my hands, I’m blowing things out of proportion. Lol umad? Nah, I just like analysing stuff, too. Plus, it’s a holiday tomorrow so I have time to write something big, AND now that I’ve finished creating my guide, I feel at a bit of a loss, and felt like writing, researching, citing. If you don’t care about this issue.. just skip it, it will likely bore you a lot. On the other hand, if you have genuine constructive criticisms, alternative arguments etc, please do jump in. While I don’t intend to tackle the actual gender equality issue here, nutting out the lore and stuff is something that really interests me a lot, so this has been very fun to research and write (though hard to drag myself away from Wowpedia at times).

Anyway, following on from our earlier discussion here on TBJ, it seems that a common counter-argument to mine is that if you can’t be sure something is definitely male (assigned a male gender in the game), then you can’t say it’s male; there are any number of mutations and outside pressures that could skew the perceived mob sex vs the actual mob sex (or lack of sex). A mob that “looks” male and “sounds” male isn’t necessarily male; a mob that is modelled after the female form could just have some kind of funky hormonal disorder. Logically, if we are applying RL body types to a fantasy game, then we should add RL maladies that could make women look like men, and vice versa.

So maybe they are giant, muscly, bearded ladies. Like this charming specimen. Basically: Mate of Magmothregar wants to have a word with me about assuming she is a man. Ruh roh.

This pesky mob, plus a few others out there that we *know* have females that look like the males (and look masculine to boot) is what puts a spanner into the whole argument that mobs don’t have to officially be named as male to be thought of as male by WoW’s players.

Or does it?


Examples of mobs in World of Warcraft that have identical male and female models & skins.


If it quacks like a duck

If a boss has no official gender, but looks male (has a beard, big pectoral muscles, wears a loincloth, and so on), then it will be perceived as male. And, for the purposes of the “there aren’t enough female bosses in the game” argument, these perceptions are important.

How many times have I been in a raid and heard even the obviously female bosses been referred to as “he”? I’ve lost count. “He has a cone attack”, “He’ll put a debuff on you”.. The default gender in the game is male. The exception to this seems to be that since lich-type mobs apparently wear “dresses”, they are often called “she”. Hyjal and Naxx strategy discussions caused me a bit of consternation.

Because male is the default gender, then most, if not ALL of the bosses that fall into the sexless/genderless basket will be considered by most people to be male by default. Their official sexless status is irrelevant – I really don’t understand why people don’t understand this – because we are talking about perceptions in the first place. How the gaming community *perceives* the balance between male and female. Therefore, how the gaming community *perceives* Baron Geddon’s gender or Mother Shahraz’s gender is vital to the discussion.

Is Mother Shahraz officially female? I suppose she isn’t if you take official to mean “stated by Blizzard on an official site or in literature.” But if you ask the general WoW population what her gender is, most (if not all) will identify her as female, straight away. She may not be officially female, but she is considered to be a “female boss”. To argue against this is, quite franky, ridiculous.

Some mobs have no sex because they are mechanical. Robots aren’t male or female. But quite often they are built with male humanoid bodyshapes, and this supports and cements the default gender as male for these mobs. Some people might see this as a bit of a stretch, but when you look at the various mobs in the game, you’ll start to notice this same male bodytype coming through a lot. When the default is already male, it doesn’t take much to cement in a player’s mind that a mob is definitely male. Broad shoulders, pectoral muscles, defined abdominals – they will perceive these as male, even if they know the mob to be mechanical and therefore incapable of being a particular sex.


The classic physical traits of male humanoids in WoW


Some mobs, like yetis for example, we know have identical males and females, and we only know the females from their titles (eg “matriarch”). So you could argue that we shouldn’t look at mobs without obvious female bodytypes and assume they are all males. Or even that we shouldn’t look at mobs with obvious male bodytypes, because who is to say that in that species, the females don’t have rockin’ abs, concrete pecs, square jaws, foot-long beards, and biceps the size of Christmas hams? That’s a fair comment. But the fact remains that the average person, upon looking at such a mob, would automatically assume it was a male.

Therefore, the perceived ratio of male to female bosses WILL ALWAYS INCLUDE the bosses that people assume are “male”, despite them not having the ability to reproduce sexually. When people look at Shahraz, they perceive her to be female. When people look at Ignis, with his massive beard and male humanoid bodyshape, they perceive him to be male. His technical gender status is wholly irrelevent because the entire argument here is whether people perceive the male/female boss ratio to be balanced.

If I count up all the female bosses in the game, I’m not going to cross off the ones that look, sound, act, and are named as being female but aren’t officially stated as being female. To me, they are female bosses, I perceive them as female bosses – and they count when I am measuring up the males vs the females.

To say “Oh, well, Shahraz looks female, she seems like a strong female figure to me, but she can’t technically be female because demons don’t sexually reproduce” is bizarre. She is a female boss! Why are we getting hung up on technicalities and specific anatomy?


Does anatomy count or not, then?

Ah, but there’s the rub – that’s when people will step in and say, “but if you don’t care about anatomy, then how do you know she is female at all? Hey, it’s a fantasy game, right? So we can make things up as we go along. Maybe in this particular species/people, all the males have breasts, pouty lips, small waists, and big hips? Maybe they all sound feminine, but because they are an alien species to us, we wouldn’t know! Maybe all the women have big pecs and like to go around shirtless, showing off their massive arm muscles? Who the hell are you, Keeva, to decide how their species works?”

So true. Blizzard could do whatever they liked here. Maybe those harpies, who all sound feminine and have breasts, are actually male, or mixed sexes? How do we know, one way or the other? We don’t.

But let’s be realistic here. To us, as humans, the norm is that when we are presented with a form that has wide shoulders, flat pectorals, facial hair, muscular arms, a bulging groin (in a loincloth or similar), a square jaw, and so on – we are going to assume male, unless told otherwise. Because it’s the path of least resistance. If we saw curves, painted lips, flowing hair, breasts, hips, a small waist, and a smaller, more lithe frame, we are going to assume female, unless told otherwise.

Of course there are plenty of animals out there that don’t fit these rules. I’m not saying males are always large, square, muscular, hairy, heavy beings, and females are smooth and soft and curvy and graceful. But the fact remains that if you take these attributes and throw them onto an avatar, the majority of players will identify them as being male and female respectively. It’s ingrained in us.


But.. Mate of Magmothregar. Seriously.

If a mob looks male to us (due to these ingrained ideas of what traits are considered male), but is labelled as female, either with pasted-on breasts or a feminine title, then we can force ourselves to accept that it is a female mob. Mate of Magmothregar is the perfect example. Everytime I look at them, I see a male mob – male features, male sound effects – but I am reminded by the title that it is actually meant to be a female, so I force my brain to accept this. And try not to think too hard about Magmothregar’s sexy times.

However, if a mob looks male and has no other indication that it might be female – if all signs point to it being male – then that path of least resistance leads us to believe that it IS male. Male body type, male voice, male title – it’s evidence enough for most people to accept a mob as “male”.

So the whole argument that it’s possible to have a female that looks like a male, and vice versa – is really quite irrelevant here. There’s a small number of mobs in the game that we know for sure have identical males and females, some of which are pretty ugly and (dare I say) lean towards being masculine (as mentioned above). But for the most part, where humanoids and humanoid-modelled constructs and elementals are concerned, the above physical traits, voices, and titles will make the average player assume something has an inherent “maleness”.

Mobs are often male by default, unless they have glaringly obvious physical qualities, or are named or announced as female. Basically, to be a male in this game, you just have to exist, and you’ll probably be classed as a “he”, even if you’re a glob of ooze with an impossible-to-pronounce name full of vowels, and no voice or lore to shed any light on the issue. On the other hand, to be recognised as female, you have to be labelled – either with a title, or with curves, or with a feminine voice.


Being realistic with the numbers

So, if the message Gevlon wants to put forward is, “See, Blizzard is increasing the number of (clearly) female bosses in the game” then he needs to:

a) be realistic and use common sense when assigning genders to the bosses that have CLEAR male or female attributes, because players WILL count these as male or female entities, for the most part;

b) look each boss up (at the very least!!!) to see if the lore, quest text or quotes clearly shows them as male, female, or doesn’t say anything at all;

c) do the math properly, including the genderless bosses to get an accurate percentage of the overall;

d) not delete bosses that aren’t available now, since we’re arguing about what was available at the time that people were playing;

e) not make inconsistent statements such as a female construct is “obviously” “meant” to be female, but a female demon can’t be female, and constructs built in the male image are not “meant” to be male; and

f) not compare full expansions with one tier of Cataclysm and claim that a 3:2 ratio of male:female is an accurate representation of Cataclysm’s gender balance!

While we can’t get a 100% accurate number of male:female (there are still some unknowns, and some elementals and beasts can cause confusion), taking these steps will get us as close as we can to being accurate. It’s still subjective at times, of course, but it’s a hell of a lot better than some of Gevlon’s rulings, considering I bothered to look up the lore, for a start.

Subjective rulings aside, the other issue is the inherently flawed math of removing all of the sexless bosses to only “count” the mobs that we know are definitely male or female (mostly due to the fact that they can reproduce sexually).

If we take Gevlon’s gender assessment numbers (without accounting for the fact that ZG, Naxx and Onyxia aren’t counted) and run them again, this time including the apparently sexless mobs, we get these results:

Neutral/unknown : male : female
Vanilla
62% : 32% : 3%

TBC
32% : 55% : 13%

Wrath
41% : 34% : 25%

Cataclysm
57% : 29% : 21%

As you can see, pretty different from his original female percentages of 8.3%, 16.3%, 39.3%, and 40% when you discard all of the non-humanoid/non sexually-reproducing bosses (note: I don’t know how he has counted multi-mob bosses and this has likely put the numbers out slightly – however, the main issue was that the sexless bosses was pushing the math out by a large margin).

Putting aside the fact that Cataclysm has only been out for a couple of months and therefore we don’t have the full boss list, if he ran the numbers properly, they would show an apparent drop in female numbers since Wrath (I am not making that argument though, because it’s ridiculous. We only have one tier to work with!).

In addition, Gevlon omitted Onyxia, Naxx and ZG from his list, because they are no longer available. Buh? They were available to us in Vanilla, and if you’re arguing that the balance was X in Vanilla, then you can’t delete a handful of bosses and say they are irrelevant!


OK, I’ll give the list a bash.

So let’s run the numbers again, taking into account all of the bosses that Gevlon has assigned neutral, but that have definite male or female physical attributes (enough to make them appear decidedly male or female to the average player) or titles, or lore notations, etc. I will show my work. If bosses are not mentioned, I agree with Gevlon’s assessment. Now, some of these *are* judgment calls, but I believe I have given good reasoning. Feel free to comment if you have different reasoning, though!

  • Molten Core:

    • Magmadar: I cannot find any solid reference to this hound being male or female. Corehounds can be either (eg Beauty), and while I think most people would say “he”, there’s no proof that I can find. Marked as “unknown”.
    • Garr: Garr is a lieutenant of Ragnaros and I believe most people would say “he”, but again, no proof, and his form is not humanoid or recognisably male or female. Marked as “unknown”.
    • Baron Geddon: Has the title “baron”. I believe that the average player would accept this boss as male, accordingly. Marked as “male”.
    • Golemagg: Another boss built in the male image, and I believe the average player would readily accept this boss as male. Marked as “male”.
    • Ragnaros: The Firelord. Though lord as a people/classification apparently does not always specify gender, his is a male title, and coupled with the obviously male voice and male bodytype, this is enough for most people.
  • Blackwing Lair:
    • Firemaw, Ebonroc, Flamegor, Chromaggus: Again most people will say “he” by default, but I can’t find any lore/proof. “unknown”
  • AQ20: dismissed by Gevlon as all neutral, my assessment is:
    • Kurinnax: quest text says only “beast”. “unknown”
    • General Rajaxx: The lore says, “The Qiraji general fixed his second claw onto Valstann’s bloodied form”. He is also built with the typical broad-shouldered shape and wears the loin-cloth type adornments that we see on many male mobs. I believe most players would assume that this mob is male. “male”
    • Moam: Moam is a construct, a “grand body of volcanic rock.” Check out the pecs on this guy and apply some common sense. “male”
    • Buru: Could be male or female, watching over eggs. The Silithid Queen is hanging out nearby, laying eggs, and Buru could either be her mate or a female worker. “unknown”
    • Ayamiss: “the Hunter” may imply male sex (assuming “the Huntress” would have been used otherwise) but there are no real male traits, so I’m going to mark this one as “unknown”.
    • Ossirian: the lore says he him his. Though he is an Anubisath construct, he is plainly built in the male humanoid image, with bare chested pectoral muscles, rippling abs, bulging arms, and so forth. Clearly male to the average player. “male”
  • Zul’Gurub was also excluded:
    • Males: High Priests Venoxis, Thekal; Bloodlord Mandokir, Jin’do
    • Females: High Priestesses Jeklik, Mar’li, Arlokk
    • Gahz’ranka: hydra beast. “unknown”
    • Hakkar: noted as a male god.
    • Gri’lek: Male. “male”
    • Hazza’rah: Male. “male”
    • Renataki: Male. “male”
    • Wushoolay: Male. “male”
  • Onyxia: skipped over in Gevlon’s list for Vanilla. “female”
  • AQ40: Gevlon says that “princess” doesn’t necessarily mean female. Right.
    • Skeram – listen to his voice and tell me that anyone would think him female or gender neutral. “male”
    • Three bugs – Mommy (princess), Daddy (lord), and baby. “male”, “female” and “unknown”.
    • Princess Huhuran: Gevlon says that the title “princess” is “arbitrary”. Were it not for the title, I would put her as unknown – but any player who reads “Princess Huhuran” is going to know this mob is female. Common sense. “female”
    • Viscidus is just a blob. “unknown”
    • Fankriss & Ouro: could be male or female. “unknown”
    • C’Thun: Often referred to as both “he” and “it”, I am reluctant to say. It has no obviously male features, so to err on the side of caution I will say “unknown”.
  • Naxxramas: completely skipped by Gevlon because Vanilla Naxx has been removed. That pushes the numbers out badly! So I will add them here and for Wrath:
    • Anub’Rekhan: is a lord, once kings of Azjol-Nerub. Listen to his voice. Cannot be genderless. “male”
    • Maexxna: is described by an NPC as “she” and “her” and “giving birth”. “female”.
    • Patchwerk: Referred to by an NPC as male.
    • Four horsemen: counting them as 3 male, 1 female (Thane, Baron, Sir, Lady), to be consistent with other multi-sex bosses.
    • Gluth: is a big puppy. An NPC calls him male, but I could understand if people didn’t assign him a particular gender, like Magmadar. Can’t leave him out though, so I will put him down as his assigned gender, male.
    • Thaddius: constructed from the bodies of women and children (really bloody creepy hearing women crying out for help in Naxx), he is a construct and therefore has no official gender. However, considering that he has the same old pecs/abs/biceps/square jaw/bulging groin that says “hi, I’m a man”, I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to find anyone who would look at his model and be unsure. Definitely a “male” boss.
  • Karazhan:
    • The Curator: another mob built with the male bodytype, I believe he is seen as male, but I will mark him as “unknown”.
    • Illhoof: Satyr demon, very obvious male humanoid bodytype and long beard. Listen to his voice, look at his picture, and tell me he won’t be perceived as a male boss. “male”
    • Chess event: is played against Medhiv. “male”
    • Opera: The focus is on the tale here rather than the bosses, but to be fair I will count all of the NPCs that you have to kill. Romulo and Julianne; Dorothee, Roar, Strawman, Tinhead, Tito, and The Crone; the Big Bad Wolf. 3 female, 6 male.
    • Beasts: three “unknowns”.
    • Gruul’s lair: I need to count Maulgar’s 4 ogre buddies as bosses, to follow the precedent set by the 4 horsemen in Naxx, or the numbers will be slightly skewed. 6 males here.
    • Magtheridon: a pitlord. He refers to himself in a very masculine voice as a lord. He simply cannot be perceived as female or gender neutral. “male”
  • Tempest Keep:
    • Void Reaver is mechanical but follows the usual male body type. He is generally assumed to be “male”.
    • Kael’s buddies have to be counted separately, so that’s 4 male, 1 female in this encounter.
  • SSC:
    • Hydross: “Duke of Currents“. “male”
    • Lurker: nobody knows. “unknown”
    • Karathress: multi-mob boss – 3 male, 1 female.
    • Morogrim Tidewalker: Gevlon puts him down as male, because giants “seem to have sexes”. Not terribly consistent with other statements about giants.
  • Mount Hyjal:
  • Black Temple:
    • Supremus is a demon, and has that same male bodytype (wide shoulders, graphical representation of pecs & abs). No official gender but I believe his bodytype would make most people readily assume him male. “male”
    • Mother Shahraz: so obviously a female, come ON. Body shape, voice, her title of Mother. But since she is a demon, Gevlon doesn’t count her, because curves and an “arbitrary” title don’t make a female boss. “female”
    • Illidari Council: I am counting these as separate bosses, to be consistent. 3 male, 1 female.
  • Sunwell:
    • Sathrovarr: another dreadlord. Pecs, voice, yada yada. “male”
    • Brutallus: another pitlord (not a pitlady). Plus, Madrigosa refers to him as male during the pre-fight scene. “male”
    • Twins: counting as two (as Gevlon did)
    • M’uru: is a being of light, and whether or not they have genders is unknown. “unknown”
  • Obsidium Sanctum: I need to count the drakes as separate, as they are bosses in their own right. 3 males, 1 female.
  • Ulduar:
    • Ignis: “the Furnace Master”. Also follows the usual male bodytype – broad shoulders, heavy beard, super-masculine voice. “male”
    • Kologarn: Look at this picture and tell me that anyone would think this construct is NOT obviously male. “male”
    • Auriaya: as stated in my earlier post, Gevlon happily calls Auriaya a female, despite technically having no sex: “she is a titanic watcher, a creation, so technically does not have sex, but the titans (and the developers) created her to exactly mimic a female, obviously on purpose” – he makes this judgment call that she is “obviously” meant to look female on purpose, so we can class her as female. This is a huge contradiction to other classifications. “female”
    • Assembly of Iron: I don’t know whether people see these as male bosses, or just iron things, but considering that it’s three male-type forms (giant, vrykul, dwarf), and they have masculine voice acting, then I am classifying them as such. If we are saying that Auriaya the construct is female because she is intended to look female, then the iron council is male because they are intended to look male. 3 x “male”.
    • Mimiron: is modelled after male gnomes, and sports an impressive moustache. Being mechanical, he has no boy parts, but realistically, he is considered a male boss by most. “male”
    • General Vezax: while women can be Generals, I believe that the title General cements the default assumption that a mob is male. Plus when he speaks, he removes all doubt.
    • Yogg-Saron: Like C’Thun, it’s hard to find any evidence of gender, and despite many people calling it “he” for simplicity, I think people generally throw the old gods into a class of their own; they are “It”. “unknown”
    • Algalon: is another entity built in the shape of a man, with a long flowing beard, and male humanoid bodyshape. He is definitely seen as a male boss. “male”
  • Trial of the Crusader:
    • Beasts need to be counted separately.

      • Gormok is listed as male, though we know female magnataur look the same. However, magnataur all look masculine, and if you stumbled across one without a gender-specific title, I believe most people would think it male. “male”
      • Dreadscale and Acidmaw are big worms, and I can’t find anything on their genders (or lack of). 2 x “unknown”
      • Icehowl: listed as male, although he is another mob whose female counterpart is identical. In my experience he is considered male by default.
    • Faction Champions need to be considered separately. The Horde faces 7 male, 5 female, plus two shapeshifted druids who, by their names (and usual naming conventions) are one of each sex. 8 male, 6 female. The Alliance faces 7 male, 5 female, plus two shapeshifted druids who, by their names, are both female. 7 male, 7 female.
    • Twins counted as two.
    • Anub’arak is a king. “male”
  • ICC:
    • Lord Marrowgar: is a lord, sounds like a dude.
    • Gunship battle: The object of the fight is to “kill” the ship, yes, but the main opponent is a strong faction character – Muradin Bronzebeard or High Overlord Varok Saurfang. I don’t think you can disregard this as a gender-neutral “boss”. 2x “male”
    • Festergut & Rotface: generally thought of as male, with male voices, but their bodies are not typically male, and being mashed together from various things, there’s no obvious male influence to them. 2 x “unknown”
  • Ruby Sanctum: 3 male, 1 female boss.
  • Throne of the Four Winds:
    • The Conclave of Wind is made up of three Djinni lords of wind. Not only are they labelled lords, but they follow the usual male bodytype – broad shoulders, big pectoral muscles, muscular arms, and facial hair. They are clearly meant to be male bosses. 3 x “male”
    • Al’Akir is known as “the Windlord”. He follows the broad-shouldered, bare-chested formula, and is referred to in Shadows & Light” as being male. “male”
  • Blackwing Descent:
    • Magmaw: Big worm, no clue. “unknown”
    • Omnotron Defense: Big robots, modelled after males. In following with the Iron Council, I’m classifying as 4 x “male”.
    • Maloriak: makes me sad. He follows the bare chest, loincloth, broad shoulders, bulging arms deal. “male”
    • Atramedes: is a male dragon. He makes me sad, too.. poor little whelp. “male”
    • Chimaeron: a hydra, no known sex. People seem to call it “him”, and he has a male voice, but I will class as “unknown”, since it’s a weird blob of dragon with only a voice to make it male, and that alone might not be enough to make him clearly male. “unknown”
  • Bastion of Twilight:


So – let it never be said that I am not thorough!

Note: counting multi-mob bosses might be seen by some people as me trying to bump up the number of male bosses; but in reality if we are counting bosses like the Twin Eredar or Vrykul as one female “boss encounter” then that skews the numbers, too – is it one female boss, or two female bosses? The fairest thing, I felt, was to acknowledge them as separate but then give mark them as a proportion of one whole. So if a fight has 3 males and 1 female, that will be 0.75 of that one boss being male, and 0.25 being female. It totals 1 boss, but counts the separate genders. This keeps the numbers of boss encounters low, but gives a nod to the appropriate number of male and female characters.

Also, we forgot world bosses, summoned bosses, and PvP raid bosses!

  • Vanilla: Emeriss, Lethon, Ysondre, Taerar, Azuregos, Kruul, Teremus, Omen, Baron Kazum, High Marshal Whirlaxis, Lord Skwol, Prince Skaldrenox, and Prince Thunderaan. All male except Ysondre (f) and Whirlaxis (? elemental)
  • TBC: Kazzak, male (doom lord), Doomwalker & Fel Reaver (mechanical, but the usual male body type).
  • Wrath: Storm Giant, Archavon, Emalon, Koralon, Toravon – all “male” as per Ignis.
  • Cataclysm: Whale shark (“unknown”)

Now, importantly, we must remember that this list can’t be 100% correct because there are still some mobs that are just *perceived* as male or female, and I’ve made some judgment calls on the mobs that were pretty tough. I could have forgotten some, too. I’ve tried to be as logical and objective as possible though, and I truly believe that even if something is made of rock or fire, if it has a deep, booming voice, a long beard, bare-chested pectorals, a loin cloth, bulging biceps, a moustache, a bulging crotch, rippling abs (etc), it will most likely be seen by the general playerbase as a “male” mob.

Ok, so let’s compare and contrast. If you take my above list of corrections, include ZG, Naxx and Ony, make sure multi-mob bosses are counted properly, and still allow for the “genderless” bosses to be counted (though there are far fewer), here are my results, with Gevlon’s adjusted results underneath, and then his original incorrect numbers underneath that:

Neutral/unknown : male : female
Vanilla
21% : 66% : 12%
62% : 32% : 3%
N/A : 91.7% : 8.3%

TBC
10% : 75% : 15%
32% : 55% : 13%
N/A : 83.8% : 16.2%

Wrath
12% : 66% : 22%
41% : 34% : 25%
N/A : 61.5% : 38.5%

Cataclysm
15% : 73% : 12%
57% : 29% : 21%
N/A : 60% : 40%


Conclusions

Gevlon’s point is that the incidence of female bosses is on the rise, because Blizzard listens and wants to appease the feminists, or something. He gave a massive (relatively speaking) 40% female boss rate for Cataclysm – unfortunately basing the number on a really small sample size. Realistically it is 12%, and only for Cataclysm so far, rather than comparing a dozen entry bosses with 77, 59, 55 bosses from previous expansions.

If we use my numbers (not guaranteed to be 100% correct, but I believe they are very close, much closer than Gevlon’s), we see that female bosses have gone from 12% to 15% to 22% to 12%(WIP). Assuming that Cataclysm will have some more female bosses for us, perhaps there is a pattern – perhaps the number of female bosses is rising?

There – now isn’t that much better with more comprehensive and accurate numbers, based on research, logic, and common sense, rather than arbitrarily discarding bosses and removing them from the totals?

Of course, we could throw another spanner into the works and ask – do female beasts, elementals and whatnot “count” in terms of satisfying the desire for more female characters? Do we see these types of characters and bosses as influential enough, or are some of them seen as just female animals, rather than true characters. That is, how humanoid (in appearance and/or in actions and/or backstory and/or relationships) does a boss need to be in order to truly “count”? Mother Shahraz counts, for me, but I can’t tell you the female names of the TOC faction champions, or the female character in the Illidari Council (not that the males are any more memorable, but hopefully you see my point). Maexnna is a massive broodlord spider and I see her as a strong female character, despite not having a humanoid personality to be “strong”. But would others discount her because she is a beast and therefore can’t really be counted as a “character”?

Is that why Gevlon was discarding a bunch of elemental, mechanical, constructed (etc) bosses, because they don’t have personalities and therefore can’t be “characters”? I can basically see the logic, but that would make things incredibly complicated as to what constitutes a character, and we would end up striking so many bosses off the list. Would all the beasts go, and all of the barely memorable multi-boss characters? Should we limit it to the bosses that are actually from the lore, rather than thrown in as extras, not from the story, and only count the major players? Messy. But hey, as other commenters have said – counting up all of the male and female bosses and presenting it as “proof” that things are all good is really just sailing right over the top of the issue – so beasts vs elementals vs humanoids is probably entirely pointless, anyway.

If the argument is that Blizzard is turning the issue around, then Rades’ article is a lot more constructive than trying to squash numbers to fit a point (I missed that one in my reader, and found it because I was commenting on how much I loved Therazane and her Venus of Willendorf look, and Googled to see if anyone else felt the same. Therazane ROCKS. Pun intended).

What’s my opinion on the ratio and where it may or may not be headed? Well, I think that’s probably a post for another day. I really just wanted to attack the terrible math and glaring inconsistencies in the “data” that led to posting a conclusion that couldn’t possibly be accurate, numerically speaking. For all its math, I think it was quite pointless. And, by extension, so is this one (it just has more research to back it up). But that’s okay.. I found it fascinating to examine all of the bosses, many of whom I had forgotten, along with a lot of their back stories and side stories. Quite a pointless exercise, but very interesting nonetheless.



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