It is the spring of 2003, and the nascent internet is buzzing with news
of an expansion to the already famous Warcraft III, from Blizzard
Entertainment. The Warcraft games are real-time strategy games with a
high fantasy setting. The gameplay is similar to Go, where the aim is to
out-think your enemy and control areas of the map. You are given
different sets of abilities to work with in order to accomplish this
task. The Warcraft games were particularly famous for their ability to
use these mechanics to tell a story, grabbing the attention of RPG fans
as well as strategy game fans, and Warcraft III was widely considered
their best entry in the franchise yet. But the poster for this expansion
to Warcraft III was not simply being talked about on Blizzard's
official forums, or on the websites dedicated to gaming.
No, it was being talked about in AoL chatrooms, MySpace, Neopets and Club Penguin: the parts of the internet inhabited in the early naughts by teen and preteen girls. It wasn't the Warcraft name or the Blizzard logo which had grabbed the attention of these girls: it was the face in the center of the poster. The smouldering green eyes set against tanned skin and framed by long blond locks, the smirking mouth framed by a hint of stubble. For many girl gamers seeing Arthas Menethil for the first time, was like what male gamers experienced when they first saw Cortana (the AI in the shape of a beautiful woman from Halo). It was a revelation.
Games could offer more than simply a way to waste a few hours, a video game character was someone you could fall in love with the same way that you fell in love with movie characters. It started of course with girls who were sisters, cousins and next-door-neighbors of avid gamers. Nobody reposts faster than a teenage girl, and before long Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne had reached a far wider audience than any game of it's kind before. It was the kind of audience that video game companies could only dream of: the kind of audience that only card games had ever reached before. But this was not a card game, it was not a game which appealed to children but which adults would leave behind. It was a game for adults, and it was challenging. But the girls who bought it were motivated to overcome the challenges, or find the cheats, because of the other things the game offered.
Prince Arthas Menethil is not a character you would expect a game, let alone a strategy game, to do justice to. The game struck the tricky balance between fairy tale and reality, between the fantasy hero and modern-day military commander. Of course, fans of the other Warcraft games were unsurprised about this: Blizzard was always able to strike this balance well. But the girls who picked up the game had no knowledge of those other games, and they were shocked. The trick was the relationship between Arthas and his girlfriend Jaina. Their dialog was witty, flirty, and realistic: in that it used language which real people would actually use. They might be a Prince and Princess in a fantastic world trying to solve a zombie plague, but they talked like your mom and dad. MySpace exploded with fanart, much of which can still be found on tumblr and Deviantart.
Jaina was not simply a Princess to be rescued, in fact she was more likely to do the rescuing. She was more than capable of handling herself even in the chaotic situations that inexperienced players frequently got themselves into. She had a distinctive character that was related to, but did not depend on Arthas. Her identity as a mage set her apart from him, and she drove the story independently of him. She was also actually useful in gameplay, unlike so many female video-game sidekicks (this was mere months after Goldeneye's infamously useless Natalya). Her mage abilities synchronized well with Arthas' paladin spells, so that the two fought together in a natural way when they had to face the enemy themselves. The game set them up as a perfect pair, a King and Queen in all but name.
Does one need spoiler warnings for games that are over a decade old? well, spoilers ahead. This being a Blizzard game of course, the perfection cannot last. At the climax of the story, Jaina must choose to follow her lover in killing innocent people or abandon him and face a hopeless future alone. She chooses the latter. Acting on the words of the mysterious Prophet, Jaina gathers up the survivors of the zombie plague and sails into the unknown. Jaina could have considered the plight of Lordaeron to be no longer be her problem, after Arthas' betrayal. Instead, she takes up the responsibilities of Queen, without any of the perks. Here was a woman that a girl could look up to, a woman she could wish to become. In 2003, that was virtually unknown in the gaming world. There were women in games, but none of them were role models. But this game was far from done amazing it's new audience.
The campaign continues and Arthas continues to become evil after taking possession of a cursed sword. Playing the game is a devastating experience, because you aren't simply watching Arthas destroy everything he loves. No, you are Arthas as he destroys everything he loves. It is a great example of a story that could really only be told in a game, because it's emotional weight comes from the player feeling the same way about Lordaeron that Arthas does. The transition from hero to villain is not sudden, it is gradual and insidious: you can't pinpoint the moment that it happens. Even to this day fans of the series still debate whether Arthas was right to kill the citizens of Strathholme, or not. Although they were innocent, they were cursed to a fate worse than death: undeath. The undead in this world, you see, are also enslaved to the will of the Lich King. Was Arthas showing compassion, or was he murdering them? Was he using his power to save them, or was it an abuse of his position as Prince? it is genuinely difficult to say.
But there is no difference in how the fans feel about this moment: it is horrifying. And you, you the player, are doing it. You are cutting down innocent confused people, and every time you do it it hurts: no matter how many times you play the game. People like to say that dictators who turn on their own people are monsters: but that is to say that they are not people, not humans. It is a pitiful attempt at equating humanity to goodness. Warcraft III, unusually for a game at this time, confronts the player with the darkness in their own soul. It confronts you with the fact that if you were faced with the same choice as Arthas, you would have done as he did. Even if you believe Arthas is saving the people, you know he is damning himself. In most stories, this is where Arthas would die: either a noble hero sacrificing himself for the good of his people, or a tragic hero overcome by his attachment to his country.
Remember, this is 2003: two years into the Iraq war. The country was gripped with a fever of blind patriotism. Prince Arthas' zeal was something everyone could identify with, even those who opposed the war were worried about the country's safety. And like Prince Arthas, we were all willing to sacrifice some people for the good of the many. But because we carried out this action in a fictional world, we could be a step removed from it: and understand just how horrifying it really is.
To make matters worse, the story doesn't end with Strathholme. No, Arthas goes on to betray his friend and pick up a cursed sword of evil. Frostmourne is still an icon in gaming, not simply because of it's excellent visual design but because of this story. Frostmourne is a weapon of death, and it turns whomever wields it into a grim reaper.
We've seen the grim reaper before in games of course, but never one quite so terrifying or so human. Slowly, the golden locks turn white and the once glowing skin pallid. The green eyes no longer smoulder with life, and the attractive smirk becomes a grimace. Arthas transforms before our eyes into a mockery of himself, as he destroys the Kingdom he once protected. They can't show the downfall of Lordaeron in the game, not truly: instead they show it in the person of Arthas. His former friend and mentor Uther might call Arthas a monster, but the player knows the devastating truth is that Arthas is still very much a human. There is no escape from that truth for us. It is not simply a Lovecraftian "the monster is us" message. The message is: there are no monsters.
There are simply people who have different agendas, and people can easily jump between them. The undead Scourge is without a doubt evil, but it is not as monstrous as it first appears. That reaction is a product of our inherent bias, and it's wrong. With Arthas leading it, the Scourge becomes as human as the defenders of Lordaeron. It's evil cannot be dismissed or downplayed, it must be dealt with directly.
Enter, the Banshee Queen. After destroying Lordaeron, Arthas turns on Quel'thalas, the elven kingdom. Like you would expect from an elven kingdom, it is hidden and it protects a fountain of magical power: which Arthas needs in order to resurrect the necromancer Kel'thuzad, and summon the demon Archimonde into the world. During the invasion of Quel'thalas, Arthas captures Ranger General Sylvanas Windrunner who is in charge of the defense. She begs for a quick death, but he instead tortures her and then rips out her soul turning her into a banshee. In addition to being extremely painful, this also gives her additional powers. However, other forces are at work in the world and the Lich King's ability to enslave the undead weakens. Sylvanas and some other of the stronger undead are able to free themselves from the Lich King's control. She realizes this, and gathers them up into a fighting force: which she takes to the ruins of Lordaeron.
Now, Sylvanas is a rape victim. The rape is metaphorical rather than literal, this is a game directed at teenagers after all, but there is no question that's what it is. She behaves and talks like a rape victim. She is someone that a woman can look up to, because she is an example of how to deal with trauma in a healthy way: gather up other people who have experienced the same trauma, and forge a new path together. Sylvanas and the Forsaken, as they call themselves, cannot ever escape their trauma. They are literally walking corpses.
What they can do, is transcend it: that is, they do not have to let it define them. Indeed, they need to. They need to, because the humans who are still around do define them by their physicality (most of them, anyhow). They cannot allow these people to define their nascent society, otherwise it will never work. But it is the older and wiser elves who recognize them for what they represent: the best chance for the Scourge to be beaten. They are, after all, former members of the Scourge: they know how the enemy operates and have information about it's weaknesses. The practical elves decide to ally with the Forsaken: giving their new nation the legitimacy it needs. As I mentioned, elves are long-lived: and thus, patient. Sylvanas is no exception. Although she thirsts for revenge, she does not rush it. She works intelligently and methodically. First she turns the demons against one another, then she finds out the secret to the plague of undeath. This tells her what can harm the Scourge. Then she crafts her poisoned arrow. Then she shoots it at Arthas, and he is paralyzed. Only the arrival of the necromancer Kel'thuzad foils Sylvanas' plan.
Sylvanas isn't simply an anti-hero: that is, a hero who uses morally questionable methods and doesn't model virtue. Sylvanas' existence questions one of the pillars of fantasy: the notion of the monster. She is reviled for what she is: but at the same time she is loved for who she is. The players of Warcraft games have been divided over this character since her very first appearance. She is a smart and competent leader with an unerring eye for talent and the confidence to go against convention. Her decision to train and promote the human Nathanos Marris proved to be crucial for the Alliance's victory in the Second War. At the same time, Sylvanas is not a kind or generous person and she has no real right to even exist. Her methods can be both morally questionable and truly horrifying. Especially because she is female, her lack of empathy can be shocking and repulsive. It is this last thing which is so revolutionary about Sylvanas for female gamers (or indeed women in general). Her presence gives us permission to not pretend that we care, when really we don't.
Women are particularly vulnerable to emotional manipulation in our culture because we are taught to pretend that we care. Again it's this issue of pushing the burden to create and maintain relationships onto women. Obviously, emulating Sylvanas completely would be bad. But this too is unusual in fiction: a leader that people want to follow, who they would never want to be. While there is a vocal portion of the fanbase that hates this character, and not without good reason: there are also legions of loyal fans. Although she is definitely a sexually appealing character: sex appeal only serves to pique interest, it cannot sustain that interest. People love her because she is an effective and experienced leader, who values talent over anything else. People hate her because she does not validate them and she acts in a way that is contradictory to their morality. She doesn't have honor and doesn't subscribe to an ideology. Some people find that monstrous, others find it inspiring.
This ambivalence is unusual in video games. Most of the time the vast majority of a game's fanbase feels one way or another about a character: they love the character, or hate them, think they are good or bad. Then again, most video games do not attempt to tackle questions like "what is humanity?" That is the question however that a character like Sylvanas presents us with, by her very existence. Is she human? at first blush one tends to think the answer is no. But then, if you play as a blood elf in World of Warcraft you can find a locket in a tower which you learn once belonged to Sylvanas. If you bring it to her, she sings a lament for her home and it's one of the most beautiful songs in a game that is well known for it's beautiful music. She might tell everyone else she feels nothing, she might even believe that herself: but you know better. She has a heart, and she does feel. That's why she bothered to free others from the control of the Scourge. That's why she raises new Forsaken, despite the pain of that existence. She has, in truth, found joy in even these circumstances. Being strong enough and wise enough to find the good in life despite it's horrors is something we can all admire and emulate.
Warcraft as a mythos has plenty of standout characters, male and female, which I could spend a lot of time talking about. Most intriguing however, is that these characters did not simply become foundational to the MMORPG World of Warcraft. No, these characters inspired the creation of an entirely new gaming phenomenon: the MOBA. It's a simple enough type of game: defend your base and take down the enemy's. You have regular units, called creeps for the way that they move slowly forward until annihilated, and hero units which are controlled by players and have special abilities. This is based off of the general structure of Warcraft III, because Defense of the Ancients (or DoTA as it has become known), was originally a custom map for Warcraft III. This is extremely important in the history of gaming because for the first time we have a game genre which was built around having strong and capable female characters. The archetypes represented by Jaina, Sylvanas, and other female characters in the game shaped the entire genre from it's inception.
This is a game genre that could very easily have never featured female characters, look at the (probably) all-male cast of Team Fortress 2. Games are, by necessity, bound to traditions. Gaming is an industry, not yet a true art form: and therefore it is all about what will sell. Most companies prefer to play it safe, and stick with what they know will work. That is why most games have generic white male protagonists and tell the same sexist, racist, homophobic stories over and over again. So, establishing good traditions at the foundations of genres is key.
But more than simply having strong female protagonists, the MOBA genre is also defined by Warcraft III's central message: there are no monsters. This is inherently an anti-prejudicial message: without the need to resort to display of visual diversity that could very easily end up being seen as condescending, rather than affirming. If there are no monsters, no bogeymen, then there are only stark economic and social realities. There is only the reality of economic exploitation and the loss of supremacy. There is only the reality of tyranny oversees and at home, and the slow creation of the inevitable enemy of that tyranny: the terrorist. There is only the reality of eager technocrats rushing to play God. This way of understanding the world can be seen in games like League of Legends through the lore and character concepts. Better than any survey of political beliefs, these games prove what the majority of people believe: the truth is something to be confronted, not avoided. There are no monsters, only people who act on their own agendas.
No, it was being talked about in AoL chatrooms, MySpace, Neopets and Club Penguin: the parts of the internet inhabited in the early naughts by teen and preteen girls. It wasn't the Warcraft name or the Blizzard logo which had grabbed the attention of these girls: it was the face in the center of the poster. The smouldering green eyes set against tanned skin and framed by long blond locks, the smirking mouth framed by a hint of stubble. For many girl gamers seeing Arthas Menethil for the first time, was like what male gamers experienced when they first saw Cortana (the AI in the shape of a beautiful woman from Halo). It was a revelation.
Games could offer more than simply a way to waste a few hours, a video game character was someone you could fall in love with the same way that you fell in love with movie characters. It started of course with girls who were sisters, cousins and next-door-neighbors of avid gamers. Nobody reposts faster than a teenage girl, and before long Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne had reached a far wider audience than any game of it's kind before. It was the kind of audience that video game companies could only dream of: the kind of audience that only card games had ever reached before. But this was not a card game, it was not a game which appealed to children but which adults would leave behind. It was a game for adults, and it was challenging. But the girls who bought it were motivated to overcome the challenges, or find the cheats, because of the other things the game offered.
Prince Arthas Menethil is not a character you would expect a game, let alone a strategy game, to do justice to. The game struck the tricky balance between fairy tale and reality, between the fantasy hero and modern-day military commander. Of course, fans of the other Warcraft games were unsurprised about this: Blizzard was always able to strike this balance well. But the girls who picked up the game had no knowledge of those other games, and they were shocked. The trick was the relationship between Arthas and his girlfriend Jaina. Their dialog was witty, flirty, and realistic: in that it used language which real people would actually use. They might be a Prince and Princess in a fantastic world trying to solve a zombie plague, but they talked like your mom and dad. MySpace exploded with fanart, much of which can still be found on tumblr and Deviantart.
Jaina was not simply a Princess to be rescued, in fact she was more likely to do the rescuing. She was more than capable of handling herself even in the chaotic situations that inexperienced players frequently got themselves into. She had a distinctive character that was related to, but did not depend on Arthas. Her identity as a mage set her apart from him, and she drove the story independently of him. She was also actually useful in gameplay, unlike so many female video-game sidekicks (this was mere months after Goldeneye's infamously useless Natalya). Her mage abilities synchronized well with Arthas' paladin spells, so that the two fought together in a natural way when they had to face the enemy themselves. The game set them up as a perfect pair, a King and Queen in all but name.
Does one need spoiler warnings for games that are over a decade old? well, spoilers ahead. This being a Blizzard game of course, the perfection cannot last. At the climax of the story, Jaina must choose to follow her lover in killing innocent people or abandon him and face a hopeless future alone. She chooses the latter. Acting on the words of the mysterious Prophet, Jaina gathers up the survivors of the zombie plague and sails into the unknown. Jaina could have considered the plight of Lordaeron to be no longer be her problem, after Arthas' betrayal. Instead, she takes up the responsibilities of Queen, without any of the perks. Here was a woman that a girl could look up to, a woman she could wish to become. In 2003, that was virtually unknown in the gaming world. There were women in games, but none of them were role models. But this game was far from done amazing it's new audience.
The campaign continues and Arthas continues to become evil after taking possession of a cursed sword. Playing the game is a devastating experience, because you aren't simply watching Arthas destroy everything he loves. No, you are Arthas as he destroys everything he loves. It is a great example of a story that could really only be told in a game, because it's emotional weight comes from the player feeling the same way about Lordaeron that Arthas does. The transition from hero to villain is not sudden, it is gradual and insidious: you can't pinpoint the moment that it happens. Even to this day fans of the series still debate whether Arthas was right to kill the citizens of Strathholme, or not. Although they were innocent, they were cursed to a fate worse than death: undeath. The undead in this world, you see, are also enslaved to the will of the Lich King. Was Arthas showing compassion, or was he murdering them? Was he using his power to save them, or was it an abuse of his position as Prince? it is genuinely difficult to say.
But there is no difference in how the fans feel about this moment: it is horrifying. And you, you the player, are doing it. You are cutting down innocent confused people, and every time you do it it hurts: no matter how many times you play the game. People like to say that dictators who turn on their own people are monsters: but that is to say that they are not people, not humans. It is a pitiful attempt at equating humanity to goodness. Warcraft III, unusually for a game at this time, confronts the player with the darkness in their own soul. It confronts you with the fact that if you were faced with the same choice as Arthas, you would have done as he did. Even if you believe Arthas is saving the people, you know he is damning himself. In most stories, this is where Arthas would die: either a noble hero sacrificing himself for the good of his people, or a tragic hero overcome by his attachment to his country.
Remember, this is 2003: two years into the Iraq war. The country was gripped with a fever of blind patriotism. Prince Arthas' zeal was something everyone could identify with, even those who opposed the war were worried about the country's safety. And like Prince Arthas, we were all willing to sacrifice some people for the good of the many. But because we carried out this action in a fictional world, we could be a step removed from it: and understand just how horrifying it really is.
To make matters worse, the story doesn't end with Strathholme. No, Arthas goes on to betray his friend and pick up a cursed sword of evil. Frostmourne is still an icon in gaming, not simply because of it's excellent visual design but because of this story. Frostmourne is a weapon of death, and it turns whomever wields it into a grim reaper.
We've seen the grim reaper before in games of course, but never one quite so terrifying or so human. Slowly, the golden locks turn white and the once glowing skin pallid. The green eyes no longer smoulder with life, and the attractive smirk becomes a grimace. Arthas transforms before our eyes into a mockery of himself, as he destroys the Kingdom he once protected. They can't show the downfall of Lordaeron in the game, not truly: instead they show it in the person of Arthas. His former friend and mentor Uther might call Arthas a monster, but the player knows the devastating truth is that Arthas is still very much a human. There is no escape from that truth for us. It is not simply a Lovecraftian "the monster is us" message. The message is: there are no monsters.
There are simply people who have different agendas, and people can easily jump between them. The undead Scourge is without a doubt evil, but it is not as monstrous as it first appears. That reaction is a product of our inherent bias, and it's wrong. With Arthas leading it, the Scourge becomes as human as the defenders of Lordaeron. It's evil cannot be dismissed or downplayed, it must be dealt with directly.
Enter, the Banshee Queen. After destroying Lordaeron, Arthas turns on Quel'thalas, the elven kingdom. Like you would expect from an elven kingdom, it is hidden and it protects a fountain of magical power: which Arthas needs in order to resurrect the necromancer Kel'thuzad, and summon the demon Archimonde into the world. During the invasion of Quel'thalas, Arthas captures Ranger General Sylvanas Windrunner who is in charge of the defense. She begs for a quick death, but he instead tortures her and then rips out her soul turning her into a banshee. In addition to being extremely painful, this also gives her additional powers. However, other forces are at work in the world and the Lich King's ability to enslave the undead weakens. Sylvanas and some other of the stronger undead are able to free themselves from the Lich King's control. She realizes this, and gathers them up into a fighting force: which she takes to the ruins of Lordaeron.
Now, Sylvanas is a rape victim. The rape is metaphorical rather than literal, this is a game directed at teenagers after all, but there is no question that's what it is. She behaves and talks like a rape victim. She is someone that a woman can look up to, because she is an example of how to deal with trauma in a healthy way: gather up other people who have experienced the same trauma, and forge a new path together. Sylvanas and the Forsaken, as they call themselves, cannot ever escape their trauma. They are literally walking corpses.
What they can do, is transcend it: that is, they do not have to let it define them. Indeed, they need to. They need to, because the humans who are still around do define them by their physicality (most of them, anyhow). They cannot allow these people to define their nascent society, otherwise it will never work. But it is the older and wiser elves who recognize them for what they represent: the best chance for the Scourge to be beaten. They are, after all, former members of the Scourge: they know how the enemy operates and have information about it's weaknesses. The practical elves decide to ally with the Forsaken: giving their new nation the legitimacy it needs. As I mentioned, elves are long-lived: and thus, patient. Sylvanas is no exception. Although she thirsts for revenge, she does not rush it. She works intelligently and methodically. First she turns the demons against one another, then she finds out the secret to the plague of undeath. This tells her what can harm the Scourge. Then she crafts her poisoned arrow. Then she shoots it at Arthas, and he is paralyzed. Only the arrival of the necromancer Kel'thuzad foils Sylvanas' plan.
Sylvanas isn't simply an anti-hero: that is, a hero who uses morally questionable methods and doesn't model virtue. Sylvanas' existence questions one of the pillars of fantasy: the notion of the monster. She is reviled for what she is: but at the same time she is loved for who she is. The players of Warcraft games have been divided over this character since her very first appearance. She is a smart and competent leader with an unerring eye for talent and the confidence to go against convention. Her decision to train and promote the human Nathanos Marris proved to be crucial for the Alliance's victory in the Second War. At the same time, Sylvanas is not a kind or generous person and she has no real right to even exist. Her methods can be both morally questionable and truly horrifying. Especially because she is female, her lack of empathy can be shocking and repulsive. It is this last thing which is so revolutionary about Sylvanas for female gamers (or indeed women in general). Her presence gives us permission to not pretend that we care, when really we don't.
Women are particularly vulnerable to emotional manipulation in our culture because we are taught to pretend that we care. Again it's this issue of pushing the burden to create and maintain relationships onto women. Obviously, emulating Sylvanas completely would be bad. But this too is unusual in fiction: a leader that people want to follow, who they would never want to be. While there is a vocal portion of the fanbase that hates this character, and not without good reason: there are also legions of loyal fans. Although she is definitely a sexually appealing character: sex appeal only serves to pique interest, it cannot sustain that interest. People love her because she is an effective and experienced leader, who values talent over anything else. People hate her because she does not validate them and she acts in a way that is contradictory to their morality. She doesn't have honor and doesn't subscribe to an ideology. Some people find that monstrous, others find it inspiring.
This ambivalence is unusual in video games. Most of the time the vast majority of a game's fanbase feels one way or another about a character: they love the character, or hate them, think they are good or bad. Then again, most video games do not attempt to tackle questions like "what is humanity?" That is the question however that a character like Sylvanas presents us with, by her very existence. Is she human? at first blush one tends to think the answer is no. But then, if you play as a blood elf in World of Warcraft you can find a locket in a tower which you learn once belonged to Sylvanas. If you bring it to her, she sings a lament for her home and it's one of the most beautiful songs in a game that is well known for it's beautiful music. She might tell everyone else she feels nothing, she might even believe that herself: but you know better. She has a heart, and she does feel. That's why she bothered to free others from the control of the Scourge. That's why she raises new Forsaken, despite the pain of that existence. She has, in truth, found joy in even these circumstances. Being strong enough and wise enough to find the good in life despite it's horrors is something we can all admire and emulate.
Warcraft as a mythos has plenty of standout characters, male and female, which I could spend a lot of time talking about. Most intriguing however, is that these characters did not simply become foundational to the MMORPG World of Warcraft. No, these characters inspired the creation of an entirely new gaming phenomenon: the MOBA. It's a simple enough type of game: defend your base and take down the enemy's. You have regular units, called creeps for the way that they move slowly forward until annihilated, and hero units which are controlled by players and have special abilities. This is based off of the general structure of Warcraft III, because Defense of the Ancients (or DoTA as it has become known), was originally a custom map for Warcraft III. This is extremely important in the history of gaming because for the first time we have a game genre which was built around having strong and capable female characters. The archetypes represented by Jaina, Sylvanas, and other female characters in the game shaped the entire genre from it's inception.
This is a game genre that could very easily have never featured female characters, look at the (probably) all-male cast of Team Fortress 2. Games are, by necessity, bound to traditions. Gaming is an industry, not yet a true art form: and therefore it is all about what will sell. Most companies prefer to play it safe, and stick with what they know will work. That is why most games have generic white male protagonists and tell the same sexist, racist, homophobic stories over and over again. So, establishing good traditions at the foundations of genres is key.
But more than simply having strong female protagonists, the MOBA genre is also defined by Warcraft III's central message: there are no monsters. This is inherently an anti-prejudicial message: without the need to resort to display of visual diversity that could very easily end up being seen as condescending, rather than affirming. If there are no monsters, no bogeymen, then there are only stark economic and social realities. There is only the reality of economic exploitation and the loss of supremacy. There is only the reality of tyranny oversees and at home, and the slow creation of the inevitable enemy of that tyranny: the terrorist. There is only the reality of eager technocrats rushing to play God. This way of understanding the world can be seen in games like League of Legends through the lore and character concepts. Better than any survey of political beliefs, these games prove what the majority of people believe: the truth is something to be confronted, not avoided. There are no monsters, only people who act on their own agendas.
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