Valve have repeatedly stated that they want to make DotA 2 as accommodating as possible and to get rid of the 'toxic culture' that surrounds the game and prevents newcomers from enjoying the actual game.
However, this morning, Valve's official English commentator, Tobi Wan, who has commentated countless events for DotA 2 already (including the International), and will more than likely be commentating The International 2 queued in a public game with professional player mouz.SingSing.
In said game, Tobi proceeded to use racist language as outlined in the picture below, if you don't want to look at that, the language in question was "have you heard the expression...lame as a nigger's baby?"
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| Picture in question |
In addition to this, I believe that Valve should know what happened and that any gamers who care about the reputation of DotA 2, lest it become another HoN, should tell Valve that they should, at the very least, reprimand Tobi for this. While such a goal might seem lofty, it's important to keep in mind that Evil Geniuses, one of the largest American teams, recently fired Orb from their staff because of racist language he used, and if the matter is scaled up, Tobi could be similarly reprimanded.
If you don't want to go through the time in writing your own email to Valve, feel free to send the following open letter by clicking on:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/email.php
Set it as being sent to either DotA 2 Team or Gabe Newell, use your own email address, set the subject to "Racism in DotA 2: Tobi Wan", and hopefully something will come of this.
Open letter:
Dear Valve,
I strongly feel it should be brought to your attention that recently your current official English commentator Tobi Wan, used unnecessary racist language in a public game that popular and high level player Singsing was streaming. The phrase in question can be seen in this picture: http://i.imgur.com/pdche.jpg and game ID is 15842488.
While I do appreciate Tobi as a caster and enjoy the work he has done for the community so far, I believe that the use of such language in a public medium, and by such a prominent member of the community is completely unacceptable and should be dealt with in some way. An event like this by such a leading member may hinder the ongoing work on Dota2 and its ever-expanding community.
"should be dealt with in some way."
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suggest be done?
It was a one off mistake, which he apologized for right away. Do you really think Tobi has something against black people, or just was making a bit of a distasteful joke?
Tobi is no doubt the best ambassador to Dota 2 that we have, there is no need to castrate him from one random comment.
Unbelievable. I can't believe you people are not only condoning this type of behaviour, but you're actively attacking the author for taking an issue with something as evil as casual racism. Here's an idea. Go to your schools, your professors, your teachers, your peers and parents and discuss with them how you feel casual racism and hate is completely acceptable in online interactions because hey, "That's the internet and it's 2012." Don't do this online, talk to people. Try discussing how casual racism is alright with friends that are visible minorities, or with their children. Have you ever spoken to a child that has been the victims of online racism or homophobia? Explain to them how it's Ok - and then report back and let us know how it went.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, valve does not employ Toby Dawson in any way, he works for Joindota, so sending anything to valve about this is pointless. Secondly, this is one minor slip in an otherwise spotless record Toby has as a Dota 2 commentator, and he should not be burnt at the stake for this by any means. If you have a problem with it, send him an email complaining about it, don't try to use him as springboard to shout out your opinions to any who will listen. Yes, it's a racist comment, and he's already come out and publicly apologized for making that statement, why do you think it needs to go beyond that? No one is condoning that behavior, but I will defend Toby because he deserves to be defended against spiteful slander such as this entire blog post. If the author doesn't want to hear dissenting opinions, they shouldn't post it, and I will continue to attack this author because this kind of behavior doesn't benefit any members of the community, it just escalates the conflict to even greater heights. If you want to promote tolerance you have to practice what you preach and be willing to forgive and forget. Not letting even a minor slip go unpunished is no better than allowing it to go unchecked.
ReplyDelete