[Patch #400031 - 18 December 2021]

On 1/8/2022 at 7:45 AM, Majora said:

Hey guys,

We hoped the reason for the change would be obvious and not require an explanation.

Short explanation: There is no reason for a stripper pole to be included in a game like this.

Longer explanation: BattleForge already isn't very female friendly. The RTS genre is less popular among females in general but this game also uses the ''females armor has to be hot, not practical'' trope heavily. Quotes like ''my face is up here'' and ''I can feel you looking'' from Amazon also shows the old devs were aware and lean into this ''boys-club-vibe''. Cards like Twilight Hag and Girl Power are not helping in the image that the game is inclusive for all genders. Why is Twilight Hag on a stripper pole?.. She is a witch, she could easily have had a general description that she bewitches her enemies.

The cards in question feel like mockery towards females, which is a clunky joke at best, and just rude at worst. BattleForge is an old game, and these cards would definitely not see the light of day in 2022, but even in its time frame it was already questionable. Over time, we have also received multiple comments about Twilight Hag and Girl Power, through for example our survey last summer. We feel those comments and complaints are legit, and want to take them seriously.

So does this mean we are suddenly going to remove all references and things that might be considered offending? Of course not. But we do feel removing the worst offenders is worth it. Changing Girl Power is a lot trickier, but we plan to tackle it at some time in the future, for the reasons mentioned above.

We figured changing the icon from Twilight Hag was an easy change that should not ran into any issues or discussions. 

On the note of Girl Power....For the love of all that is holy, could we please get the wiki updated with card genders cause that was a pain to have to go through and manually test alot of cards after I learned it works on the Bloodhorn. Also I'm down with this, can we make one of the first steps giving some of the Skyelves a bodysuit or cloth texture under their armors so they look more...practical.