Having players from other cultures in the same virtual environment might have been seen as a positive thing. After all, this is presumably why we have study abroad programs and why we attempt to teach foreign languages. In the discussion about gold farmers and language fluencies in MMOs however, responses on the official WoW forums suggest otherwise.

Even in the most positive light, there is something xenophobic about these statements, but more importantly, it's hard to not interpret them as the digital variation of "go back to your own country". And beneath all that is the eerie undertone of "this land belongs to us and we prefer to keep it that way" - a digital country club where language fluency is the membership fee. In other words, even in a land of Orcs and Night Elves, some people simply don't belong in Azeroth.

Rethinking Fluency

The language fluency issue is also strange because many forum posts are dedicated to illustrating that players who do speak perfect English can also be just as annoying and infuriating in the game. For example, in a thread titled "Whats the STUPIDEST whisper u ever got" on the WoW forums, we can find many examples of these:

And several players described requests such as the following, all done in perfect English:

Finally, I offer you this player's experience which I think hits at the heart of the issue of language fluency:

But my point is that the language fluency issue is ironic given that players who do speak English can say far more offensive and annoying things.

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