Picture Report on the Biggest In-Game WoW Event – Proudmoore Pride

Proudmoore Pride is a yearly LGBTQ parade and one of the biggest in-game events in WoW hosted on the Proudmoore US server. I went along this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, this tale is best told in pictures. Below is a gallery in chronological order:

1. The Parade
2. The Booty Bay Party
3. The Drag Contest
4. The WoW Factor Show

A few remarks on trolls: There were not that many, not anywhere as bad as I thought it would be, it’s a good thing to be wrong about!

Logging in from last time we visited Proudmoore, I found myself alone in the Ironforge Library.

I think these were members of the organizing Alliance guilds “The Stonewall Family” all marching in this formation.

Everyone walked, no one ran. How often does this happen? Never! That alone felt a lot different from normal “WoW life”.

The Horde joined us at the south of Crossroads, a Horde settlement which normally (at least on PvP servers) is the setting for much world PvP, but the march carried on without much faction hostility.

I took the opportunity to enjoy the spectacle of all these characters. It was a lot of fun to see more roleplay outfits than what we can cater to at the WoW Factor events.

I also enjoyed the display of mounts. Every imaginable way of transportation was utilized.

Stunning. Some mounts are cool because they are rare, some mounts are cool because they are beautiful. The Spectral Tiger is both.

The Big Blizzard Bear came in the BlizzCon 2008 Welcome package. It was also obtainable via DirectTV subscription in the USA. I guess you can say this is a “fan-appreciation-mount”. I’ve never seen this in game before.

People are getting on the boat from Ratchet to Booty Bay. It was so silly, look at how cluttered that bridge is. The boat bursting with people left the harbor without me. I suspected it would crash, although it actually didn’t.

Arriving at the Proudmoore Pride Booty Bay Party

People were dancing everywhere.

The warm waters of Booty Bay became the dance floor.

The man in the white wedding dress with veil and cupid competed in the drag contest by asking the pink dressed host Daddylicious to marry him.

“Welcome to the Stonewall Family Drag Contest”

“Our contestants will work the stage behind us”

The background of the stage was made of smokey flares kept up by the organizers.

I laughed!

After the draenei confessed to having been a “bad boy”, the host yelled “You mean girl?”.

Whether this draenei posed as male or female, his tail impressed the audience.

Starting up the WoW Factor Show. The amount of smoke flares they must have had… I didn’t find out who put them up specifically, but we were very thankful to have our stage lit so neatly too.

I was very excited about Tomu, our very first demon hunter at a WoW Factor show.

Rommíe was amongst our favourites and a top 3 winner. A very creative mog utilizing shamanic pieces and leatherworking-only shoulders. Very unique overall. Looking back, I feel as if we didn’t spend enough time on her on the stream.

Ray was a levitating dwarf wearing what perhaps was a clown outfit, perhaps a rainbow for the occasion. I don’t know, but she stood out in the crowd. So much that Leanbøw got scared.

Here’s a closer look at Ray. We gave a 1000 gold price for “most outrageous”. Adding comedy value should also be rewarded.

Last show I suggested we did an audience vote for the last top 3 spot = 10.000 gold. This time we did it again. Here I am trying to count Kiarmshi’s votes, who actually won the top 3 audience vote.

Group picture at the end with fancy spell effects decorating the background. As a memento, we’ve started taking a final group picture.

With names on. These screenshots are always more fun a year down the line.

Related articles

• Proudmoore (LGBTQ) Pride Event this Saturday! (ironyca.wordpress.com)
• 8th annual LGBT Proudmoore Pride celebration to be held this weekend (wow.joystiq.com)
• WoW Factor Proudmoore Pride Follow-up (Wowroleplaygear.com)

Proudmoore (LGBTQ) Pride Event this Saturday!

I’m a sucker for mass events in WoW.

I also find LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) issues to be important, especially due to how rampant the homophobia is, not only in WoW, but in gaming/geek culture in general.

This Saturday I get a chance to combine the two when the Proudmoore Pride Event goes off. It’s a yearly parade that has taken place since 2005, basically 8 years in a row – that is pretty impressive consistency for an in game initiative!

The event includes a duo-faction parade through the North Barrens to Ratchet to end with a party at Booty Bay. Details here.

Looking at pictures from previous years, this looks like a lot of fun!

The WoW Factor has also been invited by the organizers to host a transmog competition at 2:30 pm/server time/PST.

Judging from the size and theme of this parade, I don’t know what to expect in terms of trolling, maybe the worst? At our regular events, we almost always get trolls.

I get the impression some of them care about the competition and find joy in it, but feel the need to hide it under a layer of denial which comes out as trolling, because “it’s totally gay to dress your char up and go to a WoW fashion show“.

Others, I believe, are just bored and don’t give a damn. If it wasn’t this event they were obstructing, it would be roleplayers, or it would be messing up LFG groups, or it would be corpse camping low lvl characters, or it would be typing random crap on the forums. Regardless, the language of trolling is almost always anti-gay.

I’m thinking that since the pride parade has been carried out so many times, the organizers know what to expect, so the event will run smoothly. On the other hand, if there’s something that can bring out all the trolls, this would without doubt be their number one wet dream. But that proves the point of why the Proudmoore Pride parade has legitimacy in the first place!

Even though I’ll be there with the WoW Factor, I intend to join as much of the whole event as possible, I think it sounds like a cool initiative. LGBTQ matters seem to have only one expression in game, and that is as a slur, as a way of expressing disdain. Sometimes it’s as if the only people playing are white straight guys of varying ages, the image the industry worships. One thing is the marginalization of female players, I find any other issue to be even more invisible.

This event is a way to show hundreds of players in support, to raise awareness and to raise the visibility.

As usual I will have to attend on a trial account (as I’m an EU-player) so I’ll have to deal with the speech muzzle, but if you’re going, please whisper me to say hi! Otherwise, I’ll be the low level character dancing alone in the corner, sipping the last drops of my drink and checking the mobile phone I don’t have.

In other words, I would love to see some familiar faces!