Cannibal Corpse frontman George Fisher, otherwise known as Corpsegrinder, recently had his named removed from a World of Warcraft NPC (non playable character) named after him. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard entertainment. Corpsegrinder had a character named after him in the game called Gorg the Corpsegrinder, but after controversy arose surrounding Fisher’s use of homophobic slurs used when referring to other characters in the game and allegedly making threats against them, public pressure from World of Warcraft fans forced Blizzard’s hand and they changed the name of the character to Annihilator Grek’lor.
The name change comes after increasing pressure towards Blizzard as a whole, with a California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit describing the company as having a “frat boy culture” and is a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” With pressure on all sides, even something relatively minor like the renaming of a character because its namesake made homophobic slurs was a step Blizzard could take to clear its name of these accusations.
Cannibal Corpse has long been known for their inflammatory lyrics and song titles, so it does not surprise many that their lead singer made homophobic comments in the past, especially in 2007 relating to a video game. The comments came during an interview in 2007 that was later shown at Blizzcon event in 2011. mxdwn previously reported on the growing pressure from World of Warcraft players speaking up against Corpsegrinders inclusion in the game. Fisher has not yet responded to his name being removed from the character. Cannibal Corpse was also in the news recently when their former guitarist Pat O’Brien was able to get out of serving jail time for a previous assault and burglary charge.
Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva
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