Micah Whipple

Want to hear a weird Blizzard story? We weren't allowed to refer to players as "fans." An exec had at some point realized fan is short for fanatic, and it had a slightly negative connotation. So that was it. Like a weird Disney-cast-members-can't-point kind of rule. We lived it.

For over a decade we had to contort our language and dodge around "fan" and use players, or champions!, or viewers, audience members!, supporters, etc. etc. No one knew for sure who came up with it, but it was a steadfast rule. Until one day...

We found out who had imposed this rule (!) that had impacted so much of our writing and speaking for years, and asked them about it. Confused at first, they remembered and were sort of surprised anyone bothered keeping up with it. Then they sort of laughed and walked away.