Paula Stevens
IMS390
9/29/2011
Chromie: A Gender Analysis
The game is World of Warcraft and the character is a female gnome. Her name is
Chromie. When the game originally came out, you first encountered Chromie in a town called
Andorhal. This is what she said:
Hello there, <name>. I am known as Chronormu, but you may call me Chromie. I
am comfortable with such familiarity.
Now - how did I know your name, you ask? I am one of the bronze dragonflight,
forever attuned to the ebb and flow of time. You could say that we have met
before. To that end, we shall also meet again.
I hope that my choice of visual demeanor does not disturb you: while I might be
charged to be a sentry of sorrowful places, I choose not to drown in the sorrow of
the locale. (WoWwiki.com)
So this NPC, non-playable character, tells you that this is not their original race or
species. At this point in the dialog, the character does not state what their gender is as a member
of the dragonflight. The character that you see is a female gnome.
Looking at online sources surrounding the game does not give a clear answer to the
gender question. The article on WoWwiki.com shows that male dragons names end in ormu and
female names end in ormi. So this would point to the character as being male in gender when in
dragon form. But the character chooses the form of a female gnome and this is stated in character
dialog above.
On websites and player forums, it is stated that the gender of the character was clarified
in World of Warcraft: The Magazine, while other fans state that it was never clarified by
Blizzard, the creators of the character. (WoW: Story Forum) As the magazine does not have any
online content and has ceased publication as of September 2011, I am unable to track down the
article. One participant in the discussion mentions how drag queens are often referred to with a
feminine pronoun even before they are dressed as a female. (WoW: Story Forum)
In Chromie’s original placement in Andorhal, she is stationary in a room and requests
that the player help her by bringing items to her. It is stated on the WoWwiki page that she is
investigating “… they started tampering with time” and that she “creating a time pocket in a
single room.” (WoWwiki.com) Following this logic and the narrative given to you in the quests
that she asks you to complete, it makes sense that she does not leave the room. But you might
also ask if she is not capable of completing the tasks herself. If she is simply a female who can’t
manage it on her own.
In later expansions to the game, NPCs will often accompany you to help complete a
quest. But Chromie is still an NPC that will not leave her post. When she appears in different
areas and times, she again requests players complete tasks for her. I wonder if the game
designers intended her to appear to be a helpless female.
As was stated earlier, Chromie chooses her form as a female gnome. I wonder if she truly
had any choice in her body proportions. As a gnome that is 1/3 the height of a human, she is still
oversized in the area of the breasts. She is a hyper-sexualized character and she is there as an
object of the male gaze. Chromie is also wearing makeup that exaggerates her femininity. She
has large doe eyes that are common on hyper-sexualized female characters. And while the
placement is a little different, I relate her hairstyle to an image of Princes Leia from Star Wars.
The hairstyle is from the first movie and prior to the half nude metal bikini wearing Princess
Leia. But I see it as trying to make some connection there.
Chromie is a magic user and is therefore wearing cloth robes. But the design of the outfit
over emphasizes her femininity. The design draws your eyes to her breasts. If the exact same
piece were shown on a male character, it would not have the same affect. And looking at the
picture (from Andorhal) it also appears that the robes have an opening to show her midriff. When
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you stand and watch her for a time, she like all characters in the game will shift her weight. With
females in the game, this action is also meant to bring your attention to their breasts. Even at
being a third of the size of most characters in the game, she is there to be an object of the male
gaze. (Schleiner, p.222)
Fan reaction to the question of Chromie’s gender is mixed. Some state that the masculine
of her dragonkin name was simply a typo that was overlooked by the game designers. While
others state that the character may be a “tranny.” My favorite reaction comes from a player,
Liandora: “Chromie is too awesome to be pigeonholed into traditional gender designations.”
(WoW: Story Forum)
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Wymerest
Andorhal
http://www.wowwiki.com/Chromie
Princess Leia
http://www.everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ANH_Princess_Leia_02.jpg
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Bibliography
"Chronormu." WoWwiki.com. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.wowwiki.com/Chromie>.
"What Gender Is Chromie?" World of Warcraft: Story Forum. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.
<http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2489160754?page=1>.
Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role
Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." Leonardo 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Print.
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