Liquid Women in Warcraft Approved Guilds on Raider.IO
Earlier this year, Team Liquid and Liquid Guild announced the creation of a new initiative: Liquid Women in Warcraft (LWiW). Aimed at tackling misogyny, harassment, and other abuse suffered by gender minorities in WoW and gaming, LWiW has been helping players from all corners of the community, through workshops, mentorship programs, and more. The LWiW initiative has created a welcoming community on Discord, where you can go to learn more about LWiW and the amazing work it is doing!
One of the exciting programs created by LWiW is known as “LWiW Approved Guilds”. This program is geared towards highlighting and promoting guilds that provide a welcoming environment and safe space for World of Warcraft players of all identities and backgrounds. In order for a guild to be “LWiW Approved”, they must apply to the program and undergo a thorough review and vetting process by the LWiW Committee. “LWiW Approved” guilds must have gender minorities in leadership positions, and uphold the values and ideals of LWiW.
The “LWiW Approved” program is already underway featuring some fantastic guilds! We here at Raider.IO are extremely proud to have partnered with LWiW to provide a special designation to these guilds, making them easily identifiable and providing a special filter in our Recruitment system. Read on to learn more about how it works!
Table of Contents
What is Liquid Women in Warcraft?
Team Liquid entered the World of Warcraft space at the beginning of this year by acquiring Liquid Guild and creating the Liquid MMO branch of the esports organization. It was evident early on to leadership at Team Liquid that representation of women and other gender minorities in the high-level ecosystem of the game was drastically low. As an organization, Team Liquid has dedicated itself to being a leader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the gaming industry. A decision was made early on to do whatever possible to tackle the disparity of gender representation in World of Warcraft, and Liquid Women in Warcraft was born.
LWiW’s mission is to provide a network through which women, non-binary persons, and those belonging to all gender minorities can seek a safe, supportive space with other like-minded people. The collaborative initiative works to connect gender minorities from all aspects of World of Warcraft gameplay with experts and professionals in the field. LWiW strives to empower, encourage, educate, and elevate gender minorities to the same positions of authority, respect, and visibility as their male counterparts.
LWiW has established a clear pathway to how to achieve this, with workshops, roundtable discussions, programs, and more. To learn more about the initiative and its goals, check out the LWiW Discord. This server is also where the LWiW community holds events and interacts, so make sure you check it out!
LWiW Values and Ideals
Part of becoming a LWiW Approved Guild is agreeing to uphold the Values and Ideals of the initiative. Not only does Guild Leadership need to abide by them, but they must agree to enforce them as part of their Guild’s Code of Conduct.
- Be respectful of all members.
- Zero tolerance for harassment, toxicity, bullying, name calling, or hate speech.
- Zero tolerance for sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or any other kind of offensive language or behaviour.
How to Become a LWiW Approved Guild
In order for your guild to earn the designation of “LWiW Approved”, an application must be submitted to LWiW Leadership, and certain requirements must be met. Only guilds with gender minorities in leadership positions will be considered. In order to apply on behalf of your guild, navigate over to the #programs channel in the LWiW Discord and fill out the Application Form. Be thorough and thoughtful with your application!
Applications are reviewed by a Committee, which includes a vetting (to the best of their ability) of a guild’s background and members. Once approved, your guild will be featured on Liquid Guild social media, and be given special recruitment privileges on both the LWiW Discord and Raider.IO!
LWiW Badge on Raider.IO
When a guild gets Approved by the LWiW program, they will earn a designator badge on Raider.IO. This will be visible on their Guild Profile page, as well as on any Guild Recruitment Profiles. This badge serves as an indicator that this guild has been reviewed and vetted by the LWiW committee, has gender minorities in leadership, and has agreed to adhere to and enforce LWiW Values and Ideals. A guild with this badge has indicated they will strive to create a welcoming and safe place where peoples of all identities and backgrounds are treated as equal members.
LWiW Recruitment Filter on Raider.IO
The key aspect of being a LWiW Approved guild on Raider.IO is that it creates a separate filter in the Recruitment system. First and foremost, all LWiW Approved Guilds will have the LWiW badge on their Recruitment Profiles for easy verification.
When creating a Recruitment Profile for a guild, there will be an option to select the “LWiW Approved” tag. This option will show up on the dropdown menu for all guilds, but only guilds that have been designated as LWiW Approved will be able to select it. Guilds that have not been approved will be given a link to the application upon attempting to select it!
This tag allows players to filter their individual Recruitment searches to only show guilds that are LWiW Approved, and thus only LWiW Approved guilds will be able to send them Recruitment messages. Optionally, players can manually add the LWiW Approved tag to their search results to further filter but not limit which guilds can contact them.
We know that many players have difficulty finding safe spaces to continue their adventures in Azeroth, so we hope this filter will provide some help in the right direction.
To learn more about LWiW, check out the active and supportive Discord community. Make sure you keep an eye on the Liquid Guild Twitter account where LWiW Approved guilds will be featured and highlighted on a regular basis as well!
Make sure you follow the LWiW News channel for announcements on upcoming events, workshops, and programs! VoDs of past workshops, such as “How to Use WarcraftLogs”, “How to Find a Guild”, and “How to Use Questionably-Epic” are also available.
Why? Because Representation Matters!
