In late July, in response to Californiaâs lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering an environment of harassment and discrimination against female employees, Blizzard announced it was taking steps to remove inappropriate content and references from World of Warcraft. Two of those changes surfaced in an early build of the upcoming 9.1.5 patch, which changes the name of two achievements so they no longer reference the phrase âbros before hoesâ and large testicles.
World of Warcraft has a long and storied history of creating quests and achievements containing puns, plays on words, or pop culture references, which havenât always been in the best of taste. With scrutiny against Activision Blizzard at an all-time high following the lawsuit and every horrible thing that came after, itâs a good time to start making changes, even small ones. Shortly after the July announcement, references to former WoW developer Alex Afrasiabi, specifically named in the lawsuit and tied to the infamous BlizzCon âCosby Suite,â were removed from the game
Blizzardâs next target looks to be racy achievement names. As posted in the Icy Veins forum over the weekend:
âMy Sack is Gigantiqueâ has been renamed to âMy Storage is Gigantiqueâ.
âBros. Before Ho Ho Hoâsâ has been renamed to âHoliday Bromanceâ.
The first of the two, âMy Sack is Gigantique,â involves equipping the âGigantiqueâ bag from an NPC named Haris Pilton. The second, âBros. Before Ho Ho Hoâs,â is actually a festive holiday achievement in which you have to use mistletoe on eight Alliance NPCs with the title âBrother.â
Only two small changes, but itâs a start. Patch 9.1.5 is still months away and these changes are from a really early version, so thereâs a chance more renamed quests and achievements could be added to the update down the line.
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