Controversial World of Warcraft quest removed from test realms

World of Warcraft’s test realms are a way for players to preview upcoming content, and some of that content recently caused an uproar among fans. A quest in an early draft for the Fractures in Time Patch, due to launch on the 11th of July, required players to keep the timeline in order. Unfortunately, they were required to torture and exploit a close ally in order to complete the task. Blizzard has promised changes to the writing, but the controversy betrays deeper issues with the game’s narrative.

World of WarcrafIt is a massively multi-player game where each player has their own narrative. It is obvious that the supporting cast includes the strongest heroes and most vile villains of all time, which presents a narrative challenge. Players can take on the role of an undead Ganklordx rogue or of a noble Night Elf, both of whom are accustomed to killing gods. Blizzard must create antagonists that are worth fighting and spin dastardly plots with horrible consequences.

You can also find out more about the following: Dragonflight, players head to the Dragon Isles, a mysterious, long-lost continent that’s home to the noble dragons. Each of the five dragon flights is led by a different Aspect. Alexstrasza, who is also the Dragonqueen of the Red Dragonflight and the Aspect, is one of the most enduring characters of the franchise. She’s the poster girl of Dragonflight, a magnificent and powerful creature — and a rape survivor. Blizzard, over the course of decades, has had a hard time handling the weighty narrative that her story carries.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard launched a Public Test Realm (PTR) for the Fractures of Time update in May, and one quest in particular didn’t fit. Chromie, an Infinite Dragonflight-like Bronze dragon, joins forces with Chromie to help stop them from changing history and creating new realities. This is pretty common — we’ve gone back in time to aid the Bronze Dragonflight before, and aided tons of villains in the process.

This quest is different from previous time travel capers, though, because it deals with Alexstrasza’s backstory. The player needs to make sure the Dragonmaw Clan doesn’t misplace the Demon Soul, a powerful artifact later used to defeat big bad dragon Deathwing. Dragonmaw Clans used Demon Souls to control Alexstrasza and force her consorts into impregnating her. They also used her Dragonflights as war mounts. It is not necessary to mention that this is a very serious matter. You can find out more about it here.Darker than the majority of content within the Warcraft series. Blizzard’s touched this plot point ever since in novels and other media. Dragonflight quest, so it’s still canon, and a part of her character.

In the first iteration of this quest made available to players for testing, Alexstrasza learns about the player’s actions, and she grinds her teeth and comments that it had to be done, but she certainly doesn’t like it. Chromie is joking around and making jokes, treating it more as a story than anything serious.

A player with the handle Englavian posted an extremely thoughtful thread about the quest on the game’s official forums. They wrote, “Very little is shown to the player in-game about the weight of what you just did. […] She should speak in a way that conveys her love for mortals, her unending forgiveness, WITHOUT being apologetic or saying anything that can be interpreted as stating what happened to her was OK. She should give closure to the situation instead of storming off after gritting her teeth, and it should be written with all the merited emotional weight.”

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Other fans criticized BlizzardCalling the content tone-deafThe developer’s actions are vile and exploitative.

Blizzard replied to the thread, sharing that the content would be changed, although we’re not 100% sure what the final edits will entail. The thread was replied to by a Community Manager on the 16th of June.

The community has expressed concerns about some Chromie Quests on Fractures of Time PTR. We understand these concerns. We’ve been iterating and discussing all of these quests internally, and we’re in the process of adjusting and removing quests. The changes are available in a future PTR build. We appreciate your feedback.

This isn’t the first time Alexstrasza’s test realm content has been edited. This is all part of the game development process, after all. As the Dragonflight story plays out and Alexstrasza takes center stage as a main character, she hasn’t always come across as benevolent and brilliant as she should. Players have previously criticized the character’s response to Sarkareth’s Dracthyr rebellion, which had Alexstrasza come across as a distant neoliberal who is focused on an unjust peace over violent revolution.

It’s an interesting contrast to previous expansion Shadowlands, where one of the common player complaints was that the game’s cover character, Bolvar Fordragon, barely showed up. His scant number of lines and slim presence adds up to a fraction of the screen time given to Alexstrasza, who has been a much more prominent “main character” driving the plot forward in Dragonflight. While the extra screen time helps, mistakes like this one can erode a player’s investment in the story.

We’ll have to see what changes Blizzard has in store. Englavian’s original post concludes with the following: “My greatest fear from this situation will be that the feedback Blizzard receives, or interprets as what people want, is that they should not be touching on grim, dark, disgusting subjects ever again. They would do a terrible thing if they committed to this. What they should commit to is being able to treat each situation like this with the seriousness it deserves, giving closure to the player when they have to involve themselves in it, and remaining consistent to the values of the characters who have roles in it.”