World of Warcraft: Dragonflight removes gender from character creator

The Alpha for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight — WoW’s ninth expansion — is here, and players are already testing out the new content. While not all of the expansion’s new content is available for testing, Blizzard has included an important update to its character creation menus in this first build: non-gendered language. World of Warcraft Wowhead, a news site and data mining website reported that pronoun and voice options might be available in later builds.

Current changes in Alpha change the names of the male and female options for body types in character creator to Body 1 or Body 2. Characters created using the Body 1 option will use what used to be the male character customizations — notably, this is where facial hair options live. Body 2 uses the existing female customization options — these characters have breasts, changing the shape of most outfits. You can alter your body type by creating your character, or visiting an in-game barbershop in the town.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Wowhead also discovered that the game may include pronoun selection in future builds. Wowhead, however, points out that pronoun selection is rarely used in the game. Perhaps this pronoun selection will be for the benefit of other players, and will appear around characters when signing up for groups — like someone adding he/him, she/her, or they/them after their name on social media.

Wowhead also cited an interview with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas, who mentioned a desire to allow players to choose their character’s voices, saying it will likely come to World of Warcraft at some point — although it’s unclear if that will happen during Dragonflight’s lifetime.

This is how you can create a more inclusive society. World of WarcraftIt allows players to make avatars which better reflect themselves and their loved ones.