Patch 9.1.5 PTR - Build 40290

[Malcho]

This is starting to look like a doomsday patch. Can't wait for them to inadvertently anger the LGBT and finally sink.

[Traveler Voltin]

i have no words for how stupid blizzard continues to be.

[Darth Vowrawn]

I believe we are levels of magnitude more calm than the guy on the last page foaming at the mouth about the fat feminazis ruining his God given right to enjoy video games.

If by "calm" you mean you don't care about rampant censorship, sure. I see way too many people, likely from Reddit, defending this crap instead of being rightly angry at it. And, yes, it does ruin the game. By making it bland, inoffensive, and joyless.

[BossManRoth]

shes just a grifter,plenty of her stances are completly against a progressive narative,i put her in the same camp i put liberal christians,at some point once you reject 99% of whats in your holy book,you proly should stop calling yourself a christian

she is a grifter, but she has grifted her way into plenty of influential places. and the industry suffers for it.

[Nuggsy]

This level of censorship in a T rated game is just asinine. Stop removing fantasy elements from the game. Stop shaming female sexuality by changing paintings, subtilty suggesting women should cover up their bodies because it's their fault. Stop renaming bosses that have been out for 12 years. Stop taking out insults from old cutscenes. Sylvanas was/is a ***** and Kil'jaden had consorts. Neither of those are out of character. We get it, your employees couldn't control themselves and you allowed them to grope women like a disgusting company but don't overcorrect by then acting like everyone has these issues. You can tell they brought in new PR people that just went through things without context and just told them they needed to remove x, y, z from the game to be more "politically acceptable" and push various agendas.

This is beyond sad at this point. I'm sure they're going to be removing any transmog that shows skin next. Goodbye mageweave and any pants like it. Lets make the game a padded room for the vocal minority instead of telling them to consume other media if they're not comfortable. Because now a days you're not allowed to tell people to "just don't consume the thing you have an issue with" you have to make everything acceptable for everyone. The answer is clearly remove the fantasy elements for all because a few can't handle it. Sigh.

[deenman]

Can someone explain to blizzard what a consort is?

Starting to get too much cringe and weird, who are this changes made for???

blizzard gave force rename to a dude called ''peon'',when....they have npcs..named...peon...they are off their rockers

[Pokeylope]

Honestly changing it to Empyrean(effect they are obviously looking for was the word 'Empress') So fail there. But beyond that, They are neither "Heavenly" nor are they in power of any way to be considered "Empress" within Mogo culture. Literally in the lore it states, "The Twin Consorts are said to be greatest of the Thunder King's treasures. Rumored to be the only known female mogu in existence, Lei Shen keeps his trophies close and their combined arsenal against interlopers closer." Furthermore, paraphrase "...Players who look closely at the models of these celestial twins will note that they seem quite literally carved out of stone. Indeed, these were specifically created by Lei Shen and empowered to serve and guard him, and they are a direct reflection of his will rather than any broader sense of mogu culture as a whole." That all being said, I'm sure being created to look good and protect a Tyrannical King is nothing close to being as independent or empowered as an empress, nor, close to being anything remotely close to heavenly. This is dumb. They are technically artificial sentient beings created for the sole purpose of protecting Lei Shen. So maybe they mean heavenly to make the analogy to gods creating beings from the heavens, but come on, that's a stretch. This is Political Correctness culture bleeding into a video game, because said video game company had Real Life sexual assault issues within the company and did nothing to stop it. So now they are overcorrecting running around like the workers in Spongebob's Brain office. How about for skimpy outfit models, offer a toggle option to make it its originally skimpy model or the new "more modest" models. The only thing so far that has made sense, was removing Asfrai Sabi's name or however its spelled. from all acheives, bosses, npcs, etc. Empyrean, Paintings, Bi*ch cutscene dialog, Mushroom druid heal, /spit, I havent been playing much, but so far those 5 (6 including the skimpy armor ordeal) things are pointless and never needed to be changed. Second its obvious they have a sexual mindset, they see a mushroom and instantly relate to a penis, so they change it to a flower(which by the way is a symbol for the vagina/women in many cultures throughout history, and to this day is recognized as such.) So you you overcorrect to make it more of a vagina than a penis, well normal people are like, hey druids have always made mushrooms, why does it have to be a flower now? Its honestly really stupid.

[Trbn]

Some people never emotionally or mentally moved on from gamergate and think this is still some "feminist agenda" to ruin their video games. Every time anyone censors anything in a video game, with a little bit of digging you can probably find some out-of-touch dude who still thinks there's some huge culture war going on from 2016.

isn't it? if it's not why every aaa developer bother with inclusivity?

[JSoup]

Some people never emotionally or mentally moved on from gamergate and think this is still some "feminist agenda" to ruin their video games. Every time anyone censors anything in a video game, with a little bit of digging you can probably find some out-of-touch dude who still thinks there's some huge culture war going on from 2016.

It's funny cause both sides go on about gamergate every chance they get, but pretend only the other side does it.
Both sides need to move the fuck on.

[Irian]

Same could be said about the droves of people complaining about sexy looking female characters lol. Don't act like those people don't exist. Reddit and Twitter is full of them.

Of course they exist or this wouldn't be happening. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I'm saying that political lean has nothing to do with it, it's more just a handful of asshole busybodies on the internet with corporate censorship going on in the meantime.

No matter how hard you dig I can almost guarantee you will not find someone complaining about "Twin Consorts". These are coming from out-of-touch higher ups who think that these gestures are somehow going to win them PR points with a demographic that doesn't exist.

isn't it? if it's not why every aaa developer bother with inclusivity?

No. You can dig as deep as you want and you won't find a secret feminist cabal celebrating the changing of a few words in a game. This is what happens when middle aged men who don't play video games get to make the choices for video games, they have zero clue what the hell is going on in the context of the game and are just looking for their public opinion and stock values to rise again.

[Adamas102]

Fuck Blizzard, stop pushing your bullshit ideology in game.

What a ridiculous thing to say. The creator has every right to reflect the ideology they want in what they create. You don't like that ideology? Then play a different game.

[Chakah]

Some people never emotionally or mentally moved on from gamergate and think this is still some "feminist agenda" to ruin their video games. Every time anyone censors anything in a video game, with a little bit of digging you can probably find some out-of-touch dude who still thinks there's some huge culture war going on from 2016.

Some feminists certainly do have a feminist agenda that seeks the suppression of any masculine things. Nut-jobs on twitter call for mandatory castration or exiling all men to Australia or other nonsense. If you don't think this kind of misandry is a thing among some radical feminists, you aren't well informed. 'TERF's are a branch of this group. But they are far from a majority or 'normal' feminist opinion.

Removing 'consort' smacks of this. Blizzard seems to have been infected with at least some toxic feminism. And those ideas are clearly being given oxygen at Blizzard right now due to an overreaction to the PR/lawsuits. Note that the source of these ideas might not even be women, but men who have a poor viewpoint on what sexism actually is and an immature view of women in general.

Calling it now - all these are gone in 9.1.5 too:
https://www.wowhead.com/search?q=concubine

Both sides have extremists within their ranks - Extremism is generally a bad thing.
It's a sad time for gamers and Blizzard alike.

[Th3Scourge]

What a ridiculous thing to say. The creator has every right to reflect the ideology they want in what they create. You don't like that ideology? Then play a different game.

How is it ridiculous? The creators are long gone from this game. They've been replaced by corporate virtue signallers that are trying to sanitize everything to appease a hard-left ideology.

The HR managerial class now drives ideological decisions in-game.

And I do play a different game. FFXIV doesn't push any agenda, and lets players play the game as they see fit.

- - - Updated - - -

Calling it now - all these are gone in 9.1.5 too:
https://www.wowhead.com/search?q=concubine.

100% they will rename the entire harem in the next TBCC phase.

I'm surprised they haven't renamed "Black" Temple itself. Blizzard is truly gone now

[Danvash]

It's sexist for Lei Shen to create two hot wives to keep as his greatest treasures. Not to mention that it's implied that he finds women weak and didn't create any other female mogu for his army. The consorts are his sex objects and disposable bodyguards.

But he's not exactly an upstanding citizen of Pandaria. Hence why we went to his throne to kill him.

There are a lot of legitimate concerns with the treatment of female characters in the Warcraft universe, but depicting a sexist villain who is punished by death is not one of those concerns.

Whether you call those mogu women his consorts, wives, queens, empresses, or whatever else, it's obvious what purpose they serve to Lei Shen.

- - - Updated - - -

A consort is the technical term for a spouse of a monarch who gains no political power from the marriage. Queen Elizabeth II is the monarch of England, and her husband Prince Philip's title was royal consort. Being married to the queen did not make him king of England.

Consort is not a sexist or offensive word. Blizzard just misuses at times when they mean something like a concubine or prostitute. Most alarming to me is how Blizzard writers continually refer to different female dragons as Deathwing's consorts when it's heavily implied that there was no consent involved. Deathwing just raped them when he felt like it, and only Sinestra survived it with massive scars and mental trauma that drove her insane. Consort is a fancy word for a consensual spouse to a monarch, not a fancy word for any sexual partner like the writers seem to think.

[GUZ]

If they would increase the drop chance of the dildo mount this wouldn’t bother me as much.

[Adamas102]

How is it ridiculous? The creators are long gone from this game. They've been replaced by corporate virtue signallers that are trying to sanitize everything to appease a hard-left ideology.

The HR managerial class now drives ideological decisions in-game.

And I do play a different game. FFXIV doesn't push any agenda, and lets players play the game as they see fit.

Haha, “Pushing their agenda” is the go-to catchphrase of ignorant morons every time they see something that pisses them off. Every creative work (yes, including FFXIV) is going to reflect at least in part someone’s ideology and perspective.

The original creators aren’t the only people who have a hand in the direction of the game. As long as development continues, the people directing that work are the creators whether you like it or not. If they have different opinions about what should be reflected in their work then it’s their prerogative to change it. Removing or replacing things that they are no longer comfortable with doesn’t mean there’s some massive agenda.

It’s an almost 20 year old game with an ever dwindling audience and only a fraction of the popularity it used to enjoy. Seriously, get over yourself with this idea that a video game with no real social significance or impact that you could easily ignore if you so choose is trying to brainwash you with extreme political propaganda.

[Th3Scourge]

Haha, “Pushing their agenda” is the go-to catchphrase of ignorant morons every time they see something that pisses them off. Every creative work (yes, including FFXIV) is going to reflect at least in part someone’s ideology and perspective.

The original creators aren’t the only people who have a hand in the direction of the game. As long as development continues, the people directing that work are the creators whether you like it or not. If they have different opinions about what should be reflected in their work then it’s their prerogative to change it. Removing or replacing things that they are no longer comfortable with doesn’t mean there’s some massive agenda.

It’s an almost 20 year old game with an ever dwindling audience and only a fraction of the popularity it used to enjoy. Seriously, get over yourself with this idea that a video game with no real social significance or impact that you could easily ignore if you so choose is trying to brainwash you with extreme political propaganda.

That's ok, you can have your piece of shit game that would rather remove the word 'consort' and replace women with fruit than actually fix their game.

You don't need to remove a word from the game or replace women with fruit to show the world that you don't harass women. Just don't harass women.

And yes, the HR department that is driving these changes are in control of the content we see now. They are absolutely pushing their own agenda. You'd have to fucking blind not to see that

[Azerate]

It's a penis. Love rocket is slang for penis. Pink missile is slang for penis. The icon was a dildo. It's a penis.

I honestly dont get the big deal, teenagers have had sex and made penis jokes since the beginning of time.

I'm really weirded out by the mount name change. Maybe it's cause I'm not a native English speaker, but I've never in my life heard anyone use the name "big love rocket" or "love rocket" to refer to a penis.

Imo, heartbreaker has much more of a trigger potential due to people who experienced heartbreak in their lives.

Then again, it's not a big deal, it's just renaming stuff in the game. People who get overly upset about it are the ones with the problem.

That's ok, you can have your piece of shit game that would rather remove the word 'consort' and replace women with fruit than actually fix their game.

You don't need to remove a word from the game or replace women with fruit to show the world that you don't harass women. Just don't harass women.

And yes, the HR department that is driving these changes are in control of the content we see now. They are absolutely pushing their own agenda. You'd have to fucking blind not to see that

Changing pixelated paintings of women in some decrepit hut in a low level zone that I literally never seen before this whole drama does nothing to make my gaming experience worse. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but claiming it's a big deal and affects you in any way is just disingenuous.

[ercarp]

Some of these new changes completely miss the mark. Getting rid of sexual innuendo and cleavage in paintings does not eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace, this is a change that should come from within. Women have a right to dress up sexy and feel good about it. When you censor things like this, you're not only removing that right, but it's also shockingly similar to blaming victims of sexual assault for the clothes they were wearing.

[Trbn]

No. You can dig as deep as you want and you won't find a secret feminist cabal celebrating the changing of a few words in a game. This is what happens when middle aged men who don't play video games get to make the choices for video games, they have zero clue what the hell is going on in the context of the game and are just looking for their public opinion and stock values to rise again.

I will not dig. I'm just sure that suits clearly understand that changing this stuff won't affect anything. Suits generally don't bother with ingame stuff. Usually it's random workers on places who are trying to make their own justice.