World of Warcraft To Introduce Transgender Character and Gay Pirate Couple In Upcoming Shadowlands Expansion
Jorge Arenas
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World of Warcraft recently announced they will be introducing a transgender character as well as a gay pirate couple in their upcoming Shadowlands expansion.
Earlier this month, community manager Kaivax posted to the Blizzard forums revealing that a key character in the upcoming Bastion storyline will be transgender.
Kaivax wrote, “In an upcoming build for the Shadowlands alpha, we are updating some dialog and quest text referring to a key character to the Bastion storyline: Pelagos.”
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He continued, ” While normally we wouldn’t share these changes in advance, we recognize there is a higher than usual possibility of this being misunderstood if (and when) it is discovered out of context through datamining, and wanted to make sure that our intentions are clear.”
Kaivax then revealed that Pelagos will be a transgender character, “A key part of the Bastion storyline is that Aspirants are able to choose a physical form that represents their true self. Pelagos, who presented as a woman in his mortal life, chose to be a man in the Shadowlands.”
Kaivax concluded, “The team had originally written him to use they/them pronouns, but received feedback that he/him would be more respectful of the character’s wishes to be identified as a man. This change is simply the result of us listening and responding to that feedback.”
Blizzard Watch notes that Pelagos will be the second transgender NPC character in the game. The first is a gnome named Terra that can be found in Dalaran.
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Blizzard Watch explains that Terra is a tribute NPC for a transgender Blizzard employee.
As reported by One Angry Gamer, this announcement comes soon after one of World of Warcraft’s most prominent guilds Method found itself embroiled in a #MeToo scandal with many members renouncing their ties to the organization.
In fact, the guild’s General Manager Shanna “Darrie” Roberts resigned.
The announcement of this new transgender character shortly after this major scandal had many in the World of Warcraft community speculating on whether this was a blatant PR move in order to sweep the #MeToo scandal under the rug.
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Twitter user KalebPrime wrote, “Manufacture a narrative involving a datamined NPC’s pronouns as a means to virtue signal some woke PR? Yes.
KalebPrime added, “It is really suspicious that they try to virtue signal the pronouns of a datamined NPC immediately after their pampered #1 guild fell apart last week after serious accusations of sexual harassment and grooming by two of its members. Very suspicious indeed.”
Twitter user HappyHanabi added, “that joke about blizzard pushing something progressive whenever they need to bury a story that makes them look like repugnant shitheels isn’t really much of a joke is it.”
Wolfman Jack responded, “No, it’s just an increasingly blatant PR strategy of theirs. It was a joke maybe back in 2017 when we all started to catch on, but now? Now, you could cook eggs by it.”
In response to Kaivax’s post, a thread (Archive link: https://archive.fo/NOn5P) was started on the official Blizzard forums for World of Warcraft discussing the changes with a number of people mocking the decision and questioning whether or not it would actually be implemented in China.
Blizzard has a spotty track record with China and it was recently revealed that the company cowtows to the communist government after they banned Hearthstone champion Blitzchung after he expressed support for Hong Kong protestors.
The thread mocking them would be nuked.
Not only will Blizzard be introducing a transgender character, but WoWHead revealed they will also be introducing a gay pirate couple into the game as part of the Night Fae campaign.
These new additions to the game come after the Soros Fund Management LLC disclosed this past February that they owned over 750,000 shares of Activision Blizzard, Inc with total holdings valued at $45,070,000 as of December 2019.
The company had previously owned 0 shares of Activision Blizzard, Inc in February 2019.
Related: World of Warcraft Vanilla Team Lead Mark Kern Explains Why He Joined #BoycottBlizzard
Soros Fund Management LLC is owned by billionaire and progressive activist George Soros. Members of the Soros Fund Management LLC actively engage in political donations.
Open Secrets reports just in 2020 that individuals donated over $5.4 million to Democracy PAC. Other donations include over $1 million to Justice & Public Safety as well as hefty sums to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
What do you make of these new additions for World of Warcraft’s upcoming Shadowlands expansion?
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