A gag that was winking at feminism has now been removed from Hearthstone. It has been replaced with a more neutral joke.
The sexism issue somehow does not let Blizzard go.
Just a few weeks ago, they received fan criticism for not valuing prominent female characters enough and giving them too little to do in the storylines. Blizzard responded with an open letter, vowed to improve, and promised to pay more attention to these themes in the future.
Furthermore, the discussion around Hearthstone tournaments that exclude female players caused negative PR. Even though Blizzard immediately countered, they probably want to play it safe now. The creators of Hearthstone seem to have noticed that a small joke about the card “Baron Rivendare” could come across as unfortunate in light of recent events. Although the card is not yet in the game, it will be released next week. The card text has already been read by data miners and has now been changed.
Originally, the card description of the Baron was supposed to read: “Lady Blaumeux is a little hurt that they don’t call themselves The Four Horsepeople.” Translated roughly: Lady Blaumeux is a little upset that they do not call themselves the four riders.
The “Four Riders” in Naxxramas, which Baron Rivendare leads, are a reference to the four apocalyptic riders from the Bible. In English, they are called “Four Horsemen” – and the “men” is what upset Lady Blaumeux, as she does not see herself represented grammatically in that.
The new card text for Baron Rivendare removes any reference to this theme and replaces the jest with an internal World of Warcraft reference regarding the death mines, which are said to be a more interesting workplace for the riders because there are better perks.
Mein MMO says: A harmless jest against the “genderization” of the language, one might think. Whether anyone would really have gotten upset about it is anyone’s guess. The fans are discussing not the flavor text of the Baron Rivendare card but rather the effects of his special effect (double deathrattle of each of your minions) on the meta-game.
