The latest patch of Hearthstone revealed some unpleasant changes. Blizzard has altered many cards or even completely renamed them.
When a major patch for Hearthstone was released last Monday (07/01/2019), there was great excitement. There were new cards for all players, and some annoying cards were banned. However, what was not mentioned in the patch notes was a massive change to some cards, especially their art. It seems Blizzard is slowly trying to banish naked skin, succubi, and blood from the game.
What happened? Blizzard changed the artworks and partially the names of a total of 8 cards.
There are hardly visible changes for “Disembowel” – here merely some blood splatters were removed.
However, the succubus was hit particularly hard – she was completely removed from the game. Instead, warlocks now have a demon lurker, which has the same stats and effect as the succubus. The iconic demon of the warlock has simply disappeared.
Even the Mistress of Pain was apparently too provocative. “Mistress” seems to be a bad word anyway because now she is the “Queen of Pain”. Her artwork has also been exchanged. It is no longer a succubus but… no idea. Probably some variant of Jaina’s “Nathrezim” skin from Heroes of the Storm. But definitely not a succubus and certainly no known demon from Warcraft.
The harpy was also affected. She now requires a more or less decent bra because the previous image was too terrible.
The Secret Keeper is another victim of the changes. One can only speculate what was not suitable there. Probably a bare back was too offensive.
When Blizzard made this change to Jaina and gave her a slightly more modest top, I still had some understanding for it. After all, Jaina is something like the “poster girl” of Hearthstone. That she is to be presented to as broad an audience as possible with the premise of “as little offensive as possible” is still understandable to me.
For the sake of completeness: Bite, Skullcrusher, and Deadly Shot were also changed. If a deadly shot visibly appears to be deadly, then that apparently goes too far.
Why is Blizzard doing this? Why Blizzard takes such drastic steps to even rename entire cards and use other artworks can only be speculated upon. However, it is suspected that new, even stricter regulations in China are responsible, which are particularly critical of “suggestive” depictions, nudity, or blood and bones. This would at least explain these adjustments.
Cortyn thinks: As can be seen in many parts of the article, I am personally very disappointed and downright angry. Succubi are an integral part of the Warcraft universe and have already appeared in Warcraft III. In World of Warcraft, they are strongly represented, both as enemies and as pets of warlocks or even quest givers. Removing them from Hearthstone is terrible in my opinion.
Then just bring out a Chinese version of Hearthstone instead of taking away from the rest of the world what they have become accustomed to over years and decades. I have no problem with succubi, blood, and skulls, especially in the depictions that have the typical WoW comic style. I find these “censorship” changes incomprehensible.
Actually, I usually remain quite calm and composed about such changes, but here it just infuriates me. It annoys me that there is no communication about it, and it annoys me that Blizzard is seemingly crafting everything towards – what appears to be – perfect correctness for China.
In this sense: Farewell, my succubus. I will post your artwork one last time.
But how do you see it all? Do you think it is good that Hearthstone is saying goodbye to blood and naked skin, thus becoming “more child-friendly” and less offensive? Or does someone have a loose screw?
