Blizzard has finally addressed the numerous changes in World of Warcraft. They are also promising something for Warlocks: the Incubus.

Since the huge sexism scandal at Blizzard has come into the spotlight, a lot is changing – especially in World of Warcraft. The developers have broadly begun to tidy up the old content and remove inappropriate references and double entendres. Some depictions of women have also been altered or completely replaced. Now Blizzard has explained why they are doing this.

The main points at a glance:

• World of Warcraft is meant to be inclusive and welcoming to all players
• Minor updates may seem insignificant, but they are important to the team
• Goofy jokes and double entendres will still be part of WoW
• The character customization (Transmog, etc.) will not change
• Warlocks will get a male succubus – the Incubus

What has happened? In the official WoW forum, Blizzard has now addressed the many changes that have already been made on the PTR of Patch 9.1.5 after weeks of silence. Although they do not go into individual changes, they explain what the overall purpose is. Despite the changes seeming minimal and being a small part of the game, they are important for the team – because WoW should also represent what the developers stand for. They state:

In the course of the past few weeks, our artists and writers across the WoW team have adjusted a small amount of old quests, assets, names, and dialogues that we considered outdated and inconsistent with our values as a team. These updates are a relatively small part of a comprehensive, company-wide effort to improve the WoW team and Blizzard as a whole, but they are important to us as developers. […]

In a game that has thousands of artistic elements and a word count in the millions, we realize that these updates only comprise a very small part. Nevertheless, we believe these changes are worthwhile. World of Warcraft evolves over time, and every day new players from all walks of life and from every corner of the world come to our in-game content and experience it for the first time. As a team, we want them to experience the world as a reflection of our talent and principles.

Goofy jokes and occasional adult references are part of WoW and likely always will be. Still, we want to consider whether certain elements in this world are welcoming for all players. In summary, we want our jokes to be inclusive and not disparaging.

What happens to revealing clothing? Some players have feared that Blizzard would remove many of the old, revealing armor pieces (often referred to as “Slutmog”) during a “wave of censorship”. However, that is not the case, as the developers do not want to restrict players’ freedom of self-expression. They state:

We also want players to be able to express themselves through their characters; therefore, we plan to change nothing regarding the existing appearances of players [Transmog]. Instead, we want to offer a wide variety of options for players to represent themselves. This work is happening in parallel with our development of new content and features. You will see more of this soon in Patch 9.1.5 and future updates – and where applicable, also in WoW Classic.

New demon coming for Warlocks: A particularly nice announcement for Warlocks, as they can look forward to a new demon. The Succubus can be retired in the future and swapped for a handsome Incubus. At least that’s the plan of the developers:

An example of the improvements after Patch 9.1.5 is the creation of an Incubus demon, which we can introduce as an addition and place anywhere there are currently Succubus models. We also plan to bring the Incubus as a glyph option for Warlocks when they summon that kind of demon.

What is an Incubus? Simplified, it is the male counterpart to the Warlock’s Succubus, thus a male demon who is distinctly easy on the eyes. For many years, players have wished for these demons as an alternative to the female Succubus. During Cataclysm, it was stated in an interview that a male variant was being considered – but it never came to fruition. Now Blizzard is obviously serious after many years and is introducing this demon in the future.

However, there is no exact date for this yet, only that the Incubus is supposed to come “sometime after Patch 9.1.5”.

Are you excited about a new demon for your Warlocks? What do you think about Blizzard’s reasoning for all the adjustments?

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The “Den of Mortal Delights” is experiencing what many places in World of Warcraft are going through after Blizzard was involved in a sexism scandal. Women are being removed, but a lot of men are being added.

Update: In the meantime, Blizzard has commented on all the changes and explained why this is happening.

Original report: For several weeks now, World of Warcraft has been implementing numerous changes in Azeroth. Most notably, the representation of women is being changed. An image was replaced with fruit, and recently, women have been added alongside men in Karazhan, so there are now prostitutes of both genders there.

Now the Black Temple has also been overhauled – the private harem of Illidan and his followers is now also filled with men.

What happened? In the latest version of Patch 9.1.5 on the PTR, further changes to old content were made. This time, it affected the Black Temple, a raid from the first expansion “The Burning Crusade”. In the Den of Mortal Delights, there are now not only exclusively female blood elves and humans but also a whole lot of men.

What kind of place is this? The Den of Mortal Delights is an area in the Black Temple. Here, previously, mostly semi-naked women and questionable demons like succubi and Shivarra lounged around. The place was basically a harem for Illidan and his Illidari, the trainee and trained demon hunters.

Apparently, after all the hard training, there had to be some relaxation.

This is how the community reacts: Unlike many other changes, the community’s feedback here isn’t overwhelmingly negative. There are many voices that find it more logical now. After all, Illidan and his Illidari, as we learned at least since Legion, also included numerous women. So why shouldn’t they be able to enjoy themselves there? As Rambo_One2 writes in the WoW subreddit:

I actually like this better. It doesn’t remove women, it adds men. Equality shouldn’t mean that genders shouldn’t matter anymore and nothing ambiguous should ever happen; it should mean that there is equal representation of men and women.

Flaming_Scotsman also has a rather mild view towards these changes:

While I don’t agree with all the changes they are making … I don’t see a problem here.

At least from a story perspective, the presence of men in the Den of Mortal Delights makes sense.

What do you think of these adjustments? Is it better if both genders are represented there? Or was the “all-female” section better?

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The concerns of WoW players are coming true. Blizzard is turning women into men – but maybe that’s actually better now?

Since the sexism and discrimination scandal at Blizzard has come to the forefront, several changes are in store for World of Warcraft. In the latest version of the PTR of Patch 9.1.5, the upcoming update, dataminers from wowhead have noticed new changes. Blizzard is simply turning some women into men.

What was found? In the original Karazhan raid, there is a somewhat special wing of Medivh’s home. In “The Guest Rooms”, where the boss “The Virtuous Maid” resides, players have always been able to find a number of rather unusual enemies. Lightly dressed ladies who were apparently there to entertain the other guests and earn a few coins.

Blizzard has now made changes here. Some of the women have been replaced by men and therefore now also have male names.

What kind of NPCs are they? They are mobs like the “Wanton Hostess”, “Night Mistress” and “Concubine”.

The NPCs in the corresponding wing of Karazhan are relatively obviously prostitutes – or at least they were during their lifetimes. Because now they are just the ghosts of the past. This is not only evident from their names, such as “Night Mistress” or “Wanton Hostess”, but also from the sentences they sometimes utter. They have clear double entendres that allude to sexual actions, such as:

• “Just five seconds! I’m serious!”
• “And then he asked if the gnome could join – can you imagine that? Honestly, it wasn’t that bad …”
• “So I said: ‘Yes, but that will cost you extra.'”
• “<sigh> It’s always over so quickly …”
• “They always fall asleep afterwards. I already during …”

So, these ladies were not exactly “normal undead”, as some of them transform into succubi in battle. The new male counterparts now take on the form of a satyr.

What are the mobs called now? In addition to the introduction of the male variants of these enemies, the names have also been slightly adjusted. Again, the term “Concubine” has been removed and replaced with something else.

• Concubines will now be “Zealous Paramour” in the female variant and “Zealous Consort” in the male version.
• The “Night Lady” remains unchanged, but some of them are now male and are called “Night Lord”.
• The “Wanton Hostess” will now become a “Wanton Host” and will no longer transform into a (clearly female) banshee upon death, but into a neutral wraith.

The exact English translations are still missing; so far, only the English variants have been changed – but this is quite common on the PTR, where the translation usually comes shortly before the patch release.

Is this good or bad? Basically, this change seems to be received a bit better by players than the others. When Blizzard replaced an image of a woman with fruit, there was a huge outcry. Many felt that instead of completely banning any form of sexuality and nudity, they should just add an image of a lightly dressed man.

In Karazhan, Blizzard seems to have exactly implemented this, turning some ladies of the night into a few gentlemen.

What do you think of this adjustment? A better solution for the images? Or is it still silly and should not be changed at all?

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