In The Division, an NPC was quietly removed. The reason: Agents found him annoying.
A few weeks ago, Update 1.4 was released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It brought a variety of fundamental changes, which you can read about in the patch notes. However, one change did not make it into the nearly 7000 words of the patch notes: a crying woman was removed. She was bothering the players.
This is at least how a Ubisoft spokesperson is quoted, who confirmed via email to Kotaku:
The community feedback indicated that players found the crying “annoying”, therefore she was removed.
The woman was therefore deliberately removed from the game by the developers. It is not a bug or a technical problem.
Does this count as “Quality of Life” improvements?
This crying woman was certainly not a top priority issue. She did not contribute to the lack of balance in the shared-world shooter, she was not responsible for cheating, and she was not the reason why players and even developers said before 1.4: “The game is not fun right now”.
This change can probably be categorized as a “Quality of Life” improvement. Massive emphasized multiple times that they want to make small changes that gradually make life in the post-apocalypse more pleasant. For example, the big hate object, “The Stairs”, has been revised to the great joy of the agents. Since the sobbing woman was apparently considered annoying, it is therefore consistent that Massive removed her from the game.
This mourning NPC was located in a safe house east of the Dark Zone, in “The Grindhouse”. She was supposed to constantly remind the agents that many people died in the post-apocalypse.
However, she was simply annoying to many players since launch. Months ago, a GameFAQs survey on the most important things to be patched showed that “the damn woman” should finally be quiet:
That damn woman crying continuously in The Grindhouse safe house. Shut up!!
What do you think? Was she rightfully removed?
To find out what is going on with the stairs, the great hate object since 1.3, read here.
