With patch 10.1.5, World of Warcraft receives some time travel quests that are viewed quite controversially. In one quest, you must ensure the assassination of Amber Kearnen, who is one of the best characters in the game.
What kind of quest is it? The quest belongs to the patch Time Rifts
, which is supposed to be released this summer. This brings various daily tasks that we will complete with the bronze dragon Chromie, causing great discussions among players.
One quest originally revolved around torturing and imprisoning Alexstrasza, but that was removed even before the release. However, the quest about Amber Kearnen is also receiving criticism.
She was an agent of SI:7, the intelligence agency of Stormwind. Alongside her, Alliance players and especially rogues have experienced some adventures. She appeared in Classic, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, and Shadowlands and is considered by our editor Benedict Grothaus to be one of the most legendary women in WoW.
Now she is making a return, but in a mission that is rather sad for many.
Amber Kearnen must die and we are the murderer
What is the quest about exactly? In the expansion Legion, Amber Kearnen was found dead with a knife in her back. As part of the rogue quest, investigations need to be conducted into how the murder occurred. Players discovered that SI:7 had been infiltrated by the Nathrezim.
More about this here: An NPC in Shadowlands reminds me of my saddest moment in WoW.
Together with Chromie, we must ensure that the death of Amber Kearnen actually happens, as it is supposed to be crucial for the players to discover the false Mathias Shaw and for the story to take its course.
However, it is somewhat harsh that we, as players, must execute the assassination ourselves in the end. In the quest it says:
Amber: I have assassins hunting me, so I would be grateful for an escort.
<Amber gives you a small smile.>
<Stab Amber Kearnen.>
So we are the rogue who stabs Amber and whose knife is found in her back.
How are players reacting? Some users criticize the quest because you become a murderer instead of saving Amber. At WoWHead there is a whole article about what the actual problem with this task is.
There, the author explains that while players have helped in the past for horrible things to happen to maintain the correct timeline, in this case there might have been another solution.
The decisive event was not the murder, but the uncovering of the actions of the Nathrezim. Amber tells us in the quest that the message is intended for Lord Jorach Ravenholdt, the leader of the Uncrowned. If players help Amber deliver the message, the discovery that Matthias Shaw was replaced by a Dreadlord would still happen – it would even be uncovered by the same people and the same organization.
At the same time, an innocent soul could have been spared from death.
That events can remain somewhat flexible has already been shown by the books War of the Ancients and Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, the author believes. And he also criticizes the bronze swarm itself because Chromie is still trying to ensure that Nozdormu does not become Murozond, which is a necessary event in the overall story.
What do you think of the new time travel quests? Do you like the themes, or would you rather find more flexible solutions
instead of becoming a perpetrator yourself?
More about the upcoming patch and its contents can be found here: WoW: Patch 10.1.5 is huge, bringing mega-dungeon, new caller specialization, and mage rework.
