The promising sound of a stealthy character in WoW is actually a bug. The reason it still exists today is quite old.
World of Warcraft is arguably one of the longest-lasting and largest MMORPGs on the market with its 12 years. Given such a vast amount of data and a large game world, it’s hardly surprising that some bugs existed in the game and still persist today. But did you also know that some bugs were retroactively explained as mechanics because they turned out to be fitting?
One of these bugs is the sound effect you hear when a character in Stealth passes close to your own character. It is the same sound that is used when the corresponding player (Rogue or Druid) activates their Stealth.
Chris Bratt from Eurogamer explains in his video why the Stealth sound that we still hear today was originally a bug. The client on the player’s PC only learns at the last moment from the WoW server that a stealthy character is nearby – exactly at the moment when the player can see the sneaky character, for example, because they are dropping Stealth or coming into line of sight.
This led to an annoying effect during the Alpha of World of Warcraft: Since the character was “loaded for the first time” on the player’s PC, their equipment, appearance, and current buffs had to be loaded as well. This meant that all current buffs played their sound effect again and the “going into Stealth” sound effect was also heard: This is the “Woosh” sound.
It should actually only appear when transitioning into Stealth, but due to the bug, it is also heard when a stealthy player “comes near.”
However, when this bug was fixed, they decided to continue playing the sneaking sound to give players an audio signal of the proximity of a Rogue or Druid. And this “bug,” which quickly became a feature, still exists today.
By the way, the Nightwell – the new big raid of Legion – is opening soon in WoW.
