World of Warcraft tweaks another NPC name and more dialogue to reduce transphobia, racism, and sexism

    
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Not every movie or reference ages particularly well. Case in point: World of Warcraft had an NPC named Finkle Einhorn as a reference to the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a 1994 film with a central plot point that has aged about as well as milk left in the sun from a transphobic cow. The character is being renamed in patch 9.1.5 to Pip Quickwit, with a few other items changed as well due to the new character name.

Needless to say, this is part and parcel with other changes already being made to the game, with a number of other dialogue changes made to also ensure that names of changed locations and NPCs are being used correctly. There are also more dialogue changes made to reduce certain sexual references or some dialogue implying that a male character was female and some lines removing the racial epithets calling Orcs “greenskins.” It’s a fairly long list of changes, but it’s consistent with the other shifts being made to the game’s content within the context of the patch.

Source: Wowhead; thanks to Joey for the tip!
Activision-Blizzard is considered a controversial company in the MMO and gaming space owing to a long string of scandals over the last few years, including the Blitzchung boycott, mass layoffs, labor disputes, and executive pay fiasco. In the summer of 2021, the company was sued by the state of California for fostering a work environment riddled with sexual harassment and discrimination, the disastrous corporate response to which has further compounded Blizzard’s ongoing pipeline issues and the widespread perception that its online games are in decline. As of fall 2021, multiple state and federal agencies are currently investigating the company.
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