These content changes will be included with the 9.1.5 update. It is scheduled to go live next week.
Yesterday, Blizzard’s Overwatch team announced that the character McCree, named after former developer Jesse McCree, will be renamed. The World of Warcraft team announced today that it will make changes to “better reflect our shared value,” but the announcement was much shorter than Overwatch.
It’s a refreshing contrast to Yesterday’s Overwatch message which was very focused on McCree’s name change and why developers felt it was necessary. On the other hand, the World of Warcraft announcement focuses primarily on gameplay updates in Shadowlands or WoW Classic.
“Shadowlands Update 9.1.5 is going on the PTR next Wednesday, and a lot it is the direct result your collective feedback,” Blizzard stated. It includes long-awaited changes to make it easier for you to swap conduits and covenants, updates that make it less necessary to repeat covenant campaigns on alts and new character customization options to some races that were missing, as well as many other changes to help you play how you want.
“It also contains updates to improve our game environment for our community. These include additional content to reflect our shared values and better visibility into the effect of your in-game harassment reports. There are also more severe penalties for those who engage in disruptive behavior.”
Those “changes to content” aren’t specified in the announcement or in a more detailed “content update preview” at worldofwarcraft.com, but in an email a Blizzard spokesperson confirmed with PC Gamer that “the in-game references to Jesse McCree, Luis Barriga, and Jon LeCraft will be removed from World of Warcraft.”
McCree, a former lead level designer on World of Warcraft, has no fewer than five World of Warcraft NPCs and a city named after him, while Barriga, formerly a lead game designer, is the developer behind the Senior Scrivener Barriga NPC. The Crafticus Mindbender and Torturer LeCraft are presumed to be named after LeCraft.
These changes are distinct from those Blizzard promised to make in July following player demands that NPCs and items that reference Alex Afrasiabi, former creative director, be removed. These changes have been made.
California’s DFEH lawsuit against Activision Blizzard named Afrasiabi, which among other things revealed his “Cosby Suite”, at BlizzCon. In 2020, he was fired by Blizzard for his “misconduct with other employees”. McCree and Barriga, LeCraft and the former president J. were among several other high-ranking Blizzard employees. In the wake of the allegations, Allen Brack and others have also left the company.