The team behind World of Warcraft has released a statement in response to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing suing Activision Blizzard last week over alleged mistreatment of female employees.
In its statement, the WoW team said it’s gathered suggestions and feedback over the past couple of days from all team members to put forward a statement sharing their sentiments.
“The past days have been a time of reflection for the World of Warcraft team, spent in conversation and contemplation, full of sadness, pain, and anger, but also hope and resolve,” the statement reads. “As we heed the brave women who have come forward to share their experiences, we stand committed to taking the actions necessary to ensure we are providing an inclusive, welcoming, and safe environment both for our team and for our players in Azeroth. Those of us in leadership understand that it is not our place to judge when we have achieved our goals, but rather for our team and our community to let us know when we still have more to do.”
In the coming days, both WoW Classic and Shadowlands will be undergoing some changes to “remove references that are not appropriate to this world,” according to the statement. While it’s unclear which references will be removed, the community has speculated that at least two NPCs related to Alex Afrasiabi, the former senior creative director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard, could be removed by the team. Afrasiabi was specifically named in the lawsuit filed by the DFEH. Outside of the two NPCs related to Afrasiabi, he also has a couple of items that reference him in-game, according to Wowpedia.
“We know that in order to rebuild trust, we must earn it with our actions in the weeks and months to come,” the WoW team said. “But we go forward knowing that we share the same vision as our community about creating a place where people of all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and backgrounds can thrive and proudly call home.”
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