Content changes will be included in update 9.1.5, which is headed to PTR next week.
Yesterday, Blizzard's Overwatch team announced that it will be renaming the character McCree, named after its former developer Jesse McCree. Today, the World of Warcraft team continued with the promise of changes that "better reflect our shared values," but unlike Overwatch, the announcement is very short on details.
Overall, it's an interesting contrast to yesterday's OverWatch message, which specifically focused on McCree's name change and the developers' bodies of thinking it was necessary.
The World of Warcraft announcement, on the other hand, primarily talks about game updates in Shadowlands and WoW Classic.
Blizzard said, “The Shadowlands 9.1.5 update will be out on the PTR next week, and most of what you'll find in it is the direct result of your aggregated feedback.” said. “It includes long-requested changes to make it easier to switch contracts and channels, updates so you don't have to repeat contract campaigns below, new character customization options for some of the missing races, and more.
Changes that will help you mirror the way you want.” he added.
“We also have updates to improve the gaming environment for our community, including additional changes to some content to better reflect our shared values, better visibility into the impact of your in-game harassment reports, and more severe penalties for people who engage in offensive behavior.”
This (changes to content) notice or on worldofwarcraft.com A more detailed "content update preview" was not specified, but a Blizzard spokesperson confirmed in an email with PC Gamer that "in-game references to Jesse McCree, Luis Barriga and Jon LeCraft will be removed from World of Warcraft." he wrote.
A former lead level designer in World of Warcraft, McCree has at least five World of Warcraft NPCs and a city named after him, while Barriga, formerly chief game designer, is the developer behind the Senior Scrivener Barigga NPC. Crafticus Mindbender and Torturer LeCraft are thought to be named after LeCraft.
These are separate from the changes Blizzard promised in July after the player requested removal of NPCs and items referring to former creative director Alex Afrasiabi. These changes have already been made.
Afrasiabi was selected in California's DFEH lawsuit against Activision Blizzard and brought to light the "Cosby Suite" at BlizzCon, among other things. He was fired from Blizzard in 2020 for "misconduct in his treatment of other employees." Many other senior Blizzard employees also left the company following the allegations, including McCree, Barriga, LeCraft, and former president J. Allen Brack.