An unsettling World of Warcraft quest where you ensure a character gets sexually assaulted may be removed from the MMORPG in a future patch.
Coming in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's 10.1.5 patch, the “A Missing Soul” quest has seen heavy criticism from fans who have tried the mission early in the game’s PTR server.
In the quest, you’re tasked with saving the timeline by ensuring a number of events take place as they’re intended. During the quest, you’re made to return the Dragonmaw Orcs’ mystical artifact that they use to sexually assault Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, one of the game’s five great dragons.
Blizzard has addressed the quest in a recent forum post, revealing that it is aware of the criticisms facing the bizarre mission. The developer revealed that some changes will take place before the new patch is released on normal servers.
“We’ve been iterating and discussing all of these quests internally, and we’re in the process of adjusting and removing quests,” the developer announced. “These changes will be available in an upcoming PTR build. Thank you for your feedback!”
Fans were not only perturbed by being complicit in the sexual assault of a woman, but also the fact that the World of Warcraft quest takes a comedic tone with the story’s events. For example, the questgiver — Chromie — tells you that protecting the timeline is more important than stopping Alexstrasza’s traumatising assault.
Players have also taken issue with the fact that Blizzard doesn’t have a great history with real-life issues of sexual assault and harassment. The World of Warcraft developer has been embroiled in a number of issues regarding its horrendous treatment of female employees with countless allegations thrown at the studio.
World of Warcraft should be able to discuss matters of sexual assault, but not in a way that makes fun of its victims. Furthermore, having the player actively engage in making sure a character gets horrendously attacked in such a way is just not on.