World Of Warcraft Removes Controversial Quest After Fans Protest
A controversial new quest, which includes having the players enable the sexual assault of the NPC Alexstraza, has been removed from World of Warcraft's Public Test Realm.
A controversial new quest has been removed from the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm (PTR) following the fandom’s backlash. According to Kotaku, in an early version of the controversial quest, the players are tasked with ensuring that the opposing faction captures, tortures, and sexually exploits the Red Dragonflight Aspect Alexstraza.
PTR, by the way, is a way for active players to preview, test, and offer feedback on the upcoming content, and it would seem that some of it has caused an uproar amongst the game’s fandom.
The quest is from the upcoming Fractures of Time patch, which is planned to launch on July 11, and has the players working to maintain the World of Warcraft’s timeline. The disturbing events of the quest actually happened in the lore, and it’s one of the major events in World of Warcraft. Of course, the fandom isn’t happy about this.
Believe it or not, the quest itself isn’t what the fans are actually upset about. Sure, it deals with some pretty dark themes, and the players are tasked with ensuring that the actual rape survivor still endures the traumatic event because it was a moment in the original World of Warcraft timeline.
But what led to the escalation among the gaming community is poor writing. After the players’ closest ally, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder—the guardian of all life on Azeroth—learns of the players’ actions; she grits her teeth and comments that it had to be done.
However, this is just poor writing. Very little is actually shown to the player about the weight of their actions and what they just did by going back through time. Sure, the timeline is preserved, and the Dragonmaw Clan still uses Alexstrasza to bear them dragons as battle mounts, and preventing that from happening would significantly alter the course of events in Azeroth.
But the creatives at Blizzard could’ve done better when it comes to writing instead of having one of the most important characters in World of Warcraft grit her teeth while in her dragon form.
Alexstrasza is a guardian of life; the least the World of Warcraft creatives could’ve done was to give her and the players some form of closure over the traumatic event. It would be much better if Alexstrasza spoke in a way that conveyed her love for life and mortals, as well as her unending forgiveness, without acting or stating that what happened to her was OK, and it just “had to be done.” The writing should have a more emotional weight to it instead of simple teeth gritting.
The quest in question has been removed from the World of Warcraft PTR for the time being, with Blizzard stating that the content of the quest would be changed in the upcoming PTR build of the game.
