World of Warcrafthas been under no small amount of scrutiny due to sexual assault and discrimination accusations levied against Blizzard last year. In a recent build of the Public Test Realm for Patch 9.2,World of Warcraftreleased the third iteration of the helmet for the Warlock tier set armor, now fully removing the pointed top from the hood and an unintentionally racist visual similarity with it.
World of Warcraftis gearing up for the launch ofEternity’s End, its second and final major content patch for theShadowlandsexpansion. The patch promises a new zone full of new challenges, story, and items, including the return of the much-loved class-specific tier sets from the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.
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However, whenWorld of Warcraftrevealed the appearances for the tier set armorsback in November, players noticed an unfortunate detail: the Warlock class’s white hood-like helmet had a pointed top which made it look dangerously close to the iconic headpieces worn by members of the American white supremacist hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Thankfully,World of Warcraftimmediately responded with its intention of changing the helmet. The first attempt fell short, as it only added a black and gold band to break up the solid white, But this most recent version replaces the old point with golden, ghostly horns that float above the now-flat cowl.
By and large, theWorld of Warcraftcommunity is relieved the art team bit the bullet and redesigned the hood entirely. With thedrama surroundingActivision Blizzardright now, the last thing it needed is to give the demon-summoning Warlock class Klan hoods, which would undoubtedly lead to further conflict and insinuation between players and developers, not to mention further bad press.
Some fans couldn’t help but notice the new hood’s horns looked like bunny ears, especially when viewed from the front. That said, looking like a rabbit is invariably better than a member of a hate group.
Fans ofWorld of Warcraftoutside of the United States, on the other hand, were initially confused as to what the controversy was about. The KKK is not well-known outside of the States, and pointed white hoods have had associations with pagan traditions and European and Russian folklore far longer than the hate group has existed, leading to annoyance at the appropriation of cultural symbolism. Nevertheless, with a large portion of players in the United States, it was unfortunately the safe option to make the change to avoid any association with the terrorist organization.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis available on PC.Eternity’s Endis currently in development.
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