A player inWorld of Warcraft: Dragonflighthas highlighted some bizarre priorities within the game’s profanity filter. With a strong launch and positive reviews, the newest expansion forWorld of Warcraftisn’t totally free from criticism.
Launched on November 28,World of Warcraft: Dragonflighthas enjoyed a solid critical reception as well as the typical post-launchresurgence in theWorld of Warcraftplayer base. Boasting smaller stakes and scale than the mired previous expansion, Shadowlands, players are taking to the skies as they uncover the mysteries of the Dragon Isles, reach an increased level cap, and master a completely revamped profession system. As is fairly standard with MMOs and other games as a service, as players delve into the endgame, sorting through the nuanced complexity of new gameplay mechanics, some cracks are bound to show up under the microscope - especially as the expansion’s honeymoon phase wears off.
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Reddit user mifan has posted their experience with an over-ardent profanity filter inWorld of Warcraft, whichseems to have gotten an ill-conceived tuneup with Dragonflight. It would appear the word ‘king’ meets the criteria for mature language and is subject to censorship within the game world.Over-enforcement of profanity inWorld of Warcraftis nothing new, but this most recent example takes the cake for absurdity, given the Alliance’s adherence to a monarchal style of governance and literal kings and queens littering the game’s cast of past and present characters.
Mifan’s post on Reddit shows their guild’s in-game bank, in which players can name specific tabs for the purpose of informed organization. The screenshot shows a tab labeled ‘cooking’ and the warning, ‘That name contains mature language. Enter a new name.’ While this appears to be a clearoversight inWorld of Warcraft, and most players' best guess is this will be corrected, it does bring to light a long-unsolved issue with Blizzard’s current profanity policy. The rest of the Reddit thread is rife with anecdotal examples of profane player names which have slipped through the cracks for years inWorld of Warcraft.User gneithamer1’s guild discord reportedly has an entire channel dedicated to screenshots of names that the profanity filter has missed.
While players are enamored with the majority ofWorld of Warcraft: Dragonflight,it remains clear that Blizzard still has its work cut out for it if it wants the current player reception to remain positive. With Dragonflight’s first raid tier set to release on December 12, and many content patches to come in 2023, it will be interesting to see how fast the company correctsWorld of Warcraftissueslike these when they arise.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflightis available now on PC.
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