Blizzard is getting rid of juvenile sex jokes in ‘World of Warcraft’

Lines about "bros" have got to go

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment will be removing outdated and sexually tinged jokes from the game as part of an upcoming update.

At least two jokes will be removed, both being the names of achievements for completing actions in-game. One currently called “My Sack is Gigantique” will be renamed to “My Storage is Gigantique”, while another, “Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s” will change to “Holiday Bromance”.

The former achievement was earned by equipping a “gigantique” bag from a vendor parodying Paris Hilton, while the latter involved using mistletoe on eight NPCs with “brother” in their name.

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The changes (as spotted by PCGamer) will be pushed out as part of the game’s 9.1.5 update, which is expected to release in sometime this fall. The first build of the update is already live on the Public Test Realm, so further changes may be introduced before the update goes fully live.

The removals come as part of actions to address allegations of widespread sexual harassment at parent company Activision Blizzard. Other actions have included plans to remove references to real-world developers from the names of in-game characters.

Blizzard has also seen the departure of senior staff on Diablo IV and World of Warcraft, the studio’s head of HR, and Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.

While addressing the names of two puerile jokes may be comparatively smaller changes – and it could be questioned whether “Holiday Bromance” is any less problematic, as it is arguably homophobic – the changes do seem to indicate the developer is looking at even the smallest areas of its games to root out poor behaviour.

In other news, details for the first Call of Duty: Vanguard public beta have been announced, with the PlayStation-exclusive event running September 10-13.

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