World of Warcraft’sPublic Test Realm for its upcomingEternity’s Endpatch is under way, meaning dataminers are already trying to crack its coding to find all the goodies coming in the impending release. Simaia, one suchWorld of Warcraftfan, has discovered an interesting line of code within the game’s files that could hint at gender options being added to the game in the future.
Simaia discovered a file called “unitsexconstatntsdocumentation.lua,” which has four different gender options: male, female, both, and none. Historically, UnitSex indexes have only been used for armor set database binary files–a function that allows a single armor set to have a different design on male and female characters. However, this UnitSex index is on the documentation side, meaning it can be used byWoW’scharacter creation options, the barber shop, and quest text and dialogue.
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This meansWorld of Warcraftcould add customization optionsto choose a character’s pronouns independent of their outward character model’s sex and appearance in the future. If this file is indication of such a change, players could, for example, have a female-presenting character model and voice, but characters and quests in game would use he or they pronouns.
This discovery isnota confirmation of this option as of yet.World of Warcrafthas not hinted at such options, and is thus purely speculative. In addition, files found in the Public Test realm are subject to change, and neither final, nor promised in the upcoming patch. Something found within it could arrive in a future patch or expansion, if it arrives at all.
That said, pronoun and gender customization is something steadily coming to other games.Saints Row 4was one of the first, withPyrebeing another notable example. Amazon’s MMORPG,New World, is a more recent game, and one in direct competition withWorld of Warcraft, that also gives players this option.
In almost every instance, pronoun customization is received as a welcome addition to any game. As the modern understanding of gender politics expands, game studios giving their players additional options with which to express themselves in game can only be a good thing.Representation is important to groups like the LGBTQ+ community, who are often marginalized in gaming by the exclusion of options like gender expression.
There will always be groups of people who protest such options, saying it overcomplicates the game with unnecessary additions. Of course, such individuals are not the target audience of these customizations options, and they are free to ignore them where they appear. Given the controversies, lawsuits, andblundersWorld of Warcrafthas made involving representation and equality, adding gender and pronoun customization to its game in spite of the protest of the vocal minority could be one way to start earning earning back the good faith of its fans.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis available on PC.Eternity’s Endis currently in development.
