World of Warcraft just fixed another old racist reference buried in a 10-year-old corner of the long-running MMORPG. This change came about after a group of World of Warcraft fans brought the racist connotations to the attention of the developers.
In World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion, former Darkspear chieftain and Horde Warchief Vol’jin surrounded himself with an elite group of Troll warriors called the Siame-Quashi. These NPCs were ostensibly Shadow Hunters like Vol’jin himself. They only briefly appeared alongside the chieftain in a couple of places, and have not been seen again in the 13 years since.
While musing on what a World of Warcraft Heritage quest for Trolls would look like, a group of player mused that the Siame-Quashi could make a triumphant return in the theoretical quest. However, WoW player and critic BaalTheWarlock brought an unfortunate detail to the attention of his fellow players: the word “Quashi” has a pejorative meaning in Jamaican Patois, and “Siame” means “foreigner” in the Zambian language of Namwanga. Given the Darkspear Trolls obvious Jamaican inspiration, the Siame-Quashi was a pretty offensive title.
Fellow World of Warcraft fan and Troll enthusiast ShdwHntrClub used his own platform and voice to amplify the offensive nature of this name. Through their combined voice, these fans were able to get the attention of a number of World of Warcraft developers on Twitter, including senior narrative designer and co-author of the World of Warcraft: Ultimate Visual Guide Anne Stickney, who assured they would pass it along to the relevant teams.
Less than a week later, the Siame-Quashi were renamed on the Public Test Realm for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s next major patch, Embers of Neltharion. The NPC group is now known as the Atal-Mhuto. With a rough in-universe translation of “devoted hunters or warriors,” and no real-life association with the title, Atal-Mhuto is a much safer and inoffensive name than Siame-Quashi. This change will go live when Embers of Neltharion drops on May 2.
Fans were happy to see how quickly World of Warcraft made this fix. Over the last few years, WoW has removed some of its problematic references and is trying to do better as a whole, so seeing it make this change – even to outdated content – is a good sign. While the game still has a long way to go before it completely purges itself of all of its inappropriate content, it is refreshing to see the World of Warcraft community and developers work together to make Azeroth a more inclusive place.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC.