Players will soon be able to swap the gender of their characters for free in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands.

The news comes from a Eurogamer interview with the game’s executive producer John Hight, who described the process by which the team decided that now was the time to eliminate the fee altogether.

Right now, players can visit the barber shop in several major cities and change several things about their characters appearance for free. Years ago, this type of service was gated behind a small fee of real money. However, it was eventually made free with the implementation of the barber shop in patch 3.0.2, during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Curiously, the cost of swapping gender remained intact until now, with High explaining that it no longer feels appropriate.

The move comes following a forum discussion regarding a Shadowlands NPC named Pelagos, who is being labelled as the first trans character in game. Pelagos was represented as a woman in life, but in Shadowlands, now no longer alive in the traditional sense, he is being represented as a man. From a lore perspective, Blizzard’s post stated that “aspirants are able to choose a physical form that represents their true self” and this is how Pelagos has chosen to represent himself.

Along with the move, certain previous dialogue need to be updated to reflect the proper pronouns for Pelagos following this change. From here, the discussion regarding charging a fee for swapping gender came about, and the decision was made to scrap it altogether once Shadowlands formally launches.

This is a great decision to see on Blizzard’s part, but time will tell if this is a permanent shift towards engaging positively with the LGTBQ+ community or a one-off event. In 2019, Blizzard was heavily criticized by members of the LGTBQ+ community online after the developer removed the name of in-game guild “Gay Boys” after it was reported by players for being inappropriate. After appealing the decision, Blizzard stated that the move was made following a “thorough investigation,” but quickly backtracked following an outcry of homophobia.

Several other guilds in the game across different servers have the word “Gay” in their names, but only this one was targeted. For this reason, it is difficult to know if Blizzard is truly making any changes for long-term improvement or if this is only a one-time occurrence. We can only hope that it’s the former.

Source: Eurogamer