Well, I think that one of the one of the things that we’ve done in Shadowlands in a lot of different ways is try to really show that Azeroth as a whole represents the inclusiveness of the real world - the diversity of the real world. We’ve spent a lot of time creating the character customization options that you’ve seen go into the game and, you know, humans in particular.
It’s really awesome now that players will be able to create characters that more represent themselves, or the diversity of the world, and we’ll see that woven into the populations of places. And part of that also includes the representation for other perspectives on gender or sexuality. And while Warcraft is not a game that’s about those things - it’s a heroic adventure - we want players to be able to see themselves reflected in these characters, and a lot of different perspectives, and maybe it’s an opportunity to see the world through someone else’s eyes, rather than just your own.
I think it’s a valuable thing that we show these different perspectives on Azeroth and want to really make clear that, you know, there’s people who sometimes say, “Well, Warcraft is this medieval fantasy game and those kinds of things weren’t talked about in medieval times, so they shouldn’t be in Azeroth,” but I disagree with that.
I think that Azeroth is a world of magic and a world of possibilities, and one of the things that’s really important to know is that, in Azeroth, you can love who you want, you can identify yourself the way that you want, and all of those things are possibilities. We just want the game to be able to reflect that through it storylines, and through its character customization options, and we’re really excited about that.
Homophobia is non-canon in the Warcraft universe, as now confirmed by Lead Narrative Designer Steve Danuser. We all already knew, but it’s great to see it in writing.