World of Warcraft’s Black Characters Have Been Whitewashed

Blizzard has put out a new graphics update ahead of the release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion pack for World of Warcraft, which updates most (but not all) characters with all new high-resolution graphical models. 

While fine for the most part, one of the update’s biggest problems is that it gets rid of dark skin-toned humans, whitewashing all of them. The darkest skin tone available for humans is tanned brown. 

Examples of the new character skins can be seen above and below, in screenshots compiled by players on the official World of Warcraft forums, where many players have taken to complain about the issue.

“This bugs the CRAP out of me. This better not be intentional,” writes Alessia, a level 90 human monk. 

Another user, Zeryn, shared the screenshot below and wrote, “I guess we're not allowed to be black anymore. Good job, blizz. :-\”

Black characters aren’t the only ones to be whitewashed by the new update. One user remarks that the one Asian looking male character now resembles a caucasian.

Blizzard has yet to remark upon the (presumably unintentional) changes, but user outcry is bound to get some sound out of them.