One of World of Warcraft: The War Within's beta's most-beloved features turns out to be a bug that Blizzard is fixing, and folks aren't happy

World of Warcraft: The War Within
(Image credit: Blizzard)

A World of Warcraft developer has confirmed that The War Within's beta rewarding players with appearance items linked to the race they're playing was actually a bug, and it'll be fixed.

Back when The War Within was in beta, players were somewhat pleasantly surprised with the fact that their characters were rewarded with cosmetic items that they couldn't equip. Elves were being granted items for quests that only dwarves could kit themselves out in, for example, but it turns out this was all a mistake on the part of World of Warcraft.

"I'm afraid that this is incorrect, and was most likely a bug during the beta. Sorry," a post from a Blizzard developer reads on the studio's forums, in response to a player writing that they were able to get items for a race unrelated to their character. The responses from Blizzard forum users to the revelation from the developer isn't positive.

"That is enormously disappointing. I was extremely excited to do a Loremaster and gain all the quest reward mogs this way. I feel very deflated now," reads one response. "Unfortunately we created a good thing that everyone liked. It is now been fixed and removed. Have a bad day," adds another forum user mimicking Blizzard's response.

Some users are confused, because they perceived comments made from associate game director Morgan Day back in May to point to quests rewarding players with all rewards. "Quest will continue to grant the transmog and should be retroactive," Morgan said when asked about cross-armor type rewards, but it now seems like developer was speaking more about general armor transmog instead.

World of Warcraft: The War Within finally launches later this month on August 26, and Blizzard already said it's making big changes to the Radiant Echoes event so that it spawns more regularly, and in multiple locations.

Months after Xbot shut down lean teams, Microsoft reportedly forms a "smaller" studio to create AA games based on Blizzard IP.

WoW Developer Interview with Morgan Day - The War Within - YouTube WoW Developer Interview with Morgan Day - The War Within - YouTube
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Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.