20 years after launch, it appears that Blizzard is finally implementing an official LGBTQ+ holiday in MMORPG World of Warcraft and turning a community-created Pride celebration and digital charity run into an official in-game event.
As reported by WoWHead, dataminers recently found in-game references and assets connected to something identified as the “Darkspear Dash.” This newly discovered in-game holiday will reportedly arrive in patch 12.0.5 and is directly inspired by the “Running of the Trolls” community event. This fan-created LGBTQ+ event has been happening in the MMO for over a decade now on the Feathermoon-US server. It was created as a way to help raise awareness of LGBTQ+ WoW players while also raising funds for The Trevor Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to providing suicide prevention and crisis intervention for young LGBTQ+ people.
Kotaku has contacted Blizzard about the Darkspear Dash event.
What is Darkspear Dash and when is it happening?
Darkspear Dash will be available on the Feathermoon-US server from June 27 to June 29, right when Running of the Trolls is set to take place this year during Pride Month, and will be open to all players. According to dataminers, the event will start with a beach party within Echo Isles and will end in a large pool party at Silvermoon City’s fountain.
“Join the Darkspear trolls as they celebrate individuality and identity,” says a datamined description of the event. “Race up Kalimdor and across the Eastern Kingdoms, from Echo Isles to Silvermoon!”
The event will offer a new rainbow cosmetic item as well as some limited-time items that will give players the ability to leave behind a rainbow trail as they run.
Blizzard hasn’t officially confirmed the event’s details yet, but WoW datamines like this tend to pan out. If so, this will be the first Blizzard-created and managed Pride event in the MMORPG’s history.