Eric Covington, a former writer for World of Warcraft claims they were fired for in-game joke lines they gave to a goblin NPC.

For those unfamiliar, goblins are portrayed as greedy little New Yorkers complete with a sleazeball accent in most cases. Even in “vanilla” WoW they’ve responded with cliche lines like “time is money friend” to any adventurer who interacts with them.

Heck, the starting questline for goblin players involves indentured servitude to a fat robber baron. Greed is baked into the very character identity of goblins in the Warcraft universe.

However according to Covington where most players would just see silly little goblins chasing silly little gold coins, Blizzard saw a mirror.

Lines like “looks like another yacht for me!” and “let’s call this a cost-of-living adjustment“ allegedly hit a little too close to home for Blizzard executives and Covington was reportedly let go in less than a month after the lines were added to the live game.

The NPC “Loot Specialist” is part of the Venture Company, a group of goblins that are even greedier than your usual ones. These guys have been deforesting Kalimdor, pumping oil out of Stranglethorn, and overall being a complete caricature of corporate greed since 2004.