For as much as World of Warcraft Forever has been making an effort to preserve the vanilla WoW experience, there are just some things in the game’s history that must be added, and the quest ‘Kyle’s Gone Missing!’ is one of them. And Blizzard just added it to Forever.
‘Kyle’s Gone Missing!’ was added during the Burning Crusade expansion through a Make-a-Wish campaign in 2007 for Ezra Chatterton, who was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier that year. Chatterton, who went by the in-game name of Ephoenix, voiced the quest-giver, Ahab Wheathoof, and had his dog Kyle added to the game, which players were then tasked with finding. The quest went live in patch 2.1.2 on June 19, 2007, and has been in the game ever since.
Sadly, a little over a year later, in October 2008, Chatterton passed away at the age of 12. The quest has remained a beloved part of the game ever since, and Chatterton has also been referenced multiple times, with Blizzard re-naming the Elder of Thunderbluff (who shows up during the annual Lunar Festival) after him in Wrath of the Lich King.
But because the quest was added during The Burning Crusade, it’s not part of the original game, which meant it wouldn’t be in World of Warcraft Forever – even if the zone where the quest takes place is the Tauren starting zone. But, after players asked Blizzard to bring the quest to Forever, it’s officially been added.
Blizzard added the patch after players asked for it in the forums, when user Nyaria posted saying, “My Husband was very sad that the Make a Wish Quest involving Kyle wasn’t in Mulgore.” They even acknowledged that it doesn’t fit the ‘Vanilla-only’ ethos, but stood by it, saying, “Yes it wasn’t added until TBC, but this is WoW: Forever, we already have new quests added in, and it was a cute little quest, and a Make a Wish addition for a poor kid.”
Luckily, shortly after that thread was posted Blizzard community manager Kaivax simply posted: “We’re working on it. Stay tuned.” The entire rest of the thread is full of players thanking Kaivax and the rest of the Forever team for adding the quest. One player, Ikory, claimed to have been a Make-a-Wish kid who survived and thanked Blizzard in a long post, which they signed off with: “I spent 30 years in crippling pain, with a failing heart, that had to be repaired every few years. I am a survivor. I was that kid who was supposed to die. Now I have a freaken PhD. I lived. Make-A-Wish helped me have hope as a kid. I got my wish. I’m glad Ezra got his wish. Thank you Blizzard for still caring about us Make-A-Wish kids after all these years.”
Now, just four days later, the quest is officially live in the World of Warcraft beta, as a part of the October 1 patch.
Johnny Cash, the Blizzard Principal Designer who added the quest, posted on X/Twitter, saying “I had the honor and privilege of bringing “Kyle’s Gone Missing!” into WoW: Forever. Ezra Chatterton was an enormous WoW fan, the creator and voice actor behind Ahab Wheathoof, and the creator of Kyle. A tear was shed during this one, my friends. Rest in peace, Ezra.”
The quest isn’t hard to get to, especially if you start off as a Tauren. Ezra’s NPC is in Bloodhoof Village, which is the first town you get to while questing in Mulgore. You can pick up the quest as soon as you hit level 5, and you’ll need to hunt down plainstriders (giant ostrich-looking things) until you get Tender Strider Meat, which you will then feed Kyle to get him to return home.
It’s nice to see that while Blizzard has been pretty adamant about keeping the spirit of Classic World of Warcraft alive in Forever, it’s willing to add a little wiggle room to add beloved pieces of WoW history like this quest. For as much as World of Warcraft has a reputation for gold selling and general toxicity, it’s moments like this that remind me just how magical this game is, and how much it means to so many people.