[Real Talk] Possible Future Playable Races.

[Aleax]

Good day.

As the title suggests, let's try to have a civil, real discussion as to which races could be realistically added to the game, and not races we want added.

I mean yeah we get it; you want to play as a high elf, or an arakkoa, or as a breed of both. Regrettably, fat chance. I would really, really love to have high elves, but the chances are slim at best. Arakkoa won't come out of their way to Azeroth just to help us. Same applies to Ethereals, though for example i would argue that the latter might be in it as a mercenary race for both factions, except that Blizzard stated time and again that they disliked the idea of neutral races, and I agree to be honest.

So, which races do you, LoreChamps, think are possible to be introduced as playable, and how do you propose that would (again, realistically) happen?

I would like to see in alliance a race smaller than humans. If you really look the thing, humans are one of the smallest races in wow, which is ridiculous per se. NE shouldn't even be taller than humans, when the elves were first introduced in RPGs, they were smaller (D&D). Or in our real world lore (Norse mythology, Tolkien took the elves from it), they have the size of a pixie.

So with that in mind, whichever race you want realistically to be introduced. I am not nitpicky!

[Kelthos]

I would like to see in alliance a race smaller than humans. If you really look the thing, humans are one of the smallest races in wow, which is ridiculous per se. NE shouldn't even be taller than humans, when the elves were first introduced in RPGs, they were smaller (D&D). Or in our real world lore (Norse mythology, Tolkien took the elves from it), they have the size of a pixie.

So with that in mind, whichever race you want realistically to be introduced. I am not nitpicky!

Well it's a good thing that Night Elves are not D&D, Tolkien, or Mythological elves, isn't it?

[Deleted]

Let us look at this from another angle; then.

I just caught up with the posts I haven't read yet, and I have noticed a very interested pattern that lead me to want to ask you folks the following question:

Q. LoreChamps, at this point in the game's life, do you prefer faction specific races, or neutral races, provided that they were done right, unlike pandaren?

[Garfurion]

Let us look at this from another angle; then.

I just caught up with the posts I haven't read yet, and I have noticed a very interested pattern that lead me to want to ask you folks the following question:

I prefer faction specific races, or if it's a single race then at least 2 clearly different silhouttes. So for rather Murlocs&Gorlocs than Red&Blue Murlocs.

[WolfRider]

How to implement Future playable races is a complicated question.
It has to fit to the whole story, the current expansion and the expansion where they appear.

Draeneis and Blood elves appeared in the Burning Crusade. It was a good context for Blood Elves, because they followed Illidan on Outland and in parallel some of them stayed on Azeroth trying to rebuild Silvermoon. Draeneis on the other hand where retconned from the Eredars' story, changing everything we knew about Kil'Jaeden, Archimonde and the Lost ones we could find on azeroth. Blizzard had to rewrite a little of these races stories and plugged it to the expansion's main story. Something happened on Outland, the Dark Portal has been re-opened, the Burning Legion was attacking and some Exiled people came to Azeroth in a spaceship crashed near Kalimdor. While Blood elves made their ways to Lordaeron and joined the forsaken to be included in the Hord.
Blood elves' design was new, so Male and Female models were added. Draeneis' design was new too, even if "Lost ones" were already existing there was no Female model, it didn't mean that their original race had 2 genders. Both of these races has a starting zone (lvl 1 to 10/15) and a reason to join their factions.

Worgen and Goblins appeared in Cataclysm, both races existed since WoW Vanilla. Cataclysm was the perfect context to introduce these races. Gilneans were living in a total independance but got touched by the Worgen's curse existing in the nothern region (because of Arugal) and when Garrosh ordered Sylvannas to attack Gilneas to build a Military Harbor there, the Gilnean Worgens had to flee with the help of Night Elves. Goblins were living independantly too on their island, until Deathwing caused their exile. They joined the Hord after they rescued Thrall.
Both of these races had a new design, freshier. Both of these races had no Female gender but Blizzard added the Female design.
Both of these races has a starting zone (lvl 1 to 10/15) and a reason to join their factions.

Pandaren appeared in Mist of Pandaria, that race existed since Warcraft 3. We just had to discover their homeland. Even if we only met one Pandaren male, Blizzard designed the Female model. Pandaren has their starting zone (lvl 1 to 10/15) and a reason to join one of the factions.

From a story and gameplay point of view, once you officially joined your faction you're acting/leveling in order to join the current expansion's story.
Draeneis wanted to find allies to help their people on Draenor/Outland to fight the Legion, Blood Elves were trying to find a new power source for their Sunwell.
Worgen were forced to leave their country and wanted to find allies to fight the Hord, Goblins were homeless and found profits to join the Hord.
Pandaren were recruited for the war between factions and they wanted to discover the world.
So naturally the next leveling quests fit to these races development.

If new races appear on the expansion following "Legion", it has to fit the expansion's story AND the 15/60 leveling on Azeroth.
That means the new races have to already live on Azeroth (on an undiscovered land) like Worgens/Blood Elves/Goblins/Pandaren or crash into the planet like Draeneis.

[Champagne Supernova]

I think Vrykul would be a cool neutral race, just like Pandarens. But on the wishlist is Centaurs, they should have the tech to make that happen by now. They just need to re-model some armour such as legs, boots, waist to appear like this:

Melee Example


Caster Example


Another option


Could be some nice racial's to go with it, such as increased combat movement speed, along with a Rear-up Stun with the front legs.

[McFuu]

I'd like to see Vrykul, Arrokoa, and whatever race the Consortium are.

Although I dislike neutral races, it's such a huge cop out. Lets not force people to pick a faction to play a race they want. Sorry but if you want to make your character a certain race, you have to run that races faction, tough cookies.

That being said, I could see the Consortium being a neutral race mainly because they are mercenaries. But I'd still like to see a side chosen and that's how they got engaged in the story enough to be a playable race.

[Tripzzz]

Would playable centaurs not be able to use mounts? Because getting them to fit on all the available mounts would be a nightmare.

[JohnnyRockets]

Nagas will always be a nice race to have. But it'll probably never happen considering how they don't have legs. They won't even be able to ride mounts.

[Champagne Supernova]

Would playable centaurs not be able to use mounts? Because getting them to fit on all the available mounts would be a nightmare.

That would be a problem, yes. Would've been fine if no flying mounts were introduced, just give them plains running like what was originally intended for Tauren.

[Tripzzz]

That would be a problem, yes. Would've been fine if no flying mounts were introduced, just give them plains running like what was originally intended for Tauren.

Yea, it would be cool to be your own ground mount. But you know how much people would cry if you were completely unable to fly.

[Al Gorefiend]

The longer Blizzard waits to add new races the harder to gets to add those races. Honestly sub-races where the biggest difference is skin and possibly stance is the best way to go from here.

If I had to add races, I'd do Arakkoa for the Alliance and Vrykul for the Horde.

[Syegfryed]

The longer Blizzard waits to add new races the harder to gets to add those races. Honestly sub-races where the biggest difference is skin and possibly stance is the best way to go from here.

If I had to add races, I'd do Arakkoa for the Alliance and Vrykul for the Horde.

rly? big humans and not ogres? like why

btw, after ogres, i cant see any race to go for horde like they, so i gladly want sub-races after the ogres and nagas/arakkoa

[Aleax]

Well it's a good thing that Night Elves are not D&D, Tolkien, or Mythological elves, isn't it?

They are Blizzard creation indeed. They are tall due to Tolkien influences though.^^

[Al Gorefiend]

rly? big humans and not ogres? like why

btw, after ogres, i cant see any race to go for horde like they, so i gladly want sub-races after the ogres and nagas/arakkoa

Because the nichè for "ugly, warmongering, burly doofus" is already being filled in the Horde by Orcs. Ugly races have the lowest playerbase in WoW, and there isn't anything fun Blizzard can do with Ogres that isn't already being done, or being done by the Horde as a collective since Ogres are already a part of it. Look at Goblins, fun as all hell with a ton of personality and less than 5% of people main one on the Horde. Like what chance does an Ogre possibly have at getting a solid amount of people who'd play one?

Vrykul for the Horde adds a new human-looking race to split apart the massive, massive amount of Blood elf players who select that race to look human. Their ideologies best mesh with the Horde, and Alliance already has 4 races that are just humans of different sizes or curses

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They are Blizzard creation indeed. They are tall due to Tolkien influences though.^^

Tolkien elves were not noticeably taller than his humans. Aragorn was taller than both Legolas and Arwen.

[Florena]

I would like to see in alliance a race smaller than humans. If you really look the thing, humans are one of the smallest races in wow, which is ridiculous per se. NE shouldn't even be taller than humans, when the elves were first introduced in RPGs, they were smaller (D&D). Or in our real world lore (Norse mythology, Tolkien took the elves from it), they have the size of a pixie.

So with that in mind, whichever race you want realistically to be introduced. I am not nitpicky!

We already have gnomes and dwarves as smaller than human. While I wouldn't mind a smaller than human race, it's not like we're lacking them.

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I'd like to see Vrykul, Arrokoa, and whatever race the Consortium are.

Although I dislike neutral races, it's such a huge cop out. Lets not force people to pick a faction to play a race they want. Sorry but if you want to make your character a certain race, you have to run that races faction, tough cookies.

That being said, I could see the Consortium being a neutral race mainly because they are mercenaries. But I'd still like to see a side chosen and that's how they got engaged in the story enough to be a playable race.

For me it depends on the race. Also the one neutral race we got, we also got a new class that expansion despite having gotten two new races in Cata too, so I can't complain. If the race makes sense in both factions I'm cool with it. For example Ethereals I could see as neutral. Ogres not so much.

[TheRagebear]

Because the nichè for "ugly, warmongering, burly doofus" is already being filled in the Horde by Orcs. Ugly races have the lowest playerbase in WoW, and there isn't anything fun Blizzard can do with Ogres that isn't already being done, or being done by the Horde as a collective since Ogres are already a part of it. Look at Goblins, fun as all hell with a ton of personality and less than 5% of people main one on the Horde. Like what chance does an Ogre possibly have at getting a solid amount of people who'd play one?

Vrykul for the Horde adds a new human-looking race to split apart the massive, massive amount of Blood elf players who select that race to look human. Their ideologies best mesh with the Horde, and Alliance already has 4 races that are just humans of different sizes or curses

I dunno, lots of fun stuff they could do with two-headed ogres in my opinion. That and y'know, vrykul being irrevocably evil at this point.

[Khaza-R]

Arrakoas and Ogres would have been a great choice for WoD. Making slightly less of a crap expansion, but that ship has sailed.

Likely we'll get neutral ethereals in the future.

I don't think WoW has the tech to pull Naga off, but its still possible.

Vyrkrul would be a great choice.

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Because the nichè for "ugly, warmongering, burly doofus" is already being filled in the Horde by Orcs. Ugly races have the lowest playerbase in WoW, and there isn't anything fun Blizzard can do with Ogres that isn't already being done, or being done by the Horde as a collective since Ogres are already a part of it. Look at Goblins, fun as all hell with a ton of personality and less than 5% of people main one on the Horde. Like what chance does an Ogre possibly have at getting a solid amount of people who'd play one?

Vrykul for the Horde adds a new human-looking race to split apart the massive, massive amount of Blood elf players who select that race to look human. Their ideologies best mesh with the Horde, and Alliance already has 4 races that are just humans of different sizes or curses.

Orcs aren't portrayed as being stupid though. That's like saying we shouldn't have Orcs and Trolls for overlap since they're both ugly, savage, primitive and have heavy elements of shamanism in their culture.

Ogres are more of a silly race. Their brutish stupidity is meant to be a comedic element, like Gnomes or Goblins. I would say they're very different from anything that's currently playable.

[Fyersing]

If I was heading up Creative Development at Blizzard right now, I expect I would've already implemented most/all of the races mentioned early on by @shoc. The faction spread would probably look something like this:

Alliance
High Elves*
Jalgar / Furbolg


Horde
Ogres
Vrykul

Neutral
Naga


There would, of course, be a couple contentious issues which need further exploration.

1) High Elves would need to have their physiology altered, removing the often-leveled criticism of them being "blue-eyed Blood Elves" from the playing field.
2) The Jalgar could fit, thematically, into either faction; however, the Furbolg are more thematically aligned with the Alliance at this point.
3) The Vrykul could fit, thematically, into either faction; however, if the Jalgar are admitted into the Alliance it all but assures the Vrykul join the Horde.
4) The Naga are an extremely prolific group, making it likely that both social and physical off-shoots exist somewhere in the world. It's also a race that, if added to any specific faction, would seem to overshadow anything added alongside it.

Vrykul for the Horde adds a new human-looking race to split apart the massive, massive amount of Blood elf players who select that race to look human. Their ideologies best mesh with the Horde, and Alliance already has 4 races that are just humans of different sizes or curses

I play Alliance, so I'm certainly biased here, but it seems pretty funny that the only way to keep the Horde relevant is to shoehorn previously Alliance races into their midst. Almost 45% of the Horde playerbase plays a race which is formerly Alliance, and who share almost nothing in common with the "Core Horde".

It seems to me that if the only reason someone has for playing Horde is either the Blood Elves or Forsaken, instead of taking more stuff from the Alliance to give to the Horde, they should actually make the Horde interesting. Which means, Chris Metzen, just literally kill off most of the Frostwolf Clan and especially Thrall. Prior to SoO, Garrosh was the best thing that ever happened to the Horde -- this from the perspective of someone who actually thinks of orcs as a bunch of uncouth savages.

[Friendlyimmolation]

High Elves would need to have their physiology altered, removing the often-leveled criticism of them being "blue-eyed Blood Elves" from the playing field.

The whole thing with them is that is all they literally are, Nothing makes them special, and nothing warrants them being seperatly playable from the overwhelming majority that now call themselves Blood elves.