There are no "races" in WoW

[Dragore]

Its better to say new races the new species. Imagine someone reading on a box "NEW SPEICES!" rrriigghtt

[OzoAndIndi]

In WoW the orcs, humans, forsaken and elves are all different species - they ARE NOT races...so why do players and Blizzard continue to refer to them as "races"?

There may very well be races within the species of WoW - you could say that blood elves and night elves are both races of the elf species, but people and Blizzard need to correct themselves and stop using "race" to refer to what actually are different species.

Because. *shrug* Just how Blizz decided to do it, maybe "race" sounded better to them when dealing with a bunch of different beings that are all still considered people. While I agree that "species" would seem a bit more true in the real world, I fail to see why it's any kind of a big deal or even important if in Azeroth it's races.

[El_Diabl0]

Yes they are different species and that's a good reason to keep fighting indefinetely. There can never be peace in azeroth until it's dominated by a single species.

[deadman1]

Races are a subtype of the same species denoted by varying physical traits and characteristics.

In WoW the orcs, humans, forsaken and elves are all different species - they ARE NOT races...so why do players and Blizzard continue to refer to them as "races"?

There may very well be races within the species of WoW - you could say that blood elves and night elves are both races of the elf species, but people and Blizzard need to correct themselves and stop using "race" to refer to what actually are different species.

Next thing you are going to tell me is that dragons aren't real and that people can't manipulate time itself.

[Ealyssa]

Next thing you are going to tell me is that dragons aren't real and that people can't manipulate time itself.

Manipulating time is hard nowadays. You have to farm a bunch of timeless coins (cause you know, time is money).

[greeeed]

Races are a subtype of the same species denoted by varying physical traits and characteristics.

In WoW the orcs, humans, forsaken and elves are all different species - they ARE NOT races...so why do players and Blizzard continue to refer to them as "races"?

There may very well be races within the species of WoW - you could say that blood elves and night elves are both races of the elf species, but people and Blizzard need to correct themselves and stop using "race" to refer to what actually are different species.

forsaken = dead human = same race

anyway, think of it as blue sea
(water = colorless)

[King Shark]

Manipulating time is hard nowadays. You have to farm a bunch of timeless coins (cause you know, time is money).

Well done.

[Deleted]

The ability of two species to interbreed does not make the two species identical, it just makes them biologically compatible. It's also highly unlikely that, if any of these species were real, that they'd be able to breed with each other. As humans we're ~95% genetically identical to chimps, yet we cannot breed with them.

Well inter-species breeding is possible in the Warcraft universe, therefor there are different laws governing how stuff works biologically and presumably in other sciences.
I'm sure the idea of the shattered landmass's floating in the twisting nether (a bump in logic and physics in it's own right) while still allowing creatures to breathe and gravity to remain, especially considering how small Outland is.

By that same exceptions of science die to fantasy world, race and species do not mean the same thing in the Warcraft universe as they do in the real world. This is an even simpler exception since the language (Common) that Humans use in the universe could have evolved much differently from English; hell it may be a different language entirely. For instance names like Tirion, Bolvar, Varian, Anduin are not existent in English (though someone may have used them you get the point).
Due to the evolution of language and the flat out fantasy world exception there are indeed races in WoW.

[Grubjuice]

this is a linguistic issue
not a biological issue.

we are talking about how words are used and defined in context, not how organisms are systemized into clades.

[JNovster]

The taxonomy of horses and donkeys does not consider them to be of the same species and they would not naturally breed with each other even though they are biologically compatible.

Some species can produce offspring, however the offspring ends up with genes from one parent rather than both.

The capability to interbreed does not mean that the two creatures which breed together are the same species. It is likely that inter-species breeding, which is what we're talking about, is an evolutionary trait that further assists in diversifying life.

Someone else mentioned ligers (tiger and lion offspring) - but ligers are an animal which would likely not survive in the environment that lions and tigers typically inhabit. It's too big and too slow to hunt, so there's a reason we don't see many (if any) wild ligers even if by some occurrence a lion mated with a tiger in the wild without human intervention.

So the fixation on breeding needs to stop because it's proof of nothing. What WoW refers to as "races" are actually species. That's all.

I should have clarified, inter-species breeding can occur, but it is usually not natural, and almost always produces infertile offspring. Thus the concept stands.

[Every Pwny]

Except they can all interbreed, Orcs and Draenei, Orcs and Ogres, Humans and Elves, Half Orc/Half Draenei and Humans.

The orc and draenei thing was because of fel magic.