Why do people like elves?

[Graeham]

I like them because they often have some of the best lore in various settings where they're present. They're also aesthetically pleasing and I love some rugged and gritty elven men.

It's just a shame that they're usually forced to one side in favour of the predictable and mindless human fan-wank that drives the bulk of fantasy settings these days.

[xskarma]

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”


― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Terry


About Elves: I think it's mostly the fact they're the kind of idealized nature embracing people that we often wish we could be in our increasingly more urban and technological civilisation.

Belves are a twist on Elves I'm not really interested in myself. I've experienced addiction and corruption enough in real life that it's not really a fantasy I enjoy playing out in a game.

[NuLogic]

Woops wrong thread elves are pretty.

[FuxieDK]

Elves are UGLY... They are a horrible magic mutation of the beautiful Troll master race..

How can anyone stand looking at the hidious tuskless face of Elves???

[Gephyrophobia]

Same reason you like Orcs so much.

You enjoy hyper-muscled, slow-witted, ultra-aggressive, xenophobic uncivilized assholes the same way we like snotty, arrogant, beautiful jerks. Different strokes, different folks.

Both suck. Generic, overdone. Yawn.

[mammu2u]

Humans are Blizzard's favored child.

They don't have a huge statue of a Human out the front of their Building... Their favoured children are absolutely the Orcs. How anyone can even doubt that baffles me.

[Beardozer]

In general, I don't care for Elves or, rather, the stereotypical high elves. Uppity, flower-sniffing fairies! Wood Elves in Warhammer Fantasy, though? Those are some right solid folk...for Elgi. As you may have guessed by this point, as fantasy races go, I much prefer the Dwarfs. Yes, I'm biased, but at least I'm honest about it, eh?!

[FuxieDK]

They don't have a huge statue of a Human out the front of their Building... Their favoured children are absolutely the Orcs. How anyone can even doubt that baffles me.

If Orcs are Blizzard's favorite, why is the entire game a huge testament to alliance favorism?

[Graeham]

They don't have a huge statue of a Human out the front of their Building... Their favoured children are absolutely the Orcs. How anyone can even doubt that baffles me.

...and yet recent expansions have pretty much turned orcs into fodder to be killed in the thousands whilst humans generally get off with minimal losses. Add to that the likes of Anduin, Jaina and Varian taking center stage whenever the Alliance does something and it's hard to paint orcs as Blizzard's favourite race. The Horde - for all its own flaws - at least has more racial diversity and evenly distributed lore. The Alliance does not because of humans.

[Gandrake]

probably because they look more human than humans in fantasy tend to

[Deleted]

I only really like Blood Elves and Night Elves. Night Elves 'cause a matriarchal race of bad ass purple chicks is epic. They have fangs and stuff so that's pretty bad ass. They're also really old and stuff so they have a lot of time to train and become pro.

Blood Elves because they're arrogant and not without reason. Blood Knights are bad ass as they're not religious (or weren't, until Liadrin became meh) and enslaved a naaru just so they could use the light better. It's more of a tool to them to fight the undead than a faith like other races. Warlocks are accepted by belves too, and I play a lock so. They're also mana addicts, so they're not infallible, and dem green eyes. That's about it really.

[Graeham]

I do miss the original take on the blood elves. One of the many reasons I've turned my back on WoW - at least for the time being - is due to how poorly they've treated the playable races. It's as if they've deliberately watered down any unique traits in favour of having orcs and humans steal the spotlight at every turn.

[mammu2u]

If Orcs are Blizzard's favorite, why is the entire game a huge testament to alliance favorism?

BAHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Oh man... That's rich! You're a funny guy!

[Notshauna]

I do miss the original take on the blood elves. One of the many reasons I've turned my back on WoW - at least for the time being - is due to how poorly they've treated the playable races. It's as if they've deliberately watered down any unique traits in favour of having orcs and humans steal the spotlight at every turn.

I don't think that was deliberate they just don't value fleshing out their worlds. I mean in Warcraft the amount of history the world has is so... lacking, you don't really have space for anything other than the poster children.

On topic: As someone who plays exclusively female characters (where I have character creation) I like that Elves are lithe and athletic. Beauty is less of a concern because I see beauty in many non-Human/Elven races. In general Elves are long lived and wild, naturally gifted magic users and artists, embody the majesty of nature and when needed it's ferocity. In other cases their long life span is a huge factor in choosing an Elf, as they make for interesting characters to try and roleplay from the perspective of.

[Tojara]

I don't mind the elves how they are written in WoW.

They are an evolution of Trolls, and much prettier than Trolls. Night elves, at least how they are shown in WC3 are actually pretty savage compared to elves you normally see in a lot of fantasy. Unfortunately they don't show that much anymore and the joining the Alliance thing has probably reigned them in a little bit. I also like that female elves are generally front line soldiers and most of the males are casters, which is different than a lot of races in the game. Night elves anyway would probably be better as a stand alone faction honestly, aside from the Alliance generally being encompassing the 'pretty' races, the Night elves really don't have a lot in common with the the Alliance lol.

Blood elves are obviously similar, but also really different.

Not a huge elf fan, I prefer Orcs, but it's not hard to see why people like the. They are tall pretty people that encompass the entire spectrum of classes in the game and are some of the most potent magical users. IDK.

[Deleted]

Funny enough different people are different. Some people like to play a character they can relate or see themselves in. Some people like to play a character that speaks intelligence and wisdom others like to play something that speaks impulsiveness and anger.

[Viconia]

In other cases their long life span is a huge factor in choosing an Elf, as they make for interesting characters to try and roleplay from the perspective of.

Do you mean that as that the character is going to live a long time or that they have lived a long time? Because the latter is burdened by the fact every elf character, just like the rest of the races, start the game as scrubs. I lolled when this druid once RP'd a 5000-year-old. So, what, was he a noob for the first 4990 years of his life and for some reason could grow powerful only in the last 10ish years?

[Aeula]

I love blood elves because of the lore, same reason I love orcs (Albeit orcs need a break).
Plus blood elves are the best looking race in the game. As for night elves I'm not a fan, too much tree hugging, but they look nice and make great warriors so...

[Arpin]

You have some valid points here indeed. I was expecting to see more of those people who play elves because they are "pretty" and think every other race is ugly. Well, there is at least one in this thread, but still.

Personally I find night elves nice, but blood/high elves are just ugh. The thing that they are "magical race" doesn't make them better in my eyes. I'm not so much into magic. And before someone tries to kill me, this is just my opinion.

[Tech Priest Bojangles]

Night Elves are a lot different than your usual hyper feminine elf. They had a lot more in common with orcs than anyone else, they were brutal as shit. I can't stand the slender, graceful, beautiful normal fantasy elf. Warcraft 3 introduced nelves as some pretty capable badasses but WoW has done a piss-poor job of keeping up with that image. I've always been a huge fan of Orcs and Night Elves but there's so many orcs I was getting tired of them, so nelf was the way to go.