[Lore] The Declining Populations of Azeroth

[Callace]

I made a similar post about this a long time ago, but things have changed since.

An overwhelming trend I've noticed about the new WoW races, is that each successive race added seems to have a much more diminutive population than the previous.

In the Burning Crusade, we get hit with a storm of Draenei and Blood Elves, each of which have had their populations decimated upon introduction as playable characters. Compared to say, Humans and Orcs, they're supposed to be relatively rare. But everyone starts playing them and it seems like their numbers are pretty limitless. Now, that in itself isn't a big deal, except it gets worse.

In Cataclysm, we get Goblins and Worgen that evacuate their homes via ship, and supposedly there are only hundreds of survivors between the racial factions. The result, people play Worgen and Goblins in huge droves. They are everywhere. The lack of continuity starts to become obnoxious at this point, but it gets worse.

In Mists of Pandaria, a few Pandaren escape a giant turtle in a hot air balloon. Suddenly, all of Azeroth is crowded with floods of Pandaren adventurers.

I know. I know. The game represents a scale, and it isn't supposed to be realistic whatsoever. But isn't it starting to get kind of ridiculous?

Will the next Race be composed of a sole survivor? I'm not discounting the possibility...

Disclaimer: To all the people mentioning population balance, I am not addressing that. This post is about the Lore.Why the racial stories might need tweaked in the future for continuity.

[checking facts]

goblins breed like rabbits and their cartel is just their employer. a steamwheedle goblin can quit his cartel and go work for the bilgewater cartel if he wants to. there will never be a goblin shortage lol

[Tierbook]

we found lots of draenie when we went to OL and then you have the belfs up north with thier civilazation

[checking facts]

anyway, blizzard adds new races with low populations because they don't want to have to keep them around in the future. they didn't want to fill northrend with draenei and they don't want to fill pandaria with worgen.

(Belves and goblins are exceptions because goblins make the horde weaponry so there will always be a few gob engineers around and Belves were around in wrath to give dalaran an excuse to accept the horde lol)

the intention is to drastically diminish those races' importance once their expansion is over since they already had their moment in the spotlight.

[Callace]

we found lots of draenie when we went to OL and then you have the belfs up north with thier civilazation

Right. I understand their origins. But relative to the other races, there are supposed to be a *lot* less of them.

[checking facts]

we found lots of draenie when we went to OL and then you have the belfs up north with thier civilazation

the draenei were decimated even there. 25000 years of being hunted by everything that moves does that to you lol

[Callace]

goblins breed like rabbits and their cartel is just their employer. a steamwheedle goblin can quit his cartel and go work for the bilgewater cartel if he wants to. there will never be a goblin shortage lol

That's really funny. I never considered their numbers to be swayed by economics. But, the Horde does have a penchant for hiring mercenaries.

---------- Post added 2012-04-12 at 10:03 PM ----------

anyway, blizzard adds new races with low populations because they don't want to have to keep them around in the future. they didn't want to fill northrend with draenei and they don't want to fill pandaria with worgen.

(Belves and goblins are exceptions because goblins make the horde weaponry so there will always be a few gob engineers around and Belves were around in wrath to give dalaran an excuse to accept the horde lol)

the intention is to drastically diminish those races' importance once their expansion is over since they already had their moment in the spotlight.

So you think it's an excuse for not adding settlements (or relevant questlines)? That's a great point. But I think even that is starting to wear thin.

[Nadev]

Well, if you consider that each server is its own independent World of Warcraft, then there are likely only a few hundred/thousand of the new races per realm.

[Callace]

Well, if you consider that each server is its own independent World of Warcraft, then there are likely only a few hundred/thousand of the new races per realm.

Nah, I'm just talking about the experience of the player versus the actual story in the game. Like, at what point does it become pointlessly unbelievable?

[checking facts]

So you think it's an excuse for not adding settlements (or relevant questlines)? That's a great point. But I think even that is starting to wear thin.

it's not about blizzard being lazy, but there the number of new plots they can make per expansion is finite. if they keep the new races on the spotlight there wouldn't be much room for the newer races.

if you think about BC, it was all about orcs trying to rediscover their home, humans trying to rescue the survivors from WC2 that were still stuck in outlands, blood elves seeking their promised land and the draenei trying to save their people. than everybody decided to pummel all demons and illidari lol. other races barely did anything at all.

now on wrath, you have the war against the scourge. orcs and humans retaliating because of the scourge attacks to stormwind and orgrimmar. the forsaken became more active to seek their vengeance and the dwarves wanted to discover about their origins. other races did little if anything. blood elves were there just to exchange mean looks with the high elves and get the horde accepted in dalaran. one tauren helped the horde to recruit the taunka. but it was essencially all about orcs, humans, forsaken and dwarves.

as you can see, orcs and humans are the only races that will never leave the spotlight. that's because those races are the core of warcraft. the first game only had orcs and humans lol

[Callace]

it's not about blizzard being lazy, but there the number of new plots they can make per expansion is finite. if they keep the new races on the spotlight there wouldn't be much room for the newer races.

if you think about BC, it was all about orcs trying to rediscover their home, humans trying to rescue the survivors from WC2 that were still stuck in outlands, blood elves seeking their promised land and the draenei trying to save their people. than everybody decided to pummel all demons and illidari lol. other races barely did anything at all.

now on wrath, you have the war against the scourge. orcs and humans retaliating because of the scourge attacks to stormwind and orgrimmar. the forsaken became more active to seek their vengeance and the dwarves wanted to discover about their origins. other races did little if anything. blood elves were there just to exchange mean looks with the high elves and get the horde accepted in dalaran. one tauren helped the horde to recruit the taunka. but it was essencially all about orcs, humans, forsaken and dwarves.

as you can see, orcs and humans are the only races that will never leave the spotlight. that's because those races are the core of warcraft. the first game only had orcs and humans lol

I realize the necessity for focusing on some races more than other during periods of the game, but I still think the population continuity is being thrown in the dumpster at this point.


*WC1 also had ogres and undead, but they were NPCs

[Combatbutler]

Each race in wow should be extinct by now due to the constant wars, except for maybe dwarves.

Darkspear trolls almost extinct as the horde stumbles across them
10 years ago almost the entire Orc species was able to set sail on a few ships
90% of the blood elves have been wiped out
Humanity shouldn't be too many left either after the decimation of Lordaeron the war with the lich King etc
Gnomes killed themselves with a nuke
Kezzan blew up
Tauren were hunted by the centaurs to the brink of extinction
Night elves have been in major wars their population dwindling and they rarely have children
Worgen can't be a lot around, since most Gilneans died and if am not mistaken the survivors set sail in a few night elven ships and not all of them reached their destination.

[Callace]

Each race in wow should be extinct by now due to the constant wars, except for maybe dwarves.

I laughed so hard at this because it was true. Come rain, or snow, or Cataclysm, the Dwarves will be just fine in Ironforge.

[Combatbutler]

I laughed so hard at this because it was true. Come rain, or snow, or Cataclysm, the Dwarves will be just fine in Ironforge.

Even though if Magni had not sacrificed himself the whole city might have collapsed and the dwarves would be in the same situation like the other races. I wonder which race has to endure blizzards next genocide.

[Callace]

I wonder which race has to endure blizzards next genocide.

Well, after Pandaria becomes No Man's Land from the war, and the Pandaren are extinguished to a few balloonists, I'm guessing the only thing left will be a few Naga and Ogres here and there. They could always dump more aliens on us first though. I'm guessing their race will start out near-extinct as well though.

It's like the 'Mohican' said in that one Simpsons episode long ago, "Chicks really dig it when you're the last of something!"

[Tenebrion]

So Blizzard should tweak the storyline based off of the ebb and flow of the player base's obsession or flavor of the week? It's an mmo. People will roll what they want to roll. It's not Blizzard's job to bend their lore to mirror the trends of class/race/profession combos that are most prevalent amongst the player population. And where would it stop? Would suddenly we see story changes every patch when once again one class is considered overpowered compared to another? I can see it now.

"Today on 'As Azeroth Turns': As the battle to end the cataclysmic reign of the mad dragon aspect Deathwing comes to a close, a good chunk of the frost mage population has inexplicably vanished off the face of Azeroth. They were presumably murdered by the huge population of rogues that suddenly coalesced in order to claim their tasty, tasty legendaries!"

"Next week on 'As Azeroth Turns': Is our will not our own? It becomes revealed that free will truly doesn't exist on Azeroth as it finally becomes known that each and every denizen of this world is clandestinely controlled by some unseen otherworldly force for their own amusement. Does this explain why many citizens feel compelled to sit on the faces of their fallen enemies or to shout out 'Anal Pulverize!!!!' like some demonically possessed heathen? Tune in next week to find out!"

[Callace]

So Blizzard should tweak the storyline based off of the ebb and flow of the player base's obsession or flavor of the week? It's an mmo. People will roll what they want to roll. It's not Blizzard's job to bend their lore to mirror the trends of class/race/profession combos that are most prevalent amongst the player population. And where would it stop? Would suddenly we see story changes every patch when once again one class is considered overpowered compared to another? I can see it now.

"Today on 'As Azeroth Turns': As the battle to end the cataclysmic reign of the mad dragon aspect Deathwing comes to a close, a good chunk of the frost mage population has inexplicably vanished off the face of Azeroth. They were presumably murdered by the huge population of rogues that suddenly coalesced in order to claim their tasty, tasty legendaries!"

"Next week on 'As Azeroth Turns': Is our will not our own? It becomes revealed that free will truly doesn't exist on Azeroth as it finally becomes known that each and every denizen of this world is clandestinely controlled by some unseen otherworldly force for their own amusement. Does this explain why many citizens feel compelled to sit on the faces of their fallen enemies or to shout out 'Anal Pulverize!!!!' like some demonically possessed heathen? Tune in next week to find out!"

You didn't address anything I said. I said that there is zero continuity in creating a story for a race that only consists of a few survivors when many people will play them. Player choice has almost nothing to do with it.

[mvaliz]

In Mists of Pandaria, a few Pandaren escape a giant turtle in a hot air balloon. Suddenly, all of Azeroth is crowded with floods of Pandaren adventurers.

Ummm... no - they're not "escaping" anything. They're a small sect of wanderlust adventurers who broke of from normal Pandaren society. The Pandaren culture and race is fine and strong by the time we first enter Pandaria....

...not sure how well it will be after we leave it, mind you. :P

[Callace]

They're a small sect of wanderlust adventurers who broke off from normal Pandaren society.

es·cape/iˈskāp/
Verb:
Break free from confinement or control.
Noun:
An act of breaking free from confinement or control.

I think it qualifies as an escape.

[Lothaeryn]

Something tells me, if the next expansion involves going back to outland, the new races will be Arakkoa and Etherals, since we essentially saved both races from corruption and they have been idle for a few years in lore. Im sure Blizzard could whip up a story about what happened in the mean time.

Other than there, there are very little if none viable races that could be used for new races in WoW