High Elves: Is it really what the player base wants?

[Jessicka]

I don't care if they look exactly like bloodelves I don't see how it would hurt the game.

I am all for the removal of racial ties within the game for several races but not all
Orc/Undead = horde only
Human/Worgen = alliance only
Everything else = you choose which side to fight for.

Then again if Blizzard ever decided to reboot the franchise I would hope that they would make paladins alliance only again but instead of making shaman horde only that they would instead make deathknights horde only as it makes much more sense.

I would support this, and with all the upheaval in this expansion within the Horde and the final raid being Orgrimmar I wouldn't be too surprised if, after the Pandaren experiment, the development team had an eye toward exactly this sort of loosening of racial/factional ties for the next expansion.

[RicardoZ]

They probably should have given high elves to the Alliance in BC and come up with some reason why the Blood Elves had a different color skin or something to set them apart. Would have been a lot easier than all the crap they had to do to get the Draenai in there.

[Fela]

It wouldn't fit with the lore at all, as they are an almost extinct race. Adding thousands of player characters would seem a bit counter intuitive.

[luccadeo]

I voted yes since I would love to see more races in game. They could easily tie them into the starting zones that already exists.

[Alwek]

I would love to play as an Alliance high elf in wow. But I'm not sure if they should be added as a whole new race with new racial mounts, city etc etc or as a subrace to Nightelf/Bloodelf

[Deleted]

Making Blood Elves into a neutral race with a Caverns of Time 2-5 experiance that ends with their decission on following kaekl'thas or going with the other high elves would be quite easy to implement, but of course a new Hode race would be needed to cover this. Yes, i'd quite like to see this.

[Deleted]

No more elves. That said though, Naga....

...are former elves..

C'mon, Ogres and Murlocs are next, if people want blue-eyed blood elves, let them roll a BE DK

[Zuben]

Nope. With the high elven population supposedly as low as 10% of current blood elven population, which is at an all-time low itself, makes any organized high elven movement kind of stupid. Considering how many high elves we see ingame, like Silver Covenant and Auric's forces, this threat of extinction doesn't really present itself well. I've only seen Lor'themar whine about how scarce the blood elves are nowadays...

[Cerebrate]

Alliance are just jealous of Belfs, but they can't have them.

[Deathgoose]

I'd race swap a handful of my characters to one, sure, but it's one of those things that I would honestly like to see, I'm not going to get worked up one way or another.

Happy if it did.
Meh if it didn't, because I don't expect it.

[fangless]

What's a high elf?

-_-;

[Roulette Kneebasha]

I think they should just add a bunch of different sub-race options when you make a character, but those sub-races have identical racial skills to their "original" race with different names and also different starting zones.

For example on Alliance side:
-Want to make an elf: Pick either a Night Elf or High Elf: Night Elf starts in same starting zone as always, High Elf starts in the human starting zone. Both races have the same racials, but the High Elf variant has different names for them in the same way that Blood lust has a name change on Alliance shaman classes. Seeing as we have pandas on both sides with no difference in appearance I highly doubt giving a Blood Elf like race to the Alliance side would cause much confusion in things like PvP.

For sub-races who would have a starting zone that may not make sense in the original context of whats in the game already, say like you could choose one of the still loyal Forest trolls as a sub-race for trolls, you would have a few quests where you start out in Revantusk village that would send you on a boat to join up with your Darkspear allies in Durotar and begin the rest of your starter quests there. Say you want to make a taunka sub-race for tauren: start out in Borean Tundra, have a quest that takes you to Warsong Hold and take the zeppelin to Durotar and do the starter quests with the orcs and trolls.

That to me would be Blizzards easiest way of implementing sub-races with minimum effort.

Now THIS would be awesome. I love racial diversity in game and that'd be a fun and simple way to do it. I don't mind the idea of High Elves so long as the other races got equal love in sub-race customization with lore explanations. And that's really what High Elves should be - sub-race customization rather than an entirely new race. Save new races for exactly that: something new. Otherwise it's just World of Elfcraft.

Also, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Blood Elves were Blizzard's way of making playable High Elves. I'm curious now if that was the intent and if they feel like they've already done this by creating Belves.



---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 09:18 AM ----------

What's a high elf?

-_-;

http://www.wowpedia.org/High_elf

[Serenais]

The short version, yes, I am for it. They have been a part of the Alliance, even if loosely, for quite some time now, and unlike they Ogre counterparts, they wouldn't create big problems in implementation (Ogres + mounts => BIG problems, for example).
The long version, well.
While I would like to see playable high elves in the game, I don't think there was enough time to distinguish them from the blood elves on visual basis. There are differences, for example, the blood elves have access to the Sunwell, which results in them being "sustained", whereas the High elves have to, in general, find different sources. This could result in the high elves being less sleek and taller, but that probably wouldn't manifest enough over more or less a decade. There are cultural differences that could result in slightly different appearance, since the high elves do want to distinguish themselves from blood elves (hence they almost never wear red), but that also wouldn't be enough to tell them easily apart. Another problem is that with the destruction of Theramore, there is no Azerothian "starting ground" for high elves. One could opt for connecting them with the human starting areas, since Stormwind has (supposedly) a sizeable population of high elves, but that would to a degree defeat the original purpose of them being a unique race (at least within the Alliance). There's also Allerian Stronghold, but that is inside a lvl63+ zone, which could create problems of its own. Theoretically, high elves could be treated as a "hero race", similarly like death knights are a "hero class", but that solution is, in my opinion, falling short on what a new race would need. Giving them an all out new area would probably be best, the question would be, though, which. We are running out of areas on Azeroth that would be available to settle. Even worse would be "suddenly finding" a healthy population of high elves "somewhere", which would basically create a gaping inconsitency in lore. That combined, while I would love to have a playable high elf, I currently don't see a reasonable way for it to happen without them being a "half-done" work of an ingame race.

[Shefu]

Because we clearly needed a new thread on High Elves. Yup.

[Frozenbeef]

No. High elfs are wrong and shouldn't be encouraged.

[S2omegaS2]

I picked orc because their shoulder armor is big =P

I would rather have other new races then another elf

[Elegiac]

No. High elfs are wrong and shouldn't be encouraged.

Query: exactly how does making High Elves playable force you to play one?

[Zathrendar]

Yes, definitely. If Blizzard so desires, it can always change other features for each race, e.g. embellish the effect of fel on blood elves. They may not use it as much but it's still there and its long term effects are unknown anyway. As orcs prove, it lingers. How much more so for a magically sensitive race?

Pandaren have set the precedent for a two-faction race and have rendered most of the arguments against it obsolete. Blood elves are not very Horde-friendly as it is. There is good lore justification for some of them to leave and bolster the High elves' numbers. As for "new" races, had enough of them. Unless they add something like Naga, I couldn't give two shits about most non-playable races at this point, such as Ethereals. WOW! An elven-like race with goblin greed and energy for bodies!

/yawn

I still think Ogres will come in at some point, to complete the Horde. High elves can come in at the same point, to complete the Alliance. Ogres aren't exactly a hugely appealing race, so they won't leave Alliance simpletons whining about "OMG Y WE JUST GET RECOLORED BELFzZ!1!!"

[Deleted]

Blood Elves are my favourite race, because I find their story tragic and interesting. High Elves experienced the same stuff and kept their dignity. I usually play the sophisticated and regal side in video games, and realistically I would play a High Elf, but the thought of playing Alliance for that honestly puts me off. It's sad, really; I like the Alliance lore-wise, but players I've encountered in-game have made me dislike the faction

[Zathrendar]

I don't care if they look exactly like bloodelves I don't see how it would hurt the game.

I am all for the removal of racial ties within the game for several races but not all
Orc/Undead = horde only
Human/Worgen = alliance only
Everything else = you choose which side to fight for.

Then again if Blizzard ever decided to reboot the franchise I would hope that they would make paladins alliance only again but instead of making shaman horde only that they would instead make deathknights horde only as it makes much more sense.

Agree with this (though I'd add a couple more races which are strongly faction based; blood elves are obviously not) and also the idea of making high elves a possible subrace for "night elf". But I'd prefer them as a new race. Defecting blood elves can certainly add to their numbers, and elves are capable of adjusting their breeding rates if other settings are anything to go by, e.g. the drow.

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 06:00 PM ----------

Blood Elves are my favourite race, because I find their story tragic and interesting. High Elves experienced the same stuff and kept their dignity. I usually play the sophisticated and regal side in video games, and realistically I would play a High Elf, but the thought of playing Alliance for that honestly puts me off. It's sad, really; I like the Alliance lore-wise, but players I've encountered in-game have made me dislike the faction

A third or "neutral" faction would be nice but I don't see Blizzard doing it.