The reason behind the so far non-reveal of Alliances next allied race...

[Directionalk9]

If High Elves do get added, it's at the loss of something more interesting no matter what.

We can have Kul'tirans (or Vrykul), we could have Sethrak, we could have Arakkoa, Jinyu...

Or we can have High Elves.

And nobody, not even the Horde, wants that. And then we get into the "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario where then people will want Wildhammer Dwarves, which would then get paired with..... what, Fel Orcs? Then suddenly we stop getting cool races like Sethrak/Vulpera, or Jinyu/Hozen, and instead all we ever get are "sub-races."

But people, a lot of people want High Elves, and sub-races have been hotly requested since TBC if not earlier. Allied Races whether or not people want to admit it are sub races. Blizzard left the door open for it to be more, but they have a bouncer.

[Al Gorefiend]

The Alliance doesn't have a truly obvious choice like the AU Orc clans or the Vulpera. The obvious option it does have has been received either fairly poorly or with a decidedly 'meh' attitude (the endless fat jokes about the Kul'tirans, effectively turning them into a joke before they're even confirmed, not to mention the 'yay more humans....sigh' effect) so...are they simply holding back and weighing up their options?

I'll take 10 more variants of humans as allied races before another damn elf.

On topic though. I'm Horde through-and-through, so while I laugh in the face of crybaby Alliance players, I do kinda agree Zandalari are coming out of the gate way too goddamn strong for it to be a fair fight. Dark Iron Dwarves are cool and all, but Zandalari Trolls are essentially a new playable race... Their animations are modified from night elves enough to make it irrelevant, their own skins for druid, are as similar to darkspear trolls as night elves are to blood elves (for real, learn the lore, they have zero in common aside from the name troll).

So, I think because the Zandalari are just too damn epic for Alliance to get a reskin of their least-played race (as cool as dwarves are) the next revealed Allied race for Alliance is going to be something epic.

And if Allied races are forced to follow the convention that they must be fancy remodels of current playable race rigs, I'm looking at Broken Draenei, who use Tauren rigs, as a good contender. only issue is Alliance was already given LF Draenei...

If some lore event is bringing Draenor Orcs to the Horde, maybe the Alliance is looking into Draenor as well? In that case, maybe Saberon, or dare I say Arakkoa?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I'll take 10 more variants of humans as allied races before another damn elf.

Why settle? I'd rather have Kul'tiran, Sethrak, Northrend Vrykul (because fuck Odyn), Arakkoa, Jinyu, Dragonkin, Broken, and Furbolg before another Blood Elf reskin.

And I already play the first Blood Elf reskin.

[msdos]

To me, it's because they're dropping the ball, so they need to stall.

But I hope it's because it's something real awesome, like Vrykul AND Kul'Tirans. That would breathe a lot of needed flavor into the Alliance.
I'm sorry, but the elf and spacegoat reskins are not fresh. Only redeeming thing about the Velves is their heritage stuff and cosmetic options.

[Tripzzz]

Kul'tirans look like shit. Barely anyone will play them, and those that do will get bullied so much they will end up race changing. Anything is better. Even murlocs or gnolls.

They aren't even unique or particularly interesting. Humans of Stormwind have everything they have and more(except the extra fat). Monster hunters? Like the humans of Stormwind haven't killed or hunted any monsters? Wtf do they think this game is about?!? They have a navy!? So does Stormwind. The only real difference is that they are fucking fat! Guranteed to become the biggest joke in the game.

[EbaumsTipster]

Gotta love the morons in here that think that Blizz is getting rid of the fat Kul'tirans and redoing three whole zone storylines over feedback and MMOC whining.

[Tripzzz]

Anyone who think playable walmart shoppers are a good idea needs their head checked. They will be less popular than the dumb fat pandas.

[Techno-Druid]

Gotta love the morons in here that think that Blizz is getting rid of the fat Kul'tirans and redoing three whole zone storylines over feedback and MMOC whining.

The devs quite literally stated that they were looking for feedback on potential allied races. Also, who said anything about redoing whole zone storylines?

[KyrtF]

If High Elves do get added, it's at the loss of something more interesting no matter what.

I can't really think of anything more interesting for the Alliance. Heaven knows they need something but discounting races better sited for a Racial slot as opposed to an Allied Race, the Alliance don't have a lot of choice.

KulTirans are just humans. Big humans...but still humans.
Vrykul? The big attraction is their nordic/viking style but they are still humans.
Sethrak? Maybe but if Sethrak are to be an Allied race, they'd need a lot more work than Blizzard seems ready to give.
Jinyu? Might work but we've not seen them for a while.

And no.....more interesting slot is subjective. Nor do I really care. The Alliance want High Elfs? Give them High Elfs, and end the debate once and for all.


We can have Kul'tirans (or Vrykul), we could have Sethrak, we could have Arakkoa, Jinyu...

And nobody, not even the Horde, wants that. And then we get into the "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario where then people will want Wildhammer Dwarves, which would then get paired with..... what, Fel Orcs? Then suddenly we stop getting cool races like Sethrak/Vulpera, or Jinyu/Hozen, and instead all we ever get are "sub-races."

We're going to get sub races anyway. I suspect/hope the Mogu might become our way of getting the Draenei skeleton but Blizzard has shown itself more than willing to use Allied Races to bring in subRaces.

As it is, all Blizzard need do is pair the HighElfs with a Horde subrace....the GrimTotems for example....or a suitable partner race...give Ogres the KulTiran skeleton to bring that into the Horde...but in reality, someone will likely complain no matter what.

All I know is that I am sick to death of this debate and now that Allied Races has destroyed the arguments against High Elfs, weak though they were, the quickest simplest way to end it for good is to simply give the Alliance what they've been whining for.

I'd prefer Blizzard do some work to enforce the concept of the two being separate....see my suggestions on style and classes above...but with Allied Races and the fact they have the model anyway, I don't feel thats a major issue. Preferable, but not a deal breaker.

And yes...I suppose there is a fair chance we'll get a group of Fel and Chaos Orcs eventually. About all Blizzard have left to offer is a third faction.

[Niroshi]

Only way I could see Kul'Tirans being a popular race would be if their unique racial "thing" in the character creator was a body type selection. I'm all for positive body image in real life, but people in fantasy games want to be either bad ass or cute. That's where they will always gravitate, give them that in KT and it'll be successful. Give them the current selection and you will get 2 years (at least) of Alliance bitterness and complaints, and a lower pop than Pandaren.

Bigger issue overall though is there's not many places to go from here. The only reason I'd like to see High Elves is to settle up. They're in the Alliance already. They exist just like the Dark Iron Dwarves, they're just not playable. Alliance has too few non-faction connections to be brainstorming on a bunch of races. Most of the 'monster' style races would be just like KT, dead races hovering around Panda level. There's a reason the Horde is like 50% Blood Elves.

[Traycor]

It really is a can't win situation for Blizz. The only winning move is to add High Elves

As much as I want High Elves, I'm not naive enough to think that's their only winning move. The problem is that whatever move they make, it was decided many months (years?) ago. That ship doesn't turn fast, so whatever move they made, they're likely stuck with it. Now it's just a matter of turning their coal into diamonds, which takes time.

[Techno-Druid]

Only way I could see Kul'Tirans being a popular race would be if their unique racial "thing" in the character creator was a body type selection. I'm all for positive body image in real life, but people in fantasy games want to be either bad ass or cute. That's where they will always gravitate, give them that in KT and it'll be successful. Give them the current selection and you will get 2 years (at least) of Alliance bitterness and complaints, and a lower pop than Pandaren.

Bigger issue overall though is there's not many places to go from here. The only reason I'd like to see High Elves is to settle up. They're in the Alliance already. They exist just like the Dark Iron Dwarves, they're just not playable. Alliance has too few non-faction connections to be brainstorming on a bunch of races. Most of the 'monster' style races would be just like KT, dead races hovering around Panda level. There's a reason the Horde is like 50% Blood Elves.

One small little nitpick and it's that pandaren aren't actually that low, Horde and Alliance pandaren players combined outnumber goblins, gnome and dwarf players and are roughly equal to worgen.

But yeah, I can't see KT humans having a population higher than gnomes.

[Tensho14]

"You know what Alliance players would really love? Fat people."

Kinda hard to believe that a serious discussion like that actually happened at Blizzard HQ and instead of firing the person who suggested it Blizzard might actually go with it.

[Directionalk9]

One small little nitpick and it's that pandaren aren't actually that low, Horde and Alliance pandaren players combined outnumber goblins, gnome and dwarf players and are roughly equal to worgen.

But yeah, I can't see KT humans having a population higher than gnomes.

Based on what, MMO-C posters? Based on fan-communities I’d swear elves are the least played races, but the actual numbers don’t support it. Honestly most players don’t even know what’s coming, I’d bet they’d have numbers equal or a bit higher than Pandaren.

Also, sorry, didn’t mean to sound snarky.

[EbaumsTipster]

"You know what Alliance players would really love? Fat people."

Kinda hard to believe that a serious discussion like that actually happened at Blizzard HQ and instead of firing the person who suggested it Blizzard might actually go with it.

Pirates have a much bigger pull with casual fans than blood elves with tats or dwarves with tats. Face it, the game isn't for hardcore fans, otherwise we'd have Broken and High Elves instead of Lightforged and Void Elves.

[Augrelle]

"You know what Alliance players would really love? Fat people."

Kinda hard to believe that a serious discussion like that actually happened at Blizzard HQ and instead of firing the person who suggested it Blizzard might actually go with it.

People have been asking for more body types for humans just like how people have been asking for Brown orcs or dark iron dwarves or wild hammer dwarves or... well I could continue but I hope you see the point.

Things that should of just been customize options are not.

[Techno-Druid]

People have been asking for more body types for humans just like how people have been asking for Brown orcs or dark iron dwarves or wild hammer dwarves or... well I could continue but I hope you see the point.

Things that should of just been customize options are not.

Body types =\= Separate Race

If orcs can have a toggle upright option, I see no reason why something similar cannot be applied to humans and bodyshape.

[EbaumsTipster]

Body types =\= Separate Race

If orcs can have a toggle upright option, I see no reason why something similar cannot be applied to humans and bodyshape.

Because barbershop toggling upright is new animations, not bodyshape. It's the same bodyshape.

[Tensho14]

People have been asking for more body types for humans just like how people have been asking for Brown orcs or dark iron dwarves or wild hammer dwarves or... well I could continue but I hope you see the point.

Things that should of just been customize options are not.

I'm pretty sure those request were more along the lines of "Can we get a slightly thinner human model?", not fat people. If they are the next allied race Blizzard is trolling the Alliance. It'd be like a bad Christmas. Ask for Vrykul and High Elves but get knock off versions while you watch your sibling get exactly what they asked for and then some.

[MrExcelion]

Reason: Might be in the QA!