So Blizzard is not a fan of more playable neutral races

[Falrinn]

I wonder if he answers on behalf of the whole team? Also, I'm pretty sure Naga would go alliace if anything (being nightelves and all).

Actually the Naga are generally more closely related to Blood Elves then Night Elves. Both the Naga and the Blood Elves are descended exclusively from the Highbourne Night Elves, while only a small percentage of modern Night Elves are (and the few that are have only recently joined the Alliance).

Should Blizzard ever decide to make the Naga playable, Blizzard could choose to emphasize their connections to the Night Elves and make them Alliance or their connection to the Blood Elves and make them Horde as they see fit.

Of course at the end of the day I'm not sure if the technical problems facing the Naga (namely the ability to ride mounts and not look awkward as hell) can be realistically overcome. I'd even go as far as to speculate that the Jinyu may of been introduced partly because they are an aquatic-themed race that doesn't suffer from the Naga's technical issues.

[Deleted]

Because it is special treatment for a people that are essentially the same like the blood elves, why should they get special animation and models exclusively. In that regard they are like the Pandaren, both races are the same except for eye color and shouldn't be treated differently all of a sudden. It would just focus on something utterly pointless from a lore viewpoint.



Forsaken, is a name the humans of Lordaeron gave themselves after their ressurrection, so no they are not a different race, just mostly dead humans.
Worgen are just cursed humans, in fact you could say they are druidic humans, since the worgen form is some art of druism.
Mag'har are not a different kind of Orcs all they have is a different skin color and that is not enough to be a different race.

Indeed Physical deformation is necessary, I'd say anything like fel bloodelves would count, since they have wings and horns etc. and the wretched.

High Elves wouldn't get "special treatment". I'm scratching my head right now. They would get their own animations like every other race. How is that unfair if every other race also has its own animations.

It seems like you're saying, if they don't get their own animations, they are just the same thing as Blood Elves and that would be like adding one race for both sides. If we solve that problem by actually giving them different animations, you say, then that's unfair, even though every other race has its own animations as well.

As for Forsaken and Gilneans, if you say that they are basically humans, then we have 3 groups of humans in the game. Why not have 2 groups of High Elves/Blood Elves? Your only argument is that they are genetically the same people, yet that argument doesn't seem to count for the Forsaken and the Gilneans.

[Hattai]

High Elves wouldn't get "special treatment". I'm scratching my head right now. They would get their own animations like every other race. How is that unfair if every other race also has its own animations.

It would be special treatment since they're already in game as Blood Elves.

As for Forsaken and Gilneans, if you say that they are basically humans, then we have 3 groups of humans in the game. Why not have 2 groups of High Elves/Blood Elves? Your only argument is that they are genetically the same people, yet that argument doesn't seem to count for the Forsaken and the Gilneans.

The human variants went through a much more drastic change than the High Elf/Blood Elf split.

[Deleted]

Give us one reason why the naga should ever go to the horde?

More than likely the Ethereals would become a Neutral race over the rest of them. They fit the best as far as current existing races, they also hate the burning legion.

Naga can go to Horde, Ethereals to Alliance..

And to be honest whole this dispute about High Elves becomes tedious. There is already Night Elves and Blood Elves in game - why more? Cause they fit to lore? That's not very well-grounded reason. We need something different and exciting, something NEW.
Not recolored and already existing race in game.
Peace!

[arboachg]

Elementals - the first creatures to appear on Azeroth, created by a sect of "Old Gods". Chaotic and destructive, they worshiped the Old Gods.

I'm fairly sure the elementals were here before the Old Gods and were merely enslaved, not created

[muto]

Ogres for horde, High Elfs for Alliance.

Alliance would be more likely to get Furbolgs.

[Deleted]

It would be special treatment since they're already in game as Blood Elves.

I don't see that. Why special treatment. It would be a new Alliance race. The Horde would of course then get a new race as well. Blood Elves and High Elves would then simply be in the game with different animations. The term special treatment doesn't fit here. If you mean that High Elves would feel fresh, while Blood Elves would use the "outdated" animations - it has been mentioned in this thread, that since they are making new models of the old races, they will most likely give the Blood Elves a completely new model and animations at some point. That's the perfect opportunity for having High and Blood Elves split off into different branches.

The human variants went through a much more drastic change than the High Elf/Blood Elf split.

Well yeah that is fair. But in his opinion, Forsaken and Worgen would still not count as separate races, though I would say that the game refers to them as separate races.

[Synstir]

If they bring in new races, neutral or not, I hope they are all new races.... and not the races we already encountered (except for the MoP new races, cause they are quite new).

Having a neutral race has some advantages, like development time. Only need to develop 1 race instead of 2.
I can imagine that in a game driven by the enmity of 2 factions, neutral races seem a little odd.

[BenBos]

Me neither.

Naga can't be a playable race: they are bound to water and frankly do you see them in Battlegrounds already ?

[Hyde]

I actually want to play as a centaur lol

[Wildtree]

I wonder if he answers on behalf of the whole team? Also, I'm pretty sure Naga would go alliace if anything (being nightelves and all).

High Elfs = Blood Elfs (not really, but then yes) , and yet those remaining few High Elfs are in the service of the Alliance already (Silver Covenant - Vereesa Windrunner). That means, some humanoid sporting a certain race, does not identify their faction allegiance automatically... Not in WoW.
Naga = Alliance? I don't think so...
Ogres = Horde? I don't think so...
High Elfs = Alliance? I don't think so...

All three of them could be either. But I am tempted to say that neither should be a playable race. I am with the group that points out how some love for those races we already have is more important than throwing but another race our way.

On the High Elfs topic...... They need to be kept out of the races cycle entirely. They are the connecting link between the Elf races together with the Highborne.
If Blizzard wants to keep the door open for
a) interesting story and lore progression
b) triple or even multi faction.

The Highborne and High Elfs are the key races/factions that could merge and reunite the Elfs as a whole.

Here's a img, for those who aren't quite familiar with the Elf hierarchy:
http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/imag...e_of_elves.jpg

As you see, anything that has a question mark added is pure fan speculation. Everything else is the correct order via lore.

[Deleted]

High Elfs = Blood Elfs (not really, but then yes) , and yet those remaining few High Elfs are in the service of the Alliance already (Silver Covenant - Vereesa Windrunner). That means, some humanoid sporting a certain race, does not identify their faction allegiance automatically... Not in WoW.

Wait... is that somehow a point against High Elves as an Alliance race? It's one of the strongest points in favor of it.

[Falu]

Blood-Elves should have been a neutral race to begin with....
High-Elves with blue eyes to the alliance, Blood-Elves corrupted with green eyes to the Horde... makes more sense than Pandaren... Blood-Elves and High-Elves killing eachother makes far more sense lorewise... they already do that tbh... just that the High-Elves on the Alliance side are NPCs :O

[Deleted]

The Night Elves also have a lot against them. I just don't see the Naga ever allying with the Alliance or the Horde. They are always the villains.

For warcraft 1 and 2, the orcs were the villans. Now they're leading an important faction that is more grey then evil.
For WoW up to Cataclysm, worgen were some savage evil beasts.

As I said, naga have been born in the last 10k years and not all might agree with Azshara, and if they'd join someone, they'd join the ones Azshara hates most. The night elves. I'm sure the night elves wouldn't love them from the first day, but given that the new naga would be willing to learn something like... I don't know, druidism of sorts and at least pretend that they're trying to shun fel magic, they'd be accepted.

[Combatbutler]

High Elves wouldn't get "special treatment". I'm scratching my head right now. They would get their own animations like every other race. How is that unfair if every other race also has its own animations.

It seems like you're saying, if they don't get their own animations, they are just the same thing as Blood Elves and that would be like adding one race for both sides. If we solve that problem by actually giving them different animations, you say, then that's unfair, even though every other race has its own animations as well.

As for Forsaken and Gilneans, if you say that they are basically humans, then we have 3 groups of humans in the game. Why not have 2 groups of High Elves/Blood Elves? Your only argument is that they are genetically the same people, yet that argument doesn't seem to count for the Forsaken and the Gilneans.

I don't see that. Why special treatment. It would be a new Alliance race. The Horde would of course then get a new race as well. Blood Elves and High Elves would then simply be in the game with different animations. The term special treatment doesn't fit here. If you mean that High Elves would feel fresh, while Blood Elves would use the "outdated" animations - it has been mentioned in this thread, that since they are making new models of the old races, they will most likely give the Blood Elves a completely new model and animations at some point. That's the perfect opportunity for having High and Blood Elves split off into different branches.

I am not arguing against playable high elves I am arguing against different models for high elves, if they are lorewise the same people, why should they look distinctly different from blood elves? They are the same and unlike Worgen or forsaken, they are not physiqally different from their counterparts so yes it is special treatment.

[Obelisk Kai]

I don't see that. Why special treatment. It would be a new Alliance race. The Horde would of course then get a new race as well. Blood Elves and High Elves would then simply be in the game with different animations. The term special treatment doesn't fit here. If you mean that High Elves would feel fresh, while Blood Elves would use the "outdated" animations - it has been mentioned in this thread, that since they are making new models of the old races, they will most likely give the Blood Elves a completely new model and animations at some point. That's the perfect opportunity for having High and Blood Elves split off into different branches.




Well yeah that is fair. But in his opinion, Forsaken and Worgen would still not count as separate races, though I would say that the game refers to them as separate races.

I would just like to point out once again, that your solution of giving High Elves different animations, a different posture and then hoping that cuts the mustard to justify a playable race, is absolutely and utterly ridiculous. I give kudos to those posters who have humored you in appearing to take this daft solution seriously but they aren't quite getting across to you why this won't work.

Would a fifty foot high neon billboard saying 'HIGH ELVES AND THE BLOOD ELVES ARE THE SAME RACE' help matters?
Or, using the United States as an example, would placing a Republican voter and a Democratic voter side by side demonstrate that a political difference does not equal a physical difference help?

How many compromises and equivocations are you prepared to make to try and get High Elves into the game after it has now seemingly been ruled out?
How many ways are there of attempting to add the same race, but not the same race, that you believe people will swallow?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Naga can go to Horde, Ethereals to Alliance..

And to be honest whole this dispute about High Elves becomes tedious. There is already Night Elves and Blood Elves in game - why more? Cause they fit to lore? That's not very well-grounded reason. We need something different and exciting, something NEW.
Not recolored and already existing race in game.
Peace!

One huge flaw in your plan. Ethereal would be added in Expansion VI, Naga in V.

I think playable Naga, like High Elves, is essentially dead. Everyone wants Naga, much like everyone wanted Pandaren. And the side that didn't get Naga would QQ.

And simply due to timing (I doubt they'll do neutral races next expansion after this) that makes Naga doomed.

- - - Updated - - -

I am not arguing against playable high elves I am arguing against different models for high elves, if they are lorewise the same people, why should they look distinctly different from blood elves? They are the same and unlike Worgen or forsaken, they are not physiqally different from their counterparts so yes it is special treatment.

And that is why it's doomed.

The only way to give a carbon copy model without QQ* is to make it neutral. Blizz isn't a fan of neutral for neutral's sake. Ergo, it wont happen because of the QQ.


*Alliance QQs that they get a BC model while Horde gets a fancy new model, everyone QQs that its a recycled BElf.

[checking facts]

I think people are blowing this out of proportion. it was a tweet directed to and answered by ghostcrawler, and as far as we know it represents only ghostcrawler's personal opinion on the matter.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I think people are blowing this out of proportion. it was a tweet directed to and answered by ghostcrawler, and as far as we know it represents only ghostcrawler's personal opinion on the matter.

Yes, though this is one situation where GC does influence the development.

He's systems dev, who do you think designed the neutral race systems? If he dislikes how it worked out, he could decide to skip on using the system next expansion (or longer) until he's at least satisfied.

[checking facts]

Yes, though this is one situation where GC does influence the development.

He's systems dev, who do you think designed the neutral race systems? If he dislikes how it worked out, he could decide to skip on using the system next expansion (or longer) until he's at least satisfied.

he's the lead system developer. the system is already developed. if the story guys decide to have another neutral race, they won't ask GC to develop another system for neutral races. they'll use the one that's done.

besides, my gut is telling me that GC dislikes neutral races because he's fond of the "red vs blue" theme, not because of how the system works.

this situation is kinda similar to how he once said that he doesn't like how flight makes the world too safe and a bunch of people jumped on the "REMOVE FLIGHT!" train.