Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Aeula]

They should just give blood elves blue eye options and then they really can just say “Horde is there for you”

Agreed, they need to give Blood Elves blue eyes to drive the point that the Alliance isn't getting High Elves home.

[Obelisk Kai]

Yeah, I get all that. But if they actually want people to stop pestering them about it, they probably shouldn't use the same response that people were pestering them about before. It won't do anything to deter the people frothing at the mouth from the last response to them. There are plenty of ways he could say it to get people to stop, but I don't expect there to be any change like this. I also don't think your take on the situation is really correct, since I don't think he wanted to actively antagonize people over it.

Oh no he wasn't seeking to antagonize people over it deliberately, but he was delivering a tough truth he couldn't sugarcoat.

- - - Updated - - -

Agreed, they need to give Blood Elves blue eyes to drive the point that the Alliance isn't getting High Elves home.

I just want blue eyes for Blood Elves because it might make sense, although if all elves are getting golden eyes now it might make it redundant.

[united]

Agreed, they need to give Blood Elves blue eyes to drive the point that the Alliance isn't getting High Elves home.

They will. Eventually.

[Super Kami Dende]

I mean, the people saying "Lol High Elves are just basically Blood Elves! get over it"

Well Nightborne are basically Night Elves.
Void Elves are basically Blood Elves.
HM tauren are basically Tauren.
Etc etc.

Pointing out that "they are basically just X" when there are already a ton of examples of X race basically just being Y is kind of dumb logic.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[RangerDaz]

I take that quote to mean that they're not such a big group that they can't be ignored when it comes to playable races. On the other hand, Void Elves have unique features that Blizzard feels makes them more compelling as an option for a playable race. The reasons with real weight were that Blood Elves are high elves, and that giving a race with the fantasy of high elves to the Alliance would blur the lines of the two factions. In the same way that you can say that Taliesin came to an opinion from a balanced point of view, I don't think it's fair to think that the game director has some kind of vendetta against this specific race. They just have difference criteria for evaluating those decisions.

Well i agree with you in many points. However his arguments that he used to dismiss high elves for BfA were inconsistent to what we see ingame. As i have said over and over in the end of the day it is their franchise and they do what they want. But using the argument they are too few to be playable is somewhat insulting as that was never an argument to dismiss an allied race. He could have said it with better arguments such as: releasing high elves after void elves is not what we intend for the story for now so we will leave this in stand by for now - or - blood elves and alliance high elves still do not fit in the model we are looking for, maybe in the future perhaps, but not now. His answer was inconsistent to what is ingame related to the silver covenant and that is why i say it is biased.

[Obelisk Kai]

Lol Ion said basically the same things as before and people here are celebrating like he ended the war or something.. He just said the same bullshit ''not enough high elves'' and ''bluring the line between factions'' , while not adressing how void elves or pandaren got the pass as playable races.

He doesn't need to. And the reason this is over is precisely because he repeated himself, after a seven month long effort by the pro High Elf community to change the developer's minds.

As he repeated himself, the effort failed.

[Silver-Fox]

While I would personally LOVE to see High Elves added to the game as a playable race for the Alliance, I believe one of the core issues that the developers aren't addressing is the black-lash they would receive from people who participate in PvP activities complaining about not being able to differentiate from allies and enemies due to similarities between races.

Horde players would complain that they can't identify their Blood Elf allies from their High Elf enemies and vice-versa on the Alliance side of things. But instead the developers are trying to use the lore and mythology of the game to justify their design decisions. Lore that, mind you, they are always rewriting to justify their design choices, not vice-versa as Ion describes.

It is, sadly, more because of mechanics than it is aesthetics that Alliance can't, currently, play as High Elves.

Personally I think players should have the ability, for a game they pay monthly to play, play as their desired race/class. Part of the beauty of any roleplaying game is playing WHO and WHAT and HOW you want to play. But I also understand that it would create a lot of confusion in player-versus-player content trying to distinguish enemies and allies based on silhouette alone. Not to say that is a problem for everyone, but it could be a problem for enough people for the developers to move forward with adding High Elves a playable race. But regardless of what any developer says... I don't think the issue will every be settled until High Elves are in-fact added to the game as a playable Alliance race.

Say what you will about nails in coffins (or the more formidable coffin of nails) but stranger things have happened in and around Azeroth. But we did get flying in Dreanor after all, and that was a result of a very passionate group of players so...

[Shinkishi]

Oh no he wasn't seeking to antagonize people over it deliberately, but he was delivering a tough truth he couldn't sugarcoat.

Oh yeah, for sure. I wish he would have actually done that and ended it, the way I see it this won't make them stop since the answer is the same one they already rejected and it's not hard enough.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

If you gonna commit into something, do it properly. I want half-elves to radiate lack of effort that was put into their creation.

In that case Void Elf would have been a purple blob with googly eyes. It's still WoW, they still have to try to make people play them.

[Syegfryed]

I mean, the people saying "Lol High Elves are just basically Blood Elves! get over it"

Well Nightborne are basically Night Elves.
Void Elves are basically Blood Elves.
HM tauren are basically Tauren.
Etc etc.

Pointing out that "they are basically just X" when there are already a ton of examples of X race basically just being Y is kind of dumb logic.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

except blood elves are high elves

and those exemples you give don't fit, people always throw out this false equivalence trying to make a point

[Deleted]

Obelisk Kai The way Ion answered the question was very insulting and disrepctfuly to his customers who are Alliance fanbase and that want High Elves, he could of answered nicely but he did not. he was reprenting Blizzard and he insulted us. He was also very ignorant with this Answer. Don't reply to me because I don't give one single fuck about you

[Zandalarian Paladin]

silver covenant never had big numbers



except pandarens are a exception, and the other didn't blurr the factions cause they are different in both models and fantasy

Silver Covenant have a higher count than Void Elves by a very large margin.

As for the other two, that's not true. Nightborne are Night Elves. Void Elves are Blood Elves with a bit of purple hues.

With that said, even easier: Give some personality to High Elves. Make them stand out from Blood Elves. Unique posture, unique haircuts, unique faces.

It's actually not all that hard to give them personality without being BE 2.0 or having to invest a tremendous amount of efforts.

[Hyral]

Well there we go. The argument is finally settled. Blizzard finally stated beyond a doubt that they will not allow us to create horde and alliance characters on the same server.

Oh wait that was another stance they reverted years ago...

Well there we go. The argument is finally settled. Blizzard finally stated beyond a doubt that they will not allow us to create horde paladins and alliance shamans.

Actually they went back on that too, rather quickly at that...

Well there we go. The argument is finally settled. Blizzard finally stated beyond a doubt that they will not allow us to transfer between PvE and PvP servers.

Huh, no, that position was changed...

Well there we go. The argument is finally settled. Blizzard finally stated beyond a doubt that they will not implement neutral or similar looking races to both factions as it would be too confusing-

Wait crap, they also went back on that one...

Um, what point was I trying to make? Eh, doesn't matter, they go back on everything they say at a moment's notice anyway.

[Koroniss]

High Elves
Blood Elves are basically High Elves. Slightly different eye color and backstory, but if you want to be a light skinned elf, that is basically a Blood Elf. Giving that to the Alliance would blur the line between factions.
There aren't a ton of High Elves out there in WoW.
If you are Alliance any want to be an elf, the Horde is there for you.

So.....can blood elves get 3 faces with blue eyes? They added 3 faces with yellow eyes, how about we get 3 faces with blue eyes.

Hey there, I will use your comment in order to address a side issue of the entire HE debate. I hope you won't mind.

There are people out there who genuinely want Blood Elves with blue eyes (and some who are just trolling in an attempt to trigger the HE camp) and more who'd like to see Undead Elves added to the Forsaken. I am afraid all the recent development ("no more elves" crowd aside) made that a really sensitive topic. Forsaken Elves, for example, will be seen simply as "another thing that the Horde wished and then received", whilst Alliance got "fire gnomes and utter trash", etc. So, as much as I'd enjoyed that particular idea, I'd wish for Blizzard not to follow it soon. Unless they manage to actually deliver something good for the Alliance, and currently I am unable to come up with anything that might satisfy more than a really niche subgroup of the faction – be it Wildhammers, Sethraks or Ethereals.

As for blue eyed Blood Elves for those who genuinely want them, it will far worse, immediately going almost as far as openly mocking all those who wanted Alliance High Elves. Alas, the same is more or less applicable for further Blood Elven customization like actual proper styled beards they've been lacking since their implementation. Those belong to the Void Elves now and will blur the line between factions just as much as skin and hair colour for the model would, as petty as it might sound on a personal level when talking about such minor things.

Or to put it in Ion's words now, "If you are a Blood Elf and want to have blue eyes, the Alliance is there for you". If Blizzard adds blue eyes for the Blood Elves, expect the guy to be ridiculed to no end, this time somewhat justified due to his own choice of words.

[Super Kami Dende]

except blood elves are high elves

and those exemples you give don't fit, people always throw out this false equivalence trying to make a point

And Void Elves are Blood Elves. So?

[Combatbutler]

This will never stop the high elf advocates never stopped before so they will continue on, unless blizz eradicates the high elf race entirely it never ends.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I do find it interesting that the devs really could have kind of avoided this. I remember when Void Elves were announced and people were actually pretty excited because it assumed they were High Elves (as in, not Blood Elves) under the tutoring of Alleria who had learned to harness the void but been changed by it. However then they announced that they were actually Exiled Blood Elves (and a very small contingency of High Elves, as seen in the unlock scenario) where people got a little bit annoyed with it.

It was a minor story thing to literally just write that ALL of the remaining High Elves had followed under Alleria and become Void Elves, it would have quelled a lot of the annoyance AND enabled them to be their own thing.

Honestly this is what I will never understand and now I can pretty much say it was a bad choice as for the origin of Void Elves. If they weren't gonna make playable HE, why not use them to create the VE?

Now we know they simply didn't even considered it, and had no reason to not use the Silver Covenant to make Void Elves. It's just such a wasted opportunity that really makes me sad.

[Sorrior]

of course, we are exposing then



and? you guys are creating non-issues, for real, you don't need blizzard holding your hand writing every piece of lore to you to play

sure its not what people want, but its close enough, we can live with that

I can write plenty but when you play a game like this and RP you build your story around the world not the world around your story.

Annd yeeah you go from denying legolas/lotr shit to admitying you mention it(and how are you exposing someone who genuinely dislikes lotr?)

[ls-]

You mean technically we have 5 trolls in game and a sixth being added.

HORDE BIAS!!!!!111one

[Gentlepenguin]

im just loving the salt in the official foruns, they are pearls in the dead sea, just a sneak peak about what is going on

A toxic community got what it deserved. They don't even have the humility to accept it.