Official High Elf Discussion Megathread

[Arrashi]

So if we say that the High Elves simply join the Blood Elves again and all that really happens is that blue eye colours are available, together with green and gold. How would you feel about this?

He would stay saying that high elves on alliance are just behind the corner. "I can smell them already".

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That is not a fact. Its an assumption.
We are now talking probabilities.
He said the future was opened.

Lets be real you won't take anything "as fact" as long as it doesn't fit your narrative.

[Vaellir]

Ion's logic - Alliance is forbidden to have fair skinned elves because its damages faction uniqueness. Meanwhile Horde is allowed to have dark skinned elves (Nightborne) that belong to Alliance theme (Night Elves / VELF). What a hypocrite.

If they wanted they could make HELF the same way they did Nightborne - edit BELF skeleton/model like they edited NELF's for Nightborne. But its means Alliance getting actual time and effort for Allied Race that is forbidden. Because Horde BIAS.

And DON'T tell me about Kul Tiran - we all know this fatso were made only because they will be great base for creating another LONG TIME ASKED Horde Allied Race - Ogres/Mok'nathal.

"Horde waiting for you". Yea Ion. I guess I will answer you with same attitude - FFIX is waiting for my money. Not you.

This exactly shatters the arguments about the similar looks of Helves/Belves ...

[RangerDaz]

it’s not his fault if you get easily offended.

Its not a question of being easy offended or not.
He isnt like any of us posting our opinions here.
He is one of blizzards current spokesman.
When people represent a franchise they should carefully chose what to say. I dont think he handled the situation well.
But again, it is my opinion.

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He would stay saying that high elves on alliance are just behind the corner. "I can smell them already".

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Lets be real you won't take anything "as fact" as long as it doesn't fit your narrative.

Why do you say that? You dont know me. Thats another assumption of yours, and not a nice one.

A fact came from his statement that high elves in alliance wont happen in bfa. Another fact is that the future is opened. All the rest are assumptions.

[Sigxy]

No they cant evolve, but they can adapt, as you said about kul tirans..
Also which high elves do you mean?
these?

or these?

or these?

I feel like you don't really know how evolution and such works... Yes, the can adapt - but if they need adaptation that changes their body physically, it will take TIME. Which the Kul Tirans did have time for. As for your images:

1: I think even Blizzard can admit it was just lazy work since they didn't want to waste effort and just used a night elf form. That, my friend, I dare call a 'retcon' that they ever looked like that. I can bet you anything in the world that they didn't look like that and then one day they woke up and went "Huh, I look better now."

2 and 3: Are you seriously telling me that going from low quality looks to high quality look is... ADAPTION...? o_O

Why do you say that? You dont know me. Thats another assumption of yours, and not a nice one.

Well, ignore him for just a moment and answer my question, please? I would like to know what you really think about it.

[RangerDaz]

So if we say that the High Elves simply join the Blood Elves again and all that really happens is that blue eye colours are available, together with green and gold. How would you feel about this?

If blizzard ended the silver covenant and vereesa joined the void elves, it would show a lore reason to end alliance high elves, yes.

[Highwhale]

Unfortunately ion's response didnt help blizzard (my opinion).
Instead of finding a diplomatic way to appease the fans, like for example "for the storyline we have for bfa, alliance high elves race dont fit on the story we are building. But the future is opened." With this he would have respected both sides and ended the discussion for now. But instead he gave an answer that mocked the high elf fans, a considerable part of his playerbase, showing he has no intention of being neutral on the issue. Not nice, but its their franchise and their way to communicate with their players. So it just ends with people accepting this and continue or moving along and play another game.

Yea agreed. Its mostly not about he said No. Its about how he did it.

The moment you bring your money Into the argument you lose all credibility.

There are more people in the I don't want HELF & I'd like resources spent on something else side. Your fight is over you got the answer it wasn't what you wanted now move on

I would imagine the next thread you should attach yourself too would be

A) I dislike pathfinder because I have to play the game
B) I should get mythic gear because I raid in LFR.

LMAO. The moment you started cooking up shit logic like:

I would imagine the next thread you should attach yourself too would be

A) I dislike pathfinder because I have to play the game
B) I should get mythic gear because I raid in LFR.

Its moment when:

you lose all credibility

Its my money. I'm customer. I expect being treated with respect and would accepted "No guys we not gonna make High Elves. Case closed" response. Not his ignorant "Lol play Horde".

so and what exactly your "HE" would look? Especialy that after 12 years of them right in front of us they suddenly mutated? Well - this is VE

Last time we saw KT humans in game it was in durotar when we killed them, so who know what happened during this 12 years of them self isolation from Aliance.

Before BFA all human nations were looking the same. We seen KT people in WoW before BFA. None of them was oversized gorilla.

NB have different color from NE, same with VE have different color from BE. End of story i guess?

NB are DARK SKINNED ELVES. No matter they dark blue or violet - they dark skinned elves. Just like NELF and VELF. Since when Horde is allowed to break rules?

[Sigxy]

If blizzard ended the silver covenant and vereesa joined the void elves, it would show a lore reason to end alliance high elves, yes.

Right, okay, but I was wondering how you would feel if the high elves joined the Blood Elves and blue eyes became an option for the blood elf character customization? Would you be okay with it or...?

[Zorish]

Before BFA all human nations were looking the same. We seen KT people in WoW before BFA. None of them was oversized gorilla.

And all we know till BfA about KT nation only that they are island nation and have great fleet. But we know almost everything about Blood elves/High elves

NB are DARK SKINNED ELVES. No matter they dark blue or violet - they dark skinned elves. Just like NELF and VELF. Since when Horde is allowed to break rules?

from the moment Aliance can't use logic. If you deaf and don't understand that not only skin, but cultural difference allow race to be playable then... sorry for you.

[Deleted]

I feel like you don't really know how evolution and such works... Yes, the can adapt - but if they need adaptation that changes their body physically, it will take TIME. Which the Kul Tirans did have time for. As for your images:

1: I think even Blizzard can admit it was just lazy work since they didn't want to waste effort and just used a night elf form. That, my friend, I dare call a 'retcon' that they ever looked like that. I can bet you anything in the world that they didn't look like that and then one day they woke up and went "Huh, I look better now."

2 and 3: Are you seriously telling me that going from low quality looks to high quality look is... ADAPTION...? o_O



Well, ignore him for just a moment and answer my question, please? I would like to know what you really think about it.

i still dont understand why you are fine with drastic change of kul tirans, who according to blizzard adapted to hard environment, but you arent fine with high elves, who had to adapt to life without extensive consumption of magic, which would certainly change their psychique.

[Sigxy]

i still dont understand why you are fine with drastic change of kul tirans, who according to blizzard adapted to hard environment, but you arent fine with high elves, who had to adapt to life without extensive consumption of magic, which would certainly change their psychique.

Because from what I know, the Kul Tiran humans had... centuries on them. Probably millennia. I'm not quite sure when humans first arrived there.

The other, 20-ish years or so?

[protip]

NB are DARK SKINNED ELVES. No matter they dark blue or violet - they dark skinned elves. Just like NELF and VELF. Since when Horde is allowed to break rules?

Fair-skinned doesn't just mean light skinned, it means specifically natural, pink, real life human style light skin. Different shades of purple? There's no reference point to say where a given shade of purple becomes unnatural for night elves. It's certainly different, even if it is purple. Void Elves also have some light colored skin tones, they just happen to be between light blue and light purple. The issue is not between light skin and dark skin.

Kul tirans did also do nothing in that short time period since warcraft 3 to deserve different appearance..I played w3 and not a single kul tiran looked like overweighted half giant. Not a single kul tiran we saw in wow looked differently from normal humans. Why would they change so drastically?

Kul'tirans aren't physically different from Stormwind humans. There are larger models, but the majority of the NPCs in Boralus are normal Stormwind style humans. Where they come from and what model they use is basically irrelevant, because both playable models and both stories belong to the Alliance. Splitting Stormwind human models and Kul'tiran models cross faction would've been harder to explain, but even then, the Kul'tirans have the advantage of having an independent society for 2700 years. Blood Elves and the high elves of the Alliance split less than a decade ago in game, and for a long-lived race like the high elves, that isn't a significant period of time unless magic is involved. If deprivation from magic changed them, or they were corrupted or infused with some kind of magic, they're not going to be the pure, simple, normal high elves that people want.

Unfortunately ion's response didnt help blizzard (my opinion).
Instead of finding a diplomatic way to appease the fans, like for example "for the storyline we have for bfa, alliance high elves race dont fit on the story we are building. But the future is opened." With this he would have respected both sides and ended the discussion for now. But instead he gave an answer that mocked the high elf fans, a considerable part of his playerbase, showing he has no intention of being neutral on the issue. Not nice, but its their franchise and their way to communicate with their players. So it just ends with people accepting this and continue or moving along and play another game.

"They don't fit in BfA" is a very different message from "We have no plans to introduce them because they would blur the lines between factions." He probably could've phrased things better, but being indirect would have absolutely led to more miscommunication. Just consider how much people are hanging on to the "anything can happen in the future" part. If anyone honestly believes that "anything can happen" was an important part of the message, they've missed the point entirely.

[Deleted]

Because from what I know, the Kul Tiran humans had... centuries on them. Probably millenniums. I'm not quite sure when humans first arrived there.

The other, 20-ish years or so?

Yeah but as we can see, there are normal kul tirans who look exactly same as stormwind humans, so how does this work? only those who work really really hard will be blessed with half-giantness?

.. also 20 years is completely reasonable for high elves to have different body shape and posture, if you change how you eat and how much you change your daily life from being city slob to forest folk(if we talk about highvale elves)

[Kithelle]

No game director would ever put in a race that, as it is in the game (ie. High Elves as they are right now without any changes), would imbalance the factions.

People need to remember that when you say you want High Elves, you are saying you want the nigh-identical forms that exist in the game.

You NEED to distinguish a NEW kind of name for what you want. As long as High Elves look one way in the game, you NEED to propose a NEW elf to replace them that encompasses what you want.

Dragonborne, Wildborne, Wild Elf, Nature Elf, go nuts.

There are plenty of ideas people are giving to make them more different than just pure Blood Elves with blue eyes...even suggested going as far back as to giving High Elves a model like they had in vanilla (But more updated) but lazy dumbass assholes like Ion just copy and past quote the same old shit that isn't even valid anymore since Void Elves are a smaller population than High Elves yet they're a race.

[Highwhale]

And all we know till BfA about KT nation only that they are island nation and have great fleet. But we know almost everything about Blood elves/High elves

from the moment Aliance can't use logic. If you deaf and don't understand that not only skin, but cultural difference allow race to be playable then... sorry for you.

So you gonna play "my opponent is stupid and deaf" card when you can't answer the direct question?

Already said. Implement new unique model for HELF (NPC and PC) just like for NB. Also NB steal Highborne (Alliance) fantasy.

Kul Tiran are fatso only because they needed visual difference from default humans since they were planned to be released as Allied Race.

No amount of your "all we know till BfA about KT nation only that they are island nation and have great fleet" will change that.

[Sigxy]

Yeah but as we can see, there are normal kul tirans who look exactly same as stormwind humans, so how does this work? only those who work really really hard will be blessed with half-giantness?

.. also 20 years is completely reasonable for high elves to have different body shape and posture, if you change how you eat and how much you change your daily life from being city slob to forest folk(if we talk about highvale elves)

...Well... yeah? o_o Can you tell me of people that grew that big by doing absolutely nothing? o_o' Keep in mind, we're not getting the 'stormwind' humans nor the very thin ones, we're getting the specific ones that 'half giants' as you put it.

And 20 years is enough to change maybe weight and such, sure. But they sure need more than 20 years to get physical changes other than looking more slim or fatter.

[FlubberPuddy]

Fair-skinned doesn't just mean light skinned, it means specifically natural, pink, real life human style light skin. Different shades of purple? There's no reference point to say where a given shade of purple becomes unnatural for night elves. It's certainly different, even if it is purple. Void Elves also have some light colored skin tones, they just happen to be between light blue and light purple. The issue is not between light skin and dark skin.

The disconnect comes from where he said "if you want to play a tall, fair-skinned, blue eyes elf then...sorry, the horde is there waiting for you."

So then if that is the logic he's using, then what others are trying to point is the same should be said for "if you want to play a tall, dark-skinned, silver eyes elf then sorry Alli-" oh wait no, Horde can have both kinds of elf it's completely okay.

This is all I think players are trying to point out with that specific line of logic. It just doesn't hold up with Nightborne being on the Horde. It's regardless of their story because the focus on the statement was looks and not lore. Ion made that very clear with that particular line.

[Highwhale]

The disconnect comes from where he said "if you want to play a tall, fair-skinned, blue eyes elf then...sorry, the horde is there waiting for you."

So then if that is the logic he's using, then what others are trying to point is the same should be said for "if you want to play a tall, dark-skinned, silver eyes elf then sorry Alli-" oh wait no, Horde can have both kinds of elf it's completely okay.

This is all I think players are trying to point out with that specific line of logic. It just doesn't hold up with Nightborne being on the Horde. It's regardless of their story because the focus on the statement was looks and not lore. Ion made that very clear with that particular line.

Yea double edges sword.

[Deleted]

And 20 years is enough to change maybe weight and such, sure. But they sure need more than 20 years to get physical changes other than looking more slim or fatter.

Well i expect nothing more or nothing less, just give them different body type and different faces... And dont tell me that high elves must have same faces as blood elves. Because artistic freedom exists and you dont cease to be high elf, if you dont have same face as your blood elven neighbor.

[Goldielocks]

if you read my previous post, i was talking about demon hunters, who can choose healthy skin, no horns, but also torn skin with fel spots, fins and horns, while still being a demon hunter, just with different levels of fel exposure

That was done for gameplay reasons, as for why Void Elves can’t look more fair. They don’t like blurring the line between factions.

Its about how he did it.

This is a literal temper tantrum you’re putting on here.

[Zaelsino]

Unfortunately ion's response didnt help blizzard (my opinion).
Instead of finding a diplomatic way to appease the fans, like for example "for the storyline we have for bfa, alliance high elves race dont fit on the story we are building. But the future is opened." With this he would have respected both sides and ended the discussion for now. But instead he gave an answer that mocked the high elf fans, a considerable part of his playerbase, showing he has no intention of being neutral on the issue. Not nice, but its their franchise and their way to communicate with their players. So it just ends with people accepting this and continue or moving along and play another game.

How odd. You'd rather Ion just lie to you, so you can continue pushing a concept they've been astoundingly transparent about not wanting to implement? Isn't it rather worse to let you obsess and get your hopes up over something they've internally taken off the table already?

I'm just glad we got some some insight into their design philosophy. Sure, the population comment was silly, but the meat of the answer was solid.