are Allied Races the future?

[Deleted]

Maybe a mix, or some inclusion for already existing races?

[Deleted]

Imo if it makes sense, just add them, like the if the Alliance or Horde ally a race like they have done in previous xpacs, make them into an allied race, if people a lot of people want to play them good if not, no worries, they had to make the model for the ingame story anyway. I have a bunch of Goblins and not many people play them apparently.

So anything old that is allied with the Horde or alliance should become one eventually, Taunka, Hozen, Jyniu, Furblog, Ogres, etc

[DatToffer]

Blizzard tends to perfect new contents when it works (Vehicles introduced in woltk, missions from wod, etc.)

I think allied races are a finished feature and I'm not sure we will see more after BFA. Warfronts on the other hand seem very prototypy and I expect to see more of that in the future.

[Zandrill]

we need murloc allied races

[pankrolik]

More = better!

[Alex86el]

allied races are better than regular ones.

because they dotn have to be so different, and we can get similar races and subraces that people like.
they also require much less development.

and the biggest plus, herritage armor!! )

[Flurryfang]

I think the current trend of Allied races is really dangerous and i hope they limit themself to the 6 different races, they have planned for BFA and stop there.

The problem is, that the races are getting unfocused and will get less and less time in the spotlight. With 6 new added races in BFA with their own culture, faction important characters and unique position with the factions, Blizzard will have to do something drasticly to create the feeling, that the game is acknowleding these races and not ignoring them.
In most expansions, there is a focus on 2-4 races, leaving the other races in the shadow to wait their turn. With 6 new addes races, the added time spent by the races in the shadows is gonna be much longer and it might create the feeling that some races are being forgetten, ignored and left out of the plot.

So if Allied races are the future, i really hope Blizzard will weave the story of the allied races together with their connection race, like the Mag'har just desolving into the Orchish horde, becoming the same thing, just like the Lightforged, where in the future story, the draenei and the Lightforged are pretty much the same thing. If they do not do this, they will just drown in different racial perspectives and stories, and we will get a worse game because of this.

[Azerate]

I'm one of those who don't care about races to be honest. But to answer the topic: yes, it seems that we will be flooded with allied races in the near future. The good thing about it is it seems that we will be getting a new character slot on the same server for each new allied race.

[spleen1015]

It all depends on how successful they are. I hope we see some with every expansion. They make the game better.

[Eazy]

What about 0 new races in the next expansions?

[spleen1015]

What about 0 new races in the next expansions?

What's wrong with new races?

[Kithelle]

Allied races are less work than actual races, but they market it as something cool and amazing. Less work + same hype = more money for Blizzard.

So yes, this is sadly the future.

^ This.

Less work same payoff = win/win for Blizzard

[Eazy]

What's wrong with new races?

The only thing that's wrong is that Blizzard isn't developing/giving bigger credit to the races we already have.

[Battlebeard]

i don't really see the 'less' work part. The detail put into the customization, and racial abilities don't seem that much less than what is seen in previous races. Other features I use to see attributed to a race don't seem all that required, like home city or mount (but might seem expected by others). skeleton, rigging, and animations seem to be the only other thing and I'm not sure I'd associate that with 'race' exclusively for teh purposes of producing a new feature.

Skeleton, rigging and animation is alot of work. I don't want to give a too simplistic view on designing allied races, but they are more or less re-colored current races, while a brand new race, where they start from scratch, would require alot more effort.

[Polarthief]

There probably won't be a NEW new race for a long time, maybe ever again. The Pandas and Cata races have very low player count so Blizz head honchos may be hesitant to ever put that many resources into a new race ever again if people are obsessed with already playable humans and elves

It's almost like people don't want to play characters that have shitty casting animations or have horrible models for gear. Nearly every piece of gear is first perfected on the Human model, so it'd make sense to play a Human if you like transmog.

Take one of my favorite Mage sets ever for example. Here it is on a Human:



Looks pretty good, right? Now here's the same exact set on a Worgen:



Look how awful the helm looks, clipping through the fur and the muzzle coming through. Look where the belt is placed. It's a fucking mess!
Now let's look at how well Pandaren fares:



O-oh. Oh dear lord. What is this abomination?! It reminds me of a Volus from Mass Effect!

So yeah, you can see why people don't like playing races with bad casting animations and horrible transmog. Plenty of other races work with mog just fine:

NElf looks good.


Draenei is surprisingly good. The belt's a bit big but no real complaints here!


Dwarf's also good.


Gnome's got a big head but is otherwise fine.


Obs Horde's a bit of a different flavor, but I exclusively play Alliance and I was too lazy to do Horde races, but at you can see, Worgen and Pandaren look like ASS.

[stevenho]

Animating is pretty much the most time- and money-consuming part of the process.

New textures, even models are dirt cheap and fast to make in comparison. So it's def less work than actually brand new races (even w/o new starting location and stuff) because it's expected that Blizz will reuse stuff, animations in particular, for them.

Actually the most time consuming process is adjusting each and every single piece of gear (tens of thousands) to fit the new model. It is easy, but extremely time tedious and long.

[ls-]

Actually the most time consuming process is adjusting each and every single piece of gear (tens of thousands) to fit the new model. It is easy, but extremely time tedious and long.

Not exactly, you're forgetting that multiple pieces of gear actually reuse only a handful of models, it's especially true for legs, chests, boots, and gloves.