Is WoW becoming more cute?

[Claymore]

I suspect the shift in tone is due, in large part, to a change in leadership (for both Warcraft and Blizzard as a whole), and Blizzard's leaning into being ultra-feminist (which isn't bad, just that they're trying *so* hard to cater to feminists, specifically it feels like).

As a point of reference, the Art-book that came with WoW's Vanilla CE has one image that depicts an orc warrior grinning, with a naked human woman over his shoulder, subtitled "To the victor go the spoils..."

That's absolutely NOT "okay", by any means. But I think it also showcases that Warcraft was, in its way, a bit more brutal than it is today. You'd be cutting peoples' heads off left and right to bring as proof of bounty for a lot of quests, but that's generally not done now, save very occasionally for non-humanoid enemies. I think many would describe Warcraft as hyper-masculine, and its woman were similarly hyper-feminine. Now, though, it seems like in an effort to avoid "toxic masculinity", they almost seem AFRAID to have characters butting heads, challenging each out.

It's a big reason I think the Horde has really suffered. For much of WoW, the Horde was a hyper-masculine faction, but now it's also forced to observe "equality" in this really weird way that doesn't really feel natural. Orcs were always a faction where "might makes right", so the idea of them blindly following an elven archer who uses dark magic feels pretty contrived.

[Stricks]

Wouldn't feminists reject the premise of the idea of making things "cute" to cater to them? Seems off. More likely that their statistics have shown that a sizable number of players engage in the cute things, so they create more...

[sam86]

Not sure if true or not, but anyway, you're saying that they had to change because the most successful expac of World of Warcraft didn't sell enough in China, even though it was the most huge success in West ?
And since they changed, they never made the same numbers ever again ?

it didn't sell at all, not 'not enough', the exp was banned for its heavy death themed, the exp was released very short pre-cata and was a very stripped down moderated version, for exact details google it since it is seriously very long (like up to 80% of wotlk got either changed or removed, so listing even half of changes would take ages)
As for 'shareholders' when wrath was released there was no shareholder, activision acquisition came after wrath launch by at least a patch if not more, ie : wrath map plan was already in making with zero activision influence, yet acti didn't give up and still removed the very obvious mount drop from Algalon and made him the first ever shop item, but not the topic here
I still wonder how did that Draenei girl in Argus or that mount got accepted in china, maybe no need for heavy moderation since it is one time thing and they can ignore (not to mention blizz is making a total blind eye on a warcraft modeled theme park in china)

- - - Updated - - -

Man. I kinda wish WoW had started way earlier. As a sequel to Warcraft 2. So when the Tauren were introduced, people could bitch about them having no lore and catering to furries.

Lore has to start somewhere, dammit. If everything is limited to what was introduced in the RTS games, we run out.

it doesn't need to sh8t on old lore to be reintroduce, heck blizz just sh8t on lore for the heck of it, there is zero reason to sh8tcon shadowlands and say no mortal never went there, they can say few mortals, but zero contradicts the shadow priest artifact lore, which is a big deal since that dagger is a big key element in BFA 'lore'
they made that line that f8ck lore and contradict itself just to sh8t on it, zero benefit, zero gain, just f8ck lore

And no one bitched about Taurens, not to mention they don't even resemble furries, they are if u really want to squeeze it a minotaur rip-off, which isn't bad, but i always wondered why they weren't called Minotaurs, it isn't like a trademarked name and would make more sense and fit wow perfectly, we already have harpies and hydras and even Banshees in wow lore, all ripped off from greek mythology

[Nathanyel]

not to mention blizz is making a total blind eye on a warcraft modeled theme park in china

Having no legal handle != turning a blind eye

[BeepBoo]

If everything is limited to what was introduced in the RTS games, we run out.

To be honest, with the way the game has turned out, I'd prefer that.

If they can't find a way to respectfully add new things while adhering to what the old stuff set up, they need better visionaries.

Example:

Mandalorian - good
Basically the entire new "main" trilogy - bad

[Clone]

WoW has been incorporating more cute.

[Sliske]

WoW has always had cute and evil / monsterous and it almost always comes in the form of cute = allies, monsterous = evil. Vanilla, gnomes but also silithid and old gods for instance. WoTLK had tuskaar but also the undead horde and so on.

[sam86]

Having no legal handle != turning a blind eye

i'm 100% sure they can easily sue them for copyrights, they are using exact same models from warcraft universe, or else u'd seen a copy of every major franchise everywhere on earth, which doesn't happen