Orc Polls: The best orcs, your faves and why

[Beloren]

Orcs are the lovable shrek race of warcraft, their greened muscle bravado has inspired many a wimpy skinny teenage lads into becoming men, pumped and beefed up. their simple yet strong and direct, Lok'tar and matter of factness embodies all a man need to worry and focus on, and their babes can keep up with the dudes.

Like men, orcs can be tempted and swayed, but they have an aggression and sense of honour that keeps them grounded and likeable.. though disparate and their are many variations/groups, here isy our chance to say which do you think is the best and your favourite:

[Kyphael]

Shrek's an Ogre. lol

[Beloren]

Shrek's an Ogre. lol

But i think more of shrek when i play/see orcs, than i do the ogres of wow.

[matrix123mko]

Stormreaver orcs. I love Gul'dan.

[Feanoro]

I don't see the only good orcs on that list.

[Beloren]

I don't see the only good orcs on that list.

It is included in other, but I take it you mean a dead orc

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm missing the dead option

Not a huge fan of the muscle-macho-beast tribal shtick the orcs have going for them. The only thing I like less would be the japanese misstranslation of the early D&D books - which shaped their depiction in that part of the world to this day - where they made them into pig monsters which look just pathetic.

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Shrek's an Ogre. lol

I think he is actually a martian. As far as fantasy or mythology goes, he fits neither.

[Venziir]

I'm missing the dead option

Not a huge fan of the muscle-macho-beast tribal shtick the orcs have going for them. The only thing I like less would be the japanese misstranslation of the early D&D books - which shaped their depiction in that part of the world to this day - where they made them into pig monsters which look just pathetic.

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I think he is actually a martian. As far as fantasy or mythology goes, he fits neither.

The first D&D depiction on orcs (from 1977) showed them as pigmen, so it's got nothing to do with a japanese translation error.

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But i think more of shrek when i play/see orcs, than i do the ogres of wow.

He's still an ogre though, regardless of what you think.

[Beloren]

I'm missing the dead option

Not a huge fan of the muscle-macho-beast tribal shtick the orcs have going for them. The only thing I like less would be the japanese misstranslation of the early D&D books - which shaped their depiction in that part of the world to this day - where they made them into pig monsters which look just pathetic.

Oh that's how they appear in NWN game too, kinda much prefer warcraft orcs. Warcraft does the best orcs and elves.

Tolkein does the best high elves though, and they know how to write immortals, sadly despite the interesting variations and expansion of elves, most of it is bad, could be a lot cleaner - I mean night elves have hardly anything to do with night or the stars in game and they're a major race , and they sucked at writing them as near immortals who've lived since the first days of humanoid civilization - they behave like children. Tolkein would never make that mistake.

Now orcs on the other hand, much better job, although they could do much better in tackling RL issues via the orcs without taking away from their character.

Trolls are also quite unique, their portrayal of trolls isnt sen anywhere else, another greatly undervalued race.

Thalassians they did well, and it's good the focus is on blood elves cos they cant do high elves well.

Humans, is the hardest to mess up, except there's is the only fantasy game I've not been able to make a human male toon I really like the look of, never had that problem in other games.

[Julian Rayne]

I've shown pictures of Blizzard orcs (and Elder Scrolls orcs) to non-gamers and they're almost universally identified as trolls.

[Cosmic Janitor]

The first D&D depiction on orcs (from 1977) showed them as pigmen, so it's got nothing to do with a japanese translation error.

It did? I thought it had no pictures just a text that read something along the lines of ugly like pigs. My bad then. Still looks pathetic and shit .
Edit:
https://666kb.com/i/cuzqntkuso9yied84.png
If that is from 1e then I'd say they are ugly and clearly changed over time, but don't look like pigmen either. They looked more like some pudgy lizard-men-thing. Well it might have been intention anyway and the arist was just bad and couldn't draw a "proper" pig snout.

[Venziir]

I did? I thought it had no pictures just a text that read something along the lines of ugly like pigs. My bad then. Still looks pathetic and shit .
https://666kb.com/i/cuzqntkuso9yied84.png
If that is from 1e then I'd say they are ugly and clearly changed over time, but don't look like pigmen either.

They look exactly like pigs, with their long snouts, tusks and wierd ears. Though not as much as the orcs in Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 4... Damn those things were god awful! https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Orc_(H2) & https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Orc_(H4)

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I've shown pictures of Blizzard orcs (and Elder Scrolls orcs) to non-gamers and they're almost universally identified as trolls.

Okay? How is that different than a person who doesn't read fantasy think that and elf is the same as Santa's helpers?

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Oh that's how they appear in NWN game too, kinda much prefer warcraft orcs. Warcraft does the best orcs and elves.

Tolkein does the best high elves though, and they know how to write immortals, sadly despite the interesting variations and expansion of elves, most of it is bad, could be a lot cleaner - I mean night elves have hardly anything to do with night or the stars in game and they're a major race , and they sucked at writing them as near immortals who've lived since the first days of humanoid civilization - they behave like children. Tolkein would never make that mistake.

Now orcs on the other hand, much better job, although they could do much better in tackling RL issues via the orcs without taking away from their character.

Trolls are also quite unique, their portrayal of trolls isnt sen anywhere else, another greatly undervalued race.

Thalassians they did well, and it's good the focus is on blood elves cos they cant do high elves well.

Humans, is the hardest to mess up, except there's is the only fantasy game I've not been able to make a human male toon I really like the look of, never had that problem in other games.

Orcs in NWN looks pretty much the same as both Warcraft and TES orcs, they don't look like pigs.

[Julian Rayne]

Okay? How is that different than a person who doesn't read fantasy think that and elf is the same as Santa's helpers?

Not much difference. The first time I read Lord of the Rings I imagined Legolas as 3 foot tall person with a pointy hat shoes. And I imagined orcs looking something like the Falmer from Skyrim (although that was a couple of decades before Skyrim). All my storybooks that had trolls like the story of the Billy goats drew them looking almost identical to video game orcs.

This Jamaican version of troll is nothing I've ever seen before.

I wonder where the modern version of orcs was first used in pop culture. Was it Warhammer maybe?

[Venziir]

Not much difference. The first time I read Lord of the Rings I imagined Legolas as 3 foot tall person with a pointy hat shoes. And I imagined orcs looking something like the Falmer from Skyrim (although that was a couple of decades before Skyrim). All my storybooks that had trolls like the story of the Billy goats drew them looking almost identical to video game orcs.

This Jamaican version of troll is nothing I've ever seen before.

I wonder where the modern version of orcs was first used in pop culture. Was it Warhammer maybe?

The idea of green, tall, tusked giants seems to stem from Warhammer yes, since D&D was more or less based on Tolkiens orcs, which were small, crooked and ugly - like Falmer I suppose.


That said; the idea of Orlando Bloom wearing the outfit of a christmas elf, while being even shorter than the hobbits is delightful.

[Beloren]

The idea of green, tall, tusked giants seems to stem from Warhammer yes, since D&D was more or less based on Tolkiens orcs, which were small, crooked and ugly - like Falmer I suppose.


That said; the idea of Orlando Bloom wearing the outfit of a christmas elf, while being even shorter than the hobbits is delightful.

What makes orcs really stand out, is that until warcraft they were almost always rendered as stupid, savage near mindless type barbarians, usually foot soldier material, never being smart enough to be the main evil behind anything, and always given in to basic instincts, ultimatley to show how powerful human kind or elves are.

Not in warcraft, they're cunning, smart, they have society with a core of ethics, an honour code, they're very strong and powerful - warcraft is the first time the orcs in a fantasy race seemed terrifying and could actually conquer the world. They're proper serious business - although they kinda had to be to be the main antagonists for the first 2 chapters

[Syegfryed]

this is not even a question, everyone knows the warsong is supreme

Not much difference. The first time I read Lord of the Rings I imagined Legolas as 3 foot tall person with a pointy hat shoes. And I imagined orcs looking something like the Falmer from Skyrim

to be fair, those ones who look like falmer look like goblins in lotr, goblins and orcs are someway somehow familiar/related, as long some notes of tolkien

This Jamaican version of troll is nothing I've ever seen before.

Jamaican thing is wow based, but, the appearance of trolls, like they are in wow, is somehow related to the old norse tales, of beings with long nose and all

i remember one user here once show me that, and a video/music of a old tale of a troll woman who was going to marry a man, but he want her to convert, something like that, and those trolls looked like the wow ones, not just the jamaican/tribal/african thing.

[McNeil]

One of my best memories I had with orcs is when Grom had to drink Mannoroths blood to defeat Cenarius in WC3. I started to hate the night elves because they were quite a pain to deal with, then you ended up with demon empowered orcs who just steamrolled their whole base and armies. I'd love to have a Warsong chaos orc as a playable allied race, where some of these orcs were unable to be cured but are able to control themselves now that the Burning Legion has been defeated.

[Andromedes]

Black metal shattered hand orc. I wish there was customization like this. And no, i dont count that beige skin with 2D painted scars as a shattered hand customization.

[Shiza]

Black metal shattered hand orc. I wish there was customization like this. And no, i dont count that beige skin with 2D painted scars as a shattered hand customization.

Basically this is the only legitimate answer. 88% on this forum are plain wrong and objectively have no idea about what is cool.

[Skytotem]

Basically this is the only legitimate answer. 88% on this forum are plain wrong and objectively have no idea about what is cool.

Why that particular percentage?