What's the bigger factor, that elves are pretty? Or that they're persistent?

[Skytotem]

I've been thinking a bit recently about why elves seem to have taken over WoW for the most part, and it struck me, not for the first time, how frequently they get content updates, especially Blood Elves.


As an example with Belfs:

Vanilla - Scattered Belf NPCs, nothing big.

Tbc - Now a Horde race, major focus (Though it went all 'scryers' rather than Horde development)

Wotlk - Sunreavers debut at the beginning of the Expac, had belf advisors in practically every Horde town, and also had a big showing at the Argent tournament.

Cata - Reliquary debut, new belf npcs sprinkled around Cata revamp zones.

MoP - Belfs had a great showing at the Isle of Thunder and mixed in with all the political drama

WoD - Belfs had a thing in Talador with Light and arcane users, and even had some blood golems in the background

Legion - Belfs show up with the Nightborne rebellion

BFA - Belfs face off against Azshara


Compare this to say, Tauren, whose entire development can be summed up in "Cairne got poisoned by Magatha and got replaced by Baine, making no one happy"


So what do you all think? Is the elf's 'prettiness' a factor or is it more an aspect of them regularly getting development, even if it's not anything dramatic?

[SNES-1990]

It's the Tolkien effect.

The writers just REALLY love elves.

I find them all pretty bland. Story-wise, I like the Nightborne best, despite being the worst playable race in terms of customization and racials.

[plz delete account]

Skyrim belongs to the Nightborne!

[Beloren]

I've been thinking a bit recently about why elves seem to have taken over WoW for the most part, and it struck me, not for the first time, how frequently they get content updates, especially Blood Elves.


As an example with Belfs:

Vanilla - Scattered Belf NPCs, nothing big.

Tbc - Now a Horde race, major focus (Though it went all 'scryers' rather than Horde development)

Wotlk - Sunreavers debut at the beginning of the Expac, had belf advisors in practically every Horde town, and also had a big showing at the Argent tournament.

Cata - Reliquary debut, new belf npcs sprinkled around Cata revamp zones.

MoP - Belfs had a great showing at the Isle of Thunder and mixed in with all the political drama

WoD - Belfs had a thing in Talador with Light and arcane users, and even had some blood golems in the background

Legion - Belfs show up with the Nightborne rebellion

BFA - Belfs face off against Azshara


Compare this to say, Tauren, whose entire development can be summed up in "Cairne got poisoned by Magatha and got replaced by Baine, making no one happy"


So what do you all think? Is the elf's 'prettiness' a factor or is it more an aspect of them regularly getting development, even if it's not anything dramatic?

They've been a fave, but i think the devs fall in love with their stuff, when they make something nice, they fall in love with it.

THalassians weren't anything special in classic, but after they did them up, they really put effort into it, and ended up loving it.

Blood elves replaced night elves who had replaced high elves in Wc3 as faves

[LordVargK]

Well, it's realistic. About 40% of Horde Players are BElfs, so it only makes sense that they take part in anything and everything.

[matrix123mko]

Compare this to say, Tauren, whose entire development can be summed up in "Cairne got poisoned by Magatha and got replaced by Baine, making no one happy"

You forgot to mention that blood elves often got quite small cameos. Tauren got these too. The thing is that they blend better among orcs so you don't notice them as much as blood elves.

[Razion]

Blood Elves were also one of two races to not have their starting zones updated with Cata to fly, but they also rebelled against Garrosh notably for the end of his reign.

Tauren have had new sub-race focus every other expac - Taunka in Wrath, the Bloodtotem stuff in Cata with Magatha poisoning Cairne as a bonus in between, Yaungol in Mists, and recently Highmountain in Legion, and now in SL Baine will "uncover the truth of the Tauren" from Cairne or something. Though playable normal Tauren really only arguably had focus in Cata, unless we're counting Baine rebelling against Garrosh and now Sylvanas as Tauren lore, which I'd guess we aren't? At least Tauren got one of the best new race-class lore explanations with the sun druid paladins/priests. But, again, mostly Cata.

[Skytotem]

You forgot to mention that blood elves often got quite small cameos. Tauren got these too. The thing is that they blend better among orcs so you don't notice them as much as blood elves.

Tauren cameos tend to lack persistency. The Taunka, for example, never showed up past Wotlk. Nor did Dezco's discovery in the vale in MoP have any lasting impact.

And they got literally nothing in TBC or WoD.

[matrix123mko]

Tauren cameos tend to lack persistency. The Taunka, for example, never showed up past Wotlk. Nor did Dezco's discovery in the vale in MoP have any lasting impact.

And they got literally nothing in TBC or WoD.

Blood elves got literally nothing in Classic.

[Skytotem]

Blood elves got literally nothing in Classic.

Untrue! They were largely hostile but Belfs got a few folks in Vanilla, one even had a Horde-only quest seeding animosity with the Alliance.

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Captain_Th...thas_Brightsun



https://wow.gamepedia.com/Lethtendris

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Ambassador_Ardalan

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Bloodmage_Drazial and https://wow.gamepedia.com/Bloodmage_Lynnore

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Magus_Rimtori

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Master_Kariel_Winthalus

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Mathredis_Firestar

[matrix123mko]

Untrue! They were largely hostile but Belfs got a few folks in Vanilla, one even had a Horde-only quest seeding animosity with the Alliance.

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Captain_Th...thas_Brightsun



https://wow.gamepedia.com/Lethtendris

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Ambassador_Ardalan

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Bloodmage_Drazial and https://wow.gamepedia.com/Bloodmage_Lynnore

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Magus_Rimtori

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Master_Kariel_Winthalus

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Mathredis_Firestar

I could argue that we see some tauren every expansion too.

[Skytotem]

I could argue that we see some tauren every expansion too.

I feel like you're being pedantic, we've already addressed that Tauren's appearances generally don't have any lasting change to the HORDE members, while the belfs always have 'something' for the actual Belf faction.

[matrix123mko]

I feel like you're being pedantic, we've already addressed that Tauren's appearances generally don't have any lasting change to the HORDE members, while the belfs always have 'something' for the actual Belf faction.

I think the only important change was the introduction of nightborne. Anima golems turned out to be a minor addition.

[Evaddon]

Don't take them being around here and there as proper development, they've been relatively ignored since the ending to TBC, with the Sunwell and our light connection seeing barely hints of development, give or take a few characters like Lor'themar and Lady Liadrin. They have been around in every expansion, but nothing major or with any depth not counting Isles of Thunder and The Purge of Dalaran

[Paperfox]

It does make sense for the Devs to put the focus on where the players put the focus.

What would WoW look like if very few people played the elf races? Let's say that altogether players chose blood elves and night elves less than half of the next least popular race, i think that we would see very few elves in game, and if there were then they would be more likely to be mobs or bosses.

[LemonDemonGirl]

It's the Tolkien effect.

The writers just REALLY love elves.

I find them all pretty bland. Story-wise, I like the Nightborne best, despite being the worst playable race in terms of customization and racials.

Damn , someone I can agree with. I'm just so tired of seeing elves, elves, elves absolutely everywhere, whereas other races get nearly ignored. D&D's elves are *at least* a bit better.

And trolls, up until Cata/BfA, were practically just an 'enemy race' until the Zandalari were expanded on a bit more

[Skytotem]

It does make sense for the Devs to put the focus on where the players put the focus.

What would WoW look like if very few people played the elf races? Let's say that altogether players chose blood elves and night elves less than half of the next least popular race, i think that we would see very few elves in game, and if there were then they would be more likely to be mobs or bosses.

I think we do see a bit of a chicken and egg scenario though, where part of the reason they're popular is that they regularly get some kind of interesting development.

[Traycor]

I think we do see a bit of a chicken and egg scenario though, where part of the reason they're popular is that they regularly get some kind of interesting development.

I actually view this as the opposite. Before blood elves, Horde population was dying. The game might have even gone away because it was trending towards a one faction imbalance. Blood elves saved the Horde, and thus Blizzard put the focus/money/energy into that one race. It was what the players wanted to play, so Blizzard responded to that.

[Soon-TM]

Not only they are pretty, but both NEs and BEs (two of the three most popular races) have very interesting backgrounds. Shadowy, ruthless, no-nonsense amazon warriors (as per their WC3 depiction) are cool, and so are decadent, arrogant SoB's who have had to gulp a healthy helping of humility after getting their country ravaged by the Scourge.

[VinceVega]

Well Elves are the favourite of the players while tauren always have been a rather niche race.

Of course Blizz focuses more on them.