Can/should lack of racial diversity be "fixed"?

[Al Gorefiend]

That is, can the large gap that separates the most-played race from the least-played race on both factions be shrunk down, or smoothed out; do you believe Blizzard can actually do something about that?



http://wow.realmpop.com/us.html


Here we see the big two - Humans and Blood Elves, who since their arrival have always been the dominant races. They cannot be knocked down through racial nerfs, other races' racial buffs, lore development, class options or social mockery (lookin' at you BEs). Because of RP reasons, looks and flavor the two will always dominate.

On some realms, the big two have (almost) more representation than the other 5 races combined

Is this truly a bad thing? Yes, I think so. It isn't necessarily about caring what other people play, but rather other player's projecting immersion that doesn't fit lore standard or looks unnatural (such as seeing more Blood Elves than Orcs in Orgrimmar - The Orc city!)

But what can actually fix this? nerfs to racials won't fix it (Blood Elves have received racial nerfs such as a 6% mana return dropped to 2% and still remain the most popular Horde race on PvP realms by far), more class options for existing races won't fix it (and Titans forbid Blizzard works the opposite direction and gives Humans/Blood Elves Druid or Shaman) and more races being added only stretches the playerbase, but percentage wise the big two remain equally ahead.

Can Blizzard logically fix this? Will new player models fix it? Is it actually possible for Blizzard to realize this problem exists and work on a solution that doesn't take away the joy people feel from playing the big two? New player models? Over-the-top new racials for the bottom races such as Gnome and Goblin?

Discuss. Does it bug you that your favorite race is only a small percentage of the population? Does it bug you when you enter a raid and you're the only Orc? Should people who are bugged by this just get over it and get checked whatever mental illness you believe them to have?

[Alvito]

Take away racial abilities and this would change a great deal. You certainly wouldn't have so many human toons.

[Deleted]

Is belf racial really any good in pve/pvp? I think belfs are played most because some people think they look good, humans may have great pvp racial and many will find them "safe" or easy race to play if they ie. RP.

Though imo they should remove current racials and bring only flavour things. Or not even flavour things, choosing race should happen only by looks/animations.

[Dreknar20]

Can Blizzard logically fix this?

Not really........you cant 'fix' what people prefer or like

[Sandrox]

Not really........you cant 'fix' what people prefer or like

You could if you made all the races look good. People tend to gravitate to races that have hot females, or badass males.

[re1gn1te]

Dose it need fixing? Dose it affect you ? I mean I couldn't give less of a shit how many people play what races. I'll play the races/class combos I want to. The only one I really take racials into account for is my raiding main my other toons they don't matter and I picked w/e race I felt like being while playing that class.

[Feral Camel]

This is really odd. My two favorite races are both the lowest played (Goblins and Dwarves).

[Krolikn]

Is belf racial really any good in pve/pvp?

An AoE silence is amazing in PvP especially for melee who would be up close and personal. Although the large number of Belves is probably more to do with them looking "pretty". I know far too many men that play female Belves....ugh.

[Bluesftw]

ok humans are dominating cause of free trinket , but belfs ?! like wtf their racial is garbage...

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

You could if you made all the races look good. People tend to gravitate to races that have hot females, or badass males.

And look good how? That's subjective and it's 100% impossible to make something liked by everyone.

[Dreknar20]

You could if you made all the races look good. People tend to gravitate to races that have hot females, or badass males.

yeah but 'looks good' , 'hot' , and 'badass' are all very subjective, like tier sets

[zoomgpally]

Is belf racial really any good in pve/pvp? I think belfs are played most because some people think they look good, humans may have great pvp racial and many will find them "safe" or easy race to play if they ie. RP.

Though imo they should remove current racials and bring only flavour things. Or not even flavour things, choosing race should happen only by looks/animations.

I rolled belf when faction changing my paladin to horde, before holy cows.
Now i only play without belf racial for classes that cant be belf, its saved me so many times

Also, not more draenei? They are EVERYWHERE

- - - Updated - - -

And look good how? That's subjective and it's 100% impossible to make something liked by everyone.

True, but updating graphics would be a start

[Zaqwert]

It's clear there is a strong preferance for humanoid or big, tough looking classes.

People mostly pass on the non-human or smaller model classes.

[JimPaladin]

All the people saying "Looks good/cool is subjeeeeectiiiivee!!! waahh, waahh, waaaahhh!!" are just being salty. It's obvious by looking at the percentages that the overwhelming amount of players think the Blood Elves look "good/badass", and while that's STILL subjective, it's STILL proven true that most people are subjective to it by pure, raw numbers. So stop bringing up a point that doesn't exist.

Anyways, I think the reason most people play Human isn't because of the racial, in fact, the PvPdriven cunts who play human for the racial alone make up a fairly small percent of human players over-all. People just make humans because they have no pre-existing knowledge of this game or the story, and so therefore make an Alliance because it's the "Good" side and they pick human because it's the easiest race for them to relate to. It's also what most people tend to make as bank alts and stuff (At least, from what I've seen.)

On the Horde, you have the Blood Elves who are in a special place. They're the only "pretty" (at least, were. I guess you can sort of count the Pandaren into this, now) race. Most girls will play Blood Elf female because "I want to look pretty" and most guys will play male because "Dude he looks like SEPHIROTH haha holy fuck this guy is cool and evil he sucks people's mana and he's a BLOOD ELF!!!".

Well, either that or they play Blood Elf female and then get dorito dust all over their nipples every time they play her.

[Lovestar]

I played a Human as main strictly because they have the crispest, cleanest animations. It just feels more responsive; other races have a lot of "squishiness" thrown in to their attack animations. Human attacks are all-business, no frills.

Although, the fact my one-handed weapons were inexplicably gigantic, like twice the size of other races' two-handers, was a nice bonus.

Most girls will play Blood Elf female because "I want to look pretty"

The "pretty" part was always ruined for me by the "Why am I wielding a toothpick-sized weapon?" part. The proportions do make outfit designs look good, though. But... those toothpicks... D:

[JimPaladin]

Also, to add a response to the thread in general-

I don't think it's something that should really be bothered with. No matter what you do, anything short of a total redesign to the Blood Elves to make them all withered and "ugly" would do anything with them. You can nerf/buff/homogenize all you want, it wont change a single little thing.

Same with the humans, really. If you nerfed their racial or took it away, sure, some of the PvPers would move on to another class, but it wouldn't impact the numbers overall.

but belfs ?! like wtf their racial is garbage...

Yes, a 2 second aoe silence and mana/energy/rage/focus generator is just TERRIBLE because you're not a good player and can't utilize it. Stupid bad skills, being out of my grasp!!!!

[TEHPALLYTANK]

I would love to see them remove racials that have impact in PvE/PvP. Stuff like +10/15 to X profession is fine and all, the rest just messes things up. It also bothers me because I value aesthetics very highly and am unhappy that my choice results in an disadvantage in the power of my character versus another character of the exact class/gear level but of a different race. Even if they do such a thing with racials it is not going to suddenly make everything average, there still are gonna be trends (though hopefully less extreme than the current alliance trend).

[JimPaladin]

I would love to see them remove racials that have impact in PvE/PvP. Stuff like +10/15 to X profession is fine and all, the rest just messes things up. It also bothers me because I value aesthetics very highly and am unhappy that my choice results in an disadvantage in the power of my character versus another character of the exact class/gear level but of a different race. Even if they do such a thing with racials it is not going to suddenly make everything average, there still are gonna be trends (though hopefully less extreme than the current alliance trend).

I enjoy the racials quite a lot, myself.

At the moment, I feel the only racial powerful enough to dictate "yes, make THIS versus anything else" is Every Man For Himself.

Sure, people put up the argument "Oh, well, it just means Humans don't use a resil trinket so they have a little less resil!" as if that changes the fact double dps trinket is still MUCH better in PVP (for as bad as WoW pvp is, there's no reason to muck it up even further with a racial like EMFH) and that the loss of a bit of resil matters all that much in the grand scheme. I mean, on one hand, only people who desperately care about PvP are going to do this and normal players don't care either way, but still.

Also, though I'm fine with the human racial for getting more reputation, apparently some people actually go so far as to either make a human or race change themselves to humans at the start of patches/expansions in order to hit gear reps faster. Not anything I find that effects it much, just funny that some people burn so much money to get revered two days sooner.

[Vongimi]

ok humans are dominating cause of free trinket , but belfs ?! like wtf their racial is garbage...

WTF are you talking about? BElf is one of the best racials in the game.... Instant AoE silence? Thats insane! Many high end PvPers go with blood elves (the others go undead). Humans are the only race on ally that has a good racial (for PvP), so the population isn't split like it is on horde with so many good racials.

[JimPaladin]

Guess that means blood elf males are more badass than trolls, orcs and undead combined

To most people, yes. That's exactly what it means.

Undead, Trolls and Orcs are all pretty "badass", I'll agree. But most people see Blood Elves and think, as I said, "Wow he's so cool and badass and he looks good."

I mean, before Blood Elves, Tauren were notorious as the race lots of guys played because they were "big cool bull guys with BIIIG DIKZZZ".