As someone who doesn’t know either, I’ll disagree just to be a contrarian.
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You might be conflating visual ideas shown by a game with the end result of literature that only exists in a book. I can be the “ideas guy” and start talking about all the sci-fi books I know, it doesn’t mean I’m a better writer than Issac Asimov.
When I say WoW was ripping off Tolkien though I mainly mean the MOVIES of Peter Jackson were obviously ripped off. Listen to the voice acting of the original Night Elves intro cutscene and the intro of LOTR1 and see what I mean.
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Dude, racist much? Are you saying all the Draenei look alike? Seriously?
Lol, jk.
If you don’t play wow I bet it doesn’t make sense. A quick google search will help you see what they’re supposed to look like.
I played wow for years, so I didn’t bat an eye when they dumped them in. They’ve been in the game since the first expansion.
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These are Draenei. They exist in Warcraft lore and are a space faring race.
If you want to know their lore and how they fit into Hearthstone/Warcraft look here.
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I think you took the very little story they included in the WC3 manuals way too seriously.
I could totally see what Blizzard was going for when they introduced the Draenei in WoW, and it wasn’t a retcon.
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Okay.
Your mother was a murloc, and it’s not a retcon. 
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And your father smelled of peacebloom
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The flavor in this game is just off and makes no sense in most situations. Its actually super cringe, this has become a meme game.
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Draenei means “Exiled ones” in their language apparently so they named the planet after the name they had taken after exiling themselves. Their name came before the planet’s, so it does make sense as a retcon.
Now why the Orcs did not name the planet they were on is another matter entirely. (Or what they named it, which I am not certain of, if they did.)
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Unless they retcon the language itself
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Did the Orcs even have a conception they were on a planet at the time? If they hadn’t progressed to an intellectual point where they desired to name the planet, and a race came in and named it before they had a chance to, it really doesn’t matter.
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Oh really?
Wasn’t Draenor already there as early as in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, for example? I don’t think they’ve heard of ‘Draenei’ before Warcraft III: TFT, though.
Besides, it’s usually so that ‘Iraqi’, for example, are named after ‘Iraq’, ‘Azerbaijani’ after ‘Azerbaijan’ etc, and not the other way around, so this explanation does sound very far-fetched.
Thus,
Not really, it you ask me.
They probably did, and it was called most likely Draenor.
‘World’ or ‘planet’ — doesn’t really matter.
Besides, while many orcs were and still are admittedly dumb, someone like Gul’dan had an intellectual capacity far beyond other mortal races (like humans, for instance), besides, he had Kil’jaeden to teach him many things. If he was capable of travelling through the Twisting Nether (or is it GDB now? They’ve retconned much there, too) with his mind and so on (I think he invented things like necromancy that way, didn’t he? Of course, he was also the first mortal warlock, but he learned demonology from Kil’jaeden, if I understand correctly), then I’d say he knew more about the ‘comsic’ structure of Warcraft than many other supposedly intellectual races.
Oh, by the way, while looking something up on the topic for this reply, I stumbled on this:
https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Draenei_controversy
Lemme just cite some select passages:
In a post on the World of Warcraft forums, Metzen apologized for the difficulties the new lore created, but stood by his revisions, believing that this version grounds the draenei and the eredar more firmly in WarCraft lore (he admitted that he simply forgot the eredar were already demons before they met Sargeras).
(Highlighted in bold by me for emphasis)
Metzen also claimed that the new dimensional ship lore would not be too similar to science-fiction “spacecraft,” with enough of a twist to make it work in a fantasy environment. The ship does not travel through “outer space” (referred to as the Great Dark in Warcraft lore). It instead teleports between worlds using the Twisting Nether. Therefore it is inaccurate to say the draenei are in any way related to outer space.
So much for the ‘space’ theme of the latest HS expansion, btw, and all their rubbish design.
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What I’ve learned is SparkyElf really hates imagination, thinking for himself, fantasy concepts, and might even dislike Warcraft.
Apparently he wants Blizzard to spoonfeed him every detail of the story perfectly, even if those stories are told by different authors, at different points in time, who may have wildly different conceptions about how the story could be told.
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Ugh, must you attempt to reduce the subject to petty bickering?
Apparently, SparkyElf doesn’t like those ‘Chieftain Poloniak’ (sic) moments:
https://youtu.be/ejDmD4PN0Ig?t=550
(and another one just a few moments later in the video).
You might even say he shows them (creators etc who commit such blunders) ‘gnome mercy’. I’d agree. But your wild and unfounded claims? Ugh, please.
PS
Yes, even then. It’s called doing one’s homework, I’ve heard. Or is it not trendy anymore?
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They’re blue alien dudes who sometimes have tentacles and/or horns. I mean, they’re no less distinct as murlocs or totems.
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You understand that one man’s story can constrain another man’s story unfairly right?
You understand that they are trying to do a Warcraft x Starcraft cross promotion, and using their existing constraint that the space travel needed to be unique in Warcraft stops them from being able to do that cross promotion?
Think outside the box and see the other factors in play. It’s you that is reducing their work into a perfectly continuous thing that can’t evolve or adapt or change over time. Fantasy concepts don’t have to conform to perfect consistent realities. That’s why we turn to fantasy in the first place.
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Why are you referring to yourself in plural? Are you roalty or such, majesty?
Besides, are you sure you’re not confusing fantasies in someone’s head with ‘fantasy’ as a genre?
Come on, these aren’t a people (a ‘race’)… except in HS, perhaps. 
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You remind me of a couple of guys in the NoGoblinsAllowed forums who would regularly bash Wizards of the Coast for their similar continuity errors in their storylines.
Wonder how two juggernauts of fantasy content could somehow manage to not do their own homework on their stories?
Weird.
Maybe there’s more to it than just people being incompetent.
Maybe you are right, maybe they did make mistakes.
I’m not going to be like you though, and linger much thought on it. It just detracts from my love of what they got right, which is like 95% of it.
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Oh, by the way…
‘Stops’? Heh, I wouldn’t be so sure.
Here’s this curious article, explaining very well the reason behind such ‘promotions’ and the current state of affairs:
https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/what-does-year-2025-look-like-for-hearthstone-based-on-the-warcraft-direct/ .
‘Space travel’ has already happened in HS, btw, not being a thing in WoW (see above), so I suppose that Overton window has started shifting.
Woulnd’t be totally surprised to see ‘My Little Pony’, say, in 2026 expansions… And, of course, those who wouldn’t like it would be criticed for their thinking in the box etc, I must assume.
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Downvoted. Dislike button. 
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