I have noticed a lot of accents, and dances mirroring our cultures in real life. I can’t tell if the races are parodies or tributes to real life cultures.
I mean Pandaren, trolls, humans. They could all be conceived as offensive by the chinese, Jamaicans , europeans, etc.
I mean you could make a case that the developers are trolling IRL cultures
I would say the same for dwarves, Orcs and Undead offending the cultures they amalgamated into their design but they are awesome.
IE;African, Mongolian, Egyptian, European, etc.
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Based off of =/= caricatures
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(confused as to whether this thread needs popcorn or cookies)
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You can be based off something and be a caricature of those attributes. I mean the trolls are focused on voodoo mon.
I doubt anyone would find it offensive though because trolls are cool…
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If you look to find offense, you will find it.
Everywhere.
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I feel the WoW races are inspired heavily by other iterations of the same fantasy races in books and the such which probably do have some reference to certain places and people in the world. The races are their own thing though and it’s not something to get offended by. I see blizzard making fun of dwarves or gnomes or Orcs in the game every now and again because it’s fun and it’s the races we come to love for being a little silly or stupid lol.
There is a ton of pop culture weaved into wow too like the dances, the quest/npc names and the jokes.
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Well unless we discover a new planet, IRL races are the easiest to base stuff off of. A bit lazy? Maybe. Offensive? No
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WoW Races are inspired by RL cultures.
Some are inspired by one, some are inspired by many.
But they aren’t really caricatures.
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Parodies for sure, they are not meant to be a DIRECT or COMPLETE 1:1 reflection of real life cultures, just influenced by them. Even within the same race you can usually find multiple blended customs/ideas from various similar races, not necessarily one singular one. As an Irish American for instance I am not offended by Dwarves because they are not necessarily Irish, they’re Irish/Russian (as shown by their racial dance) and therefore not offensive to Irish or Russian people specifically.
night elves are clearly Asian
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They are Feudal Japanese inspired, you can see it in their architecture and their warrior culture
Some of it, but not all.
If you look at ancient Night Elf ruins, you’ll see lots of Greek stuff. Even some of the newer stuff like the place where Ysera died have greek influence.
And their Night Elf themed Holiday, the Lunar Festival, is clearly based on the Chinese New Year.
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You can be but it doesn’t mean you are.
To be fair the ruins are part of an ancient highborne civilizaton, a place modern Kaldorei descend from.
Nightborne are more closer to Greek inspired than Kaldorei today
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Then how about this:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/f/fd/Temple_of_the_Moon_exterior.jpg
Created after WC3! 
Darnassus literally didn’t exist in lore back in WC3. It was created after Nordrassil was destroyed.
Iunno worship of Elune probably begs a befitting Temple that’s traditional in appearance.
You see the same logic applies to irl chapels and cathedrals.
Early wow had more caricatures, but they have backed off of that somewhat in AR. I was always a bit uneasy about seeing these, but the connections should not really be made in this fantasy land.
Draenei russian
Dwarf Scottish
Trolls Caribbean
Goblins possibly Jewish bankers, but most wouldn’t fit that stereotype.
Pandaren Chinese
Human midieval Europe
Tauren Native American
Lightforged, elves etc. Are more based on income, for example blood elves are wealthy and spoiled. Void elves are emo.
Nightborne are egotistical.
Night elves are tree huggers.
Gnomes, I have no idea.
Mag’har a bit African.
Orcs drug addicted weight lighters
Undead, no idea
Wargen mythology
Zandalar, Roman Egypt.
