Yes, it’d be cool if Blizzard weren’t too lazy to give it a big ol’ lore explanation.
But did you see the mess BFA and SL were, story and lore-wise? They couldn’t even bother to fill in major plot holes for major characters.
You might be better off just coming up with your own lore explanation at this point. You certainly can’t do worse than Blizzard does. Seriously though, if they decided to give it story–great. But we can still have different skin colors even without that.
Yeah, to me, if Hearthstone can do it, then why can’t WoW do it.
E.g. Cariel. She looks amazing and I’d like to see her in more prominent storylines. Not just random NPC that no one will care about.
The harsh truth is asking blizzard to world build is the same as asking blizzard to give us player housing, it will be a cold day in hell before they do it. They can’t even be bothered to really add the political workings of the horde and alliance to the plot.
Which is really the core issue. I still remember being upset about the lore back in Cata and how wasted it was to leave out so much of the political storylines that Dwarves or Night Elves would have.
It’s an expectation problem 
I think your reasoning is important tbh it’s one of the reasons I used your example.
I do think that some of the people who have an issue w black and brown people existing are using the idea that because there isn’t something like your example that it shouldn’t have happened or shouldn’t continue w additional options - ie: trying to shut down conversation for additional skin tones and hair styles etc bcz “their immersion”. For me Blizzard saying Azeroth is diverse and then saying these options was a long over due oversight is enough for me to consider those types of peoples stances to have been addressed by Blizzard and repudiated.
People do it a lot w LGBTQ+ stories / characters too it’s the same “I’m fine w it but only if its not pandering and done in this way” but really what they mean is anything and everything they view as pandering because they don’t want the stories told. And I want good LGBTQ+ characters and stories too, but not every character and story in WoW is good Tyrande and Malfurion are no great love story, so I’m not going to lose sleep over if the LGBTQ+ characters they include in the future or now aren’t a perfectly told narrative. I feel like the fight for better writing is separate from the issue of wanting to get the process started and get to see some characters and stories told.
So it’s sometimes hard to discern who is actually trying to combat the problematic opinions by asking for story and who is just trying to hide behind it & is the type to have an issue w the casting on Rings of Power or HOTD.
Is that a hearthstone character?
I don’t think this is true.
There is legitimate concern about them adding things to the game without much explanation or backstory. It does a disservice to the character.
It’s totally possible for a company to add LGBTQ+ characters simply to “check off a box” and then give the character literally zero backstory.
The same can be said for customization. I think Blizzard did a fantastic job with the humans (so far) because they went and made NPCs more diverse too. So if they do this with elves and dwarves, it needs to 100% be done too.
I think the HOTD casting was fantastic and everyone in that series did an amazing job.
I think Rings of Power’s hiccup was how limited the diversity was in the series. They needed more of it, way more.
I think in terms of people w a checklist they created meant to stop the inclusion of LGBTQ+ stories and characters it is true. There is some people who will view any and every story or character as pandering but present their argument in a way that at least tries to obscure the fact that their pov and point is to not have LGBTQ+ stories and characters so they do it in a way that “I’m fine w it as long as its not pandering” and then they insert this unobtainable checklist thats meant to be like some barricade against including these stories.
Not every character needs to be amazing thats insulting, if straight characters can just exist and have mediocre storylines, LGBTQ+ stories and characters can just exist as well.
To be clear this isn’t an advocate post against better writing I think the fights are separate. I’m tired of people who hide behind the excuse of “my lore” or trying to feign interest in better writing as a way to gate keep characters/stories they don’t want out of the game.
I don’t think Blizzards tendency for mediocre writing is an excuse to not have LGBTQ+ stories. I think we can seek better writing and also seek them having more diverse stories in the mean time.
They are pushing the customizations out both on new characters and NPCs
I don’t think that the people who saying things like
Claiming it hurts their immersion
Or start doing some weird argument about evolution to discredit adding diverse options.
Baals reasoning makes sense to me and is very valid.
I just don’t adhere to people who try to say use the “my lore” / “where did they come from” arguments as if its just so hard for them to believe black and brown people exist. They are using those arguments to gate keep and stop that diversity from being added in most cases.
I think there is a difference between Baals reasoning and people who are “oh no my immersion” and then proceed to try to stop more options from happening in the mean time.
Like wanting this as our skin tone range for options
More diverse hair styles etc
Requesting these options shouldn’t bother anyone, and story shouldn’t be used as a detriment to not have diverse options.
Ye came out with Mercenaries. There’s some nice lore with all the characters that got released tbh. It’s just a pain to sit through the card playing
I want elephant race with Indian culture represented
Because WoW is being developed by a raid or die anti-RPGer, that’s why. And their current writing team isn’t great, or are at least being confined by Ion’s “vision”.
I’m not saying it wouldn’t be cool if they did include some good stories, but dude… like I said: they can’t even not completely mangle their own major lore characters at this point. Having interesting, deep, meaningful storylines for different human cultures and where these characters came from and how just ain’t happening these days. Sad but it is what it is. Still doesn’t mean we shouldn’t want more skin tones (and customization for ALL of the races TBH).
They also have repeatedly since golden eyes on blood elves have emphasized player agency for players to create characters. Within that player agency they wisely chose to allow players who previously didn’t have any options for darker skin tones on human skin toned races to have those options. But there’s still a disparity on that front, as well as almost non existent on the hair style option front.
Stepping the game up on the issue as a whole is a positive addition in that it’s both important to people who want more diverse options and also just more options.
Once again no thanks. Go back to male and female models.
So you were happy that there were only white people in wow?
There are around 10,000 things that have higher priority than adding even more customizations to models no one ever sees anyway.
Don’t let the door hit you where the cataclysm splits you (I heard that one from a goblin).
You say all this… but you’ll be back.
You throw your little tantrum and in a month you’ll be back.
Definitely shocked at how comfortable people are not only violating forum rules but just spreading hate rhetoric.
It doesn’t change what’s being requested or talked about so for me I just hope people do better.
Honestly thats always a surprise to me, seeing folk just tossing themselves out like that.
I’m not sad to see that sort of person leave.
Yes it does, sorry but hispanics don’t care about a fictional character being brown. We care about family and work, period end of story. Please don’t speak for the rest of us, we don’t want or need you to speak on behalf of us!
You are a virtue signaler who thinks to himself
“Look at me I am better than everyone else because I speak on behalf of minorities”
How is it not?