I didn’t like that either, WoW has already a lot of diversity, we have lots of cultures represented by races like Taurens, Pandarens, Worgens, Tuskarr and so on.
Humans receiving these options is one thing, and i’m totally in favor of it, now races like dwarfs and elves getting these, is a little awkward. Especially the Blood Elves who are heavily inspired by books like LOTR and other ones, the same way the Night Elves have some inspiration on Drows from D&D as was stated by devs some time ago.
The problem is not a darker skin color, but a darker skin based on human instead of elves, why not give something that has more to do with NE instead of humans?
When i saw this i thought: So they’re going to give darker skin colors to every race that resembles humans. Thats a little bad in my opinion.
How does this not change anything when it simply proves that not all races need to be or are restricted to representation through the races that represent some form of racial/ethnic background like you are stating.
I didn’t state that every culture is represented in wow, I’m simply stating that not all cultures that are in general represented by these other races that are categorized as asian, white american, scottish, etc. are and can still be represented or open to the idea of other form of culture in other groups. Diversity can exist in any race is my point .
Dark Skinned Elves are pretty common in a lot of fantasy, especially more Eastern based fantasy universes. There’s not really a lore reasoning for those either, but it doesn’t really matter.
Why is everyone being a douche to OP? His question was genuine. I don’t really think it needs to be explained, and I personally think it’s a good addition. I understand why you’d want an explanation though.
I’m not saying they need to be restricted, but they have been in the past. If you look at Elder Scrolls, Nords only have white skin tones because they’re inspired by Nordic culture. If they were suddenly given dark skin tones, would that not seem strange to you?
All I’m saying is Blizzard has chosen to disregard their races inspired cultures to give players more options.
I think when you bring race into any discussion it can get really heated for obvious reasons. I don’t think the OP meant any harm in it which is why I didn’t go up in arms about it, but I think it can be easy to assume/take away such a thing since there’ve been a bit of opinions on the skins anyway.
I Just realize that Gnomes have no dark skin tone yet ? Are they going to get any Dark skin tones as well or not? and if not is it logical to assume that they are dark skin tone gnomes but we never see any and their all hiding. Whats your take on it Araedrialles ?
So, I understand where you’re coming from I truly do. But I think it honestly depends, if someone was married to or travelled somewhere or whatever other circumstances may be, the person wouldn’t per say be of that culture sure. But you can surely pick up or be brought up in that culture and that may be the only thing you know. Which could be of course one reason you could say for that diversity. Or that there’s just that diversity already existing within’ that area but just isn’t nearly as prevalent as what is the known characteristics for that race.
I think it’s really nice that they’re bringing up new representation for the other races, but I think it’s important to make sure the already established culture remains that culture. So for pandaren it should remain chinese inspired because that is what it is. But human asians will also see a heavy chinese inspiration similar to pandaren simply because a lot of asian culture resemble each other in some way.
Ultimately you’ll see cultures bleed because we all take from one another due to our own history, which gets put into a lot of fantasy MMOs, RPGs, Books, Movies, etc. But it may not be that specific representation or it has its own twist. I think whatever they do bring for the diversity will have its own twist as it always have.
For example another thing that sort of bleeds with other cultures but is not tied to one specific one necessarily is rice cakes, which in the same inn as the Kimchi you see a Thundertotem Rice Cake which is a heavily known asian ‘dessert’ so like, Mochi for example or Injeolmi for koreans. However, there are other cultures that surely have rice cakes as well. I think it really just depends how you look at what all could still be represented and what bleeds with other cultures .
EDIT : I didn’t think it was going to be such a huge post
TLDR; I think there are still cultures that they could use as representation for the diversity, some cultures bleed, and that diversity is good/healthy.
I must admit, i find Blizzard’s selective rigidity when it comes to whether or not they can or can’t do something because of “reasons” is frustrating.
Ultimately, i think they just decide what they want to do and then shape some excuses and/or a narrative around it to suit, they never seem to be genuinely constrained.
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