You’re painting with broad strokes and miss that the only reason things got this “toxic” was because of how drawn out this matter has gotten. Spite isn’t enough of a reason to ignore the factors surrounding this mess.
I hate bringing FFXIV into the discussion, but the way they handled the Viera race is basically how Blizzard should have handled high elves if they felt inclined to give players that race. Acknowledge the requests in a non-dismissive manner (meaning no “the Horde is waiting for you”). Once a way to bring them in opens up, do so without any monkey’s paw nonsense. SE could have just as easily made the Viera beast rabbits or gone for a taxidermy look if they wanted to, but instead just fulfilled the request to the letter and got good chunk of goodwill out of it. Even though I criticize their inclusion as an appeal to nostalgia, I cannot deny that people were and continue to be happy with how they were brought in.
Conversely, if high elves were never in the cards then Blizzard should have phased them out of the story as early as Wrath of the Lich King (no Silver Covenant) or Cataclysm (all thalassian elves being Blood Elves in the revamped Azeroth). The requests and resulting “toxicity” would have fizzled out by the time of Mists or WoD at the latest.
“Give us what we demand, even if the race is already in game and playable for years and we just don’t want to acknowledge the actual story of the game. And mentioning that it’s something that the other side has and likes is toxic to us as we demand it be taken from them!”
Considering that no one here or in any of the high elf treads ever asked for Blizzard to undo elves joining the Horde, I’m not sure why you wrote this. And remember, Blizzard decided to disregard their own story first because, as I’ve pointed out in the past, high elves should have stopped being a thing after TBC.
This is more nonsense. No one has asked for Blood Elves to be taken away from the Horde. What you’re attempting to describe is a scenario that doesn’t exist and trying to use that as…I can’t even call it a counter argument or even a talking point. If it was just to fish for a reply, good job. And thanks for the bump, I guess.
I mean, most know it’s a non starter. But man the number of times I see people complain about how the high elves were stolen from the Alliance kinda makes that seem like it’s what they want.
And nice way to avoid the point that you’re making up something to be offended by even though it was factual. In warcraft, they named the high elf concept “Blood Elves” and they’ve been playable since BC. If you wanted to play one, they’re on the horde. It’s not an insult to you to point that out.
Actually the only time I’ve seen people suggest taking away belves from horde, are horde players who don’t want pretty races on the horde, but yeah never from people who want helves.
when the prospect was broached of alliance getting a new, attractive non-belf race, it was met with the same resistance as high elves. belf players wanted to be the premiere and only pretty/handsome people. the only solution many of them had tolerance for was to give the alliance ugly, odd or obese races, to punish us for wanting to have an attractive race with realistic proportions.
That quote was ridiculous levels of foot-in-mouth given the context of the situation. So it either came from ignorance (something I find hard to believe because the requests were years old at the time along with Blizzard having CMs to keep an eye open) or dismissiveness, neither of which is a good thing from a PR standpoint. It could have been left at “we have no plans at the moment”, “I can’t promise anything but I’ll mention it to the lore team”, or about a dozen other non-committal ways.
And that’s without going into the inherent stupidity of telling people to switch factions, especially at a time when factions were still in the forefront for people. Now they’re seen as almost an inconvenience (hence why most seem to be okay with cross-faction dungeons, raids, and soon guilds), but that wasn’t exactly the case several years ago.
especially when it was still easily provable that alliance was losing players and entire guilds, by the droves, due to competitive boss fights cheesed by goblin rocket jump and belf arcane torrent, and an entire expac where troll beserking was the penultimate racial. heres a video from the time
The VE voice lines are just better lmao. The female voice set it’s a bit harsh, but still better. The male one is 100% better! It sounds regal and calm.
This could be such an easy fix. If we just had an NPC that offered a softer version of the EE proc where there’s no poof and no texture change, and we just get the soft blue glow by itself, it would be enough IMO.
Many races can’t be Paladins. “High Elves” have no greater reason to be paladins than Kul Tirans or Gnomes. Of course more Class/Race combos are better, and there is a lot that can be done with Void Paladins in the lore sense, but High Elves have never needed the Paladin fantasy to feel complete.
Would be nice, but it has never been an iconic class for them, nor a lore contradiction that they wouldn’t have it as a playable class.
But it is outstandingly disingenuous that you have kept pretending for so many years that somehow the High Elves that have remained on the alliance somehow do not count.
So the insult is there, on your refusal to accept that simple fact, whether that merits playability or not.
i suggested half elves, since there was enough evidence for helf+human procreation, such as veressa having twin half elf children and alleria having a half elf child (arator, who can still be viewed in the honor hold inn in hfp outlands. and in a cutscene with veressa during legion, onboard the vindicaar? where they discuss how they are gonna break the news to alleria, that sylvannas was not only an undead but the leader of the horde (alleria had been away on argus and didnt know what happened). not to mention, ellisande pointing out that the quel’dorei had corrupted their high elven bloodline by mating with what she called lesser races.
this would’ve allowed for a new model instead of a copy of blood elves, and none of this drama would be necessary ( unless the new models were bad.)
such a scenario ticks all the boxes –
high ef related
silver covenant related
attractive elves
unique race (et. al, not a copy)
fairly interesting lore with lots of wiggle room for elaboration
Adding Half Elves wouldn’t go well at all as they’re extremely rare and fans want the High Elves. Besides, Half Elves tend to either look High Elf or Human. They don’t really have their own thing going for them in WoW Lore. I mean, all the Half Elves we’ve seen in WoW use the High Elf model.
That and High Elf players would see it as another slight against them as once again, like with Void Elves, Blizzard isn’t giving what was asked but something that wasn’t.
right, which would clearly need to be changed. this idea was just something i worked on back when void elves were new, since void elves upset belfs and helfs. elegant solution not taken because, i dunno why
I don’t think Blizzard would desire too as Half Elves are just that rare. Course, half breeds in general are rare. Think that Half-Orc/Ogre tribe might be the largest grouping of half breeds.
Even then, at least Void Elves are different. If they added Half Elves then fans would ask why not just add the High Elves since Half Elves are depicted as being like them and Alliance aligned too.
I’ll never get the difference, it’s why I have said the real haters of High Elves are the Anti High Elfers and Anti Blood Elfers because the Blood Elves are the High Elves and they are on Horde and what it always comes down to is that they want the exact Blood Elf/High Elf race copy/pasted to Alliance with 1/1 options customization wise because somehow them on Alliance with a blue background makes such a big difference from being on Horde with a red background and I’m like really it’s the same exact race with the same exact stuff.
all the half elf models would have to be changed too. so alodi, kalecgos, arator, and all high elves would be half elves accept a select few (for example, alleria and veressa would be exceptions). the idea being that after 2000 years of intermingling with other races in dalaran, high elves have mostly become half elves. that was the idea.
I want Void Elves to look like High Elves and be given the cold shoulder at the Cathedral. We are elves after all. Aloof and pervy, I wouldn’t want my character’s Void form taken away. Let that dark side out under the beautiful High Elven form lies a being who embraces the darkness. We are Void Elves! Let us tear our enemies apart and let the void consume their souls. Maybe just nibble to start…
