I think humanized here in the context of showing empathy towards others and caring, being humble. And not as in “act as humans”
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Yes. We do.
We haven’t had anything like that before, and I doubt we will again. I believe the developers mentioned as much?
Okay. We are talking about something different.
When I said “humanize”, I meant in a narrative sense. To give the character some actual depth and motivations beyond just some stock figure. I’m not talking about making him act more like an Azerothian human. I mean making him act more like a relatable person, as we would recognize one in the real world. He still has that high elf arrogance, but there’s also doubt, regret, caution…actual emotions.
Shakespeare wrote about humans. I don’t know, some of them seemed pretty interesting. Just like the humans that Dickens wrote about. Batman seems kinda interesting. So do the Three Musketeers–
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You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a fully armored Blood Elf and a fully armored Void Elf with just a quick glance now though. And whether a player is even able to make such a distinction is irrelevant.
What IS important to people is whether the other player is friendly or not (and possibly what class they are) because if an enemy player is punching me in the face, the first thing on my mind isn’t going to be “WHAT RACE ARE THEY??? I CAN’T TELL!!!”
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Thanks for clarification. And I still disagree. I don’t pick and play because I can “relate” to them or that they act as someone I’d see in real life. I do the opposite. I’m here in this fantasy world to get away from real life.
I find Shakespeare to be borin’. I don’t care for Dickens’ books. I read Batman only for his villains, not the bat himself. And the only version I cared for the Three Musketeers was a comedy.
Well, every fantasy race that is somehow sentient is still based on human behavior somehow, so even the less human race in WoW still is derivative from human concepts.
Yeah, I’m aware that I won’t get 100% of what I want given that writers can really only write what they know. I just shoot for as close as possible.
Do you mean that you don’t want them to act like people do in real life in the sense that you don’t want them to have humanlike motivations and drives, or that you don’t want them to have any drives at all?
I’m not trying to quibble, I’m genuinely curious as to what you’re getting at.
The…normal human villains, like the Riddler and Catwoman? (I have no idea what’s going on with The Joker anymore, is why I’m leaving him out.)
I suppose the point I’m trying to make is that you might find those humans interesting?
I disagree, because I think the racial identity and distinction is important. You can immediately look at something designed by orcs or gnomes or trolls and immediately tell which race designed it, as it fits with their aesthetic.
There’s not nearly enough of a distinction between high elf designs and blood elf designs. Armor aside, if you put two of them right next to each other, it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart.
That distinction is valuable, and the lack of distinction is a bigger issue than I think people are giving it credit for being. I’ve gotta agree with the developers on this, which…is an odd stance, as of late.
All of this being said, I might be doing what you hip kids call “going off topic”, so I’ll save this kind of commentary for another thread. I think we need to get back on track of talking about how awesome Umbric is.
I’ll have to concede on Batman. It’s one of the few times where humans are remotely interestin’ to read in fiction.
I favor books and stories where the main character is not human or has their humanity severely hindered or reduced. Overlord, a light novel by Kugane Maruyama, is among my favorites.
EDIT: I also greatly enjoy the Warhammer 40k series. Especially Orks.
If the crux of playable High Elves is not being distinctive enough…then give them distinction. Expand their architecture. Give them their own unique customization options (which they did for Dark Iron dwarves). Expand their backstory so their identity is more than just “we’re not Blood Elves”.
Just because they look similar NOW, doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever.
Also, High Elves are a Horde race. Void Elves are already too close for comfort to straight up giving one faction’s playable race to the other faction.
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But the Void knows many good jokes…would you like to hear some Void jokes? They’re surprisingly enlightening and amusing.
Please, we all know the best jokes come from Drunken Dwarves. I doubt the void has anything better, but I’ll indulge you and your void just this once.
So a Void lord was reeking havoc as they do, and this other Void lord turned to him and said “we need Light bulbs!”. The first Void lord glanced at the second one (with whatever constitutes as eyes) and asked “Why? we live in a realm of perpetual darkness, what would we even do with those?”. The second one asking for Lightbulbs took on a demonic tone and shouted “I don’t care just send the Old gods out for Lightbulbs!”. Well the first one facepalmed and created some Old gods before begrudgingly sending them out. The two Void lords sat there forever and finally the second one turns to the first and asked “well, where are they? they should have been back by now?”
Meanwhile in the Twisting nether…
LF Draenei: “By the Light! why do these Old gods keep trying to abduct us!?!?”
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Alright, I’ll give you that one.
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We’re never going to get a particularly edge-y Umbric, in my opinion. He’s on the Alliance and Blizzard seems very uncomfortable with giving us really morally grey actions. If anything, I expect Umbric to try and take a drastic action to return Silvermoon to the Alliance and we have to kill him before he can, like, try to corrupt the Sunwell. He also cannot eclipse Alleria in terms of Most Visible Void Elf because she’s the racial leader. I think they’re going to set Umbric up to have us players get attached to him before he goes mad and we have to put him down. Alleria will sadly look at him and talk about the way that anyone can be corrupted and we must all be on guard.
Alleria isn’t the racial leader, Umbric is. Heck, she’s not even a void elf. She’s just the mentor for them like the ethereal was for her.
And the person who hogs the spotlight in the faction narrative.
Or you know, they end up using Umbric as another proof that people who use the void are not destined to go insane. So far the void elves have proven to be fairly reasonable.
Well thats interesting because in BfA he uses terror tactics by literally profanating the bodies and eggs of their dinosaurs and he knows that they are sacred for the zandalari so he uses a undead-void t-rex!
but no one seems to care at all! is kinda amazing.
it would be nice if they actually explore what he was actually doing. is the rest of the alliance okay with this? well who cares, blizzard certainly don’t.
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(Query): And what is the distinction between Void Elf designs and Blood Elf designs?
(Commentary): There is no difference because the Void Elves have nothing more than a couple of tents on a rock in space.
(Speculative): Playable High Elves could’ve easily had a very distinct design from Blood Elves, by making those High Elves come from Dalaran. Dalaran itself has a very distinct design from the Blood Elves. Clothing, building, etc… it’s all different. It would’ve been much better than the absolute nothing we have from Void Elves, and their heritage armor that looks like it was taken from a dead Dreadlord.
(Commentary): The problem is that the Void Elves don’t have any distinction from Blood Elves at all other than blue skin and tentacle hair, which can all be covered up. High Elves were the obvious choice, the correct choice, and the one that should have been taken. Void Elves could’ve been later introduced as new customization options for High Elves and it would’ve worked because we could’ve had a better story of an elite few trained by Alleria personally, who chose to walk in her footsteps. Not this narrative mess we have right now.
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I’ve been sayin’ for quite a while now that the Horde needs to just pack up and leave Dalaran so the city can finally be reunited with the rest of the Alliance. Havin’ the Void Elves be High Elves who live in Dalaran would’ve been a great way to do this. Plus, who else on Azeroth would’ve been better equipped to deal with the now Void-infused elves? Maybe Suramar since we know they can’t be anywhere near the Sunwell, but since they’re an Alliance race, Dalaran would’ve been the best possible place for them to continue their Void studies.
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