People like their races being represented ingame. People get engaged and follow along with the story and enjoy seeing certain elements represented. You want to see your race, your team, show up and do a cool thing.
Draenei and Worgen were basically ignored for all of Cata and Mists, with Worgen in particular having to go through the Undead levelling experience to get the conclusion of their own personal story. People were not happy
You can’t just replace this with another race. Each race has its own story, its own themes, and folks want to explore them. The thing is, the Horde leans into this HEAVILY, what with Lor’themar being involved in both of the recent attacks against Orgrimmar and calling Sylvy out in earlier quests, the Blood Elves specifically showing up in WoD to help out the Draenei defend Shattrath, the various goblin interplay between their factions we see.
All that? We don’t get as much of it on the Alliance and got a bit starved for it. Its why Night Elf players have complained for yonks that they’ve been so watered down. You can’t just replace with Race X or Y, each race has its own Space and those things haven’t been explored
I’m on a RP server, and lemme tell you, folks go crazy with this stuff. I’ve seen orcs of practically every clan, even the obscure RPG only ones that only appear for a line in a novel. There’s at least three groups trying to bring back Arathi as a kingdom. We had Kul Tiran guilds before Kul Tiras came back. Darnassus used to be embroiled in politics and in-fighting between traditionalist Night Elves and those more willing to embrace the rest of the Alliance
Folks get inspired by the story and follow along with it. You can’t just replace one group with another, you have to consider that story that’s there in place
And that’s why I still hate Void Elves, because they fly in the face of all of this
Those undead did not try to defect to the Alliance. They tried to reunite with their families. There was nothing said about where they stood on the war.
The debate wasn’t about if people like it or not but about the relevance and the importance of those moment. Every other race have their own importance to the point that we can expect them to appear at some moment. We all expected draenei to show up on Argus. We all expected gnome to show up on mechagon. We all expected troll when we met bwonsamdi. Meanwhile the alliance high elf could have been erased after BC nobody would have notice. Human could have been on the thunder island. Blood elf and night elf could have been alone at suramar. High elf have nothing of their own.
You mean the human building giving to the high elf? Still not a ‘‘high elf’’ city.
An Alliance is correct because they joined the old Alliance, but stayed with the new. Most Helves did not stay though. Anestarian himself did not really trust alliances. And preferred elves to be on their own. But knew they needed to ally to survive.
Oh yes there was. Particular it was actually one of the forsaken who gave Calia the idea to have her reveal her identity and he wanted to defect to the Alliance so he could spend more time with his daughter!
Being on alliance side of the map and fighting for the alliance are two different things. Sylvie murdered them because in her tattered mind she thought they were betraying her. But it’s her ego that was affecting judgment. They just wanted to be with their families. They did not give a crap who had more azerite.
Storytelling’s a lot of times about what you chose to put in, and what you chose not to include. Yeah, gnomes we expected on Mechagon, but goblins showing up and specifically Gazlowe’s crew who’s keeping stuff secret from Gallywix? That’s adding flavour and helping build towards the overthrow of Gallywix in the goblin heritage armor quest. We meet the Zandalari, sure, but specifically have to deal with the consequences of past actions as the Farraki trolls are still lived about Zul’Farrak and, well, we know how that all goes. If that was just Random Troll X, it wouldn’t have been as impactful as a troll from somewhere we specifically destroyed, setting them on that path. Additionally we have that whole introduction of Zul in these, a character we’ve heard whispers of ever since Mists who finally shows up in the flesh. Would not have been effective to be Random Evil Troll 20
Would have the Purge of Dalaran been as effective as a thing that, storyline wise turned the Blood Elves away from joining the Alliance, had it just been humans, rather than High Elves?
Dalaran has been as much a city for the elves as it has been for the humans. There is a reason Kael was once one of the Six. Also, those spire are just as much elven inspired as many other things in WoW.
Some of them wanted to defect to the Alliance. It might not have meant they would fight under it, but it meant they would live under the Alliance rules/be part of it.
It meant only they’d live with their families that lived in Alliance territory, as civilians. I don’t think Blizz ever intended on undead on Alliance. Allied races and the undead Nelves would have been the perfect time to do that.
It’s simple to me, give Void Elves natural hair colors and tentacles toggle on/off. Give Nightborne Night Elf hairstyles and colors.
Give Forsaken Nathanos-esque human models, Night Elven and Blood Elven Dark Ranger models.
Why not??? Jaina and dalaran human are powerfull enough to do it and blood elf wouldn’t have more join the alliance. In fact your post is just proving my point. Other race bring something specific to their race. The alliance high elf are just use as pointy ear human.
The purge of dalaran would have been the same without them.
The throne of thunder would have been the same with human instead of them.
Suramar would have been the same without them.
If they would bring much, we would expect them. What moment are people saying ‘‘oh high elf should be there!!!’’. None. Meanwhile we did feel the night elf absence in nazjatar. We did feel the orc absence in legion.
Wrong again. Dalaran was always a human city. It just welcome elf. Magic looking building doesn’t equal elf building.
I see you’ve misinterpretted the entire story of that part of the MoP campaign. It is not about the power of someone to do that. It is about the effects it had on the Blood Elves as a whole.
The Purge would have been different with any other race. The Purge is not a story about the Blood Elves getting beaten. The Purge is a story about the Blood Elves being betrayed by those that were their cousins, their family, and reaffirming their place in the Horde, at a time they were seriously considering leaving it due to the actions of Garrosh. You could not just substitute gnomes or worgen in for the High Elves during that. It had to be the High Elves. They had to have that sting of betrayal as the faction lines tore apart their race
Well, whole heap of them joined except they decided to get tentacles for hair. They’re called Void Elves. Personally I don’t think they should be a race either but, here we are.
Now, the High Elves who weren’t part of the Horde ever and turned on their brothers and sisters? That might have been a more interesting choice to leverage off but, here we are
Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: You looked the other way. You and your insubordinate kind are no longer welcome here.
Archmage Aethas Sunreaver says: This is OUR city too, Proudmoore.
The elves have been living in Dalaran for more then 2000 years. If Ogrimmar can be considered a home/city for any of its members in not even a 1/100 of the time, so can Dalaran be considered a city of the elves as well!
And how are those different than the blood elf? What is their aesthetic that isn’t blood elf or human?
Most high elfer are gonna say that the difference is that they are alliance but what??? So their entire dialog is going to say how they are alliance. The blood elf are gonna have their content and the high elf gonna do the same but ‘‘with the alliance’’???