I like Earthen. I think they’ll make a fine addition to the roster. But their reception is demonstrative of something very key: the playerbase (generally) doesn’t want new races to be made playable. We want existing races that they’ve already had the opportunity to become attached to made playable.
There’s a reason that Void Elves were so panned upon their release: the hope and expectation was for High Elves. Not something new, no matter how closely it hews to High Elves (especially after a few patches to placate these masses).
The same applies to the reception of Dracthyr. Those who were hoping for playable dragons expected either Drakonids or straight up Dragons - not the compromise that we received. I think the race is fantastic, but its perception in the community will forever by tainted by a comparison to what they are not.
Earthen fall into the same trap. While they technically originate earlier, they were never a race that received any amount of narrative focus enough for the playerbase to connect with them. They were automatons, after all. And the new iteration is quite different from that original concept to the point that they could have been called Stone Dwarves and people wouldn’t have thought them any more connected to Earthen than any other Dwarf.
For all intents and purposes, they are completely new. And it is hard to get excited for something that you have no connection to when you’re all too aware that they’re taking up development resources that could have been allocated to something that you already love.
But to be completely clear: I am excited for them, as I am for any other (non-Elf) playable race. I’ve got a couple names reserved and can’t wait to add them to the alt army. I’m sure that many here can say the same. But I completely understand the reaction.
Even if you like Earthen, you can’t help but to feel a little gutted that they weren’t something that you’re already invested in.
I don’t understand the obsession with weird looking snake things. I think they were stupid, personally. But lots of people also hate my weird looking lizard thing that I am right now. So there’s that.
I don’t have a race that I’m “invested in” that I care enough if it becomes playable or not. Whatever makes sense for the expansion is fine. I don’t get worked up over these things.
I will say that Blizz dropped the ball on the perfect opportunity to add Vrykul in the form of the Drust. They could have been a step in between mini humans and huge gigantic Vrykul. Same height as Zanda or Tauren. Their Druid lore would have made more sense and the ones who fought against Gorak Tul were allied with the Kul Tiran, so bam, new Allied Race.
Kind of rich coming from an Elf that benefitted from a “duplicate” model. Using the same models are fine. It’s the fresh coat of paint that turns it into a different sort of fantasy that’s important.
Its the first time that the model was given to the alliance.
And the void theme is something no race in the game had.
So everything about it was new for alliance really.
If earthen was a horde only race, i would consider them new enough as the horde has access to something it never did before.
But since theyre neutral, theyre the third dwarf on the alliance, using the same model on the alliance for the third time, with the theme of rocks used for dwarves… for the third time.
Precisely. If you don’t care, you don’t care. But the point is to get people “worked up” about them. It goes both ways - negative and positive. Blizzard absolutely want players to be hyped for the next feature.
A new model for earthen would have made them different visually from regular dwarfs.
So it would have been something new.
But youre also right that alternatively if they reused the model but made them a completely different non dwarf race like some weird drogbar thing, that would have also been something different.
It’s not that the same model was reused, though. It’s that you do not view it as being reused properly. You outright said that you’d have no issue with it if it was used in a way you enjoyed.
Using the same models are fine. It’s the fresh coat of paint that turns it into a different sort of fantasy that’s important.