We both know alot of people are chomping at the bit to play helfs. Of course they are going to swap sides. I feel like that is part of the reason this will go live. I’ve said before this feels like a “break glass in emergency” play. Especially with as adamant as Ion has been about blue eyes not being available to players. Someone over his head said make it happen. So it is.
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(Sarcasm): Such a terrible mistake they had to repeat it a few times across multiple expansions.
(Humor): Actually, that’s probably not incorrect. I mean, BFA is basically MoP 2.0 as far as faction conflict goes.
You can like a post = to the amount of alts you have.
(Commentary): That’s a bit disingenuous though, isn’t it? I wouldn’t want likes from multiple alts.
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I am going to disagree with you that there will be anything beyond a marginal exodus of Blood Elves to the Alliance.
The population imbalance we see today is not a result of racial visuals; it is the consequence of prior racial abilities.
As a result, the exodus from the Alliance to the Horde has already occured. I agree that it is an issue. However, you overestimate the number of people willing to transfer multiple toons, guilds, and etc. at the price Blizzard offers simply for access to customization options already available on the faction they are on. Not only would they have to transfer factions, but they would also likely have to transfer realms in order to join the correct population.
This is a heavy price tag.
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Doesn’t matter, just saying their options if you wanted to do so.
Oh no. I am not saying that there will be a mass sift in over all players from Horde to Alliance. But I do feel like this decision was made in what will probably be a larger focused attempt at attracting more players to Alliance.
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(Commentary): Agreed. Besides, I think Blizzard’s bigger concern right now is less with numbers, and more getting the Alliance’s existing population to engage in end-game content. This is also another reason I’m in favor of allowing for an optional toggle for Entropic Embrace. Every bit of encouragement to get players to engage in end-game on the Alliance side, no matter how big or small, is important. If players who want to immerse themselves as High Elves find themselves averse to combat due to Entropic Embrace’s visual, it’s going to discourage them from endgame.
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Person 1: Give me $100.
Person 2: How about $50?
Person 1: No $100.
Person 2: Ok, how about $75?
Person 1: Ok $99.99. SEE I AM WILLING TO NEGOTIATE!
P.S. What is the HE racial mount? Not all races have gotten heritage armors AND the starting experience is being revamped to the point where it is possible no new race gets a unique starting experience.
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Ok, thank you very much for answering sincerely.
From what you say, I understand that, to you, playable High Elves would be a copy of the theme, story and general feeling that surrounds Blood Elves, and by giving that to the Alliance the Horde loses something has been unique to them (in playable terms) since TBC.
So I get that you feel that way, but we’ll have to agree to disagree, mainly because, to me, High Elves aren’t really a copy of Blood Elves regarding its “theme”. High Elves are their own thing actually - they refused to follow the same survival strategies (mainly, mana tapping living beings and killing them in the process), most of them prioritized their old allies over their very own nation, there’s even one group of them that stopped practicing magic altogether in the Hinterlands. They really have little in common with Blood Elves other than biology and appearance. In fact, to us Void Elves do “steal” from the Blood Elves general theme (just replace the Light with the Void) and they are in fact Blood Elves.
So that’s why we never understood why people seem to be upset about playable Alliance High Elves who argued the Blood Elf themed would be copied to the Alliance (when, strictly speaking, it’s not true, at least not entirely), and however very few people complained about Void Elves doing that exactly - they are literally Alliance Blood Elves who preferred the Void instead of the Light.
Now, the other main argument: “faction identity”. One could argue that, by making playable Alliance High Elves, the Horde loses the Thalassian model uniqueness. This point would stand if it were not because we already have Pandaren and the Thalassian model on both sides, and arguably the Night Elven model as well. Plus, Blizzard has been breaking the faction divide since TBC: Paladins and Shamans were given to the other faction, we can now create both Ally and Horde characters in any server (it wasn’t possible in Vanilla pvp servers - you had to stick to one faction), Death Knights “removed” the uniqueness of the “Death” theme that belonged to the Undead and was given ro every single race, Pandaren, the ability to comprehend your foes’ language with Mage glyphs and other items and actually being able to speak with the opposite faction… the list keeps growing, which shows that, to Blizzard, faction identity is really not that important, especially now that both factions will have almost identical Thalassian models.
So, sure, I get that those players who enjoy the game because of faction identity might get upset, but it does not look like Blizzard shares these views, and quite frankly I doubt it’s that important to the majority of players, considering most of us play both factions and enjoy other things instead of their “identity uniqueness” (like seeing a Blood Elf player and a High Elf player fighting and killing each other - to me thar is way more interesting and fun (and realistic) than keeping a race’s appearance locked to one faction).
So we can conclude we’re just different players with different views and priorities. People here have stated before we try to shut you guys up and criticize you, but that’s not what we are doing or at least not our intention. We simply argue that our proposal isn’t literally removing anything from any race (and you’ll have to agree with me here), except maybe the faction uniqueness in playable terms. And we don’t criticize you, we simply disagree with your views and can’t quite understand why some people would go as far as asking Blizzard to backpedal and remove regular skin tones from Void Elves. And the fact that we ask for things that affects somehow faction or race identity does not make us whiny babies who want everything and who don’t care about anyone else - we simply find joy and excitement in other things that you, for example, don’t. It’s not that we want to remove Void Elves or Blood Elves, it’s simply that Blizzard is indirectly telling us that we should ask for customization options in order for us to get our High Elves. It’s really Blizzard’s fault if you think about it, this wouldn’t be a problem had they created High Elves as an allied race, clearly showing how they deviate from Blood Elves thematically.
TLDR: I understand you like faction/race identity, but we don’t share the same views. So we’ll have to agree to disagree, and let’s all respect our requests, both for and against customization options.
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Which again is a distinction with out a difference. You are trying to pretend that is some how different.
High Elves don’t get any of this because they aren’t a separate playable race. Blood Elves get all of these things, and Void Elves get everything except paladins. Wildhammer Dwarves and Sand Trolls aren’t getting any of this either, so it isn’t something unique to High Elves.
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(Commentary): There is a difference. You seem to be suggesting that Void Elves cease to be a thing to make room for High Elves. That’s not what those players want. They just want the options to immerse themselves as High Elves through Void Elves, not at the cost of Void Elves.
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I feel disappointment, because the Void has been taken out of Void Elves.
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(Commentary): That’s the point of a compromise. Many High Elf fans wanted High Elves as their own race, and Allied Races get all of those things. By accepting High Elves through Void Elves, they miss out on things Allied Races do get, as well as appropriate class selections. It is a compromise on their side.
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What if’s are irrelevant. That isn’t how the story played out.
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No, they want VE to be HE, so they want all those options and now racials. That VE exist is irrelevant to them, they want VE to be HE. So having the one race being VE and HE is a distinction with out a difference to them wanting VE to be HE.
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I tell ya’ll what. I got J. Allen Brack on speed dial… (I call him J-easy for short). I will call him up right now and make him, make Ion give the Alliance straight up High Elves…
BUT in return…
The Horde gets playable Man’ari… and we also get to execute Baine as an enemy collaborator during wartime… And no one is allowed to complain. One complaint and the deals off.
Sound good?
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(Commentary): Hypotheticals serve their purpose. In this case, it provides a frame of reference for player reactions.
(Correction): No, they want the options to immerse themselves as High Elves through Void Elves.
(Correction): Options yes, racials no. They want an optional toggle added to ONE racial to promote that immersion.
(Commentary): Only irrelevant so far as it’s the way for them to play a High Elf through a Void Elf with the appropriate options.
(Reiteration): No, they want the options to immerse themselves as High Elves through Void Elves.
(Commentary): Again, they don’t want anything taken from Void Elves. They just want all the options to immerse themselves as High Elves through Void Elves. People can still roll a Void Elf just fine.
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But High Elves aren’t playable, because they are too similar to Blood Elves which are on the other faction. This is why Void Elves exist in the first place.