Well if capturing East Asian markets is really among Blizzard’s primary goals, I wish them well, but at the same time I’d prefer that Warcraft not slowly morph into something like Final Fantasy… nothing against that sort of look and feel (I appreciate it elsewhere) but it sucks to see anything leave its roots behind in pursuit of cash. Like can you imagine if Warhammer 40k left behind its gritty western sci-fi look and feel in favor of becoming some kind of gundam-ish thing to boost sales? That’s what I’m feeling right now.
It’s nowhere near at that level of severity. WoW has always had a more exaggerated, artsy look that doesn’t shy away from cuter characters. Warhammer’s style only allows for grimdark edgelord stuff.
…Which is what I would say, except that the Pretty Marines are a thing. Look them up. It’s hilarious.
Either way, I feel I’ve expressed my opinions fully. I don’t agree with you, but you’re at least more eloquent than the OP was.
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Now I’ve seen it all.
People not wanting X race to be added because they break the lore, because they don’t want the other faction with their ‘toy’, because they aren’t a popular choice, etc…
Because they look “too cute” is a new one, especially in a game where we have a lot of whimsical elements. And even more because of the fact that their ‘cuteness’ is already in the game within many situations. Just not available as a player race yet.
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And I thought “Kung Fu Panda” was a Disney franchise.
Where exactly did I miss the Blizzard Pandaren pre WoW?
The “more beast than human” talking panda bears.
I agree. We don’t need any more bipedal animal races. This xpac alone we got walking foxes, turtles and cobras. Add that to the walking cows, walking pandas, walking bears, walking pigs, walking birds, walking predatory large cats and walking lizards (along with whatever else I forgot)… we just don’t need anymore.
That being said, if you should make any walking animal playeable it should be turtles (TMNT), rats (Redwall, Splinter) and rhinos and pigs (Bebop and Rocksteady) and frogs (Battletoads).
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No, a “trash panda” is an insult to racoons, has zero to do with actual pandas, or their in game representation.
And to me the Vulpera look more like racoons than foxes to me.
But that’s whatever.
They were in WCIII Founding of Durotar bonus campaign in the form of Chen Stormstout and easter eggs scattered around the game.
Pandaren are older than WoW. Blizz almost went with them instead of Draenei for TBC’s Alliance race.
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and foxes (Starfox) and foxes (Robin Hood) and foxes (Sonic 2) and foxes (Fox and the hound) and foxes (Furry Fandom)
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I still wish Blizzard would just release the promotional material they had for the playable TBC Pandaren – folks who had been invited to the studio during TBC development later reported seeing a lot of it around the offices. I mean, they’ve shown off concepts for other ideas that didn’t pan out.
I don’t think a lot of younger players realize how pervasive animal-based characters have been ingrained in our culture.
Most of Disney’s core lineup of characters are animal-based, and most of Hanna-Barbara’s classics outside of some outliers like Ranger Smith and the Flintstones/Jetsons. Those two things alone count for multiple generations of familiarity, and that’s without even bringing up Looney Tunes.
Moving on into 80s shows we see not only the Iconic TMNT series but many more trying to ride that wave and others jostling for presence that weren’t in direct competition. Biker mice from Mars, anyone? Street Sharks (Jawesome! lol), I even remember one called Dinosaucers where the ‘lore’ was that dino-human hybrids came from Outer Space.
That leaves out pretty much every other thing kids watched. Care bears, My little Pony, Chip n Dale rescue rangers (still a Disney IP, but the character ‘Gadget’ was widely regarded as the Lola Rabbit of its day, besides just it being a good show.
Hells bells, if we go back farther then all of these things we get into Aesops fables, where animals were shorthand to describe human characteristics. The Grasshopper and the Ant? Aesop. And everyone knows the one about the Tortoise and the Hare.
Thats why when pretty much anybody just clutches their pearls and shouts ‘furry eeeeew’ at the mention of anything anthropomorphic they’re never taken seriously. How could it wash away everything we know about the efficiency and expression of those characters we’ve known for pretty much our whole lives?
Zootopia wasn’t first, Neither was Dreamworks, or Disney, or Warner Brothers.
And I can pretty much guarantee that Vulpera won’t be the last.
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I just worry about WoW attracting rabid Sonic the Hedgehog RPers.
You think the community is toxic now? Oh man… those guys are terrifying.
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Add them for no other reason than the OP doesn’t want them.
![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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…I don’t understand people like you, OP, just that I need to avoid them.
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You must have not been here long enough if your worried about something that already plagues this game.
Horde are super geeks when it comes to this game
Okay, I’ve read every post do I csn now weigh in.
OP. I first want to say that I appreciate you’ve remained respectful in your discourse in this thread. I don’t think it’s always easy to do that. And I intdnd tk return the favour.
I think this thread has done a fair job of fostering reasonable discussion, though it has been emotionally charged at points. That said, I think a few things have gone unaddressed that I would like to respond to.
First, a case has been made that Vulpera are thematically inappropriate for the game. And to be clear, such a claim should be taken seriously. Increasing character customization must exist in balance with preserving the immersion of the game world. However, cute and lighthearted aesthetics are and always have been a part of the world of warcraft. What they have not been part of is the Horde. Opening up the Vulpera to the horde provides horde players a thematic option not currently available to them but does not subvert the feel of the world as a whole.
The other point I would like to address is the claim that every new playable race needs deep and sustainable lore. While I believe the Vulpera can and will have some lore development before they become playable, I would like to point out that screen time is already limited to the point that many core races feel neglected. Allied races would be better off not maintaining a high level of presence or we risk overcomplicating the narrative. We’ve sk far added 8 new races since the end of legion to a story where core races like pandaren and gnomes haven’t had a relevant story in years. We’re better off just keeping allied races to bit parts and pc customizations.
Anyway, thanks everyone who came to defend the Vulpera. Remember to keep yhings civil and I hope we have good news for 8.2.5
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OK, I admit I have not been taking this thread seriously.
I do understand wanting to maintain the look and feel of the environment and do understand how “cute furry animals” would negatively impact that.
However:
In the first place, the fox race wouldn’t have to be presented as a “cute” race. It is perhaps (at least in my view and apparently the OPs) unfortunate that races with smaller stature, Gnomes and Goblins, are used as a sort of comic relief much more often then any of the other races. But the environment belongs to Blizzard and everybody doesn’t share my RP vision of it. As far as I’m concerned the original feel of the environment was totally abandoned when the pandas were added, but my nostalgia for a former environment because I liked it doesn’t trump the current vision apparently shared by the majority of players or the developers.
Secondly, and more importantly, if they were added, the lore they came with would be much more important than their physical appearance.
Nobody thinks the pandas really represent Chinese culture or that Tauren accurately portray any of the native cultures of North America, but everybody understands that they are loosely based on those cultures.
The closest real world culture to the Vulpera would be Roma. The Romani people have a traditional history that includes living on the move, enslavement, escape from slavery, multiple instances of attacks based on false assumptions that they were “in league with” foreign enemies, multiple instances of being integrated as auxiliaries into armies … . If they were added things could go either way, a cute stereotyped “gipsy” culture made as silly as the Gnomes have had to live with, or a deep story based (to the same extent as the China/Pandaren basses) on actual Roma history. The first would be a tragedy, the second could enhance the game environment and contribute to the ongoing story.
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Don’t worry. As a goblin allied race, Vulpera probably won’t happen So far every allied race that has been released has always been the same racial type.
Void elves/night elves=Elf
Mag’har/orc=orc
Dark Iron/Dwarf=Dwarf
Lightforged/Draenei=Draenei
Highmountain/Tauren=Tauren
Nightborn/Blood=elf
Kul’tiran/Human=Human
Zandalari/Troll=Troll
There has never been an exception and the important thing to realize is that Vulpera aren’t goblins. And the highly speculated mechagnomes are following the same route. Not only this. All allied races have shared some sort of intrinsic similarity with existing race. Chances are much more likely that it is either going to be Gilgoblins or some sort of goblin race that we haven’t seen yet.
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TBC is basically where Blizzard went full out on meme questing. In Vanilla, most of Alliance questing was a big joke, like in Goldshire, but the Horde had basically zero jokes in their quests, just serious stories with small humorous situations propping up.
Then come in Draenei, with a literally joke quest every other quest. You were getting Kirkenstocks and Star Wars jokes in everything you did. Sure their overarching theme was about seeking forgiveness for the damage they caused, but it was outweighed by the pervasive memery.
Easter Egg pandaren is fine.
TBC definitely had more jokes (IIRC vanilla memes/jokes were mostly confined to Tanaris and Un’Goro) but I think Blizz hit peak meme with Cataclysm. It’s seriously difficult to play through Westfall now and Uldum is just ridiculous.
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