Indeed.
Like, the Darkspear and Zandalari are different races.
Trolls and Orcs are different species.
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But even then, you’re mixing up game mechanics with lore. Just because they have access to the same quests as everyone else, doesn’t mean racial cultures doesn’t matter. And they do matter evidently, because if they did, the class restrictions would have been dropped long ago and we would have had things draenei warlocks by now.
And again, warlocks and demon hunters are treated more like a necessary “evil” than anything else. Game mechanics dictate they be treated like any other class in game, but lore wise they’re not.
edit: in fact, I remember someone asking Metzen at Blizzcon a while back how the average citizen would react to seeing a warlock demon’s pet out and about and he point blank said they would freak out. But this can not be reflected in game. Same logic also applies to our mounts and why npc’s don’t react to us riding around on mini-deathwings.
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I’m not mixing them. I’m saying because of one, the other is irrelevant.
Sure it does. I don’t care what their hardline culture is when crafting my own character if he’s a unique hero. In the same way a Demon Hunter is an outcast from mainline Night Elf culture.
When I say they don’t matter, I mean they don’t matter to me. I already acknowledge the game designers value them. I disagree with those values.
And that lore doesn’t matter in a discussion as to whether or not they can be playable. Because by the mechanics, they’ll be treated the same.
I’m not saying they’re welcomed, I feel like I’ve made that clear several times. I just don’t think it should matter if they’re welcomed.
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What now? Oh right, today is Sunday, carry one everyone
I would say it’s a non-comparison and kind’ve missing the point when it comes to certain classes. Sure, some classes are simply glorified professions:
Warriors being generic soldiers and fighters
Hunters are well,… hunters
Rogues being spies, assassins, and saboteurs
Yet some classes while are professions in warcraft world and sometimes can be mundane within it’s own setting are actually quite beyond the extent and extreme.
One can assume that a Tauren probably could be a mage, that much is certain, but can an undead be a paladin?
(The answer the latter is yes, but it’s complicated)
Most races in warcraft aren’t representative or analogous at all to real world cultures or “Races”, though there’s some clear inspiration in plenty of cases. They aren’t “just human but big and green” or “Just a human but purple and long ears”, they’re completely distinct physically and biologically, which is something we don’t have an analogy for in the real world.
Hell, some of the races are actually just full on alien to Azeroth.
In the end, I think it’s still a fair thought to have, especially in concerns to say Gnome Hunters or Blood Elven Warriors. Sure, there’s no lore behind those race class combinations that restrict those whatsoever, but in cases like Lightforged Death Knights or Undead druids, these are usually dubious at best in concerns to reasoning.
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Bingo. Mag’Har and Orcs are different races. Humans and Kul’Tirans are different races. Nightborne and Night Elves are different races. Lightsworn and Draenei are different races.
Kul’Tirans are especially egregious in this regard. They can’t be paladins because they don’t look like regular humans? Come on. Not to mention that the entire drustvar storyline is building an order of paladins - even the book doodads used in the quest have the paladin libram symbols on them.
You’re falling into the Trap of confusing WoW’s distention of “race = species” with literal Race =/= Species.
More like different nationalities.
Yup. People from Latveria can’t be Doctors.
I think a more accurate example might be “Jamaicans can’t be bobsledders”.
It’s not that you physically can’t, it’s just that there haven’t been any up until now, and you don’t have anyone to teach you how.
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Gnome: Hey night elf druids whom I’ve been working with for the past how many years. Mind teaching me how to be a druid?
Night Elf Druid: I don’t see why not.
Gnome Druid: Killer.
The stupid thing with WoW is the assumption that despite hanging out with each other, they don’t actual talk to each other. Hell if I recall correctly the reason orcs can be mages because an orc picked up the practice in Undercity.
Who would have thought collaborting with other cultures would teach people new and fascinating things.
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Jamaicans learned to bobsled though - by traveling to a place where they could learn. If you can hop on a zeppelin and go from orgrimmar to thunder bluff, there’s no reason that makes sense why the Tauren wouldn’t teach you how to bobsled. Unless, of course, their institutions of learning restrict admission based on species - which is against the core values of both the horde and the alliance.
Case in point, the Worgen. They learned druidic magic as humans by studying under night elves. They did this to attempt to control their curse, which is covered in game at the end of the worgen starting area. Gilneans also were 2nd war veterans, meaning they have paladins or at least had them before the third war. Did all of their paladins suddenly lose connection to the light when the worgen curse took hold? Why isn’t that something that the story touches on?
Probably because all race and class restrictions are contrived and antiquated - which is why pretty much every other game in the genre has retired the concept.
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Or they died in the outbreak fighting streets full of werewolves.
Latveria is a made-up country.
But certain cultures are more inclined to do certain things.
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And the practice completely died out? When they rejoined the Alliance they just decided to never become Paladins again?
This is the Mr Fantastic Reaching that is required to still have race restrictions on classes. The only way that’d make sense was if none of the races interacted with each other.
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Maybe Worgens lack the Mental Discipline to be Paladins
You mean like how Gnomes lack the physical strength to be Warrio… oh wait.
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Proportional Strength, they lack no such thing. Gnomes lack size, not Strength and Size is irrelevant to being a Warrior.
Paladins, on the other hand, require a great deal of Mental Discipline.
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I know I am.
Okay, so it bothers me slightly that Warriors can’t also use Agility as a primary stat, because the term “Warrior” is exceptionally broad.
You don’t have to be stupid strong to be a warrior. You can be agile as well… but more importantly you do have to be smart (or at the very least clever). Gnomes have smarts in spades.
Oh, I was just thinking of possible explanations.
But the only real explanation required is “That class is no longer a part of their culture.” and “Blizzard doesn’t feel like they have to cater to every single player’s personal class fantasy by allowing any race to be any class.”
COULD a player write up a paragraph of fanfiction explaining why their Goblin is a Druid? Sure. Does Blizzard think they have to program that option in to cater to that person’s fanfic? Apparently not.
And that doesn’t surprise me. Cause, I’m over here not even allowed to transmog these knives into some claws or a nice rapier. Blizzard doesn’t care about letting the players fulfill their fanfic.
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