I care about the lore and mainly play WoW for its RPG elements. I support the removal of race/class restrictions - not because “lol who cares about lore”, but because I think it’s actually good for the lore and RP. Here are some reasons for that:
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Evolution of Cultures/Setting: The game setting, and the lore/cultures that exist in that setting, do not exist in a vacuum. They’re not stagnant and unchanging. The playable races of Azeroth have been intermingling with each other for years, if not decades, now. In earlier WC games, where the races were more isolationist, a greater limiting of classes would make sense; but in the World of Warcraft, the thought of cultural interchange not happening is kind of crazy.
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Society Doesn’t Define the Individual: Races are not hiveminds, and just because a culture trends toward certain lifestyles and practices doesn’t mean that there won’t be members of that society that don’t practice other things. Being allowed to pick a class that goes against the grain of your race’s culture allows you the chance to come up with unique and personal backstory about why your character would be that class in the first place. However, that being said…
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The Individual Doesn’t Define Society: Just because an individual of a race follows a strange path doesn’t mean that the race as a whole is okay with it, and doesn’t mean that the race as a whole needs to be diluted as a result. The inclusion of fringe weirdos actually creates the opportunity to emphasize the values/vibe of a culture at large, based on how leaders and everyday folk of that race respond to those fringe weirdos. This leads to…
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Interesting Small-Scale Story Beats: Regardless of the game’s success/failure with larger narrative arcs, something WoW has always excelled in is small-scale stories. We have the potential for some interesting story development here. How will Velen respond to a cult of Draenei warlocks who vow to defend their people, but practice the magic of the now-defeated-Legion? How will the Highmountain tauren act around members of their society who resemble the Feltotem traitors? For cultures that are open-minded, this gives the chance to emphasize that attribute of their culture. For societies that are very set in their ways, this gives the chance for tension and maybe even intra-racial conflict.
I understand the concern that expanding race/class options might be harmful to the lore. That being said, though… I love the lore, and I’m excited.
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On behalf of all people that are for this change, I thank you. I liked the lore too. Until SL came along and screwed up.
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I get it because people don’t trust Blizz to address it or address it right.
But I also don’t because they didn’t make a big deal about the other restrictions being lifted. I think a lot of it is trolling.
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Here’s my question, why are people so concerned about the race/class lore anyway? I’ll ask again…if our character is a chosen one/special whatever…why have class restrictions for the MC? It never made sense even in vanilla.
That implies Blizzard desires to make it well written.
The new Warlock quest doesn’t even have a Mag’har Orc or Tauren in it.
All the characters in it die BUT the Lightforged as he’s the only one that didn’t commit to becoming a Warlock. His reasoning is dumb as well and spits on his entire race.
It doesn’t make sense for them to care so much, since we exist outside of lore. And they can always make their own character how they like. It’s really care trolling.
Even if we were in lore, fiction changes and evolves. And being from the same race doesn’t make everyone do the exact same things
The writing in Vanilla was a bit different. It wasn’t focused on thr player as a character, the PCs were cogs in the Alliance/Horde machine. So the writing was less about the individual and more about just what’s going on in the area as our specific faction is concerned.
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Exactly, it makes no sense y they would care…maybe there “eXTReME LOrE pURIts” or something…it’s honestly concerning…I love this game to hell and high water (mostly because it’s an escape) but I’m not so in love that I’d ask Blizz “wHY aRe yOU rUINing tHE gAMe?”
It makes me wonder if they ever did real RP. Because RPG are all about creating your own character and the lore for it.
Like for instance, this character never dealt with fel, but did suck from creatures. And is now just a murder hobo for money.
My Paladin is honorable, my Priest is fully corrupted.
On the question of rp…I doubt it…on a side note, I’d love to hear more about your characters rp…want to be friends?
Sure!
If you want to add me on bnet, it’s Soulebreaker#1628
I should be back on there on Tuesday or Wednesday.
What is the big deal about character combos ? Lore is fine but the NPC’s carrying it out look silly- like a bad artist rendering a dreadful comic book failure ~
Awsome 
I normally play spell caster’s although I do have a lot of fun on my prot warrior
I honestly think it’s do to the cartoony art style
Please.
Darkfallen and undead cosmetics for elves are unlocked from a lore related quest line. So is the Night Warrior looks.
Don’t act like Blizzard should get a past for laziness when they’ve shown in the past that they can put the work in to justify these things.
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the lore has been to hell for years, whats one more screw up, especially when said screw up is for the greater good.
That has nothing to do with what I said. We are talking about race/class restrictions. Not eyes and skin customizations.
I also got nothing for gold or blue eyes in game. It’s not gonna be a common thing.
Beautifully written. I could not agree more! Giving players the freedom to create their own characters how they want and adding in-depth story lore on how those groups are and how they are treated by their race culture is super interesting!!!
Adds a ton to rpers who want to be the “outcast” and draeni warlocks are def the outcasts of their group.
Outcasts are an important level of depth to any mmo and the only real outcasts we had were outlaw rogues.
Excited to see the new lore and small dialogues using to explain this
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