I know these two races haven’t been relevant for a very long time, but for the terms of long-term players-- are they not the races that have been relevant for the most content across the game? There have only been a few expansions that ever truly excluded either of these while so many other requested-- no, even implemented “Allied Races” existed in only a single expansion-- if not a single zone ever-- and never were part of the game history beyond that.
But the Ogres and the Gnolls? They have been part of mixed-race factions since the start of the game. Factions they have been in?
- The Venture Mining Company
- The Twilight Hammer
- The Southsea Pirates
- The Defias Brotherhood
- The Dark Horde
- The Zandalari Forces
And, yes, these are all enemy factions-- but there is nothing about these races that make them inherently evil. In Vanilla, Goblins and High/Blood Elves were also exclusively part of these factions.
And, really, this need not even mean that the faction that gets a single friendly tribe of Ogres or Gnolls need get along with anyone else from that race that doesn’t belong to that particular tribe-- we have plenty of examples of that already. The Horde had Darkspear Trolls while engaging in the utter genocide of every single other group of Trolls and the utter destruction of every Troll civilization on the planet for almost every expansion.
If one is arguing that they are dumber than most of the other races-- that might be the case. Although we have had plenty of examples of both of these races being able to communicate normally or at least in broken speech. They have both shown the ability to become Shamans and Warlocks in the very least. We know that Ogres can be Mages, so the idea that both Ogres and Gnolls can be Mages and Priests isn’t too crazy. I really do not see any issue when it comes to Death Knights or even Monks. It is probably justifiable to say that these two races could be any class but Demon Hunters and Evokers, but even nixing Druids and Paladins which are the only other non-universal classes is probably fine.
There was even a Warcraft 3 map that was Ogres vs. Gnolls which could perhaps mean that if we were to ever get our South Seas expansion that giving Ogres to the Horde and Gnolls to the Alliance could be a hook-- assuming anyone wants them. The two races are already kind of pitted against one another in Feralis. But whether Alliance or Horde, you are told to genocide both if you adventure there.
One could probably even use the Kul’Tiran Humans as the models for the Ogres and the Worgen as models for the Gnolls so one can create female versions that people would want to play. I just don’t buy the idea that it is impossible to make attractive females while also making them clearly Ogres or Gnolls-- not with what was done with Orcs, Troll, Worgen and Goblins.
It kind of feels odd to me that all of these Allied races have been races that were introduced no more than one expansion before they were implemented as player races. I am lately seeing buzz to make the Ethereals/Brokers playable even though every member of that race is thousands of years old and the idea of them starting off as a beginner adventurer would be really weird…
Maybe I am just way out-of-touch, but I feel like starting with the two races that every mixed-race bad guy faction got to have members of but never got to be playable would feel better than giving us yet another type of Elf that the Dev team decided to come up with. I am not even saying that many people would play Ogres or Gnolls even if they stopped being cowardly and made badass members of these races that were visibly female-- but I definitely think it would be better fan-service than making a new player race that is something they only introduced two years ago.
I would classify Arakkoa as more-or-less in the same category given that unlike Kobold, Quillboar, Murloc, Naga, Saberon, Sethrak, etc. that they have shown the willingness to be part of a mixed race society that is made up of anyone else but their own people-- implementing Arakkoa would definitely take a lot of time to remake every single armor set in the game’s history to make them fit an Arakkoa model-- unless they are going to go the same route as the Dracthyr and only allow a few pieces of armor to be visible. Holding off on them is probably better handled if we ever return to Alternate Draenor to face the Army of the Light.
But even they aren’t as iconic to the legacy of the game and Ogres and Gnolls. It seems we might finally be getting Forest Trolls, but I think these two races that have always been demonstrated as willing to work with other races having only been assigned to enemy factions and never once had a group brought in to become allies or player races after they stopped being relevant as villains is a failure of imagination.
Honestly, when it comes to the idea that one should feel uncomfortable that 95% of the time they see their own people that one is engaged in exterminating their own people has long since passed. So I don’t even see that as being a real issue here. It really would be giving the players the game options as the NPC factions had way back in Vanilla.