How hard is it to keep the Horde as a collection of rougher looking races? I don’t want to see half the people in my faction’s cities being reskinned Blood Elves.
20 Likes
Yes can we please stop making dual faction races youre either horde or alliance.
20 Likes
I’m just happy we have Paladins and Shamans for both factions. But I think we can all agree, for those of us on PvP servers, they will be kill on sight.
Because Belves are the most popular race in the game by far. But Blizz probably thought they couldn’t add Belves without people freaking out about Burning Crusade so we get this real awkward workaround.
Always a good idea to erode faction identity for some middle managers wicked cool idea.
15 Likes
I’d rather have High Elf and Ogres or nothing at this point. I got everything I want on retail…
Both factions same race I hate it.
14 Likes
It’s always stupid from a lore perspective.
3 Likes
Because they knew I would shell out the $30
I disagree. No race is purely homogeneous. No reason from a lore perspective that any race cannot have a faction that hates the Alliance or Horde - whichever most of that race support.
1 Like
I mean they’re saying the games heading in another direction of retail. Thus High Elves not obliterated by arthas as the “THIS IS WHY YOU CANT PLAY THEM CARD” Ogres was also supose to be added before Trolls If I recall correctly. It just scares me for the future. Things I find obvious are apparently not. Im just ughhhhhhhhhhhh right now.
5 Likes
I agree. What even is this company anymore???
5 Likes
Genuinely so disappointed by this. It makes it feel like they don’t have any care for the lore as well. They have high elves and blood elves right there if they really want to have a neutral elf race just do that instead these bright blue elves that stick out like a sore thumb are going to have exist along with everything else that’s in a completely different style.
It’s just such a bizarre decisions on blizzard’s part, what a miss.
10 Likes
There is so much about WoW Forever that I want to love, which is exactly why the Skyborne are such a effing disappointment to me.
The first thing that immediately bothered me was the character introduction screen. Alliance and Horde used to have incredibly strong visual identities. You knew immediately which side you were looking at. Now you have this washed-out light-blue aesthetic appearing across both sides because of the Skyborne, and it completely kills the contrast.
It looks gross. More importantly, it feels lazy.
If Blizzard absolutely wanted to introduce something new, I would have much rather seen two different races designed specifically around the personalities of the Horde and Alliance. At least then the factions would become more distinct rather than less.
But honestly, I don’t even think WoW Forever needed a new race in the first place.
The entire appeal of a “Forever” version of Classic WoW, to me, should be taking the world that already exists and expanding it outward. Develop unfinished zones. Expand existing cultures. Create new questlines. Add class content, professions, dungeons, political conflicts, settlements and stories.
That is horizontal expansion.
Adding another playable race is fundamentally vertical. You’re stacking another major pillar onto the game instead of deepening the pillars that already exist.
And Classic already has four races on each faction with extremely strong identities. Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves. Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Undead. There is an enormous amount of unused potential inside those cultures already.
Why add something else before fully exploring what is already there?
I have tried thinking about whether there was a version of the Skyborne concept that I actually could have bought into, and I think there was.
If their faction choice genuinely transformed them, I might have loved it.
Imagine starting as the same people, but choosing the Horde gradually changes them. Their bodies become more crooked or aggressive. Their posture changes. Their features become sharper, perhaps developing something almost Blood-Elf-like or otherwise reflecting the cultures and environments they have chosen to live among.
Then the Alliance version evolves differently. Their posture, bone structure, clothing, values, architecture and physical appearance begin reflecting the Alliance cultures around them.
The faction choice would actually mean something.
Instead of one neutral-looking race diluting both factions, you would be watching two branches of the same people culturally and physically diverge.
That would reinforce one of the most important ideas in Warcraft: Alliance and Horde are different worlds.
Your faction should shape you.
Right now, the Skyborne feel like the opposite. Rather than strengthening faction identity, they flatten it. Rather than expanding Classic horizontally, they make the game feel like it is beginning the same vertical expansion cycle that eventually changed retail WoW into something completely different.
And that is exactly what I don’t want WoW Forever to become.
There are genuinely a lot of things being done well here. That’s why I care enough to be this frustrated.
But I think the Skyborne should be removed.
Keep the original eight races. Go deeper instead of wider. Expand their cultures, their cities, their conflicts and the enormous unfinished world around them.
If this is supposed to be WoW Forever, then build forever on the foundation that made Classic Warcraft feel like Warcraft in the first place.
12 Likes
They’re already selling the race as well which means it can’t be changed, so much for having room to pivot in reaction to players responding to content, adding a whole new race that you’re also locking behind a paywall is the kind of thing they probably should have taken some time to consult players on.
5 Likes
Which is also strange because you can apparently still play with just a regular sub if what I’m hearing is correct.
retail minus
2 Likes