Pretty informative.
TLDR: they are concious about making sure we dont fight the same enemy type too much. But it is not due to “factional narrative”. And character arch are just that, Blizzard doesnt consider it “night elf/Stormwind content”
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The former dev admitted that they don’t consider content with Tyrande Night Elf content, among other things, which is misguided.
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Regardless, that seems to have always been their stance and continues Kosak’s old “faction favoratism” philosophy:
If you’re a die-hard Alliance player, I can understand if you feel left out of Thrall’s story arc. Thrall feels like “their guy,” and Thrall’s journey over the last couple of years may not feel like “your” story, even if his mistakes are about to send the whole world into a potential death spiral. Fair enough. Stick with Thrall as he fulfills his destiny at the end of Cataclysm, and I promise we’ll catch up with other characters – from both factions – as we pick up the pieces in the aftermath.
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And yet WoD was the last expansion that heavily featured Horde aesthetics.
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Arguable. High mountain and Suramar ultimately end up being “Horde Aesthetics”.
The Zandalari as a troll nation is “Horde aesthetics”. Shadowlands had no true faction aesthetics tied to it.
And now in Dragonflight the only faction based aesthetic is Dragonscale expedition. Which is jointly dwarven/blood elven in nature.
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By “Horde aesthetic.” They mean spikes and buildings reminiscent of WC3. Dragonmaw Port, Warspear, the horde area in Krasarang, etc.
Though new people have joined the horde, their decor doesn’t become part of the aesthetic definition. They have styles that are far too unique to be absorbed like that.
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In other words, the Horde aesthetic can only ever be Orcish, and everything else isn’t really Horde aesthetic.
And to think, people kvetch and moan about the Alliance being nothing but human stuff 100% of the time.
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Any other race also counts. There’s hardly any Tauren or Darkspear Troll development either.
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Aside from what Solarion said, by the same token, “Alliance Aesthetic” would be alabaster white castles. Which again the last time we had those was in WoD.
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No, Night Elf aesthetics are Alliance aesthetics.
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Covington’s replies actually support the point Baal is making : one expansion worth of killing evil Orcs causes Orc Fatigue, one quarter of an expansion worth of Zandalari content causes Troll Fatigue, but Nelves being a major focus for four expansions straight (with zones especially crafted for themselves in every single one of these expansions barring BFA) doesn’t cause Nelf Fatigue because reasons.
It’s not like we really needed confirmation though.
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You’re correct. Forsaken have been apart of the horde since the start and no one has confused their style with the horde aesthetic. They wouldn’t even call their stuff horde aesthetic.
I don’t think this is a bad thing, and I don’t personally mind that we’re seeing new styles.
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And Thunder Totem is not Horde one? Or Suramar?
Straight? Last I check we didnt spend all of our time in Nazjatar. And Amirdrassil is the last patch of an entire expansion.
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People were actually fatigued about the zandalari content we got in BfA? It was awesome in my opinion
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Oh I had actually forgotten about Nazjatar, which means that unlike what I’ve said earlier, there is a Nelf-adjacent zone in BFA too, thanks for reminding me.
And yes, Nelves were given major screentime for 4 expansions straight. Legion, BFA, SL, DF. That’s 4 expansions.
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You know, just because someone says something does not make it the truth.
This isn’t some lore fact the Devs can just declare by fiat, like “Sylvanas was born a man” or what ever. This is a real world situation that any attempt at smoothing over comes across as a weak yet contemptuous attempt at a Jedi Mind trick.
I have had Orc fatigue and Troll fatigue. I have also had Night Elf and Human fatigue. The point is, Blizzard acknowledges Troll/Orc fatigue but Humans and Night Elves just keep being everywhere and doing everything.
(I don’t ever get Blood Elf fatigue and I doubt that is even a thing. I never thought Dwarf fatigue would be a thing… but just looking at The War Within and Neutral Dwarves, the Dwarf fatigue is already settling in.)
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Nightborne got added to the Horde at the tail end of Legion. Prior to that, they were neutral, but with a long kaldorei-relevant history. I don’t, and I bet most Horde players don’t, consider Suramar as a part of the “Horde aesthetic” given by the time they joined, most players were done doing anything in Suramar and we never see their architecture anywhere else.
That’s why when talking about Horde content, only Alliance mains usually throw in Suramar as Horde content. Which is weird, but we’ve been here for a few years now anyway.
But yeah, when most people think of a “Horde aesthetic”, it tends to be more orc-flavored because quite a few Horde bases, encampments and towns favor orc-style structures. I mean, they are the most OG Horde race of all Horde races, so it makes sense. It’s also probably the most uniquely Horde aesthetic.
Forsaken is close, but is still very human-centric (cuz, y’know, dead humans).
The Darkspear aesthetic isn’t any different than the rest of troll-kind outside of the Zandalari, and most of that art style is used for areas we’re killing X number of trolls.
Tauren-style is definitely unique, but also less common than the others mentioned above.
Blood elves do have a unique art style, but it’s even further afield from the rest of the Horde than the Forsaken.
Bilgewaters have… Two places, I think?
And then we’re going into allied races, who all have very limited sample sizes outside of Zandalari, Kul Tiran and Dark Irons. Unless I’m forgetting some Alliance AR with a broad sample size of art-style structures.
So yeah, when we’re looking at Horde aesthetics, orcish stylings are what most people think about for reasons.
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How could you forget the wondrous contribution to Horde architecture and aesthetic of the… wagons of the Vulpera.
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So what is it? Purple human content?
The little spot the vulpera have in orgrimaar does look comfy though. But that’s me.
Which does remind me that I really need to get my Tauren Druid leveled up
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