I believe you. High Elves would’ve done better than anything, from a pure adoption rate perspective. But what cost would that have come at to players of Blood Elves that feel Blizzard would just be copying their race over, and wouldn’t be that wrong?
I know the popular narrative is that playable High Elves wouldn’t infringe on Blood Elves, but that’s just simply untrue. The two are too intrinsically bound to each other.
Oke, back to the question, why not make High Elves playable?
Why people want High Elves is irrelevant. Some want them for looks, others for lore, others maybe have other reasons. The reasons don’t matter so stop trying to insinuate that wanting them for looks somehow invalidates the request.
I wanted a high elf, and I made this character with that in thought. She was a blood elf for a few years, but the Horde was completely unapropriate for her. So, I changed faction and made her a night elf, but it wasn’t herself anymore. Now she’s a void elf, but only because it looks more like a high elf. I don’t have any sympathy for the void elves as a race at all.
I have a human paladin, a worgen rogue, a night elf priestess, a nightborne mage, an orc warrior and several others, and they are all fine. But Alamara was always my favorite (and became my main once I brought her to the Alliance), but also the only one I couldn’t make into what I imagined her as.
Why is this clear Alliance race fantasy that has been in the lore for 20 years not available to players? That’s WoW’s most glaring flaw.
There is no “cost” to Blood Elf players. None. Objectively, Blood Elf players lose nothing if we get playable Alliance High Elves. They have a different story to tell and don’t infringe on any of your content. Your subjective “feelings” are irrelevant.
“New” is not necessarily good. The only thing they introduced was themselves.
And just like Worgen, they didn’t deliver what was promised, because we don’t do anything with them.
Heck, SI:7 have been darker than than any one race in the Alliance so far.
???
And what conflict can there be between the thousands of Blood Elves and the maybe 100 Void Elves out there?
Trolls did it first, mon. Or will you deny voodoo being a big part of their identity?
My feelings are irrelevant, but all of yours are? ![:thinking:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/thinking.png?v=6" ":thinking:")
Inventing a subjective cost based on emotions.
Argument made out of air.
Wrath of the Lich King, Mists of Pandaria and Legion showed it’s pretty much the opposite, it’s a straight hate relationship.
Legion showed High Elves and Blood Elves (and Horde/Alliance overall) working together more than any expansion ever, what are you talking about?
They both fought in Suramar to liberate it from Elisande. They both contributed to The Unseen Path especially.
I’d love to debate and try to respond to five separate Void Elves, but I do have a life. I’ll let you guys muse on stuff for now.
Pleasure as always.
You “feel” that Blood Elves would somehow be diminished by playable Alliance High Elves.
Were Blood Elves somehow diminished due to Void Elves? No they were not. Did Blood Elf players objectively “lose” anything with Void Elf implementation? No they did not. You might “feel” otherwise, but in truth, Blood Elf players lost nothing.
So yes your “feelings” are irrelevant. My arguments are based in fact. Yours are based in “feelings” and your arguments have all been countered time and time again.
The countered arguments bear repeating:
They are biologically the same race - Not relevant because they exist on both factions, and have cultural and political differences. Pandaren exist on both factions as well and stand as an example that this is not a relevant argument. And before anyone erroneously claims Blizzard thinks Pandaren were a mistake, in truth, no current Blizzard employee has ever said such a thing as far as we know. After leaving Blizzard, a former employee once said he thought they were a mistake, but that is one former employee’s opinion and not one ever corroborated by anyone while employed at Blizzard.
They look the same - They don’t have to. Simple things like a unique idle stance, different hair styles, and different customization options all address the silhouette issue and none of those things require any sort of physiological or magical excuse to justify. Also, currently a Void Elf in full armor has an identical silhouette to a Blood Elf in the same full armor. A unique idle stance alone would make the High Elf silhouette noticeably different from either.
High Elves detract from the Blood Elf story - No they really don’t. High Elves have their own story to tell that has nothing to do with Blood Elves beyond the point of their split. That is the story that High Elves have to tell and should be focused on.
High Elves are already playable on the Horde - Blood Elves are playable on the Horde. The High Elves being asked for currently exist as NPC’s on the Alliance faction. We are asking for those High Elves to be made playable.
There is no logical justification to oppose playable Alliance High Elves. You can try to appeal to emotion again and again and I will still say your “feelings” are irrelevant. You have no objective arguments.
Appeal to emotion.
A logical fallacy.
Because you use your feelings to justify denying people things they like.
While we just express our wish for something that would improve the game for us.
If anything a hardcore fan of Blood Elves should be happy to have the opportunity to kill High Elf traitors.
Legion had a lot of dumb things, yes. But Horde and Alliance cooperating to stop the world-ending threat of the week is nothing to single out as special.
I mean, after all the cooperation, it didn’t take much convincing to get the Horde on board with slaughtering their way towards Teldrassil. Or was there any deeply touching High-Blood Elf bonding moment I missed in the Hunter Order Hall questline?
On this before I go: Void Elves do this much better and more substantially than High Elves. High Elves had disagreement with Kael’s path, or were exiled for it. There isn’t as much real animosity here as you want to think, especially with Blood Elves no longer doing the things High Elves found distasteful, though they are still jaded. Read In the Shadow of the Sun.
Void Elves are a tangible, literal threat to the Sunwell, and now more recent traitors for aiding Alliance.
Quel’lithien is gone
A member of the Silver Covenant was literally dangling a blood elf civillian over a crocodile and you think they’re peachy?
The Silver Covenant hates Blood Elves, which we saw very clearly during the Purge.
Highvale Elves have given up magic altogether, and magic is the bread and butter of Blood Elves and the blood of Silvermoon city.
And Allerian Stronghold elves are all about the Alliance.
Each of these groups has no reason to get closer with Blood Elves, and plenty to oppose them.
It’s not just improving the experience for us, but for anyone interested in playing Alliance.
Honestly, that sounds like a more properly structured version of Fyrebusche’s headcanon of “High and Blood Elves LOVE EACHOTHER, why would they fight against one another, they’re family!”
As if the Purge of Dalaran wasn’t carried out by high elves.
ANd if you disregard what the kirin tor guards talk about how that union of elves was unstable and could inplode at any moment.
Or how Vereesa threatened to shoot Rommath.
The thing is, the animosity is not on the blood elf side. Lor’themar would gladly accept any high elf that submits to his rule. But it wasn’t the blood elves the victims in that relationship. The ones that were exiled were the high elves. It’s the quel’dorei that now reject the sin’dorei, not the other way around.
I like the Ren’dorei for what they are, granted I wished they would have had more story development prior to being added to the game as playable characters. Does this mean I feel they are a reasonable substitute for the Quel’dorei which have been part of or directly allied with the Alliance , in short no.