I seem to recall something of this nature this being mentioned in the previous Ogre megathread. I believe this came from a video interview (taken in 2018) with John Staats, who I think helped build a lot of Vanilla’s dungeons & raids, about races considered for the base roster at launch. I’ll go ahead and comment on it since I’m bringing it up, which is directed just as me generally stating my thoughts as opposed to being argumentative.
Timestamp regarding Ogres is at the 1 hour, 10 minute, 8 second mark if it doesn’t automatically take you there:
From Wowpedia’s Ogre page:
“Ogres were not planned to be a playable race in classic World of Warcraft because the developers couldn’t figure out how to make female ogres an attractive option for players. Johnathan Staats has stated “We […] wanted our female players to play, like, the character that they wanted to play, and we just didn’t know how” and has mentioned that “weird things” arise when trying to make male and female options for every race, citing the example of female tauren not having udders.”
Note that this was specifically Classic being planned out that was talked about. I also seem to recall there being talk that female Ogres allegedly were a reason why they changed their mind on Ogres during Cataclysm, though I haven’t found an actual source for that particular argument.
I recall commenting on this before in the previous Ogre megathread, but I found the idea of not being able to find “what female players want” to be a bit of an asinine excuse. What a player in general, regardless of their sex, is a wide variety, and having multiple options in a fantasy MMO is a good thing to be able to reach out to players of different types. You can’t just make every race into something everyone would want to play as. Different players have different tastes.
I’m sure there are female players out there who don’t want to be a pretty barbie doll, but instead would like to play as something savage and monstrous. Is this a high number? Likely not, but how can you appeal to these players if all your female races are just prettied up races with just small differences?
I honestly feel that female Ogres should be seen as an asset as opposed to a hindrance. I’ve given the example before of bearded female Dwarves in Everquest 1. Yeah, most people would just think they’re ugly and not play them, some would just chuckle at it and move on, and others would either play it as a joke character or make a serious character out of it. Regardless, it was something that seemed to add to the world-building of the game and was something memorable about the game. Likely, the same thing would occur with female Ogres in WoW.
Not to mention they’d be part of the marketing hype. “What do female Ogres look like?” would be something that would garner interest in the game and people would look into, regardless of what female Ogres would look like. And maybe some people would be interested in making a female Ogre character, whether it is to be silly or an actual serious character (which can include female players). It certainly wouldn’t be huge numbers, but the idea is having the option there appeals to players who would be interested in that type of character.
This is why I question the search for “what female players want.” Moreso when you already have several other races that could act in a view of “what female players want.” And as I said, you can’t pinpoint what a group of players particularly want in just one race and have that be reflected in all other races. It’s a very narrow point-of-view to have.
Again, this was for Classic’s planning. I can’t say if that is how the current dev team feels, and with recent events likely leading to them considering player request feedback, maybe they’d be more receptive to playable race requests. We won’t really know until the future, but I still think it’s important to keep up the support. Ogre fans have been supporting them at various websites since the game launched, and there had to be something to Ogres if they were considered several times during the game’s lifespan, even if Blizzard didn’t go for it each time.
I’m hoping by now, Blizzard would be more open to feedback. While I would expect female Ogres to be monstrous and savage, I don’t expect them to be on the level of Therazane. It shouldn’t be an impossibility, and honestly would just add more to the game in terms of options.
Thus one of several reasons I keep going with my megathreads. Not a guarantee we’ll see playable Horde Ogres, but having something is better than nothing. All we can really do at this point is just see what happens, which can be awhile to see if anything does come of our feedback. Expectations are tempered, but hope blooms and slumbers as time goes on.
Dream big, Ogre fans! 
