If we’re going to play this semantic game, nobody mentioned race either until you chimed in – the misinformed poster above merely said “blue-eyed Blood Elves”.
When someone says they find the idea of blue-eyed Blood Elves on the Alliance boring, it’s absolutely reasonable to presume they’re thinking about the model.
They were physiologically altered by the Nightwell, but absolutely nothing in the game indicates they’re new or distinct species – nor does anything indicate that the aforementioned alterations are permanent.
To the first point, this is most probably why people refer to them by their culturally-derived demonym (“Nightborne”), and not a racially-derived colloquialism (which would, in all likelihood, be “Night Elf”).
To the second point, it’s entirely plausible that in the absence of the Nightwell the Nightborne will eventually be indistinguishable from Night Elves.
I’d even posit that using the term “plausible” is being generous, considering that in almost every instance whereby magic was the catalyst for a group of people changing, physiologically, when that magic is no longer present they revert to their previous state.
And you can stick your head in the sand, but you can’t change the reality of what Nightborne are.
The abridged version:
The Nightborne have been physiologically altered by the Nigthwell, but there is good reason to believe these alterations aren’t permanent – and, furthermore, they’re most likely indistinguishable from standard Night Elves at a biological level.
Is that the same Blizzcon where they said we would never, ever, see World of Warcraft: Classic?
What is said outside of the published works, regardless of who is saying it, is to be taken with a grain of salt – published material is the only material that matters.
Or better yet, make a scenario that kills it for good. Have the High Elves go through something to make em Void Elves like the rest. Never again use High elves in the game (except in the case of showing some in Quel’Thalas as horde not alliance, kinda a some came back and we’re showing it thing.) and go on to only use Void Elves on the Alliance side going forward. Leave it just Blood and Void.
You mean…besides the fact that the cutscene from Thalssyra states she changed and apparently, the newest chronicles states they are a new race?
Why are we going backwards in the discussion?