The last time we got faction-exclusive races was in BFA, which released 7 years ago. Since then, we’ve only been getting neutral races. There are now 4 of them in total : Pandaren, Dracthyr, Earthen, Haranir. Among these, the most “popular” has been the Dracthyr, who account for approximately 2% of the total (max level) player population, just below Zandalari Trolls ; then we have the Pandaren, who make up for around 1% of that total population ; the least played race in the entire game is the Earthen, at 0.5%. As for the Haranir, Midnight isn’t out yet, but as far as I can gather, the reception has also been a bit chilly so far.
In other words, neutral races have been a thing in this game since 2012, and so far none of them has really clicked with the community, only developing very niche and limited fanbases. They are a repeated failure, and so there must be structural reasons for that. I’ve been thinking about that issue and I think it mostly boils down to 2 factors, both connected to their neutral nature : their design/fantasy/overall concept, and their station in the narrative and the setting at large.
First is design. These are neutral races, which means they must be appealing to both Alliance AND Horde players. However, the factions in WoW have very distinct aesthetic standards, and it is hard to find a satisfactory middle ground, often resulting in quite bland, aesthetically unassertive designs (“neutral” designs, to put it simply) that end up not really pleasing anyone.
- Take the Pandaren and Drathyr. They are beast races, which is traditionally more leaning towards the Horde department—but they are fairly sanded down beast races. Visually, the Pandaren are mostly just real world pandas. The Dracthyr have obvious draconic traits, yes, but they are also slender humanoids with a pretty regular Human/Elven morphology, AND they have a Visage form based on what appears to be a blend of Humans and High Elves.
- The Earthen are a Titanforged race that wasn’t afflicted with the Curse of Flesh, yes, but… Do they feel and look like constructs ? Hardly. Sure, they have relatively unusual skintones and also crystals embedded into their skin, but those are about the only visual reminders that they’re not fleshy beings. Other than that, they have smooth Dwarven faces, organic-sounding voices, organic-looking hair and facial hair (which technically are wires, but they don’t look like wires, and also WHY would they had wires ??? They’re pieces of stone given sentience by magical means, not complex modern machines with internal components… anyway). Now compare them with the WotLK Earthen model, and let their differences sink in
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Earthen_Jormungar_Handler. Which one looks more like a construct ? Which one feels more distinct from the Dwarves ? Which one do you like best ? - As for the Haranir, it’s pretty straightforward : design-wise their features are reminiscent of both Trolls and Nelves. They are kind of the epitome of that unsuccessful attempt to meet the two fanbases halfway. I say unsuccessful because the result is the following : they do not appeal to Troll fans, and from what I’ve seen they generally do not appeal to Nelf fans either.
The issue when it comes to design is fairly obvious : neutral races suffer from the fact that the designers can’t commit too hard to one concept or another. The Earthen are robots that can’t be too robotic. The Dracthyr are Dragons that can’t be too draconic. The Haranir are doomed to remain in that off-putting grey area of the Troll-Nelf spectrum : too Nelfy for Troll fans, too Trolly for Nelf fans. By trying to cater to both sides, you end up not pleasing anyone.
Then is where they stand in the setting and story. In that regard also, they are defined by their neutrality. All of these neutral races share a common narrative trope : that of the insular (or newly awakened) race that comes out of seclusion to venture into a wild world that they know virtually nothing of. This is the defining, foundational narrative concept behind Pandaren, Dracthyr, Earthen and now, likely Haranir (it is also very obviously a Danuserism, since he worked on the latter three, lmao). The result of that narrative genesis is twofold :
- Extremely limited degree of faction integration. Their faction integration story, when it exists, is always very lackluster, due to the lack of real motivations that they have to join either of the factions. Pandaren and Dracthyr are exactly the same in that regard : two small groups who, despite being friends with each other, end up joining either the Horde (Huojin/Dark Talons) or the Alliance (Tushui/Obsidian Warders), based solely on personality, vaguely defined philosophies, and, uhh, vibes ig ?? And also depending on whether you like red more than blue ??? This culminated with the Earthen, for which separate groups don’t even exist anymore, and faction alignment is purely individual (which means that there is no faction integration story to be told here, and indeed, we haven’t gotten one at all for the Earthen). As a consequence, they feel out of place for everyone, and clearly the writers have no idea what to do with them, judging from the absolute lack of Pandaren presence in the story ever since their expansion came to an end. They just kind of exist and you may seem flavor NPCs from time to time here and there in questing hubs.
- Extremelity limited integration into the setting at large. Due to the fact that they have been dormant, or never left their home region, and are generally very small groups anyway, you won’t really find anything related to them outside of that region. Don’t expect to discover ancient Dracthyr lore or run into a Haranir or Pandaren village while exploring an new continent. Because of that, they feel cut off from the world, and it also heavily limits their potential in terms of future race-wide narrative development and lore reframing. Now compare that to Trolls, Elves, Draenei, Humans, Orcs, Night Elves, even Goblins, who have marked many different places with their presence and who are represented by a variety of nations and factions accross Azeroth and beyond.
Sorry, this was a long rant, but yeah. At the end of the day, the problem is neutrality. The problem is neutrality because as a writer and designer, neutrality prevents you from truly committing to a concept/design, prevents you from giving your race an actual edge, and even prevents you from truly telling stories about them. That is why neutral races suck. And here I’m begging Blizzard to reconsider their direction in terms of playable races decisions. There’s a reason why the Playable Ogres Megathread was so popular it ended up getting automatically locked because it reached the 5.000 posts cap. Please take the time to reflect on that.
EDIT : Also to be clear, of course some people like these races and I’m glad for you guys. This was just an attempt on my part to try and make sense of the fact that neutral races haven’t been popular so far. Again, it is pretty obvious to me that at this point, the issue is structural and lies with their very essence as neutral races.
is neutral so neutral is bad. Maybe if cheesecake or shrimp cocktails were offered, neutral offerings wouldn’t be so poorly received.
Been that way since 2007
percent just been a customisation option for Blood Elves (eg. Eredar for Draenei), rather than a knock-off brand of them given just to the Alliance …
First it’ll be High Elves. Then more customisations that “should be unavailable to Blood Elves.” — and THEN it’ll be that they should equally or surpassingly own Quel’Thalas + Silvermoon.
lol