I made a video here which demonstrates everything I am wanting to say. If you do not wish to watch this video, that’s fine too as I will give the cliffnotes!
First things first, I want to thank you all for checking out this thread and/or video. I am 15 year veteran to the game and a huge fan of the worgen race. I have spent countless hours making art of worgen or role playing various worgen characters throughout my time and well, I feel it’s time for not just myself but worgen players across the board be heard as we have constantly received the cold shoulder on issues with our model along with getting practically nothing on Blizzard’s promise to bring an abundance of customization options this expansion. That said, allow me to give the break down here.
HISTORY TIDBITS
- During Cataclysm, both male and female worgen models had totally different appearances which were scrapped for what we had all the way until 8.2.5 despite worgen players being adamantly vocal about it.
- The female alpha model was a much greater casualty and were originally going to be designed to have a tail but time constraints made it impossible.
- Worgen did not receive their “rework” until 8.2.5 along with Goblins. All other races received their reworks during Warlords of Draenor. Two expansions of waiting.
- Among the 8.2.5, worgen were given two new faces to both genders respectively where and nothing else despite the amount of feedback Blizzard had received. The PTR was littered with player feedback who were almost in unison with their desires.
CURRENT STATE OF WORGEN CUSTOMIZATION
- As it stands right now, worgen are only receiving a few new fur options, females are getting matching eye glows to their male counterparts, males are able to customize their facial hair and beards separately, one new ear option for males.
- No new hairstyles
- No new ears for females
- No new beards for males
- The ability to customize our human counterpart.
On the subject of the ability to customize our human form, I feel that worgen players are taxed because of this and we are left with an unfair disparity of options for our worgen form. This needs to be said.
HUMAN FORM OPTIONS ARE NOT WORGEN FORM OPTIONS.
While I really do like the fact we can customize our human forms with all the bells and whistles, this is more of a role player thing. The serious role play community is a small minority in this subscriber base and the average player who mains this race likely will never use this. It’s pure flavor. I like it but I hate that I feel that our worgen customization is taxed because of this.
Another thing to note is should a player be a worgen death knight, the new eye options literally mean nothing to them. All they got for new choices are fur options and the one new ear option if they are a male worgen. That’s it!
IMPROVING ON WHAT WE HAVE
- Add a true black fur option
- Add more hairstyles, beards, ears (especially an option where they sit on TOP of the head like below)
- The current interface for the eye TYPE is too clunky and grouped in with colors. I propose creating a separate category just for eye types. (Glowing, Normal, Feral) Like shown:
- Heterochromia eyes across the board are too limited. You cannot pick which eye gets what color. I propose something like this (Please note that if you are a worgen player, you would be able to select your eye type as well should Blizzard go along with my suggestion):
- Add purple variation of the Feral/Slit Eyes
- The current eye glows are WAY oversaturated and look highly unfinished compared to what we have on live. Not sure if it was an oversight but it would be welcomed should Blizzard get around to fixing this.
NEW FEATURES
- Snout options… because… Vulpera? Why not give us the same treatment?
- Canine/Fang Options - Show fangs, Hide Fangs, Decorative Tooth Ring, Broken Canine, Larger Fangs, Smaller Fangs.
- Jewelry Options that are EXCLUSIVE TO WORGEN and transcend into their human forms. Jewelry could be a way to show off the Gilnean culture as they could wear things such as gothic/Victorian chokers, Raven feathers/skulls, wolf/tree/raven effigies. Here are some examples!
- Matching earrings
- Bite Scars for both human and worgen form that are also exclusive to worgen players
- Make the facial scar on the scarred faces a toggleable option so it can be applied to any face desired, like so:
- Give worgen males some love by adding braids, ponytails, raven feathers, maybe some silver beads, or roses!
- Toggleable Rose option that is like the Tauren Flower
- Hairstyles with Roses as well!
- Upright option for males and females (For Females, I recommend using the alpha female skeleton, like below)
- Slightly larger models so we are more lore friendly. Bloodeyes from the Heritage Armor quest chain is actually the appropriate size for a worgen, our models should match.
- TAIL OPTION
TAIL DEBATE
- This is the most requested feature players have wanted throughout the years
- The original model for females in Cataclysm were actually going to receive tails but the Devs ran out of time.
- 8.2.5 Had given female worgen a tail bone where in the previous model, they did not.
- For quite some time in the Shadowlands beta, worgen had a hole exactly were a tail could be placed.
- Christie Golden wrote Genn with a tail in Before the Storm but later said it was a mistake. At the time, she is just a writer for WoW. Writers are given the context of what the Dev team wants and it is their job to write the narrative.
- Void/Blood Elves are getting dark skin options which is actually against lore written per Blizzard. (For the record, I actually love these new skin tones despite the lore breaking!) With elves getting these new tones, this nullifies the argument, “Worgen never had tails to begin with.” (Elves never had dark skin either but here we are!) There is nothing in actual Warcraft lore which states a worgen cannot have a tail. It’s not lore breaking if there is no lore to begin with. We also got Sandfury troll skins as well. Canonically, we are at war with them per the Horde-side Quests. EDIT - Due to people bringing in real life racism into this mix and not understanding the context of this comparison here, I am going to add this crucial statement. The point of this bullet is the highlight the fact that restricting character customization due to lore reasons are stupid NO MATTER WHAT.
- Blizzard has stated they wanted Shadowlands customization to make people feel included and let people have options.
- We are being introduced to new types of things in Shadowlands with both character customization options and storylines that we have NEVER seen before. Is having a tail option really that far fetched considering?
- Blizzard had drawn worgen with tails multiple times. It is clear people think that a tail belongs on their model!
- “Werewolves don’t have tails!” Elder Scrolls and Werewolf the Apocalypse say hello!
- Tails make the model look complete, balanced.
- Tail customization could be added to it like the Draenei. Should they go the extra mile for us, they could do something like lengths, fluff factor, or add accents. Here are some excellent examples!
- Tail options would help with the customization disparity among other races.
- If players do not want a tail, they do not have to have one! It has no effect on how they play the game.
- Should lore people still be a stickler in all this, all Blizzard would need to say that “in wake of the Destruction of the Scythe of Elune, some worgen honed in on their inner wolf, sprouting a tail in result.”
I think this covers everything. I apologize for this very long post but this is something I have been so passionate about. I want to give special thanks to Handclaw and Shearx for their visual concepts and models along with my worgen fans here on the forums. Thank you all for stopping by and I hope to see you guys in Shadowlands!
