WoW: Allied Races & Customization

I always like the idea of more player choice. When players can customize their character, they are long-term investments. Unlike zones, dungeons, or equipment, the player's character appearance will always be relevant. The player's avatar is what they grow attached to as they journey through the world. 

The additional customizations shown in Shadowlands is in line with this idea, but makes me think of the previous expansion's feature: the Allied Races. These introduced several new playable races, which sounded very promising to the community. Usually a new playable race would be limited to a new expansion released every 2 years. Lowering the complexity of new races allows for higher more releases and overall player choice. But looking back to the initial 2017 announcement, there has been some disappointment. 

1. Available Allied Races

There are several highly requested races that iconic to Warcraft's lore, yet remain unplayable after 16 years. These include Ogres, High Elves, Broken, Arakkoa, Vrykul, etc. Some of the Allied Races added were questionable; it seems like the game developers make their decisions in a vacuum without any regard to a very vocal community. I'll give a quick summary: 

Alliance

• Void Elves were controversial since they finally gave the Blood Elf model to the Alliance; which was the biggest case against adding High Elves. However, Alliance players were still unhappy:
• Void Elves have shadowy, goth skin colors and hairstyles, which don't fit the traditional fantasy Elf they had wanted. But the Shadowlands update will allow for natural skin tones, so there's some progress! 
• Lore for Void Elves were a mess: they started as Alliance High Elves who turned to Horde Blood Elves, who then consumed Void energy, fled the Horde, and returned to the Alliance as Void Elves. People liked the High Elves since they were loyal to the Alliance ever since Warcraft II, and hated the Blood Elves for being traitorous. Even with the updated skin tones, this race's lore is a little sour. 
• Also in lore, only a select few Blood Elves converted into Void Elves, which is a relatively small group. This invalidates the "low population size" explanation used for not adding High Elves, which is another slap in the face for getting this consolation prize.
  
  
• Lightforged Draenei are simple reskins from the vanilla Draenei. The most notable feature is that their skin is pure white and covered in Holy tattoos. However, characters are wearing large armor and shoulder pads that invalidate them. Also, the pure white skin is already available for Draenei, which was the color I made for my paladin Korseke. Overall, I think it was a very low effort addition. 
  
  
• Dark Iron Dwarves had been in WoW lore since Vanilla. They are essentially reskins of the vanilla Dwarves, but in a more dramatic way. Their charcoal black skin and glowing orange eyes make them far more unique to their original counterparts, compared to the Lightforged. I would say they meet the criteria for a separate race, however the expanded tattoos and hairstyles in Shadowlands may make them redundant. 
  
  

  

  Population charts show the Void Elves as being three times as popular than the Kul'Tirans, despite being simple reskins 

  
  
• Kul'Tiran are a race created entirely from scratch but nobody asked for. Despite their unique models and animations, they were just big, bulky humans. They're biologically identical to the Vanilla Humans but bigger. The Kul'Tirans have the same appeal as the classical Ogres, but none of the established fanbase. The character models and animations are well-made, but their designs don't satisfy the "sexy, beautiful" crowd, nor the "cool, monstrous" crowd. I'm really not certain what the strategy was here.
  
  
• Mechagnomes are amazing in concept, but lacking in execution. The community has ridiculed them as "diaper babies" or "gnome amputees". The playable Mechagnomes retained the flesh face and body, but had robotic limbs and head customizations. These were however indistinguishable with armor and a zoomed-out camera. They are a far cry from the Mechagnomes first shown in Wrath, which were ancient, inorganic robots. However, those versions don't have the same free-will or organic bodies like any other race. 

Horde

• Nightborne were the 2nd half of the "Elf exchange"; this added the Night Elf model to the Horde. I recall a rumor that the Night Elves were once considered for the Horde; an outlandish idea that is now a reality. Their addition was logical with their kinship with the Blood Elves, and history with the Alliance Night Elves. This was exciting again for the community, however the actual implementation was lacking:
• The playable Nightborne did not resemble the original Nightborne NPCs in facial structure or animations. They resembled the Vanilla Night Elves too closely and had limited customization. 
  
  
• Highmountain Tauren are another low-effort addition (in my opinion). The only changes made were the antler-horns and different tattoo skins. This seems like something that could've been rolled into the expanded customizations in Shadowlands. 
  
  
• Mag'har Orc have the same issue as Lightforged, Highmountain, etc. 
  
  
  

  

  Gee, I wonder what people like in the Horde
  
  

• Zandalari Trolls were highly requested and met with very positive reception. 
• The Zandalari Males used a mixed of Night Elf and Troll models and animations to portray the intimidating, upright Trolls. Most players dislike the hunch of the Male Horde races since it made them look like grunts rather than heroes.  
• Comparatively, the Zandalari Females were not as different from their Vanilla counterparts, and instead just receiving  different textures just the base models. 
  
  
• Vulpera were hinted at in the Vol'dun zone, where the questline involves them receiving help from and joining the Horde. They were another cute, small race for the Horde (Goblins weren't enough I guess), which further diversifies them from just being beefy monsters. 

2. Race Names & Subraces 

As observed, the Allied Races have varying degrees of efforts put into them. Some races are entirely unique, while others are just reskins of existing races. What grinds my gears now are the race names required for the similar races:

• Human & Kul'Tiran (Human)
• Draenei & Lightforged Draenei 
• Dwarf & Dark Iron Dwarf

This becomes a "square and rectangle" situation; all Kul'Tirans are Human, but not all Humans are Ku'Tiran. Species and nationality are completely different categorizations. It's like calling an American a "Human", and calling a Canadian just a "Canadian". To be consistent, every race should have their originating capital in their races names. As such, the Alliance races would need to be updated to:

• Stormwind Human & Kul'Tiran Human
• Exodar Draenei & Lightforged Draenei
• Ironforge Dwarf & Dark Iron Dwarf

These are a little too wordy, which is why I would've designed an alternate system. Many community threads had ideas for "subraces"; designed for adding different clans and racial offshoots that were too similar to their counterparts to justify an entirely new race. This would be represented as:

• Human
• Stormwind
• Kul'Tiran
• Draenei
• Exodar
• Lightforged
• Dwarf
• Ironforge
• Dark Iron

Since the Allied Races do have unique racial abilities, there would be an option to view their full description by default. To help game balance, each race family could share a "major" trait, and have several unique "minor" traits. The system would easily allow for further subraces/clans to be added, like the Wildhammer Dwarves, Broken Draenei, Forest Trolls, etc. These races are canonically already in the Alliance/Horde, so there's no additional story needed:

The only issue I foresee is that not every Allied Race fits neatly within the existing categories. The Vulpera are an entirely new race that don't fit under Horde race. The Allied Race system does allow for the entirely unique races like Ogres without that limitation of an existing race (in which case they'd just be a new race). 

Future Hopes

The revamped Shadowlands customizations greatly expands WoW's outdated system. From the community excitement, it's obvious to see how impactful this feature will be; arguably even more important than the new dungeons or raids. Some people just like making cool looking characters and hanging around with their friends!

The system will allow players to create diverse characters from Warcraft's extensive world. The additional skins and tattoos will allow for the smaller subraces like the Wildhammer Dwarves, Sand Trolls, and High Elves to be represented. However, I feel like the developer's shot themselves in the foot with this weird system now that has to coexist with expanding customization, which creates an inconsistent dichotomy.