You can start by posting on your main. I’m not lying just cause I said 24 and not 21. How am I cherry picking when male BEs are actually getting extra customization via Drakthyr? No I don’t agree that this customization is limited to the Drakthyr class currently, but if you do decide to roll Drakthyr you can have extra options as a male Belf.
Also I said male BEs are not the last. I didn’t say they have the most. This very thread is about both Void and Blood elves. I say on the thread that BEs need more jewellery too. I apologise for saying they have “tons” of customization though. I tend to think of them along with the females and then lose track of who has what.
You dismiss an important aspect of player immersion. I like playing BEs and VEs because in game I can be what I cannot be in real. If I want to be a pretty blond elf, I can be that. If I want to be a werewolf, I can be that. Player immersion is not about looking in game exactly as you look in real. That’s more of a Sims thing. WoW is a fantasy game with predominantly mythical creatures.
In my case hair color was really important. The lack of it hindered my enjoyment of the game substantially. You can’t force feed people what you want them to consider significant and what not to.
At the same time, why is it so hard to hire someone specifically to make customization for character races? Why should one thing invalidate an other?
You need to stop with this flawed logic of saying that Drakthyr cosmetic = Blood Elf cosmetics. People who play on their Blood Elves aren’t getting anything, same for Void Elves.
I do agree with your general statement about BE and VE’s (and everyone else for the matter) needing more cosmetics, but you are the one who chose to fixate on cherrypicking and twisting facts, which deserves to be called out.
When trying to have a discussion, you should talk about the situation as it is, not make up stuff to make your wishes seem more important than they are.
Yes the Alliance wanted to play Blood Elves so they got Void Elves, they have since been able to get light skin colours and normal hair colours so they can even feel like High Elves again.
With the way Shadowlands turned out; Blizzard need to focus on making a good game worthy of playing.
what’s the point of getting tasty new customisation if the content isn’t worth playing?
To be honest, as much as I’d love new runic facial tattoos for Blood Elves only, Blizzard need to refocus and make sure their retail game is worthy of playing.
I’m not trying to twist the fact that the male BEs will be used for the Drakthyr. It’s clear that it’s the male Belf model, no? But yes at the moment, as things stand right now, Drakthyr are only available to one class and thus are unfortunately completely useless to Belf players should they wish to play other classes as the Drakthyr race. So I’m sorry for making it seem like male Belfs have more than they actually do
On the surface this would make sense. But why should one thing invalidate the other? The answer is it should not. I really don’t understand why char customization should hinder development for other game aspects
They must put their efforts into making retail worthwhile. The biggest concern I’ve got is that WoTLK classic is close to coming out. The only new character features we got in that expansion was the barber shop and the 3/4 death knight skins for each race (minus Forsaken.)
If Dragonflight becomes Shadowlands 2.0, with a focus being on the “pretty lights” and not the “core game” then I have big concerns about the future of retail because what’s the point to it?
I desperately want to play retail - if I do say so myself, I adore how my Nightborne Priest, in the Mythic Priest set from Emerald Nightmare and I’d love to play her, but the narrow eyes and arcane hands are not enough when the gameplay content is not worthy of my time.
How can you be so sure that the team working on developing gameplay is the same as those developing customizations and art-related features?
I am certain there are particular people dedicated to particular roles and goals related to WoW. I mean, there is the art team… they design and build the world. Another team probably takes care of the gameplay aspects, and then you have a story team working on quests and the likes.
I’d think, logically, that adding more customizations appearance-wise for our races is a job for the art team.
I don’t think adding more customizations would become an obstacle at the expense of work done on gameplay, unless the team working on WoW is generally severely understaffed.
I think it might help if Blizzard published a yearly timetable for their enhancements, so fans of all the various races knew they would each get something within a reasonable time frame.
It would give players something to look forward to, and go some way to ease any hostility and competition caused by who gets something and who doesn’t.
A player vote, could be offered to prioritise one particular feature first before the timetable is published.
Well, I can’t speak for others, but I’ll speak for myself:
I originally wanted to play the group that is associated with the Alliance, such as the High Elves from the Silver Covenant for maybe an example. I never really wanted to get “cherry picking” from the Horde and ask for the Blood Elves. But this is the path Blizzard took, and while in the end, I am glad that we got High Elven customizations for the Void Elves, but in a way, upset, because this was never the original request.
But I guess I can only make do with what I get. Can’t always get everything we really want.
For me - it’s got to be a 80% focus on the gameplay now. Cosmetics are those super delicious sweets that flow into a great expansion. Now I know not everyone will agree, but look at allied races at the end of Legion. A good expansion with a nice flow of extra races to play and level, with a new questing system.
We tried cosemtic features driving the expansion and we got Shadowlands. It doesn’t work. It hasn’t made them any money.
For retail to have any future, gameplay must come first and foremost.
But I’m not one of those “Classic players” who comes on here to crap over retail and say “lol you still playin’?” I am so desperate to log into retail - I want to play my Nightborne Priest again. I want to see my Blood Elf Hunter and Blood Elf Mage again. But their cosmetic features don’t drive me to log in and want to play that version of the game.
Dragonflight hopefully gets the core gameplay sorted with nice art work. Brilliant gameplay means I want to log in and enjoy all the extra stuff. Not brilliant gameplay means I don’t care about the extra stuff because what’s the point to it if I have no reason to play.
That is my point here. Give me a reason - make me want to log into Dragonflight through great gameplay, then the extra cosmetics are fine compliments to the expansion.
EDIT: I want Dragonflight to succeed on the levels where Shadowlands failed. The updates to transmog white and grey items…as a Blood Elf Mage player, I want to enjoy that just so I can transmog the Blood Elf Bandit Mask and RP a “Sunfury-like Blood Mage.” But the gameplay needs to be there.
I don’t know how the internals work with their team - how they delegate work, how many they put on working on this and that, how many is needed for one aspect vs another, etc.
I get where you’re coming from, but I just don’t imagine that Blizz is so understaffed they can’t have at least one or two people developing some additional customization features while the rest pour their resources into improving gameplay.
I get where you’re coming from too, but I think every player experience is different. For me, it was the lack of sufficient customization options (such as hair colors in my case) that was actually the deal-breaker, game-ruiner, call it whatever you will. Aside from in-game immersion via my character’s appearance, the other things that matter to me by order of priority are:
Dungeons
Raids
Story
In the dungeon front, SL did really well, as every expansion does in my opinion. Great dunges, and feedback -eventually- listened do.
In the raid front they could have done better as we usually get more raids each expac, but I quite liked Castle Nathria and Sepulcher. SOD was so-so.
The story could have been better but wasn’t too bad either. I had a blast in Revendreth, and Bastion looks magical, same with Ardenwield. Their Art team does some hard carry I tell ya, lol.
But what are the things we could have got but didn’t got in SL that would’ve made a great difference in my opinion?
Some great new Core races
A new class
And I mean ok not every expac will have the above so it’s understandable, they decided to go with customization as the selling feature in SL instead. Was it enough and a wholesome job done for all races? Oh heck no.
OMG that is a fricking BRILLIANT idea!! At least THEN I would know when and if I should take a break knowing my fav race will eventually get its own update and be ready to return just before it does! xxxx
Hey, if your ‘‘chekiness and greediness’’ bring some love to the races then keep being as ‘‘cheeky and greedy’’ as you are :’)
Edit: Also honestly I remember how excited you were on PTR when they added the customizations there, love seeing that excitement in people
Not necessarily regularly but…up to a point where they have an acceptable amount of customization that lets you be unique. If not something original for most races at least copy-paste a few customizations between races like hairs(Have you seen how amazing the shaggy and sombra night elf hairs look on blood elves? You absolutely should see that, it’s amazing.). Hope OP’s dreams come true as they’ve been asking for a long long while.
While things didn’t go exactly as I want them in WoW, I acknowledge and appreciate how this game shaped my past and helped me build my future. In this game I met my very own husband, I made dear friends, I travelled to other countries thanks to the friends I made. Most of my WoW memories have been magical and I will not allow the misfortune of SL lacking customization to cloud these valuable memories <3!
:o That’s awesome Just a game they say, yet it changed yours and so many people’s lives and it will keep doing so.
(Hey, also I want to point out that both Ara and Alý are my characters, wrote from the first as that’s the one you’ve interacted with me as, felt right to do so even if i faction transferred her over a year ago at this point.)
This is my overall point. The expansion can’t be sold on artistic features alone. Story, gameplay - all of that needs to be on point.
Believe me, I want to run around on my Blood Elf Mage, experiencing both the new Dragon Isles zone, but also enjoy the new features like transmogging white and grey items, so I can run around as a Sunfury-like Blood Mage and I have the cool Blood Elf Bandit Mask transmog for my head piece to complete that beautiful RP feel. Running around Netherstorm and Zin-Azshari as a Sunfury-looking Blood Elf would be great. (Yes, I do pin a lot of that feeling on the Blood Elf Bandit Mask.)
But I need a reason to log in. My Nightborne Priest looks exactly how I want her to look, but with Shadowlands, Korthia especially, I had no reason to log in. ZM was going in the right direction, but it’s not enough for me. I don’t care about “Pokey” or “Puki” or whatever the hell that ball robot is called.
And story - your absolutely right. Story could have been so much greater, but they pinned it all on Sylvanas, Zovaal and Anduin (with Tyrande having the main side plot.)
Why couldn’t the Azerothian/Outland based characters have been given something where their stories were developed?
Just one example - Why couldn’t we have gone back with Lady Vashj, to the Ruins of Zin-Azshari and Vashj’ir? Why couldn’t we have learned who her mother was? What about the High Priestess of Vashj’ir, Siralen? The Ranger Captain of Vashj’ir as well…this could have brought far more life to the character of Lady Vashj where she wasn’t just solely tied to Kael’thas.
Blizzard needs to understand that you can’t compare Thalyssra to Ven’ari. Thalyssra, yes she was a new character in Legion, but her story tied in with the ancient Highborne night elf lore, so the basis for her character was solid and she worked. Ven’ari was just a robot thing which had no sort of life or background. Thalyssra succeeded with her Suramar role in every way Ven’ari failed with it’s Maw role.
EDIT: And I feel the need to repeat. I am not one of those idiots from Classic WoW who is all like “Lol you play retail!” I want to play retail so much! Blizzard just isn’t giving me a reason to want to play retail. 9.2.5 is looking quite interesting and with the new Blood Elf questline - I will play that, but that still feels off because I’d rather play in a TBC phased zone than play the new zones.
At least THEN I would know when and if I should take a break knowing my fav race will eventually get its own update and be ready to return just before it does! xxxx
