I don’t think Kalimdor will be scrapped entirely. Just like BFA when we had to go back there for assaults, there will be future expansions when Kalimdor might be used again maybe on a revamp. (Think the night elves and their world tree)
People these days are tired of going out of space (cough cough shadowlands) and want content related to Azeroth, like BFA and Dragonflight.
I also want to point out that Mists of Pandaria along with the pandaria zones have always been my favorite expansion. And we all know the heavy cultural influence of China/east Asia in that zone.
At least the pandarens are represented positively. You have children running around, and peaceful people, and an amazing expansion just based on them. Along with Lunar festival (basically Chinese new year)
You have to understand the one people in the game who have Arab names are not represented like that. I understand Blood elves have somewhat of Arab inspirations but they don’t have Arab names. In fact, many people on the forums don’t even see the Arab inspiration with blood elves unless they go research it on Wowpedia. as it’s mostly fantasy.
Indeed it is not. But like any other games, you would still want your culture to be represented better even if it’s in a fantasy setting. After all, these people even use our names and a leader called caliph (Muslim leader). And other middle easterns agree with me in this thread, so I’m not the only one.
Edit: the Anizah clone is getting on my last nerves. Go make your own character. Don’t steal people’s character names! This is why we need battletags on the forums.
Which, imo, is already represented in the game in places.
You can ask for “TREE”'s all you want, it’ll still be “WE NEED ALL TREES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EXISTANCE OF THE UNIVERSE IN THIS ONE GAME”.
Maybe, if you want X aspect, search for it in ANOTHER game…?
It’s just a suggestion.
I don’t want all my roots represented in this one universe, or all my problems, all my side-dishes etc.
I still find tid-bits here and there hinting to representation of said things, nothing in-your-face esque.
And, again, I feel like we already have Arabic representation tidbits in the game.
It seems like you don’t understand what the thread is asking for in the first place. It’s even in the title .
I did not ask for new representation of Arabs nor did I ask for any “In your face” representation.
I will quote two people here that will summarize the entirety of the people who oppose these threads.
And to quote myself,
I feel like Middle Easterns don’t belong in this forums. We make a thread wishing “happy Ramadan” and it gets mass flagged and derailed. But happy Easter thread is perfectly fine even when Jesus is mentioned.
And same with these types of thread which is twisted into something it’s not. We can’t even make a simple suggestion to Blizzard without the comments being chaotic.
It seems you don’t make yourself very well understood - overall - then.
In the title “Arabs in WoW” (I don’t want Arabs in WoW, just as little as I want UK-folks, or Americans, or Icelandic people, or Norwegians, or Fins etc).
This is a fantasy game, it takes inspiration from multiple sources.
The more people make it “REAL LIFE” - the less good it becomes.
I don’t want “IN YOUR FACE”-arab stuff (Or any other culture or whatever) in the game, this is why this reaction is created.
YOU have decided that the Wastewanders are Arabs. I would disagree.
They have taken inspiration from Arabic culture, mixed it with other stuff, and thus created a fantasy.
If you purely want “Children NPCs” and “Merchant with more cosmetic stuff”, then LITERALLY place THAT ALONE in your opened and as your title.
Nothing IRL-stamped like you have.
Arab = No.
Inspired, with other stuff mixed in (Like every other race/culture/idea/religion/whateverIRL) = Yes, and already exists, can be added to as well.
I tried to explain how the Wastewanders are inspired by Arabs and middle easterns, that’s why the title says “Arabs in wow (Wastewanders)” because they are heavily inspired by that culture. Their names, the caliph, and desert, and so on. Had they been named John or Christian I would not complain.
And it related to my point about how they can be represented better in future stories, just like they were in BFA but they can expand on that a little.
I don’t need to place that on my title. It would be too long. I did, however, place it in my OP comment.
My idea is well understood, and have even gotten support from other middle eastern gamers like a Saudi guy and Persian girl who supported the thread.
They aren’t soley inspired by Arabs - or middle easterners.
Its a lot of fantasy sprinkled in there.
Just because you have gotten support from some, doesn’t mean you’ve been understood.
I’ve also gotten upvotes, so clearly - there are two sides to this.
Useless to argue, no?
TLDR:
Adding things are fine as long as they make sense, and are made tastefully.
1 or 2 children NPC added in? Yeah of course, go for it?
A dress? Sure. Add more dresses to the vendors, we already have plenty of cosmetic-potential vendors around.
Your title wouldn’t be too long if you worded it accordingly: “Add more Wastewander cosmetics”, if that’s what you intended.
Again, I don’t want Arabs - just as little as I want Swedes, Chinese, Russians, : ANY IRL stamp on anything.
Fantasy; Inspiration, mixed, that spark of imagination.
I mean, I have seen you around PLENTY on these forums and EVERY SINGLE POST you make is “Arab this, Arab that”.
You are VERY hyperfocused overall on your culture.
Perhaps the issue lies in you, then, if you see PURE arab and middle eastern in Wastewanders, and feel offended by it?
As I said, I seen plenty of inspiration from my own roots in the game - not all of it is happy-go-lucky, but I take it for what it is:
INSPIRATION. I see a clear destinction between REALITY and FANTASY.
They have mixed everything in WoW accordingly.
Its only lately that they have been more… IRL-Stampy-in-your-face with some stuff, which plenty dislike.
We just want a game that is fantasy, inspired and mixed; not stamped.
I’m hyperfocused on many things including transmogs and pets. But Arabs Isn’t one of them. I only mention it when it’s necessary, and when it comes to my RP characters I do apply my Arab roots into the story, yes. As that’s the culture I grew up with. Same with how some roleplayers apply Celtic inspirations into their rp characers if they are British.
we both can make up assumptions about ourselves.
But I don’t want to do that for you. I’m not that type of person
Then we want the same thing. After all that’s what Roleplay is. Applying real life experiences and turning it to a fantasy setting.
I am sorry but majority of your stuff is you linking things to arabic culture, arabic music, arabic this/that.
You are hyperfocused on RPing your own culture in this game.
I have an issue with it (The need for IRL stamps), yeah - and I have stated what my issue is:
I don’t want that IRL stamp in the game. I want to keep it mixed and a fantasy.
I post plenty of differating content in the forums.
I made zero assumption about you, I have just made observations and asked a real personal question for you to maybe see in yourself.
And to make it clear for any out-of-context people that exists:
I think there is middle eastern inspiration already in the game, and I don’t dislike that.
I think it’s great when they - mix things and take inspiration from things - and make it their own, Fantasy - hence.
I have also agreed that there could be more children NPCs (of every type) in the game (I don’t see many nelf children… )
My condolences about your mothers side of the family (Sorry my ADD is getting in the way of my reading…), and your country.
My father died 2015, my mother suffers dementia, there’s plenty of death and issues in my family and friends circle.
Loads of tragedy.
I wouldn’t want to RP any of that in specific, and I take inspiration from the basics:
Death, Greif, Strength, Love.
Dementia is an equal terrible loss, I’m seeing my mother fade away each month, having to repeat myself and her forgetting that I was there.
She forgot my age recently.
I’d not want to RP that, personally.
I can RP aspects of it, such as characters forgetting things or suffering temporary memory loss or general LIFE things.
Recently I have not felt super into RPing at all however as my mind is just occupied with general greif overall (Depression and other personal issues).
I wish I could RP away but - nope.
What I wanted to get at tho is; You take inspiration.
There’s also a factor of seeing into things too much, and I; again, say - the wastewanders aren’t a representation: it’s an inspiration, with plenty of other cultures/historic happenings/ideas mixed in).
Again:
More NPC children makes sense if people are having families, and adding in more cosmetics is great.
So, we agree there, right ? , just not on the STAMP part or how you have phrased yourself.
I’ve been visiting the Wastewanders from time to time in BFA Uldum, even today.
And what I noticed with their names is that majority of them have Arab, Persian, and Muslim Indian names. Their previous leader is called a “caliph” and for anyone who doesn’t understand what that means, it basically means “Muslim leader”. If you Google it, that’s the description it gives you.
So yes, they are initially a mix of middle eastern cultures and names, similar to the movie Aladdin in a sense lmao. But having these names, even in a fantasy setting, it can be problematic depending on how they are portrayed.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore. As long as the suggestion reached Blizzard, that’s all I care about. Wether the suggestion is used or not is up to them. Either way I’m fine with it. It’s not the end of the world.
Let’s just, agree to not agree on what we’re even talking about here.
You continue doing you, and I’ll move on.
We’ve heard both sides here and repeating it is moot.
Born and raised Arab here, reading this thread made me laugh hard what a joke… Like seriously who cares about the Arab representation? Guessing OP and few minorities, I have been playing this game for a very long-time 10+ years and not once I gave a F*** about Arab representation in the game because that literally means nothing to the game. I came to play WoW because I want to play WoW, not to see another maniak Arab in the game, if I want to do that, then I can look at my brother
Hell, there is an NPC in this game that have the same name as mine, and still it meant nothing, same with my brother, another npc has the same name as him. It didn’t occur to us that those npc represented Arab or anything, its just a random name given to a random npc.
So now when any game including WoW adds anything that might look its “Arab” and there are evil/bad, suddenly it represents the Arabs? It never occurred to me that Wastewanders are Arabs because it aint nor it will ever be, it’s a fantasy. Stop being butthurt and embarrassing the Arabs because I am embarrassed reading this thread.
Honestly this thread screams me me me look at me, just enjoy playing WoW. The game is amazing with its own flaws. It doesn’t need to represent every culture in the word, it has more than enough. People know what Arabs are like, they know we aren’t what media represent, they don’t need Arab representation in WoW to know how cool we are, so chill out.
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what a joke… Like seriously who cares about the Arab representation? Guessing OP and few minorities, I have been playing this game for a very long-time 10+ years and not once I gave a F*** about Arab representation in the game because that literally means nothing to the game. I came to play WoW because I want to play WoW, not to see another maniak Arab in the game, if I want to do that, then I can look at my brother