Think my main point (because i forgot while I was in the middle of posting) was, while yes, next to none of the NPCs would be anything other than white, you can at least in BB (as well as in all DS games) make a character to represent yourself.
or not, my main arcane character was blue skinned and red eyed.
Weāre playing Bloodborne atm and we just made Ozzie Osbourne
HAH!
I always have a character that looks like Kate Beckinsale in Dark Souls.
Honestly, I love seeing the new dark skin tones. I think they look awesome, the eyes pop so much in contrast and I absolutely love my rogue. She has the second darkest. If someone gives you lip for using them, they arenāt worth any of your time or your effort in RP or otherwise.
Have fun out there, OP!
Blue High Elf eyes and dark skin look so freaking stunning.
Just make a blood elf warlock with dark skin tones and call him Wrathions, the black prince.
Because whatās better than a POC who is also an aristocrat? But donāt wear a turban please.
Seriously, why should anyone care. Let people enjoy something they want and that doesnāt damage the game in any remote way (if anything, it adds customization and expands the setting - Iām all for it).
Because its pandering! Just like the LGBT characters!
Boo Blizzard! BOO!
(I obviously do not believe this.)
IĀ“d say that this is a retcon and black elves always existed, as much as asian or african looking humans. Blizz just didnĀ“t have many resources in wow to put them in.
But as karillan said, instead of trying to force tie your black-skinned elves to have their origins in either Tanaris or Uldum, to justify making elves too much inspired after arabians. Have it just be a unique genetic trait or a tan from a sun. We have Wrathion in the game who is black and a bit arab looking, but doesnĀ“t play too much into his looks.
As plenty of people has mentioned, yes of course it is acceptable without question!
Go for it man! 
Any that does not is most likely by over 100% a player to avoid and does not represent the community well, the true og argent dawn players back you up fam.
If you encounter such in-game in a extreme and hostile manner, be sure too report them.
Might be good to close this thread since you have received positives answers and not too bring those people in this topic to risk it gets derailed.
Unironic advice: stop watching angry āāācentristāāā gaming youtubers for a month or so, your brain will naturally clean itself, and you wonāt have to be so constantly worked up about skintones in videogames.
Some people canāt stop perpetuating the idea that dark skin customisation options are political
Look Loras, itās simple. When businesses pander to me, thatās good business. When people pander to people who are not me, then thatās politics.
Donāt get me wrong but i think that blizzard really could have implemented their diversity better to be honest, it took them 16 years and at this point i do think that it kinda does look like pandering, especially given the current climate. The implementation was pretty lazy as well.
I think that the fantasy universe that has done it the best has to be The Elder Scrolls where you have a multitude of different human races to pick from, all with awesome unique lore, cultures and explanations as to why they look the way they do. You got the tall, blonde, blue-eyed norse inspired people from Skyrim with the nords, you got the african/middle eastern-inspired people with the redguards from Hammerfell (their lore is pretty awesome and iāve heard they have curved swords), you got the shorter, celtic/briton inspired people with the Bretons with a focus on druidism and magic and iirc they look the way they do and have an affinity for magic because they are the result of a union between men and elves and then thereās the imperials that are inspired by romans/mediterranean peoples.
I donāt think iāve ever seen anyone complain about the diversity in Elder Scrolls, and thatās because it was done right and it feels like some effort was put into it and they managed to give every one of their races a unique identity. They didnāt wait 16 years and then just throw a couple of extra shades and hairstyles (which takes close to zero effort) into the character creator and go there, happy now? Please applaud us for our inclusivity.
Blizzard is so trigger happy when it comes to constantly retconning everything so i donāt see why they canāt just retcon the human/elf lore a bit and add some different cultures/civilizations to the world. They certainly arenāt lacking when it comes to diverse environments. Azeroth has arctic and subarctic climates, jungles, deserts etc.
The human lore is especially bland as it is and iād love to see it expanded upon.
Edit: And again, donāt take my comment the wrong way, if youāre happy with what we got iām happy for you, but i donāt think we should settle for this and there is so much potential when it comes to expanding on the lore.
I donāt see the issue, personally ā with how Blizzard currently handles it, a dark-skinned/black human can be a chivalrous knight or a powerful wizard, without shoehorning them into cookie-cutter African/Middle-Eastern culture rip-offs. Thatās all fine by me; we get cultural inspiration and representation through the other races.
But I do recognise that the representation isnāt for me ā if there was criticism from black players about it, itās their experiences that should be listened to.
Iām not personally seeing how itās lazy on Blizzardās part. In terms of the actual customizations themselves, I think they did a pretty good job in adding a range of options and appearances. Itās not comparable to other MMOs which definitely do customization better, but WoW is a game thatās soon going to be old enough to get married, drive a moped, or apply for a national insurance number, and while the engine has changed over the years, I donāt think Blizzard have ever done anything from the ground-up.
But personally I like the idea that skin tone and the likes arenāt defined by geography, and that what matters more is where your allegiences lie rather than skin colour being indicative of this place or that place. Whilst itās maybe not the most logical explanation for things, weāre playing a game where a new world-shattering threat pops up every two years and gnomes can exist without being punted like footballs.
More sincerely, as Loras said, not having x skin tone limited to y location means that anyone can be anything without stereotyped expectations, and I like that quite a lot.
Until my black character gets referred to as āqueer-skinnedā and āa man of Tanaris.ā He was Gilnean and a worgen. But what Blizzard put forth and roleplayers put forth are two different things. Even if the roleplayerās different things are sometimes really uncomfortable.
I definitely see where youāre coming from, iām just a bit of a history/geography nerd myself and i think adding some more variation when it comes to cultures within the various races would be awesome and really add a lot of roleplaying potential not to mention it would also just make more sense logically, since as it stands right now, the human race in the Warcraft universe is what, a few thousand years old and all of them are the ancestors of what is essentially a norse people, who moved from what is pretty much a frozen wasteland down to a northern and central european climate. And in reality atleast, there are reasons as to why people look the way they do. Fair skin and hair is for example advantagous in an environment with less sunlight while it is a disadvantage in tropical/hot desert climates where we have to constantly apply sunscreen to avoid getting cancer and having our skin burnt off.
WoW has for a long time had a bit of a problem in my eyes where all of the races just kinda feel like one-dimensional caricatures. They feel a bit shallow compared to what we see in many other fantasy universes and personally iād like to see more depth.
I hear what youāre saying, and weāre in agreement that Blizzard didnāt implement the PoC options nearly soon enough or nearly with as much finesse as one could like. Iām gonna go on a bit of a rant though about my personal issues with The Elder Scrollsā interpretation of human race, and why I prefer the way Blizzard handled it personally.
On the surface, the best thing about TESā roster of human races is that Black people will almost always be represented. A lot of fantasy universes, Tolkien and WoW for example, will lack any human characters at all that arenāt strictly white (for Tolkien it can be argued because of the climate surrounding him when writing, but Blizzard had/has no excuse), and itās amazing that, no matter The Elder Scrolls game, there will always be a place for Black players who want a character that resembles them.
The issue arises then with leaving Black players in a bit of a box. For example, I like making my RP characters in other games, ESO and Skyrim included. Xav is a whimsical and magical bard with a love for the woodlands; perfect as a Breton, right? Except that isnāt possible. In The Elder Scrolls, if youāre Black, youāre a Redguard - end of. That brings with it a more unique issue such as in ESO, where this forces my character into a stamina build in accordance with the Redguard racials (if I wanted to be viable). A Black person who loves Viking aesthetics and wants to a Nord can do so, but not whilst also having a character they feel looks like/represents them.
I also take a few problems with The Elder Scrollās portrayal of Redguards in general; Michael Kirkbride, debatably the forefather of TES lore, designed Redguards explicitly around The Black Panthers civil rights group, under the pretence of a Black race that were inherently conquerors and - in fact, hereās the quote in its entirety:
That said, when I started writing Redguard I really thought about how unique the black people of Tamriel were: they came in and kicked butt and slaughtered the indigenes while doing so. They invaded. It was the first time I had encountered the idea of āblack imperialismāā¦and it struck me big time, as something 1) new, 2) potentially dangerous if taken as commentary, and 3) potentially rad if taken as commentary.
I find the notion of a white authorās take on the dangers of Black Imperialism to beā¦ uncomfortable, to say the least. TES from Morrowind onwards has seemingly abandoned this idea, however, instead making them their worldās stand-in for Moors and Arabs, which is a whole new can of worms. Thereās also the whole thing that Redguards are only debatably human because they come from a different home continent. Itās just a lot of weird stuff to be found when you research Redguards from a Black readerās perspective.
Anyway, my point isnāt that any of this is bad, per-se. Tamriel as a setting is a lot more grounded than Azeroth, and can also take itself a lot more seriously. It makes sense therefore that the races all have ārealisticā and lore-heavy explanations to their origins and traits; but, I still believe this approach has downsides, and can have as big a negative impact as a positive one.
I guess, to summarize, Blackness shouldnāt be inherently tied to a unique race in every setting. Sometimes we just want to be fantasy humans like the ādefaultā option.
I donāt really get your point here. Isnāt all imperialism bad and dangerous? I donāt think it matters if it is a white, black or asian ethnic group that is taking part in imperialism. Itās bad all around. I mean, out of curiosity, do you not agree with his point that it would be bad and dangerous if a foreign group (no matter their colour) invaded another nation and started exterminating the indigenous culture and people and participating in imperialism?
Would you find it less uncomfortable if it was a black person commenting on the danger of white imperialism?
Yeah, donāt worry, that was just my bad wording. My issue with it was that I donāt view him in particular as an author with the nuance or credibility to tell a story like that, and that I feel using Black people as your slavers/imperialist stand-in is a bit tone deaf when done by a white author. If you look up some of Kirkbrideās other views I think youāll get what I mean - thereās a reason he isnāt ever involved with TES lore anymore.
This thread has taken a rly strange turn donāt know why you would make it about " white " authors but the Grim Gest of course accepts dark skinned blood elves