Yes, because that sounds about right, actually, I would imagine it is different Devs handling different aspects that causes the problem, hence we end up with people claiming Horde Bias, whilst forgetting Legion, which was -painfully- Alliance-centric, People claiming both factions losing a city is bias, etc etc.
The execution of the lore and plotlines needs addressing, and I think they genuinely -do- need at least one person passionate about the Horde, and passionate about the Alliance, to act as a kind of Miner’s Canary.
“Will the Alliance be happy about the outcome of the Blood War?”
Alliance Dev “Hells no, I’d be spitting chips, Tyrande has the right idea, this plotline makes us look stupid and weak”
“Will the Horde be happy about the outcome of the Blood War?”
Horde Dev "Are you kidding me, we lose -off screen-, wouldn’t be so bad if we actually got to see it, and we lose -another- Warchief? And we could only do it because the Alliance has to get involved -again-! "
Devs, “Hmm, so what you’re saying is that the Alliance will hate some of the story, and the Horde will hate other bits?”
Both H & A Dev “Yes! Absolutely, the story is awful for both factions in different ways!”
I think they could write decent story for both, but sometimes one or the other feels disjointed. As for the Allied Races, I don’t know about that…
Zandalari had a big take up, but none of the others so much. Zandalari are just flat out popular Hordeside, but then, it is all set about their lands.
Mag’har, whilst I think the models look brilliant, are so disjointed in terms of their lore, that it is often hard to get a handle on them (I’m talking mostly from an RP realm perspective), This said, their story is a different one from the MU Orcs, as this time it is the Mag’har who faced oppression and destruction on their homeworld.
High Mountain Tauren. Weak. Basically Tauren who have novelty hatstands on their heads and learned face painting. A lot of background, but just…no real difference to Tauren.
Nightborne. Interesting, unexpected, but once announced, quite a few people went “Well I wasn’t expecting them to go Horde, but fair enough”
Then we saw the models. It is like they mixed and matched the Night Elf and the Nightborne NPC model and went “Now, how can we make it look worse than this?” Awful model.
Vulpera? Meh, really too easy to say. They’re still on a new launch high, and you can’t (unfortunately) ignore those who just made them to make Yiff or uwu or whatever the memes are, characters.
Hopefully in a month or so, these types will have vanished, and we can properly assess how popular they are as an Allied Race. At the moment, its too soon.
Alliance ones however…
I don’t like Lightforged. I’ll explain why, and again, its largely RP based. What are they to normal Draenei? Are normal Draenei suddenly second class citizens? Is a Light Forged X, better than a Draenei X? I mean presumably there are tests to become a Vindicator, what makes a Light Forged better than a Vindicator. I think a better race could have been selected. Krokul seem pretty popular as a choice, not my cup of tea personally, but many seem to like them. It would pretty much need to be something you could grind rep for in Legion, tbh You’re looking at Krokul, or perhaps a good aligned Clan of Drogbar (Not sold on that one)
Void Elves. I can take them or leave them. They actually get a better Blood Elf model, with features Blood Elf fans have been asking for for years. Still, the lore is hasty, but does make a degree of sense, the aesthetics of the race are pretty good, and they do seem to be the most Popular Alliance race right now.
Kul Tirans. I like 'em. I love the lore behind them, how some armour works on them, I love the Zones, especially Drustvar, but also the idea of Druids and Shamans in the Thornspeakers and Tidesages. I think they made them a bit too caricature in terms of their build, but I like the race overall.
Mechagnomes: I really don’t get the hate. Or rather, I kind of do. People never liked Gnomes (Gods know why, they are amazing, most grim backstory ever!) , which meant they could have turned out a masterpiece of an Allied Race and people would still have hated it because ‘Gnomes’. If people thought about what the Race actually is, rather than just some stupid ‘Diaper Gnome’ meme. (Because they’re like, wearing white pants…you know, like they get top models to advertise IRL…What the heck are the female ones wearing, Diaper-Bra’s?
I mean who runs around with their characters in the nude anyway? Also they don’t even look like diapers. If they were black or brown, people wouldn’t be saying that. It’s just childish…
Anyway, the potential with Mecha Gnomes is incredible. Not unlocked them yet, not sure if I will make one, but that is because I like my normal Gnome too much. But you’ve got the whole Terminator/Robocop/Cyberpunk/Steampunk type vibe going on. If they were humans with augmentations I bet you people would play more of them…
So I think the Allied races come down to a matter of taste, some of them on both sides just leave me “Meh” whereas some I really like.
I forgot Dark Iron Dwarves, who are clearly just awesome on toast…
