I love the zone of Uldum/ Tanaris as it has humans (Wastewanders) who have become good/neutral after the events of BFA. They are unique from the humans of the eastern kingdoms and have their own unique names inspired by middle eastern names. They are also have their own mount which you can buy if you get exalted with the Uldum accords. They are also unique in that they are neutral and not part of the alliance. Meaning they don’t mind chatting with the horde races.
Anyway, my questions is why does the zone not have any children NPC’s. The humans have been there since Warcraft 3, you would think they would have offsprings by now just to make the zone more believable. At least 1 or 2 even.
That’s my main observation with the Zone, otherwise the Wastewanders are a great bunch.
This is not a complaint, just a suggestion for the future. To make the zone more lively and believable.
I think it might be due to the law of conservation of detail. That idea means that games only include the minimum of necessary things for the game to function. Most medieval towns would have more than an inn, blacksmith, and stable, for example, yet towns in-game might have only those things.
There are often no children, no toilets, no basket weavers, and no village streets lined by hundreds of homes for farmers.
But I agree with you, children would add realism and take up little space. It seems doable.
The Wastewanders aren’t exactly an example of good world building that I’d invest overly much in, though…
A band of pirates, that chose to become bandits. In a desert far from pretty much any civilization, and caught between ruthless goblins, their headhunters, sand trolls, pirates, and the unhospitable environment. They survived for 20 years, somehow. And we’re supposed to belive that they somehow flourished and grew. Without actually building any settlements. They became a force that had any relevance in the defense against N’zoth, and told us they were good guys now. The banditry was just a lifestyle choice that can easily be left out without threatening their survival, I guess.
I mean, I can see why one would be interested in a more oriental culture in WoW, and I’d actually like that myself, but the Wastewanders aren’t it. Put that in yet unexplored areas like Tel’Abim, or something. The Wastewanders could even stem from there, explaining their cultural heritage. But I’d really, really hate to see them build a culture of any relevance on a crew of pirate-bandits that just somehow could.
So as far as I’m concerned, I don’t really want to see those children, if they don’t get better lore.
Since Cataclysm, most of them moved to Uldum. There, they seemed to have built a more friendly environment (until the events of N’zoth BFA) in Obelisk of the Moon, which became their new capital.
They also have a neat area in Oasis of Vir’sar I recommend checking out.
I think this is indicative of a larger problem that the world building of World of Warcraft has… the entirety of humanity is represented by Stormwind*. I rather like the idea of the Wastewanderers and what they could have represented. Having nomadic people roam the deserts of Kalimdor is neat, and it has connotations to real life cultures, such as the Bedouins or the Tuaregs. It feels like that is what they were going for (their leaders are titled “Caliph”…), but it feels shoehorned in. Tacked on. There’s no depth. And it feels like giving them depth by separating them from the Stormwind cultural osmosis could be seen as problematic, by our modern values.
Although perhaps that’s just the way WoW is, and maybe its too late to change. Cultures other than that of medieval feudal Europe have been portrayed by other races, which itself could raise a whole topic of whether representation in WoW is problematic or not. Medieval China? Anthropomorphic pandas!
*Kul Tiras is its own thing, but it feels like it borrows from similar medieval tropes that Stormwind does. And then we have Gilneas of course, the empty kingdom whose king chills in Stormwind.
That might be the reason why they aren’t doing it, but I can’t really say I understand the argument or the supposed values here. Different places have different cultures, even when developed by the same races. So how does a racial component come into it? I guess I could see how someone might think that they couldn’t write about a different irl culture they aren’t part of, because they lack some relevant experiences to understand it fully, but that wouldn’t be specific to fantasy human cultures, but to any fantasy culture that is based on irl cultures. So… all fantasy cultures, really. Without exception. Or only with the “It’s not racist when it’s white europeans, because their descendents hold more institutional power in America”-exception that never made sense to me, either, I guess. But that doesn’t get you to Pandaren, either.
I can’t even imagine the mental gymnastics that would allow for disneyfied ancient mongolian centaurs, but would prohibit disneyfied human arabs.
the disney version of Arabs isnt accurate to begin with, seeing as they mixed Arab, persian, and indian cultures together. As a Arab i relate more to Rapunzel from Tangeled than i do Princess Jasmine/ Aladdin.
the princess is wearing the most revealing clothes out of all the princesses for crying out loud.
same same.
most of their names are Arab/ Middle Eastern, like:
Zahra
Yasmine
Farah
Naveed
and so on. they also have title of “caliph” as leader.
And I wouldn’t be expecting a more accurate depiction from WoW, yes. Though I was mostly referring to the “family-friendly”-tone they are using now, and would likely be using in their description of any culture.
I still find the troll accents from WoW vanilla and on to be cringe. I miss W2 where they were generic bad guys. Why does my troll alt have to sound like an embarrassing pastiche of people from the Caribbean?
I hope they don’t put troll characters in the next Warcraft film. I really don’t want to explain that whole topic to my friends when I convince them to come see a movie about my favorite game.
