Summary
Blizzard has been trying to win backWorld of Warcraftplayers after the controversial Shadowlands expansion, and one of the ways it is doing that is by giving players more control over their characters. Not only has the studiointroduced new cosmetics via the Trading Post, but it has also added a slew of new customization options to the character creator. These customization options have given players more freedom in how they want to be perceived on Azeroth, and every Dragonflight update seems to bring even more with it.
These newWorld of Warcraftcustomization options are great, but they may be coming at the expense of allied races. During Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard introduced allied races which almost doubled the playable race count. It was a core part of that expansion’s narrative, and the studio continued to add more throughout the content cycle. However, Blizzard has not done anything with it since, and the upcoming addition of Man’ari Eredar customization options may mark the end of the feature entirely.
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Blizzard May Have Pulled the Plug on Allied Races
Battle for Azeroth kicked off the Fourth Great War of Azeroth and both sides desperately needed allies. The entire focus of the first patch was to gain support from races that had been sitting out the great faction war up until that point. Horde players were able to recruit Nightborne and Highmountain Tauren while Alliance players got torecruit Void Elves and Lightforged Draenei. Once recruited, players could create a brand-new level 10 character using one of those races.
Players could then unlock the Mag’har Orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves once they finished the Battle for Azeroth war campaigns. Blizzard would then introduce the Kul’Tiran Humans and Zandalari Trolls in patch 8.1.5 while patch 8.3 saw the addition of Mechagnomes and Vulpera.Each allied race required a reputation grind, a recruitment quest, and would start at level 10. They were all remarkably similar to the game’s core races, but different enough that they warranted their own race.
Since Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard hasnot introduced any more allied racesto the game. The feature was allegedly not a Battle for Azeroth exclusive, but it currently feels like it was. Players have been calling for the studio to add more, but recent additions make it seem like Blizzard has no interest in exploring the concept further. Not only has it removed the unlock requirements, but it has also expanded the game’s core races with new customization options that give them whole new looks.
In Shadowlands, Blizzard gave Dwarf players the ability to use Wildhammer tattoos after players requested Wildhammer Dwarves as a playable allied race. It also gave Night Elf, Blood Elf, and Void Elf players the ability to make their characters look more like High Elves instead of adding them as a separate allied race. Blizzard is taking it a step further with Patch 10.1.7 by giving Draenei players the ability tomake their character look like a Man’ari Eredar. The Man’ari Eredar seem like the perfect race for the allied race feature, but instead they are nothing more than another customization option.
All of these new customization options are great, but they also make it seem like Blizzard has moved on from the allied race feature. It feels like the feature is nothing more than another expansion-exclusive feature that has been abandoned, and that is a shame. It had so much more potential as Azeroth is filled to the brim with races waiting to be made playable, but many of them may simply become customization options instead.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC.
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