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City Guards and Civilian NPCs Will Receive Updated Diverse Appearances in Shadowlands

posted 2020/07/10 at 6:56 PM by perculia

Shadowlands group interviewRedShirtGuy for BlizzplanetQ: One of the things I’m really excited about in the new customization features is how its sort of allowed sub-races of a sort to get in, like Sandfury trolls and Wildhammer dwarves. And then those purple trolls who may be dark trolls or Shatterspear trolls; it’s not clear. But I wondered: it reminded me, in the pre-patch to Cataclysm they added little questlines explaining some of the new race/class combinations. Would there possibly be something similar about, like, Sandfury trolls or high elves in the Shadowlands pre-patch?

A: There are no specific plans along those lines in Shadowlands. Though I think we are planning on just broadly incorporating the range of character customization options for NPCs as well as players just across the world.

I think, in some ways we’re frankly viewing this as a bit of a retcon. Like, we’re not going to change existing named, established characters and make them look different. But, walking around Stormwind, walking around other parts of the world, you will see guards and random civilians that have these looks as if they’ve been there all along. Because frankly I think we see this as correcting an oversight on our part over the years, as well as just trying to improve representation more broadly. We are custodians of a fantasy universe and a world that we built, and we don’t want to not do the right thing because we feel shackled to a decision that was made creatively in a different era that was fifteen-plus years ago.

Now, as for details of troll clans and dwarven clans and the rest, I think as we have opportunities to do things like racial heritage lines or other race focused questlines, that’s a fun opportunity to explore those areas. But we don’t have any specific thoughts for Shadowlands right now.interview with Art Director Ely Cannon
With all the diversity now possible in player customization options, we’re curious if the new customization options will also be reflected on Shadowlands NPC appearances? And will existing NPCs around Azeroth (like Stormwind NPCs from Cataclysm) receive new appearances reflecting the new diverse customization options?

As with any tool we have available with us, designers will make use of it for current or future content. That may include going back to the old world, when new vendors are added, and customizing and updating some of the old NPCs in the world. But it depends on the time involved and what our bandwidth is. Our focus is always on the next expansion and the content coming up to provide the best possible game, but certainly having those available gives our designers a lot more to work with, and I would expect to see more of that diversity and customization represented in the world going forward for sure.

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Comment by PotatoHamsterRemoved

I'm very happy, and I hope to see more variety in Human enemies especially! They tend to suffer from severe cases of sameface.Comment by WasselinI can't wait! I hope this will happen for Silvermoon too.Comment by Priestbot98So those Human NPCs with Asian names that have existed since Classic will finally have Asian faces? Nice.Comment by KompaeHope they change the children too and their boat size feet.Comment by Ardensolis1THEY ARE LISTENING!Comment by uncommondoorRemoved

While I think it's a great idea to allow guards and others to be different and whatnot, changing established characters is just a bit....much. It's like how Marvel keeps ripping off costumes off of well established characters and slapping them onto some nobody. It doesn't work like that.Comment by Priestbot98Pretty weird that this fantasy race of mini Vrykul who originated in the frozen north and then ended up living in the mild conditions at the center of the eastern kingdoms ended up with dark skin, which is something that comes from a people adapting to extremely hot climates like Africa.Comment by RyskyPretty weird that this fantasy race of mini Vrykul who originated in the frozen north and then ended up living in the mild conditions at the center of the eastern kingdoms ended up with dark skin, which is something that comes from a people adapting to extremely hot climates like Africa.Comment by Merteuil90RemovedComment by Priestbot98Well you can go ahead and throw away your real world genetic arguments as those were thrown out the window the moment it was decided Aliens from entire different worlds could breed perfectly fine.

I.E Orcs and Draenei.

This universe clearly does not adhere to the real life norms of evolution, and nor should it. It's fantasy, it's meant to be unrealistic.Comment by 1808749This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by SaberScorpionThis is such a stupid retcon.
It would have been so much more interesting to give these races their own subcultures, but no, instead they're all european I guess, and instead panda-people get the Chinese culture, etc. It's boring and kind of insulting if you think about it.Comment by uncommondoorPretty weird that this fantasy race of mini Vrykul who originated in the frozen north and then ended up living in the mild conditions at the center of the eastern kingdoms ended up with dark skin, which is something that comes from a people adapting to extremely hot climates like Africa.Comment by RichardMNixonIf it makes people feel like they've won an important victory in their eternal struggle, then more power to them to subscribe and show Blizzard that WoW can still be a central talking point in 2020's modernization.Comment by GGribblesGo be butthurt somewhere else, literally every person in the world is completely different and your getting mad about a pigmentation?Comment by jcole42397Give'em an inch, they take a mile. Best way to address these types of folks is to just show them your favorite middle finger, tell'em to $%^& off, and let that be the end of it.

While I think it's a great idea to allow guards and others to be different and whatnot, changing established characters is just a bit....much. It's like how Marvel keeps ripping off costumes off of well established characters and slapping them onto some nobody. It doesn't work like that.Like, we’re not going to change existing named, established characters and make them look different. But, walking around Stormwind, walking around other parts of the world, you will see guards and random civilians that have these looks as if they’ve been there all along.Comment by WasselinIt is insulting that pretty much every non-European culture depicted in wow is by animals or monsters but that's what they have to work with. This is a good place to start and not really a "retcon" just a limitation of the customization they were working with when the game was made (and the lack of imagination and sensitivity of their original writers/artists).Comment by MeeboRemovedComment by ItacolomiRemovedComment by Priestbot98At the end of the day, it's Blizzards universe and lore.

If they say Humans can be black, humans can be black.

No ones forcing you to like that of course, and if Black humans bother you that much you could go play another fantasy MMO. Though most of them also have Black humans so that may hinder your enjoyment.

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