That, however, is the issue with pugging and the inherent unwillingness to engage in a social structure and hence, in my opinion, in a core aspect of MMO gaming. Complaining that an MMO isn't bending out of shape to fulfill non-MMO criteria is pretty unfair, and always has been. Ergo raiding should not be designed to function beautifully for pugging due to the inherent limitations of pugging itself, and it isn't being designed with it in mind.

As it stands, WoW is already probably just about the most pug-friendly and casual-friendly an MMO can get in terms of PVE endgame. Competitors on the market offer pretty much nothing like it, and WoW's casual players are pretty damn spoiled in that respect, if I may say so. I'd even go so far as to state that the casual majority of WoW has pretty much forgotten what classic MMO gaming actually amounts to, and why there are limits to how far the game can cater to them in terms of endgame.

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El. Psy. Congroo.

He's one of the most neutral neutrals who ever neutraled.

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"Noble countrymen, evil is upon us. Darkness has befallen our shores. Rise and slay thy enemies� strike, strike so others shall live. The meek shall not fade into the night� live my brethren, live." - King Terenas Menethil II

A lot of people just want wow to be singleplayer with the chance to maybe see other people

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My Worldbuilding:
http://bloodinkworlds.tumblr.com/

That'd suck so I am glad they haven't done any of the sort. Game would be far worse if you ask me... WoW is a social network in itself.

in fact its a better Social network than several social networks (facebook). Which are just... Annoying sites filled with notifications and ads (twitter has these too, but they are not so much in your face and screaming about it) Facebook notifications gives me the same fear like opening the email... "Please don't be something important I missed" etc.. or "Please Don't be something that might make my day worse"...

We've known this for awhile. Some people just reject him as an Alliance figure because he doesn't kill Horde on sight.

I do wish he wore a more Kirin Tor-based attire than his pseudo-Medivh thing he's got going on. He'd look awesome if he was in the gear in his WOD artwork.

Why does being "wise" always equate to "Neutral" in Blizzard-talk? Stop that shit.

If he survives the expansion I'll be shocked.

Funny considering his updated model looks pretty damn healthy.

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How fucking hard is it to add a new skin color or three, especially when you totally have that skin already finished, textured and polished for so many NPCs?

Really, I want to know.

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Hours of man hundreds.

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I think they want to do something for every race that's why.

So the next expansion will feature new kinds of humans, then?

They have to introduce the completely new sub-races, after all.

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I think they don't want to do anything for any race, that's why.

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That, and/or wait for 7.0 so they can staple it onto the box as an expansion feature. Not that I'd mind that really so long as they didn't fuck it up.

I guess the issue with 'every race' is just how far they're willing to take it. For stuff like Dark Irons/Wildhammers and Mag'har it's a pretty simple pallet change. The problem is when you start getting into stuff like Broken who are- well, I really don't foresee Blizzard being happy recycling the skeleton from a race that isn't the sub-races parent (I think Broken use the Tauren skeleton?). At that point they'd possibly end up making MORE 'new races' than the usual two.

Stuff like say... Half-Elves/Orcs is more of a grey area since it could still get away with using the 'parent' race skeleton with some edits.

Blizzard are pretty lazy when they can get away with it. If they think they can push out slapping a few skin colours onto some races and call it a 'feature' (and can get people buying skin changes) they'd be pretty happy with doing it over a fully fledged new race.

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I kind of like the Medivh look Khadgar has going on. But I would love it if he had his Touch of Grey thing from Warcraft 2 and the goatee.

I have no idea what skins they'd add to races like Humans, Undead, Goblins, Draenei, Night Elves, Blood Elves or Worgen without it getting really absurd.

I could see stuff like Dark Iron Dwarves, Mag'har Orcs, Grimtotem Tauren, Troll variant skins (any work, really), Leper Gnomes and stuff like that, but the moment they try to add an Eredar skin for Draenei I'm going to nope right out of there.

I'd rather they just bit the bullet and add subrace models, like Broken, Jungle Trolls, etc.

It's possible they don't add a sub-race to ALL of them. They didn't give Draenei a new class combination after all and the Blood Elf situation tells us they're not afraid to at least 'temporarily' push things out the door without some getting a cookie.

Humans could, sigh, get 'High Elves' on the basis of reusing the Blood Elf model. Similarly, the Forsaken could receive a tweaked Blood Elf to serve as their Dark Rangers/Forsaken Elf/Whatever.

Worgen could get Gilnean Human. They're just Humans but use the Gilnean accents and such. Obviously though that brings up new and interesting issues with how the opening works but worst case scenario they 'cut' the more difficult quests out (starting in the stocks, drinking from Tal'doren, etc).

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Humans: Different body types, possibly new voices for regional accents.

Undead: Undead elves

Goblins: Hobgoblins, gilblins, both are kind of pushing it, but whatever.

Draenei: Easy, Broken.

Night elves: High elves, make them more like the original high elf model.

Blood elves: Crack elves, fel elves, high elves who join the horde, whatever floats your goat.

Worgen: Night elfey ones with fur patterns maybe? Or how bout they overhaul the female one so it doesn't look like an maniacal furries' jerk off fantasy.

Tauren: Taunka, they are official members of the horde as of Wotlk.

Orcs: Maghar, red orcs and fel orcs if they have the balls. Dragonmaw skins.

Dwarves: Dark iron, wildhammer tattoos, hell even iron dwarf skins could be possible, or earthern.

Gnomes: Leper gnomes, Mechgnomes if they went a little crazy.

Trolls: Other types, obviously.

Pandaren: Different body types, or maybe even Furbolgs

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You know how the black skin of humans is no longer as black as it once was? There's your new feature!

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Both Broken and Taunka are not skins, but instead entirely custom models. And neither have female versions.

I think High Elves work better a 'Human' sub-race. Obviously, I mean that more culturally so since they'd likely share Elwynn and Stormwind with them when it comes to mechanics.

Maybe there could be more differences between the Highborn and Kaldorei apart from the former just not having tattoos?

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Taunka are skins, actually, with a headpiece thrown on the tauren body. and broken use the Tauren model skeleton, so it's not hard to fix. I'm thinking more sub races at this point to be honest.

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I think would be better if they add a "Highborne" option in the night elves instead high elves, would be great if they looks visually different than "common" night elves.

Something like this.

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Haha, can you imagine all the role players who'll then have canonical backing to act like nobles?

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It's not like they don't already.

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Yeah, but this time they'll do it with Metzen's seal of approval.

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(Sonneillon made a new thread and this one is pretty big so new link here.)

Through the Dark Portal!