Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Does WoW have the best looking and overall best races in any fantasy race based MMO?
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
I don't mean quality. Sure some MMO may have better polygons or slightly better quality in their MMOs
But what MMO has a race that you can play as the UNDEAD (forsaken)? I'm pretty sure WoW is the first MMO to actually allow you to be the undead. Or Tauren? Guess Minotaurs from Shadowbane are close, but that is a rare race in an MMO.
But then look at Night Elves or Blood Elves. While BE males are rather dumb looking, the females look gorgeous. Very beautiful race. Many MMOs have better quality females, but none look nearly as pretty as a blood elf female. Night Elves as well, females are really nice looking, and the males look epic. What I am talking about is the art design, not the actual quality of the model. Even the undead look amazing, same with the tauren and orcs. Its how I picture orcs would actually look. Though the non-green, brown orcs do look better.
Even the Worgen look great, and are a very unique race in an MMO. Gnomes, Dwarves while done a lot look perfect for their role. Some MMOs make gnomes look really stupid, like vanguard saga of heroes the gnome heads were so huge huge like a balloon about to pop.
The only race that looks super dumb overall are the humans. But humans in most MMOs look dumb anyway. Or like GW2, the humans look like barbie and ken dolls.
The only race(s) that stick out to be better overall than WoW in terms of design are Charr from GW2. And I really liked the Asura design. Felt like playing a gremlin from a stephen king book/movie. And kinda that is it for particular races that stick out. But a lot of the Shadowbane races were epic and unique, kinda in same vain as WoW but even more of them.
But outside of the occasional race (like Charr in GW2), very few MMOs design their races really well, and most are typical cliche races. Like Charr is super unique, but undead and tauren (semi, kinda remind me of Minotaurs but Minotaurs aren't done much as a race anyway so still unique)...are either never done or really rare to see.
That is my problem with a lot of fantasy MMOs. Just no unique races, all the races have been done before. WoW does that too of course with elves, but blood elves are unique as far as elves go. Their trolls are unique. Undead are just never done as a playable race. The only MMO to do something truly unique and never done before or even seen are the playable Charrs in GW2. Which beats out the WoW races for me, but WoW overall still has better races (more of them) and design for them.
But what MMO has a race that you can play as the UNDEAD (forsaken)? I'm pretty sure WoW is the first MMO to actually allow you to be the undead. Or Tauren? Guess Minotaurs from Shadowbane are close, but that is a rare race in an MMO.
But then look at Night Elves or Blood Elves. While BE males are rather dumb looking, the females look gorgeous. Very beautiful race. Many MMOs have better quality females, but none look nearly as pretty as a blood elf female. Night Elves as well, females are really nice looking, and the males look epic. What I am talking about is the art design, not the actual quality of the model. Even the undead look amazing, same with the tauren and orcs. Its how I picture orcs would actually look. Though the non-green, brown orcs do look better.
Even the Worgen look great, and are a very unique race in an MMO. Gnomes, Dwarves while done a lot look perfect for their role. Some MMOs make gnomes look really stupid, like vanguard saga of heroes the gnome heads were so huge huge like a balloon about to pop.
The only race that looks super dumb overall are the humans. But humans in most MMOs look dumb anyway. Or like GW2, the humans look like barbie and ken dolls.
The only race(s) that stick out to be better overall than WoW in terms of design are Charr from GW2. And I really liked the Asura design. Felt like playing a gremlin from a stephen king book/movie. And kinda that is it for particular races that stick out. But a lot of the Shadowbane races were epic and unique, kinda in same vain as WoW but even more of them.
But outside of the occasional race (like Charr in GW2), very few MMOs design their races really well, and most are typical cliche races. Like Charr is super unique, but undead and tauren (semi, kinda remind me of Minotaurs but Minotaurs aren't done much as a race anyway so still unique)...are either never done or really rare to see.
That is my problem with a lot of fantasy MMOs. Just no unique races, all the races have been done before. WoW does that too of course with elves, but blood elves are unique as far as elves go. Their trolls are unique. Undead are just never done as a playable race. The only MMO to do something truly unique and never done before or even seen are the playable Charrs in GW2. Which beats out the WoW races for me, but WoW overall still has better races (more of them) and design for them.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
The Sylvari in GW2 are a unique race with a unique backstory and connected to GW lore also.
The female gnomes are cute!
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
WOW's elves are stupid looking.
WOW's trolls are bad.
Panda's.... But its a panda.
Worgen is a werewolf. nothing unique there
Everquest1-2 both had better races that at least didn't look stupid.
GW2's races way better.
Honestly wow's races look like some kid just decided to make whatever they wanted and slap it on a paper.
Race aesthetics,Lore?I never got any feeling of Lore with Wow,not until the movie and even then it was very focused on only a few.They released a whole expansion on the Panda of which before hand hardly anyone without looking VERY HARD even knew existed in the game at all,so NOPE they did not reinforce Lore whatsoever.
As far as Aesthetics go,that is a very deep subject which perhaps leans towards true ART FORMS.If you look at the models artistically,they look like cheap 8 bit characters and nothing more.I am sure some have seen amazing art done with a simple pencil,or pastel nothing in Wow's portfolio looks like an artist painted it.
Matter of fact,i have seen similar races done better in other games than in Wow and on many occasions,so it looks to me like they simply rehashed their very early on Warcraft lore into the game.I would also argue that there was hardly any improvement on their original Warcraft orcs from 20 years ago.IMO EQ2 already had the Lore from EQ1 as well better looking characters and gear with better lighting effects,Wow actually is inferior to EQ2 in many ways.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Early on their lore was looser and a not-very-good mutation of the Warhammer stuff the RTS was first based on. Since then they have had a bit of a rollercoaster going as they tried to make the series more standalone and iconic, and have dived between some strange extremes a few times while the bulk of the content still sits on some relatively traditional tropes surrounding the fantasy races.
I mean if you break it down.
Dark Elves are just Wood Elves
Blood Elves were/are High Elves
Worgen are just Werewolves
Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Forsaken, Orcs, Trolls, Goblins all stick very close to traditional fantasy tropes.
The more novel races coming in the form of the Draenei, Pandaren, and the Tauren aren't without their sources as well. as the Draenei are actually again a riff on Warhammer (The Tau), and their lore has been bent over backwards a couple times to make some strange continuity errors. Tauren are mostly Minotaur with a hippie twist, which is more unique than the rest, but many other games have had a variety of beast races as well (like how the EQ, an older series, has Froglok, Iksar, Ratonga, Vah Shir/Kerra, and Sarnak or GW2 has the Charr). And Pandaren are very....Kung-Fu Panda.
The Warcraft series is not really a notable one in terms of the fantasy races or lore they built around said races. They did (most of) their races a solid by simply being a game with a well refined user experience, which means that the lore doesn't have to be quite so standout or runaway to work well. It's a very vanilla fantasy experience fundamentally though.
/thread
Elves and Night Elves have got to be the worst race i've ever seen in a game, along with the worgen and pandas.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
But, like the Undead/Forsaken have three entire zones for their entire storyline (which is also filled with lore). The Tauren have tons of lore, though a lot of it based off the native americans. Trolls have quite a lot. Only race really lacking in lore is goblins really, not much has been done with them since they've been introduced. Same with the worgen, though they are better off than the goblins. Draenei pretty much had an entire expansion for themselves lol.
EQ2 races overall though, in terms of appearance, is definitely really good and unique. A lot of races not seen very much, and for the graphics style, they are nicely designed.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul