GamesBeat: Let’s shift to the Allied Races. You came up with six of them. What was the process like picking which races would make it into the game?
Edwards: Part of that process was listening to player feedback. We had a lot of players say, oh, the Nightborne look really cool, I’d really like to play as a Nightborne. But also, what went into it was which of these races you interacted with in Legion.
Going in to Battle for Azeroth, you want to recruit more people to your side, because there’s going to be this big war between the Alliance and the Horde. These are the races you’ve helped out through Legion and Shadows of Argus, the 7.3 patch. Those were the first races that you reach out to for help.
GamesBeat: Were there any ideas for allied races that were left off the table or abandoned?
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Edwards: Pretty much anything with two legs was considered for allied races. [Laughs] T-rexes included.
GamesBeat: Could T-rexes be Death Knights?
Kubit: That’s not a bad idea. I’m writing that down.
Above: The Zandalari Trolls and Dark Iron Dwarves are coming later.
GamesBeat: A lot of these Allied Races are going into the factions you would expect. The Highmountain Tauren go to the Horde, for example. Was there ever a thought of getting weirder with it, like putting the Highmountain Tauren into the Alliance or the Lightforged Draenei into the Horde?
Edwards: That’s kind of what happened with the Nightborne and the Void Elves. The Nightborne are more closely tied to the night elves and the Void Elves are more closely tied to the blood elves. They ended up going opposite faction. When you complete the recruitment quest lines, you’ll find out why each race chose the side they chose.
GamesBeat: If I play as a Highmountain Tauren, how will NPCs interact with me? Will they treat me like a Tauren? Will I have special dialogue directed at me in certain places?
Edwards: I believe they’ll all understand that you’re a Highmountain Tauren. We did a lot of behind the scenes work to make sure they recognized your race, what you were. You’re not just treated as a Tauren.
GamesBeat: Outside of cosmetics, the big thing is the racial passives. This must be the most racial passives you’ve introduced to WoW at once since its launch. Is it challenging to balance all of them and make sure one race doesn’t become too good a fit for a certain class?
Edwards: It definitely is. We’ve done a lot of internal playtests and listened to a lot of internal feedback and done a lot of iteration on those. We’re curious to see what the players think when they get their hands on them. We’ll be reacting to whatever feedback they have to give us.
GamesBeat: Did you always plan to make Allied Races their own thing instead of, say, a cosmetic slider option on old races?
Edwards: Definitely. We wanted the allied races to feel special and unique. We really went all out with their customization. They have all new tattoos, new hairstyles, special little things like — the Void Elves have void tendrils on the ends of their hair. They have their own racial mounts. They have heritage armor sets if you level from 20 to 110 naturally. You get this special heritage armor set for them. They have their own taverns, their own racial crafts, their own loading screen. We didn’t skimp on them. We went all out to make them feel special.
Kubit: Adding on to that, it was important for us to make sure that we spent a lot of love on the Allied Races. We could have done it that way, just adding them as a separate slider on existing races, but the storyline of Battle for Azeroth is such that it’s really focused on that Horde versus Alliance conflict.
And especially now, with that looming on the horizon, we’re thinking about building up our side and getting prepared for that conflict. You can start to feel the electricity already with the cinematics, which showed up in 7.3.5. That recruitment you have with the allied races is really core to the story of where WoW is going. We wanted to put as much love into those races as we could.
Above: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is an all-out war between the Horde and Alliance.
GamesBeat: What would you say makes these Allied Races different from a typical race? What makes them “allied” races?
Edwards: I guess it’s just that they’re closely related to other races we currently have. But we did customizations and things to make them different. The Nightborne aren’t just night elves. They’re their own race. They have their own things they do. They have their own classes that can be a Nightborne. And they’re different from what can be a night elf.
Kubit: Their acquisition is something that’s kind of prestigious. It’s not something that — you can’t just be a Nightborne or a void elf just as soon as you start playing WoW. It signifies that you’re a player who appreciated the entirety of the Legion story, pushed it all the way to the end, and now you this is something that — a group of characters you’ve recruited to the Horde or the Alliance, and so you’re allowed to play one of them.
GamesBeat: I really like that aspect, where it’s almost an achievement award. Do you worry about that turning off newer players, or players who didn’t go all the way through Legion?
Kubit: We’re always sensitive to player feedback on things like that. We wanted to make sure that it doesn’t turn players off. I wouldn’t say we’re afraid, but like everything else we’re always trying to pay attention to feedback.
Edwards: With the Allied Races specifically, we definitely wanted them to feel different, just like with any other reward you work to get, like a rare mount or a special piece of gear. We wanted the player to achieve certain things and experience certain stories before they’ve earned the right to recruit these allied races.
GamesBeat: Is it possible that we could see more Allied Races introduced during Battle for Azeroth? Or will it just be these six for the foreseeable future?
Kubit: I think it would be weird if there weren’t more allied races in the future. The storyline of this expansion is such that we’re trying to recruit as many as we possibly can. We already know that the Zandalari Trolls and the Dark Iron Dwarves are coming at some point, post Battle for Azeroth. But that story is going to be a long story. There’s going to be a continued focus on Horde versus Alliance conflict. As they run into other races on Zandalar and Kul Tiras, I would say yeah, that would be something that could likely happen. We’ll have to wait and see.
GamesBeat: It feels like with this, and even leading up to Legion with the demon invasions, there’s really been this stronger effort to provide this content in that window after the last major patch and before the new expansion comes out. Is that something you’ve been focusing on in the last couple of expansions?
Kubit: For sure, yeah. Especially with Legion, I think you saw it in the .5 patches. We wanted to make sure that not only were we giving big chunks of content with raids and outdoor playing zones, but also, at those points between, there was always something new to check out. If you were still working on that raid and you don’t need something, that’s fine, but if you are looking for something new to do, there’s micro holidays, or a Kromie scenario, or the new season of brawler’s guild, or brawls, or pet battle stuff coming.
We always want to make sure we have lots of content for players who are looking for it. 7.3.5 is no different, with level scaling giving you a great opportunity to go back and level some alts that you might have, or level some new alts you’ve always wanted to make, but hadn’t had a chance to yet. Now, with the pre-purchase options, you can start leveling one of those with allied races, or start your journey to being able to actually recruit them.
