On Races: For the Horde

So for the sake of completeness, here's my take on the various Horde races.  (I did the Alliance races a few days ago.)  As before, I'll be taking them in least-favorite to most-favorite.

Goblin

I hate the goblins.  I hate everything about them.  Okay, not everything, their looks aren't so bad.  But I hate their culture, I hate their voices, I hate their starting area.  To me, the goblins best embody the essence of evil: greed, selfishness, and deception.  The Bilgewater Cartel goblins have no discernible redeeming characteristics.  They are thoroughly revolting.

The fact that they get what are arguably the most useful racials in the game (most useful racials and in the game) just angers me.  I want a pack hobgoblin.  Oh, I guess that's what my Argent Pony Bridle is for.

Orc

Don't like these guys either, but that's basically all Garrosh's fault.  Well, no, that isn't true.  I will grant that they have a sense of honor, but they're belligerent, bullying, bestial, and crude.

The ideal orc is a noble savage, a creature in tune with the land.  But this has always smacked of apologism on Blizzard's part, to me.  Ashenvale is a perfect example: the Ashenvale conflict has always been between the forest-preserving elves and the clear-cutting orcs.  In all of the Warcraft games, the orcs have been presented as the brutish conquerors, the "enemy" that seeks to dominate the entire world and crush all opposition under their merciless heel.  They clear-cut the forests, they tear up the countryside, they have no care for conservation and no tolerance for differences.  Yet they're somehow "noble savages" in tune with the land and the spirits.  Kind of like how the Klingons went to dirty, warlike conquerors to ... um, honorable, noble savages ... and ... oh.  Oooohhhh. *cough*

So, yeah.  Not a fan of orcs.  Their racials are nothing to write home about and their models suck.  Slumped and apelike.  No thanks.  Let's move on.

Trolls

I don't have a lot to say about the trolls.  I dig the voodoo imagery, their models don't offend me too much, their racials are lackluster, and they're the only player race where the slouch doesn't bug me.  They also have nothing to recommend them, so they get stuck towards the bottom of the pile.

Also, I hate the tusks.  How do they eat?  How do they breed?  No kissing?  That sucks.  On the other hand, their druid forms are awesome.  So absurdly, unnaturally colorful.

Tauren

Tauren, again, don't have a lot to recommend them.  I mean, I'm very confused why the tauren are members of the modern Horde at all -- Garrosh's approach seems very out-of-place with the entirety of tauren culture.  I suppose that's why I like them better than the trolls or the orcs -- they're unquestionably the "good guy" race of the Horde.  Since I like playing good guys, I'm inclined to go for them.  My first Horde character, a druid, was (of course) a tauren.  I think he's still like level 32 or something.  Hey, that was a big achievement back in vanilla.

Tauren can be paladins and druids, so that counts in their favor.  I like the idea of this enormous slab of beef being a monk.  Obviously they're the best class for warriors.  Still, can't help but like the troll animal forms better.  Oh well, tauren still have a lot going for them.

Forsaken

Surprisingly, I like the Forsaken better than I like most of the other Horde races.  Despite their horrible models, lackluster racials and, frankly, hateful culture and faction leader, they do possess two qualities that appeal to me.  One is the former-Scourge aspect of their culture.  As a transhumanist, I find hive-minds fascinating and attractive.  The Scourge are awful, no question, but I do find the "many bodies, one mind" aspect interesting.  The Forsaken don't have that anymore, but they did, and could potentially get it back.

The Forsaken also provide a particular roleplay opportunity that the other races don't have.  They were once human and have lost that, having transitioned into something else.  Dealing with that loss, the literal (rather than figurative) loss of their racial identity, is something that none of the other player races have to face.  It is the pure essence of tragedy and horror, and is, in my opinion, the richest vein for RP that the game has.

Still, creepy dead people.  So that keeps them from the top spot.

A winner is Blood Elves

Yeah, I like the pretty race best, sue me.  As metro as the male blood elves look, and act, and sound, I still like the belves more than any of the other Horde races.  I like the lore, I like the intense arcane cultural investment, and I like the redemption arc.  Their racials are terrible but the hawkstrider is pretty much my favorite racial mount ever.  I love the music in Silvermoon City, not that anybody ever goes there.  I like the blood elf starting area. 

I hope that, at some point in the future, the Horde fragments and the blood elves go their own way.  They owe the draenei so much now -- I don't really know how they can justify going to war against them and their allies.  Unless they're really just jerks.

So that's that.  Except for the pandaren, which, again, haven't played one yet so can't say how I like them.