I have to agree with some of the comments here, my biggest beef with the article was the obvious derision the writer felt toward Blood Elves (as that's the section I read). It's fine to dislike BEs, but if you're writing a guide about anything like that I think you need to put aside your racist feelings (well, fake-racist feelings) and try to sympathize with the race.

It was pretty clear, especially early on, that the writer felt no love for the BEs, couldn't care less about their point of view and looked down on them quite a bit. I once heard a great actor (I forget who) say that the reason he played villains well is because he realized that no one believes they're in the wrong. Even the most evil person believes what they do is the right thing, or else how could they live with themselves? So no matter how despicable you believe the race/person is, you have to realize that that race/person has, at the very least, rationalized their behavior so that they can live with themselves and wake up every day without being suicidal with guilt. You have to see things from their point of view.

That said, the writer made it sound as if the Blood Elves straight up hate everyone, even their allies. I disagree, simply because you can't base an entire race's perceptions on a few emotes by NPCs or some quest text. Certainly it's very important to pay attention to that stuff, but I look at it this way: I'm an American, but I absolutely love Britain and Europe and "European" ideas. I drive a Mini Cooper in a city where I see almost nothing but raised trucks and Hummers (Phoenix). (And yes, people try to tease me about it, but it's my dream car so the joke's on them.) I'm 25 and don't even own a credit card in a place where people get into debt up to their necks trying to afford things they don't have the money for. A big chunk of my culture is all about blind faith in a corrupt government and unquestioning patriotism due to ignorance, fear, tradition or because it's just easier to hate something than it is to try and understand it, easier to fight than to make peace with a culture, etc.

Do I feel that way? No way. But a lot of people in this country probably do. But we're all Americans, whether we agree or not.

So if the Blood Elf race is the same way (which by the way, I see a lot of parallels between America and the Blood Elf culture), that doesn't necessarily mean ALL Blood Elves feel the same way about things. There are always going to be people/BEs with different feelings than the norm.

As one of those annoying people who has a million Horde-side alts that are all BEs (and nearly as many Alliance-side alts that are all Draenei), I like to think that each character is unique and has their own opinions about their allied races depending on their past experiences. I'm not well-read in the lore at all, but I think I get the basic gist, but I think it's most important that each character has their own identity within a culture.

I think that my BE Hunter would probably like going to Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff and would prefer the Orcs, Trolls and Tauren and their naturalistic ways because Silvermoon and other BEs would be too stuffy. My Mage is sheltered and stays in Silvermoon because she hasn't formed her own opinions on the other races yet, and my Warlock is snotty, rebellious and stuck-up brat just like you'd expect, and she likes being evil because she's avenging her family and is a little crazy. And my SPriest is a loner who spends most of her time in the Undercity because she tries her best to follow the Cult of Shadow.

But they're all Blood Elves, and they're not automatically evil just because they're Horde. Hell, in general I don't see the Horde as evil. I see the humans as being one of the most despicable races of all because that's how I've read the lore and I don't just accept that they're "good" because they're human. My first character was human when I was under the impression that Horde = evil, but as soon as I read more about things, I realized I didn't really agree with what the humans did.

My point is, it's much more fun to see the point of view of every race and then decide who you want to play and how you're going to RP. I think the Horde are largely misunderstood by Alliance-side players. Things are not as cut-and-dry as Alliance = good, Horde = evil.

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