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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What's a deal-breaker in your love for a particular race?
by Kat Sierra 
Dec 27th 2010 at 8:00AM
When word of the Cataclysm races came out, I admit I was excited about the worgen. I had once played a werewolf character in a game of D&D, and it amused me at the idea I could recreate her in some aspect within WoW. Then the dances were released. At first I was undeterred; I play my gender, so the male dance didn't bother me much. However, things changed when the female dance was finally released on the internet. I was quite displeased at the choice for the female's dance. It was too much; I decided then and there that I wouldn't roll a worgen, purely because of the dance.
I know it sounds petty, but the racial dances are a bit of a deal-breaker for me. When I was first introduced to WoW by my cousin and friends, I looked up the racial dances to see which ones I liked best. Having only a trial account, I went with tauren as my first choice, as all my friends played Horde, and I thought the Electric Slide wasn't a bad dance, trolls being a close second.
What about you? What sort of thing about a race or faction breaks the deal, causing you not to choose them?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 10)
Blayze Dec 27th 2010 9:35AM
Especially since the one druid with a personality that couldn't be summed up as "durr nature" just so happened to be the one druid who went insane and therefore evil and therefore must be relieved of his loots.
Nagaina Dec 27th 2010 9:34AM
I have a human male paladin whose existence is extremely important to my RP main, whom I have never rolled. Because everything about the male human character model offends my aesthetic sensibilities. *Everything,* from the digitized He-Man action figure build to the iron rod up the rump run to the complete absence of any facial model that doesn't make the Baby Thrall cry bitter tears of horror. Adding insult to injury in this case is the fact that, in order to give my spiff worgen rogue the wolfy features I wanted, I had to choose THAT MALE HUMAN FACE. You know the one I'm talking about: THE FACE that fell out of the ugly tree, striking every branch on the way to impact with the ugly, ugly ground, and who was then beaten vigorously with the ugly stick by his ticked-off mother.
::shakes fist in the direction of California::
*Damn you, Blizz.*
Pyromelter Dec 27th 2010 9:57AM
I wholeheartedly agree that the vanilla models should be updated, starting with humans.
Shadhavar Dec 27th 2010 7:33PM
Yes.
Because it seems that blood elf/draenei get more polygons dedicated to rendering their butts than the entire human/orc body.
Old Man Franks Dec 27th 2010 9:35AM
I consider 2 things when picking a race
1. How much I enjoy the race's lore and culture
2. Animations
I can't play Humans, because I hate Varian Wrynn with a passion. Plus humans in this game look incredibly stupid. Same goes for Night Elves, male night Elves are in my opinion the ugliest looking model in the game right now. Plus their casting animations are horrendous. Worgen, I'm still evaluating, but I'm VERY disappointed in their casting animations. They look like they're just flailing about randomly and BOOM! Hey there goes a fireball! It's lame. And being a Horde guy primarily, I'm just naturally prejudiced against Gnomes.
On the Horde side, I won't roll another Orc or Blood Elf again. Orcs, I simply am not a fan of their animations, and ever since Cataclysm, I'm growing less fond of the race as a culture thanks to Garrosh. And I despise Blood Elves. Casting and Melee animations are boring, and I have a large number of guildmates who will only play elves cause they're pretty. We're the friggin' HORDE. The monster faction!! We shouldn't be doing pretty!! I was never so happy the day that 4.0.3 came out and I could turn the last Blood Elf in my character selection screen (the Paladin) into a Tauren.
I'm a big fan of Dwarves and Draenei on the Alliance side, and Trolls, Tauren, and Undead on the Horde. Still evaluating Goblins, but they've been a lot of fun so far, and who doesn't love yelling "Steeeeeeeeeeeeerike!" when casting a fireball?
Ice Dec 27th 2010 9:36AM
Human (males) because of one two sounds they let out...
"HNNNGGHHHIAAAAA!!!!" "HAA!!"
Same goes to male nelfs and their sounds of "HJA!"
Yeah all those years facing those two in pvp has made me so damn annoyed of them.
Kal Dec 27th 2010 9:42AM
I made a female Worgen, and while annoyed by the face compared to the male worgen's, and the dance was something I was never going to use, what really just did it for me was the stealth animation. It's off, her foot slides across the ground as she walks because the speed she's moving doesn't match the animation.
That was the deal breaker, now I have rogue Worgen male, and love how much they put into it. It's a little depressing that I can't play my gender and be happy with it, but still loving it.
Delurm Dec 27th 2010 9:43AM
That's not the 'electric slide' - well it is if you are old fashioned. That's the 'achy breaky heart' line dance.
Ya'know... because you are a cowgirl.
I wanted to roll a worgen - but I couldn't get past the 'you must be a wolf while fighting' thing.
I really wanted a choice.
Pyromelter Dec 27th 2010 10:08AM
I am sorry to inform you the tauren female dance is 100% Electric Slide, and 0% Achy Breaky Heart line dance.
It makes sense in the "you're a cowgirl" way, but she isn't doing that dance.. (Simply search it on youtube and you'll see the differences).
Delurm Dec 27th 2010 10:37AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwpTva9ERk - electric slide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbHBbFIFH2o - achy breaky
I see way more achy breaky than electric slide - especially with the hand clapping (which the slide doesn't really do) and the entire foot to the back thing.
But whatever floats your boat :)
Pyromelter Dec 27th 2010 3:52PM
The electric slide is a simple sidestep right (with back leg cross behind) x 2, sidesstep left (with back leg cross behind) x 2, step back-back-back, step in place x 2, turn 90° and repeat from start. Rinse and repeat. Some people learn the slides with a clap - so it would be step step step [clap!]. A lot of vids on youtube don't have this, but there are some that do. This is almost exactly what the Tauren females do. As line-dancing goes, it's very simple, and it's why you see it at bar mitzvahs and weddings, cuz grandma can do it while using her cane.
The Achy Breaky dance is much more involved. Step right, cross behind, kick forward, heel tap x 2, toe tap x 2, step left cross-behind turn 90° kick forward heel tap x 2, toe-tap x 2, 3 steps back, knee up with a clap, walk forward 3 steps, crossover step x 2, rock-step, center clap.
The female Tauren dance does the following: sidestep right (with back leg cross behind) x 2 [clap!], sidesstep left (with back leg cross behind) x 2 [clap!], back-back-back [clap!], forward step-backstep, then forward-forward-forward, repeat sequence. The sequence is slightly different in that they don't have her turning where the slide has it turning.
Anyway, neither really floats my boat, I'm not huge on line-dancing, but I am a dancer, so I just wanted to set the record straight.
tl;dr - the tauren female does the Electric Slide, which to some eyes might seem similar to the Achy Breaky Heart line dance, but when you break it down, it's not achy breaky at all.
Goradan Dec 27th 2010 9:46AM
Played a human paladin for 2.5 years hoping for a new model. Finally gave up with cata and race changed to Draenei.
Lochlorien Dec 27th 2010 9:50AM
In RL I'm into powerlifting, just recreational nothing competitive. So larger, stronger looking character models appeal to me. Love me my Dranei and Tauren! Worgen come in a close second same with orcs and dwarves.
Sanchez Dec 27th 2010 10:02AM
I play horde because orcs look so cool in armor, i have other toons but i play horde because they have orcs and orcs = pure win... dont you love my logic
when playing alliance i play humans because of how they look in armor as well
Sanchez Dec 27th 2010 10:11AM
wait this was why i dont play a race... well because they arent the 2 races i mentioned... but for specifics.
NE and BE (i have a BE for horde paladins) but because they are elves cant get past that
tauren they seem like they run too slow for me
trolls because they are just too goofy for me and cant have shoes
undead because of the armor thing
goblins because they are fugly gnomes
alliance side
drenai dont bother me really
dwarfs because they are short wanna-be orcs
i have a gnome warrior (just because people hate them soo)
worgen i just havnt had time to play them yet plus they dont seem as cool as i thought when i first heard allys getting them
Vantastic Dec 27th 2010 10:02AM
The way the Blood Elf's jump. I just dont like it.
MagikTrik Dec 27th 2010 10:05AM
The Lore is by far the main reason for me picking a race (or not picking a race). Personally I play almost all Tauren now & when I played Alliance I played almost all Dwarfs because they both seem to fit my real life personality the best. They both are laid back, neither are particularly violent but both have very strong belief systems that they will defend with life & limb.
Both Night Elves & Blood Elves are a race I would never play because of the same type of reasons (plus both have horrible death animations imo & one thing I definitely am not is a PvP pro so I tend to die... lots). I never could get into Draenei either. Sure, they are honorable & all that but the whole running away thing just kinda bothers me, plus the males look bad in anything but robes because they have such small or oddly shaped legs (not sure exactly what it is).
Point is though I tend to read a lot of the Warcraft books & comics plus anything i can find about the actual "story" & lore so that weighs more heavily than anything else on my racial decision.
Pyromelter Dec 27th 2010 10:11AM
Oh, here is a really bad dealbreaker I just thought of (inspired by magiktrik talking about death animations).
I simply can't play gnomes because their death sound freaks me out every single time. It's like he's being gouged through the heart and stomach at the same time while taking a poop. It just freaks me out too much.
Necromann Dec 27th 2010 10:23AM
I'm rolling a gnome now just to hear that. (the only other gnome I've rolled was in a trial account)
Shadhavar Dec 27th 2010 7:52PM
Ohhh I love that sound.
When the damn gnome roots me, hammers me with a barrage of fiery missiles, then blinks out of my charge, and I intercept, get a rather big crit, and I hear that crunching, cleaving sound of a giant, tempered axeblade crashing into squishy flesh, and then I hear it... that sweet, sweet, PAINED death-scream escaping from his caved-in, diminutive body.
...and then I get smashed in the face by a night elf mohawk.