Why it took so long to add diverse WoW characters
The eagerly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, Shadowlands, will finally allow players to choose characters with ethnic diversity and darker than tanned skin. It has been 15 long years since this feature was first announced.
The new customisation options will be part of a major overhaul for all races, which will give trolls the opportunity to have various body tattoos and the undead to have no exposed bones. However, why has it taken so long for ethnic diversity in player characters?
I had the opportunity to ask Blizzard’s Michael Bybee, senior producer, and Patrick Magruder, lead gameplay engineer, about this at BlizzCon 2019.
“One of the realities of making video games is that we have to determine where to allocate our resources,” Bybee explained. “We have a certain amount of time and resources available for characters and art, and we must make decisions accordingly.
“In the past, we focused on upgrading the player models to HD resolution, which required a significant investment of resources. We believed it was a worthwhile endeavour. However, we did not want to simply add a new skin colour and call it diversity. Instead, we are remodelling the faces of these characters to better align with the specific ethnic background. This process takes time, but we are committed to getting it right. The most important aspect is to ensure that these changes make sense within our game.”
Magruder added, “Absolutely. We are recomposing the faces to represent different ethnicities. This applies not only to humans but to all races. We are adding customisation options across the board. The amount of art involved is truly remarkable. This is, without a doubt, one of my favourite features, and I am delighted that we are able to include it, allowing players to finally see themselves represented in the game.”
WOW Shadowlands was officially announced at BlizzCon 2019. As the name suggests, it will transport players to the Shadowlands, the realm of the dead, where we have been exploring for years through our characters’ deaths. Entering this realm opens up a vast array of possibilities.
The feature that intrigues me the most is the level squash. Blizzard is reducing the level cap from 120 to 60 for all players in the game. There is a lot to unpack with this, and I will be providing an explanation in a separate article.
