They're a What, Now?

Well, that was my reaction to Nixxiom's latest video on ranking Allied Races from Worst to Best.

Okay, just to get the obvious out of the way, I am aware that the concept of Allied races popped up in Battle for Azeroth (if not all of them), but beyond that I was rather blissfully unaware about anything beyond a couple of names. (::cough:: The Vulpera ::cough::) 

Vulperas. You know, the fox people.
From Facebook and Disney. (Naturally.)

At least in terms of races, I've run into Kul'Tiran and Highmountain Tauren courtesy of Kamalia's blog, but beyond that* a lot of these allied races were kind of just lore points in the past. They were NPCs and whatnot that you encountered along the way, you saw them in an expansion, and then left behind.

Or they were turned from "good" to "bad" (or "bad" to "good") in some weird soap opera-esque manner.**

I guess that means that the Zandalari are the Millhouse Manastorm of the WoW races.

Et tu, Millhouse? I should have just left you
in The Arcatraz to rot. From Wowpedia.

Still, watching this video left me confused. If all they are is simply reskinned other races --Vulpera notwithstanding-- then why not have them as cosmetic options from the get-go? If they are more than a simple reskinning, then hasn't Blizzard made their balancing attempts all the more difficult due to all of these new races to work with?

Eh, whatever. If it works for people, it works. I just look at it as the Paradox of Choice writ large.

From LinkedIn about The Paradox
of Choice by Barry Schwartz.

*And Void Elves, because I can see at least one of them in every graphic concerning Retail's current expansion.

**I'm looking at you, Marlena Evans from Days of our Lives. Am I still salty about that? Uh, kinda, yes.