World of Warcraft Forever looks perfect, except for one Elf-shaped thing

At BlizzCon, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft Forever, a new take on the nostalgia trip of World of Warcraft Classic. Where Classic would allow players to relive the MMORPG’s previous expansions as they (mostly) were, Forever is looking to try and recreate the WoW experience as it felt.

Outside of experimental Seasons of Discovery, World of Warcraft Classic played the past relatively straight, but World of Warcraft Forever wants to do more. World of Warcraft Forever is expanding the world with new zones, stories, and visuals, all done in the trappings of a Warcraft pre-expansion.

It’s an interesting attempt to turn back time, and it deserves all the hype for its full 2026 release – aside from one pointy-eared problem.

Pulling me back in

World of Warcraft Forever looks like it’s aiming to be the perfect version of World of Warcraft. It’s set in the original era of WoW, when the world was full of promise, characters still had stories to tell, and when the narrative wasn’t focused on your character being the one “champion”.

Rather, its focus is much smaller, putting more emphasis on the actions of multiple heroes acting together – you know, like an MMORPG.

From this root comes the general design philosophy – using the slower aspects of early WoW, while allowing for some of the perks of improved technology and quality-of-life changes.

Nowhere is this better seen than in the environments, which keep the low-resolution, kind-of-flat textures of the world, but improve them with a focus on lighting and fog effects. This keeps the feeling of a classic Warcraft, but makes it beautiful again, and showcases just how far we’ve come.

The Warcraft team wants to add to the world, not just present it as it was. This new venture wants to create new areas, expanded questlines, and allow players to explore beyond what they were once capable of.

In many ways, it is the ultimate move in pandering to nostalgia, but also fully justifies its existence as a standalone game to World of Warcraft Classic. However, some of Blizzard’s worst instincts have already reared their head in one of the major announcements.

Oh good, more Elves. Yay.

In World of Warcraft Forever, you can play as the original eight races of World of Warcraft, though each with tweaks to their models and abilities.

On top of this, though, you can also gain access to the Skyborne. The Skyborne are Elven exiles who long ago learned to live alongside air elementals, but are now forced in World of Warcraft Forever to re-join society, as either Alliance or Horde.

The appearance of the Skyborne is an issue for multiple reasons. Firstly, they have no place in the currently understood lore, so there’s very little to be excited about.

They’re some unknown faction of Elves who are blue, but not blue like the other Elves. They’re blue because of their interaction with air elementals, like Air Genasi from Dungeons and Dragons. You can give them other skin tones as well, though, which then defeats the purpose of their origins in general.

Their existence as a Neutral race is just also extremely disappointing, considering that World of Warcraft Forever is set in a time where faction identity is supposed to be quite important.

In modern World of Warcraft, both sides have plenty of Elves, and four shared races between them, but this wasn’t a precedent set up before Mists of Pandaria. Right out of the gate, Blizzard is showing that the factions and visuals of the world aren’t that important to their design.

However, most egregious is probably the pricing. Once it fully releases, World of Warcraft Forever will just need your WoW subscription cost, and no extra costs to access the game.

The Skyborne and their starting zone, however, are currently an extra cost of $30 USD/£26 GBP. For comparison, the World of Warcraft Midnight expansion costs $50 USD/£45 GBP, which includes the Haranir playable race and a lot more than one zone.

An unfortunate precedent

The Skyborne represent a cosmetic in World of Warcraft Forever and aren’t ultimately needed to play the game. You have eight other races to play, which have more history and access to all the same game mechanics, so it’s only a cost you need to pay if you really like Elves, or simply must explore all content in the game.

Also, as much as having the Skyborne be a new Elven race playable across both factions is boring and cynical, it is also what most people will be interested in.

Since their addition to the Horde back in The Burning Crusade, Blood Elves have long been one of the most played races in the game, and their model would eventually be added to the Alliance as Void Elves. What is good for the game in terms of design and appearance isn’t necessarily what the players want.

The issue is that World of Warcraft is notorious for these microtransactions. Retail World of Warcraft is full of them, though up until now it has never blocked access to new playable races. Unfortunately, World of Warcraft Forever is coming right out of the gate and saying that new races will cost you money, on top of the $15 USD/£10 GBP you pay a month.

The real issue will arise if Blizzard doesn’t keep up with effectively balancing any new additions.

The Skyborne and their ability to slow their falling are unlikely to break game balance, but if they are planning to monetize races, the moment one of them shows up that’s notably more effective in PvP or end-game raiding, then they are introducing a pay-to-win element.

Blizzard will have to keep a critical eye on their own creations to keep things fair and to avoid ruining what otherwise seems to be shaping up to be the perfect version of World of Warcraft.

FAQs

About The Author