Why we think it’s time for a wider range of shapes and sizes in our World of Warcraft body types

This large, muscular NPC is not one of the four available body types for Dracthyr in World of Warcraft Dragonflight and frankly, it should be. I sympathize with the developers who work on character customization options. It’s a never ending battle against the constantly expanding desires of players who always want more, more, more. The Dracthyr in particular have a metric duckton of customization (there are ducks in Dragonflight, have we mentioned the ducks) and yet, one thing that bothers me is how even the beefiest of the four possible options simply isn’t very beefy.

I have no problem at all with Dracthyr being sinuous and graceful, that’s a great aesthetic. But I do think that one of the hallmarks of Dragons is that they are freaking huge, and having a truly hulking body type that reinforces that idea would be pretty dang awesome. The model in the header is basically a male Draenei body, I know that. It would require some work to make Dracthyr have a model that lives up to their other options but also allows some heft.

But it would be effort well spent — and not just for Dracthyr.

Allow us to choose from a much wider range of body types for all races

Remember back before Battle for Azeroth came out and it looked like we might get Skinny Human models? Now, I think the hefty Kul’Tirans currently in the game are great — I play a Kul’Tiran lady Warrior and she’s awesome. She’s freaking huge and I really appreciate that about her. But man, those skinny Human models would have been such a great addition to World of Warcraft.

I know I’m not the only person to think it would be good to have more body customization options. When we saw the switch away from male/female to Body 1/Body 2 in the Dragonflight alpha, I was inundated with people asking me if this meant we’d get Body 3, Body 4, or more, and of course the answer is I have no idea but I want to say yes so very badly. I am on record as finding Orc and Human casters with arms like tree trunks and delts you could eat a deep dish pizza off of to be just like a nuke to my immersion. I don’t want them gone — far from it. I want them to absolutely continue to be an option for players. I just want more options.

Players should be able to create unique looks

Why can’t lady Night Elves look like the buff Tyrande we got in the last Shadowlands cinematics? Seriously, my Warrior is carrying around two swords the size of 60’s Buick LaSabres, why can’t she be swole? She should be swole. By contrast, that Mage over there should not be swole. I’m fine with him being swole if that’s what you want, but man, I want to play a skinny, frail, absolute physical wreck of a Mage. Why can’t we do that?

I don’t just want big slabs of muscle. Pandaren have thick waists, Kul’Tirans have belly fat — you’re telling me there are no fat Humans? No pudgy Dwarves? No svelte Pandaren? It’ll be 2023 in a few months, it feels long past time for there to be more diversity within the various body types of the myriad of WoW playable options. Remember when Blizzard went through all the trouble to make Gallywix, and nowadays the dude isn’t even around? Why can’t Goblins pick that body size?

And don’t tell me that thin or fat people can’t be a particular class — if you’ve ever seen the World’s Strongest Man competition, you know that fat people can be crazy strong. Skinny people can be incredible fighters. Dolph Lundgren has a masters in Chemical Engineering and got the Fullbright to study at MIT. Yes, that’s right, Drago can not only kill you with his bare hands (4th Dan black belt) but he also knows exactly how to poison you untraceably.

It’s a great time for more options

When an isometric CRPG that barely even lets you see the character close up has options for more and less thickness, when the Diablo series is going to get character customization in a big way, it’s time for World of Warcraft to get on board with the trend. Identifying with your character and being able to make choices on their appearance has always been a big deal in WoW, especially with the milestones of transmogrification, the greatly improved character models, and the recent updates with more customization options. This isn’t a complaint about what Blizzard has been doing or will be doing in Dragonflight, and I don’t expect we’ll see anything on this front before the expansion launches. I like what we’ve gotten so far.

But I definitely think the framework that Body 1/Body 2 sets in place needs to be expanded upon. Whenever Blizzard adds new races — playable or otherwise — there’s always an NPC model that people end up wishing they could play. Whether it’s a beefy Dragon-person who’d make an excellent Dracthyr Warrior or Paladin, or the skinny Human in the Battle for Azeroth files who only ever shows up as a pirate, it’s a simple fact that we always want more. And sometimes, we literally just want more. Let me play a chonktastic Blood Elf Rogue or stick-thin waif of a Tauren Rogue, or any combination of body type, race, and class we can. Scrawny Paladins who carry gigantic swords and call down the Light. Gnomes a full foot taller than you’d expect. Let us have all of it.