Since the announcement of WoW Forever at BlizzCon last weekend, the new Skyborne race included with the “Classic+”-style game mode has sparked community discussions about whether they truly belong in classic Azeroth. However, Blizzard recently stated that Chris Metzen, one of the main inventors of Warcraft, heavily influenced their development.
Skyborne, The Final Choice of Elves
In an interview with GamesSpot, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield stated the team really wanted to introduce another kind of elf race and brought several ideas and variants to Metzen. However, Metzen encouraged them to “get a little crazy with it.” Together, the team began working on the Skyborne concept.
Another inspiration was Skywall, one of the four Elemental Planes and Al’Akir’s domain, which provided a unique architecture and visual identity that the team felt had been underused since the release of Cataclysm.
Metzen Even Sketched the Starting Zone
In the Found Photographs panel during BlizzCon, Grenfield even showed Metzen’s original hand-drawn concept art for Zephras Isle, the Skyborne starting zone, alongside the finished in-game map.
However, Metzen’s heavy involvement still hasn’t ended the community debate. Some community members still question the Skyborne as Blizzard’s race of choice, while others defend the team’s decision to execute on new ideas.
