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MassiveCraft has had a couple of Anthro races throughout the years, some with success, some with not so much success. Variety in player styles is very important, but I've never made it much of a secret that Massive tries to provide a friendly and safe space for Furries to roleplay with something they can associate with and present their own identity. It is important to us that people who just enjoy the aesthetic of beast-men, as well as people who have anthro fursonas or are part of the wider furry community have "a way in" to Aloria with something that represents them, instead of having to make do with something they don't really feel connected to. And even for people who aren't furries, the beast or animal aesthetic races should feel comfortable and accepting.
We are however, once again, at a crossroads where we decide the future of the Varran race. There's definitely been calls to cut down on the amount of subraces in the Varran hemisphere, and calls also to expand individual subrace creativity, but we never fully put the question out there to the playerbase, and for those who love the Varran race, to help themselves by helping us. Before we get to that question, let's review what beast-like races currently exist:
Essentially, at a certain point in time, I treated the lore like a shotgun where I just tried as wide a spread of anthro subraces as possible to try and hit many people, but it didn't quite seem to work. We hit some people with the Varran, Yarran, and Sarran, but to our knowledge, nobody really played the otters besides the first few weeks, and nobody ever really played the binturong or fennec/jackal/hyena subtypes.
The summary of this thread is thus: Help yourself (if you are interested in playing a Varran but can't quite connect with any of the subraces) by suggesting a new palette of subraces, or by speculating/talking with us about what you think would be popular picks for anthro subraces to be as inclusive as possible to furries, or people who don't necessarily self-identify as a furry, but just really love playing animalistic races or beast-men (or women).
In our current concept, the Sarran and Warran are being merged into one subrace, while the Yarran remains standalone. We don't have any plans to keep the Koorran, Ovirran and Rakrran, we are planning on keeping the Fenrran, but getting rid of the Tasrran and Mairran. If someone can make a compelling case that a healthy number of players is interested in one of the "to be removed" subraces though, we can be compelled to keep them and even expand them. Or better yet, if anyone wants to make a case of a new anthro aesthetic or new animal type joining the Varran fold, we're open for discussions/suggestions, for the purpose of making the Varran more appealing to as many people as possible, to make Massive feel like a home with something they can identify with.
We are however, once again, at a crossroads where we decide the future of the Varran race. There's definitely been calls to cut down on the amount of subraces in the Varran hemisphere, and calls also to expand individual subrace creativity, but we never fully put the question out there to the playerbase, and for those who love the Varran race, to help themselves by helping us. Before we get to that question, let's review what beast-like races currently exist:
- There are bird-like anthro characters in the Sihai, Red-panda like anthro characters in the Sihai, and wolf/fox like anthro characters in the Sihai, but these niches are a little weak. We expect to do something about that race at some point that moves a bit away from the anthro aspect and reinforces the more humanoid aspect of them.
- Allar and Slizzar obviously fulfill the lizard/snake anthro aesthetic, and it is solid. We expect no changes there, except for a simplification of subrace design for the Allar, and an expansion of their design choices real soon.
- Url are minotaurs or bear-men, depending on your perspective. They don't really classify as anthro, and their aesthetic will largely remain stable because they are just a very solid race that doesn't need much. Url are kind of outside of the anthro considerations.
Essentially, at a certain point in time, I treated the lore like a shotgun where I just tried as wide a spread of anthro subraces as possible to try and hit many people, but it didn't quite seem to work. We hit some people with the Varran, Yarran, and Sarran, but to our knowledge, nobody really played the otters besides the first few weeks, and nobody ever really played the binturong or fennec/jackal/hyena subtypes.
The summary of this thread is thus: Help yourself (if you are interested in playing a Varran but can't quite connect with any of the subraces) by suggesting a new palette of subraces, or by speculating/talking with us about what you think would be popular picks for anthro subraces to be as inclusive as possible to furries, or people who don't necessarily self-identify as a furry, but just really love playing animalistic races or beast-men (or women).
In our current concept, the Sarran and Warran are being merged into one subrace, while the Yarran remains standalone. We don't have any plans to keep the Koorran, Ovirran and Rakrran, we are planning on keeping the Fenrran, but getting rid of the Tasrran and Mairran. If someone can make a compelling case that a healthy number of players is interested in one of the "to be removed" subraces though, we can be compelled to keep them and even expand them. Or better yet, if anyone wants to make a case of a new anthro aesthetic or new animal type joining the Varran fold, we're open for discussions/suggestions, for the purpose of making the Varran more appealing to as many people as possible, to make Massive feel like a home with something they can identify with.
