The Tauren are a fictional race of anthropomorphic bovines in the Warcraft franchise developed by Blizzard Entertainment. They were first introduced in the 2002 Warcraft III, soon after becoming a playable race in the 2004 World of Warcraft. Members of the Horde faction, a major political alliance in the main location of the game, they are a gentle and peaceful race that chooses to live in harmony with nature, but are powerful when provoked.
| Tauren | |
|---|---|
| Warcraft race | |
 Male (right) and female (left) versions of the Tauren | |
| First appearance | |
| Created by | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Genre | Fantasy |
The Tauren have received praise for their environmentally positive traits and unsexualized design, in which females of the species are similarly large-bodied and animalistic as the males. However, Blizzard has also been accused of cultural appropriation of Native Americans when designing their clothing, buildings and culture.
Background and appearances
editTauren are very large in size compared to humans, with males reaching up to 10 feet tall and females, 9 feet. Their hands have three fingers, while their feet are hooves. Males are bulky, muscular and covered in fur with cow-like colors and patterns. They have a hunched posture, hairy mane, and horned head. While female Tauren are still bulky, they are noticeably slimmer and more upright in posture, with smaller manes.
In combat, the Tauren's trademark weapon is the totem pole, which they use both for religious meditation purposes and as a club-type weapon. An additional signature weapon is the Tauren halberd, which utilize wooden handles and massive blades.
The Tauren were first introduced in Warcraft III as the "Tauren warrior" class, and were powerful characters in melee combat. In World of Warcraft, the city of Thunder Bluff was introduced as their capital. In the 2015 MOBA Heroes of the Storm, a character named the Tauren Chieftain appears, who is an electric guitar-playing Tauren who is a member of a rock band, and a playable character in-game.[1] The Highmountain Tauren, a group of Tauren with elk-like antlers, were introduced with the 2016 expansion World of Warcraft: Legion.[2]
Development
editThe Tauren paladin and priest class was introduced in the 2010 World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion pack to add additional gameplay flexibility.[3] In 2014, male Tauren were given a character model redesign in World of Warcraft to add facial expressions and make them more realistic,[4] while female Tauren followed months later.[5] While Tauren have long been limited to more warrior-like classes, the 2022 Dragonflight expansion pack allowed players to become a Tauren rogue, something long thought to be a joke by fans of the series due to their large size, hooves, and general lack of stealth.[6]
Reception
editWilliam Sins Bainbridge, writing in the book The Warcraft Civilization, compared the Tauren to minotaurs from Greek mythology, calling them evidence of how eclectic World of Warcraft is in its design.[7] It notes that while the Tauren are known as placid and reliable in the series' gameplay, they still faced racial prejudice in the games' fictional world.[8] Digital Culture, Play, and Identity remarked that female Tauren are a major exception to the "model-like females" that World of Warcraft players were used to in the game's world. It described them as being the most alienated from the traditional notion of femininity, it cites their "almost-plump" body, hooves, and cow-like noses as features that would typically be perceived as "ugly", giving players more variation in looks.[9]
The Tauren's use of Native American imagery was criticized as insulting. Colin Campbell of Polygon described it as "appropriated" and a poor, exaggerated depiction.[10] Digital Culture states that the depiction of Horde culture, including the Tauren, was "not nuanced", describing them as shallow cultural stereotypes and akin to colonial representations of primitive peoples. The book stated that the Tauren walked the line between "quiet and peaceful" and "implacable" foes who "smash their enemies under hoof", as opposed to the more pseudo-Western Alliance.[11] Philip Michael Alexander complained in Identity and Collaboration in World of Warcraft that the Tauren seemed like a good idea for a fictional race until he saw how they "lampooned" Plains Indian culture, calling it "shockingly similar" to real life. Noting that they were even displaced from their homeland, he described their characterization as "almost too lazy" and said that it made him change his character's race away from Tauren.[12]
The Tauren Gamon gained notoriety as the most-killed NPC in World of Warcraft, causing him to become an Internet meme and be included as an official trading card with the quote "not again!" In Cataclysm, he was turned into a Level 85 raid boss, later becoming Level 90 in Mists of Pandaria. He was later subdued and tied to a tree by the orc warchief Garrosh Hellscream.[13]
References
edit- ^ Brackett, Eric (2015-06-02). "Your Heroes of the Storm Starter Guide to Ruling the Nexus". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ Brown, Fraser (2015-12-03). "World of Warcraft: Legion's alpha grows, with Stormheim and Highmountain popping into existence". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ Scott, Ryan (2009-08-21). "GameSpy: BlizzCon '09: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Preview Panel Report - Page 1". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ Campbell, Colin (2014-04-07). "Blizzard shows the moves behind World of Warcraft's new-look Tauren race". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- ^ Witmer, David (2014-07-25). "World of Warcraft Female Tauren Gets a Makeover". IGN. Archived from the original on 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- ^ Koch, Cameron (2022-04-28). "WoW: Dragonflight Will Finally Let You Be A Tauren Rogue". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- ^ Bainbridge, William Sims (2010). The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World. Internet Archive. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-262-01370-3.
- ^ Bainbridge, William Sims (2010). The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World. Internet Archive. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-262-01370-3.
- ^ Corneliussen, Hilde G. (2008). Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: a World of Warcraft Reader. Internet Archive. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-262-03370-1.
- ^ Campbell, Colin (2013-08-21). "The first Native American games company". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ Corneliussen, Hilde G. (2008). Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: a World of Warcraft Reader. Internet Archive. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-262-03370-1.
- ^ Alexander, Phillip Michael (2018). Identity and Collaboration in World of Warcraft. Parlor Press, LLC. ISBN 9781602356252.
- ^ Newman, Heather (2014-11-10). "World of Warcraft's most-killed character finally gets his due". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2023-12-14.