Maiev is the other one I'm really looking forward to, but do you really think they'll do another female elf? I mean, fine by me, I have to finish my fem elf set, but people probably want a dood, right? (Or a Forsaken)
They shipped the game with 2 women and 7 men, three of which were Orcs, one Elf, one Night Elf, one Ogrim, and three humans (all of whom were white).
I think the game's initial hero direction was pretty clearly set before Blizzard's diversity directive was set, which makes sense given the game started four or so years before its unveil.
So far they've been addressing a mix of the lack of women and the race diversity separately, though not always with concerns for classes.
Post launch heroes:
- Medivh (Male Human Mage)
- Khadgar (Male Human Mage, though he was Apple exclusive, so I think that's why he seemed so redundant and lazy)
- Liadrin (Female Elf Paladin)
- Magni (Male Dwarf Warrior)
- Alleria (Female Elf Hunter)
- Morgl (Male Murloc Shaman)
- Tyrande (Female Night Elf Priest)
- Maiev (Female Night Elf Rogue?)
They've went from a 22:78 gender split with initial heroes to 50:50 with post launch heroes (and all the new women aren't showing cleavage, unless we're really picky about Tyrande), and 75% were in low representation races, though Miladesn is right in that a lot are still left out. I imagine we will see them hitting more on that next.
One of the issues though is that the IP base they have to work with is a bit limited, especially with characters who fit the classes. Heroes dig out super obscure characters and invented a lot of others to add diversity to the game, similar to what Blizzard had to do with Morgl or some of the adventures.
