New World of Warcraft female orc design brings out her 'warrior side'

Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft female orc redesign will help highlight the gender's "'warrior' side a little more," senior art director Chris Robinson wrote on Battle.net.

"That means moving away from the more doe-eyed version we know now toward a character you would expect to see fighting on the front lines alongside any of her Horde brothers and sisters," Robinson wrote.

According to lead animator Steve Aguilar, the team wants to fix the female orc's "blank stare," which does little to convey her personality.

"We wanted to give her more of an edge so she would project a confident ‘Don't mess with me!' attitude," Aguilar said. "... She now looks and feels more like you'd expect an Orc to."

Blizzard is redesigning its character animations as part of the Warlords of Draenor expansion announced at BlizzCon last year. The expansion introduces a level cap of 100, the world of Draenor and more. Blizzard previously released a look at the game's updated male orcs, dwarves and gnomes, as well as the redesigned human female.