For as long as World of Warcraft has existed, players have been asking Blizzard for the opportunity to play with dragons, bipedal or not. There are still forum posts and interviews from 2009 (open in new tab) discussing how to bring playable dragons into the game, and WoW's latest expansion, Dragonflight, finally offers a highly customizable, playable dragon Giving the gift of a race, players have naturally spent hours crafting their dragons.

As we all know, the endgame of the ultimate RPG is at the very beginning of character creation. You absolutely have to look good before you can save the world. And Dracthyr, which you can now play if you pre-ordered the "Dragonflight" expansion, is extremely customizable.

Dracthyr has over 40 individual customization options in both human and dragon form, with a ridiculous number of possible combinations (billions).Blizzard Watch (opens in new tab) randomized the character creator button 100 times, but none of the dragons looked the same. Everything from the shape of the horns to the pattern of the dragon's scales can be adjusted, and even the same can be done to the human form. It would take a concerted effort to create a draktohail that looked the same as someone else's.

Players have spent the last 24 hours creating and sharing their drakthir creations. While some are still a bit upset about not being able to beef (open in new tab) their dragons, most are happy to sift through the options to create the dragon of their dreams. Most striking is how different some dragons look from one another; Reddit user Malvarik's (opens in new tab) Dracthyr and human Visage forms blend crimson armor and gold accents.

Twitter user Kenandstuff (opens in new tab) makes only the bare minimum, so their Dracthyr appears to be unloaded of features. They wrote: "Behold, Blandicus the all none left Evoker Dracthyr."

MMOs are great OC generators, and the more cosmetic and costume options you have, the better. twitter user and artist Lemongrace (opens in new tab) used Wowhead's Dracthyr creator (opens in new tab) to to match the illustrations.

Unfortunately, WoW does not have the ability to save presets for cosmetic options like Final Fantasy 14, as Twitch user Ahlaundoh (open in new tab) did after fiddling with tail and eye colors for hours, It's possible to find yourself picking the wrong faction. Ouch.

The final boss of character creation is choosing a name. While "Final Fantasy 14" has a canonical naming convention for each race, "WoW" allows for a fairly open interpretation based on other characters in the fiction: you can go with an elegant name like "Tyrgos" or "Ligmagos I've already seen a variety of names while exploring Dracthyr's unique starting zone, Forbidden Reach (open in new tab). For me, half the fun of MMOs is running around and trying to find the most ridiculous names. Dracthyr, named simply "Vrchat" (opens in new tab), is currently my favorite.

Dragonflight is not yet fully released, but the number of Dracthyr appearing everywhere suggests that Blizzard has really nailed it. Some players are jealous of the dragon customization options. They want other races to get the same treatment (open in a new tab) in the future, and Blizzard is working to increase options for older races. In Shadowlands, after more than a decade without those options, you can finally play as a black and Asian human. Once the most glaring omissions are fixed, Blizzard will begin to consider adding a variety of other options.

"It feels strange to make a Draktil and compare it to other species," wrote Reddit user KershawsTightPants (open in new tab)." It looks like it came from a different game/series."

Dragonflight, for the most part, seems to be setting WoW up for a different kind of future, one that might include powerful character customization across all playable races; Blizzard already does, in dungeons, raids, and PvP, The franchise's iconic rival factions, Horde and Alliance, have opened the door for cooperation (open in new tab). And Dragonflight shifts the story's focus from a catastrophic cosmic threat to a great adventure on the Dragon Islands. There are no ancient gods or ancient races interfering in the other world (at least not yet), only dragons and their long unexplored homeland.

The fact that you can only have one draktir per server may seem unfair, but perhaps it is a good thing. The enthusiasm for Draktyr would otherwise keep everyone sitting in the character creation menu throughout the expansion.