Well, they went ahead and added Thanksgiving content in 3.2. It is a little weird that they'd add two non-playable races' masks, but it could just be the start of them expanding the holiday a bit, to give people who did all the achievements last year some new stuff to do. If nothing else Halloween-related shows up before 3.2 goes live then I'd be more inclined to believe we might get playable goblin/worgen next xpack. But they've shown interest in fleshing out the holiday events with Noblegarden, Pilgrim's Day, Pirate Day, and Day of the Dead already. It just seems a bit early to jump to conclusions.
I'm also hoping we won't have playable worgen just because it would seem to require a pretty epic, Draenei-style retcon to ignore everything that's been said about how they're purely evil killing machines.
I can't help but wonder if Blizzard is trolling us with the Goblin/Worgen thing. Why would they have made Halloween masks already?
I seem to remember them having the halloween and brewfest stuff up on the PTR by about this time last year (maybe a bit later in the summer, but not by more than a couple weeks). It doesn't seem too unlikely that they'd have halloween stuff up already.
So the mask has hit the front page off MMO-Champ. Boubouille also added a small piece about the old Emerald Dream maps that I found much more interesting then the information about the masks.
On a non related sidenote, I would also like to point out that the old Emerald Dream maps that have been in the game files for years have been slightly updated throughout the 3.2, and in the Build 10072 of the PTRs the Map.dbc file with some of the settings for each zone was updated to make it a 40 Players max zone.
I'm still not sold yet on us getting Goblins and Worgen. I think it's because I'm secretly hoping for Pandaren so much. But I must say, things do fit in nicely. I can envision something along these lines as the starter zones...
Goblins - Horde
Capital City - Undermine
Kezan - Levels 1-10 Plunder Isle - Levels 11-20
They can easily move Plunder Isle over so it is much closer to Kezan, even possibly connecting them. Think how the Draenei Starter zones are setup. Then move them both over a bit to the east on the world map, fitting them inside the Eastern Continents map near Stranglethorn Vale and Booty Bay. Although, under the assumption that the Worgen are the other playable class in Gilneas, I can see Blizzard moving the isles west instead and connecting them to Kalimdor and Steamwheedle Port.
Kezan can be the starter zone, with goblins all over the place. Bilgewater Port can serve as the central "quest hub" town branching off all over the zone. You are reintroduced to the Blackwater Raiders as well, which lead you to the next leveling zone, Plunder Isle. Here the Blackwater Raiders have an outpost setup, serving as the "quest hub" town for this zone. Everything in the zone revolves around aiding the Blackwater Raiders in their skirmishes against the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Eventually leading up to a climatic showdown against Duke Falrevere inside a non-instanced Bloodsail Hold. Very similar to how Ghostlands was setup for the Blood Elves as the confrontation with Dar'Khan Drathir inside of Deatholme was built up.
Worgen - Alliance
Capital City - Fictional City Where Genn Greymane Resides
Gilneas - Levels 1-10 Zul'Dare - Levels 11-20
Obviously this scenario revolves around the idea that the people of Gilneas have been cursed by Arugal and are all Worgen now. Gilneas would encompass not just the peninsula, but the neighboring Island of Zul'Dare, which according to lore is also part of their country. Genn Greymane still leads his cursed people in whichever city can be used as a capital city. Speaking of which, has any established cities in wow lore ever been revealed within Gilneas? If not, Blizzard would have free reign to invent whatever sort of city they want for the Worgen capital city, as well as any smaller quest hub towns within the two zones.
Being formerly human and still having ties to the Alliance, the Worgen have no intentions of opening up relations to the Forsaken and Horde, thusly, the Greymane Wall remains closed in the north. Instead, access to the rest of the Alliance is done through a ship that connects to Menethil Harbor in Wetlands, easily funneling into a 20-30 leveling zone. The initial leveling zone is the peninsula itself, Gilneas. Through questing we learn of what's been happening behind the Greymane Wall in recent years and how the people of Gilneas came to be the Worgen.
In addition we learn the reasoning behind the Worgen opening up to the rest of the Alliance. Gilneas is currently under direct attack from the Naga and Queen Azshara, strengthened with the possibility of Nazjatar being raised to the surface. When we finally do get to Zul'Dare, we discover the isle is heavily infested with Naga, as has been hinted at in "Lands of Conflict". There the Naga invasion is confronted head on before moving onto the mainland Eastern Kingdoms.
On a non related sidenote, I would also like to point out that the old Emerald Dream maps that have been in the game files for years have been slightly updated throughout the 3.2, and in the Build 10072 of the PTRs the Map.dbc file with some of the settings for each zone was updated to make it a 40 Players max zone.
Assuming the 10/25 raid instance model will be the continuing model, does a 40 player zone imply the Emerald Dream will be a battleground or world pvp zone?
Currently there are pure Worgen (always Worgen form, summoned from another dimension by Arugal or the Scythe) and semi-Worgen (human by day, Worgen by moon, and the product of Arugal's tinkerings). Who's to say what the Worgen of Gilneas are like, or what the playable ones are like? I would guess for the effect of graphics, etc, that Worgen would be full-time Worgen since that would be more "fun."
It is perfectly reasonable to believe Gilneas is infested with Worgen who have overcome their more evil sides and shaken off their more barbaric sides, perhaps somewhat vicious, but not overly so. Or they could be completely Light-following. Or they could be humans somehow converted, retaining their original essence but simply now in Worgen form.
Basically Blizzard can go any number of ways; it certainly seems like they're going the direction of "good"-guy Worgen, which possibly means some kind of adherence to the Light (well, Gnomes don't follow it, and maybe a few Horde individuals follow it, but by and large, it is a big divider in the factions).
Hopefully Worgen will get full armor and such, though, and not like the Worgen effect in Karazhan where your weapon shows but you by and large don't show gear. I can't imagine this not being the case, unless the playable Worgen race are Human most of the time but can pop into some kind of Worgen form (which would be an interesting racial ability). But what fun is a race that looks mostly human? No, I think they'd have to be full-time Worgen, preferably running on all fours and all of the fun touches we see in Worgen today.
I'm also hoping we won't have playable worgen just because it would seem to require a pretty epic, Draenei-style retcon to ignore everything that's been said about how they're purely evil killing machines.
Inappropriate comparison.
Retconning involves a deliberate change of previously established facts. There's no need to change information explicitly stated in a Warcraft manual or on an official site to accommodate what we know about the Worgen or what can be reasonably surmised.
A more appropriate model would be the slight shift done with the Orc storyline (from demon worshiping killing machines to a noble and shamanistic warrior culture), starting with Of Blood and Honor, then Lord of the Clans, and finally with the more familiar Warcraft III. They provided backstory, not retconning.
Assuming blizzard wanted an Alliance connection to the Worgen (at least on the issue of them being former humans and/or from Gilneas), they don't need to change anything already established in WoW or other sources of lore. Few resources and little imagination would be needed to establish the Worgen as a playable race, at least in the manner contemplated in that recent blue post.
All blizzard might need to do lore-wise for the Worgen is provide additional backstory in a future expansion, because the race has already been seeded in WoW. If Ashenvale, Duskwood, and Silverpine in vanilla weren't enough, Grizzly Hills provided a recent mainstream exposure to the race, making this whole discussion relevant to this thread.
Currently, the Worgen are either summoned from another dimension or are of the cursed human variety. It's not too far of a reach to say that the entire race is comprised of "cursed" humanoids, similar to the way the Forsaken (who are not all human) are afflicted with the curse of undeath, but are united by a similar condition and common enemy.
There could be a similar "race for a cure", with the curse of the Worgen likely being transdimensional in scope and knowing that future content with extra-dimensional entities like those in the Burning Legion and the visitation of other worlds hinted at in TBC, have been contemplated for years. (Here's to hoping Alliance players will be forced to endure similar RAS equivalent quests. Bear tongues, spider ichor, and lion's blood, anyone?)
Maybe this will give blizzard a chance to account for Turalyon and Alleria (long overdue): "sorry guys, was looking for a cure for the Wolf-people. (lol)."
[19:36:45.096] Spleen gains 15 energy from Spleen's Tricks of the Trade
[19:36:45.408] Osseric gains Tricks of the Trade from Spleen
You can also tell a bit from the masks how the design for player controlled Goblins/Worgen will look. Alliance have sort of lacked a bad-ass male model for a while. Human/Night Elf males look like dorks, Draenei males....ugh, Gnomes? I think not. Dwarves are cool, but that's because they know how to get drunk. I mean, Alliance have been hurting in that department for a while. Having a feral male monster in our ranks will help alot! And it goes without saying that the Goblin is the long-overdue response to Gnomes in the Alliance.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CX81UJZ8
For the lurking Phoenix Wright faithful.
What is the most important thing to you? Won't you grant me the pleasure of taking it away.
I'll eat my shoe if those worgen faces weren't for PC's. Way too much work put into them otherwise; they're very high quality. This would actually be a new race fit that would make sense as well. Rogue naga would cause technical and gear model challenges; two arm, two leg creatures don't, and they both exist in lore.
Blizzard's also putting up with datamining threads on the official forums, so that looks pretty damn promising.
The transformation issue is probably the trickest. They aren't adding wolves just to have them be indistinguishable from normal humans all the time. None of the other races are easily confused.
You can also tell a bit from the masks how the design for player controlled Goblins/Worgen will look. Alliance have sort of lacked a bad-ass male model for a while. Human/Night Elf males look like dorks, Draenei males....ugh, Gnomes? I think not. Dwarves are cool, but that's because they know how to get drunk. I mean, Alliance have been hurting in that department for a while. Having a feral male monster in our ranks will help alot! And it goes without saying that the Goblin is the long-overdue response to Gnomes in the Alliance.
The only reason Goblins weren't a race in the first place was because of an early reversal in design where the Goblins profiting from the war was more in-character than joining a particular side. From the simple fact that there were female Goblins and an investment in unique voice-overs for NPCs, I really think that Goblins were only NPCs because of that early decision. With all the signs pointing to Undermine as close to action in Cataclysm, NOW there's a compelling reason for a faction of Goblins to officially ally with the Horde.
Worgen... it still feels out of left-field for me. All of Emeraude's reasoning is sound, and the presence of the masks isn't exactly incontrovertible proof, but it's more evidence to support an idea. I think this might finally going to provide some answers for the Scythe of Elune questline, but with how the Scythe was handled in Wrath (ie, badly) I'm really hoping that some additional content gets added in Grizzly Hills to make that place important to Worgen players.
Now, to bring in some discussion of totally theoretical racials and class distributions! Note that I don't think we'll get new druids with these races because they'd need to maintain the balance and Worgen wouldn't make sense as guardians of nature when they themselves are kinda unnatural. That could easily be changed, of course.
Goblins:
Available Classes: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Mage, Shaman, Death Knight (I don't think the Light would take Goblins seriously enough for Priests/Paladins)
Racial: Hard Bargaining -- You receive 10% additional copper/silver/gold when selling items to an NPC vendor.
Racial: Ingenuity -- You receive a 5-point bonus to your first Primary profession.
Worgen:
Available Classes: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Death Knight (I don't know if I buy a physically brutal race that would stand back in robes and throw magic, despite some evidence of Worgen Casters in-game) <-- EDIT: Thanks Cranberry!
Racial: Heightened Senses -- You may use two tracking methods at the same time.
Racial: Animal Agility -- You have a 2% increased movement speed when not mounted.
Last edited by Mr. Crow : 07/17/09 at 11:17 PM.
Reason: Props to Cranberry
This? This is what I've been waiting for. Psychotic, screaming nutcases -- oh, and the other faction's race as well.
I've wanted to play as a Worgen ever since my first Hordie descended upon Shadowfang Keep and laid waste to Arugal's smug face. As for the Goblins? Well, if ever a character inspired me to take Engineering, that would be it.
Incidentally, imagine the Goblins' Profession racial being only able to choose Gnomish Engineering -- but being treated as a follower of both specialisations nevertheless. How badass would that be?
Edit:
(I don't know if I buy a physically brutal race that would stand back in robes and throw magic.)
I can't help but wonder if Blizzard is trolling us with the Goblin/Worgen thing. Why would they have made Halloween masks already?
Patch 3.3 is most likely going to come out after Halloween this year, so it make sense to see additions to Hallows End put in this patch (as well as the new Thanksgiving-themed holiday, the Day of the Dead stuff, etc).
Furthermore, by the time Hallows End rolls around we're going to probably know what the next expansion is via Blizzcon in August, and possibly new playable races. It's possible that Blizzard could start "seeding" the game even more with a Goblin/Worgen presence even before 4.0 (assuming they'll be playable races in the next expansion).
Something else that reinforces the idea of Worgen and Goblins as a playable race is the fact that with the introduction of Faction changes, we are unable to merely change -just- our race but stay on the same faction. For what reason would they not want us to be able to change race other than to prevent a mass amount of players from changing (within their faction) to Goblin/Worgen with the expansion?
I mean, we can already pay to change our realm, looks, gender, name, and (soon) faction. Only character customization missing is same faction race change and class change (which will never happen).
Undermine doesn't necessarily need to be the capital city of the horde race Goblins. If only a single cartel joins the Horde, you could have that cartel's base of operations as the capital city for the playable faction, and keep Undermine as a bigger neutral city of Goblins.
One other thing I'd like to bring up that could create interesting discussion...
If indeed we are getting Goblins and Worgen as new races, that would all but assure us that Undermine is the capital city for the Goblins.
Inevitably then that creates the question of...what is going to be the big neutral Shat/Dalaran city of the expansion? Any ideas?
I don't know that saying Undermine is definitely the starting area for Horde-aligned goblins is entirely necessary. The Steamwheedle Cartel is just one of several Goblin factions, and it probably would not change it's status as a neutral faction. A Horde-aligned group of goblins might get their own instanced starting area, and then take a boat to Ratchet to join the Horde-side leveling curve from there. I'm really thinking that the PC Goblin race will not be Steamwheedle-aligned, and instead be it's own show. Undermine, as the meeting place of all the Trade Princes, will probably stay neutral territory, making it still ideal for our new expansion capital.
And while I concur with all the people who've shot down the Gilneas/Worgen connection as fancruft, the area is particularly well-placed for Worgen to start there, and at the end of their 1-20 curve take a boat to Menethil Harbor, which brings them into the Dwarf/Gnome side of the Alliance leveling curve. They could just as easily boat to Stormwind and enter the 20+ game in Duskwood.
When it comes down to it, they can really put the Worgen starting area anywhere -- though I imagine it'll be Eastern Kingdoms and Goblins will start in Kalimdor, to maintain continental balance.
Continuing my speculation on racial features, what would the racial mounts for these new players be? Goblins would likely get Mechanical-somethings, to more strongly emphasize the Goblin/Gnome rivalry. But what would Worgen ride?
Keep in mind that this would probably open up all of these mounts for riding in-faction, so if Goblins get mecha-slugs, expect Tauren in them before too long.
Continuing my speculation on racial features, what would the racial mounts for these new players be? Goblins would likely get Mechanical-somethings, to more strongly emphasize the Goblin/Gnome rivalry. But what would Worgen ride?
Keep in mind that this would probably open up all of these mounts for riding in-faction, so if Goblins get mecha-slugs, expect Tauren in them before too long.
My guess is that blizzard will create something totally new for mounts. Probably just some indigenous species native to Kezan/Gilneas or whatever area of the world they start in. More or less how they went about it with the Eleks with the Draenei.
My guess is that blizzard will create something totally new for mounts. Probably just some indigenous species native to Kezan/Gilneas or whatever area of the world they start in. More or less how they went about it with the Eleks with the Draenei.
Well I can see Goblins have something mechanized, and a lot more rattletrap then the Gnome mount. Worgan, not a clue. Wolves are likely out cause of the Orc mount. Here's an idea, how about a giant spider? That animal could easily be found all over Azeroth, so it would be easily explained. Something dark themed would match well. Another option could be Blizzard invent something, like they did when they added the Hawkstrider. Always figured that one was inspired by the extinct Phorusrhacids.
Well I can see Goblins have something mechanized, and a lot more rattletrap then the Gnome mount. Worgan, not a clue. Wolves are likely out cause of the Orc mount. Here's an idea, how about a giant spider? That animal could easily be found all over Azeroth, so it would be easily explained. Something dark themed would match well. Another option could be Blizzard invent something, like they did when they added the Hawkstrider. Always figured that one was inspired by the extinct Phorusrhacids.
The hawkstrider is pretty obviously a chocobo. Now, giant spiders is something I could certainly get behind, but it seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it? Wolf-men riding giant spiders?
I agree that it will likely be something new, some new creature they invent for the starting area.
They can easily move Plunder Isle over so it is much closer to Kezan, even possibly connecting them. Think how the Draenei Starter zones are setup. Then move them both over a bit to the east on the world map, fitting them inside the Eastern Continents map near Stranglethorn Vale and Booty Bay. Although, under the assumption that the Worgen are the other playable class in Gilneas, I can see Blizzard moving the isles west instead and connecting them to Kalimdor and Steamwheedle Port.
Kezan can be the starter zone, with goblins all over the place. Bilgewater Port can serve as the central "quest hub" town branching off all over the zone. You are reintroduced to the Blackwater Raiders as well, which lead you to the next leveling zone, Plunder Isle. Here the Blackwater Raiders have an outpost setup, serving as the "quest hub" town for this zone. Everything in the zone revolves around aiding the Blackwater Raiders in their skirmishes against the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Eventually leading up to a climatic showdown against Duke Falrevere inside a non-instanced Bloodsail Hold. Very similar to how Ghostlands was setup for the Blood Elves as the confrontation with Dar'Khan Drathir inside of Deatholme was built up.
If Goblins really do pan out, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a boat connection from the starting zone to the Barrens (Ratchet) rather than Tanaris.
Well I can see Goblins have something mechanized, and a lot more rattletrap then the Gnome mount. Worgan, not a clue. Wolves are likely out cause of the Orc mount. Here's an idea, how about a giant spider? That animal could easily be found all over Azeroth, so it would be easily explained. Something dark themed would match well. Another option could be Blizzard invent something, like they did when they added the Hawkstrider. Always figured that one was inspired by the extinct Phorusrhacids.
I think the Hawkstrider was based on what young Dragonhawks were since Dragonhawks are used as ground mounts when they are young. They were more inspired by the Cockatrice though hence why they originally were called that until their name was changed due to the maturity level of WoW players.
07/17/09, 6:38 PM
