The Queue: The Scantily Clad Edition
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 26th 2009 at 3:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Hello, everybody! I'm going to jump right into things today because I'm sure at least a dozen people will want to shiv me for my answer to our first question, and I'd like to give everyone time to do that.
Andrew R. asked...
"Why do the females in WoW always wear such scantily clad gear? I don't see how plate armor that exposes half your upper body will do you any good when someone wants to stab you. Isn't it kind of degrading to real women who play the game?"
I suspect I'm risking my health by saying something about this question since I'm quite obviously male but no, I don't think so! To be honest, WoW isn't that bad about it. There are a few sets (mostly greens!) that are overly skimpy, but there are also greens that put male abs on display that very few people even notice. Most of my characters are female (yeah, yeah, I know), and none of them have really worn skimpy clothing as I leveled them. They were never required to do so. If a breastplate had more midriff than I liked, I just put a tabard on and you'd never know.
My Paladin is a Human Female, she's completely covered from the top of her neck to the bottoms of her feet, and it's been that way since I rolled her. I've never had to wear anything particularly skimpy. Midriff and/or cleavage was covered by my guild tabard (who doesn't wear a tabard nowadays?) and I've never had to wear asspants. She definitely does not wear a plate bikini. If I turned her helm on, she'd basically be a female juggernaut. I actually think it's pretty awesome.Like I said though, there's definitely armor in WoW that's skimpy, but very little of it is required wearing and I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with there being a few scantily clad women as long as it's not all of the women. It's not completely inavoidable, and it's a very small percentage of just how much armor there is in the game. I'd be more surprised if there wasn't any at all. There's females in the audience that like wearing that kind of stuff sometimes, as they mentioned in the comments yesterday. It shouldn't be insulting. Just don't wear it, or put a tabard over it in those rare cases a set piece has midriff.
Oh yeah, is this where I bust out the obligatory "there are no girls on the internet" line? I almost forgot about that.
coreycubed asked...
"In the Argent Tournament, will we only be able to align ourselves with one home faction at a time? When it was first announced, I saw mounts and titles for each home faction, and I'm already exalted with all of them. I'm wondering if I'm going to be restricted to just one to "champion" for the tournament, or if I can finish one, then set to work on another."
You can only align yourself with your home faction at first. As Jay in Oregon was saying in the comments yesterday, you start the Tournament as an Aspirant. You work your way up to Valiant, and then eventually become Champion of your faction. At that point, you can start working for the other races, starting as a Valiant for them. And like Jay, I'm not sure if you can do more than one at a time, because PTR bugs are wonderful.
Andy asked...
"Hi Alex, or whomever--I have a question that I'd really, really appreciate some help on, as I can't seem to find anything definitive on this: what is the difference between an "Oceanic" server and an "EU" server? Also, do I really need a completely different version of WoW to play on an EU realm--and if so, does that imply that I couldn't transfer characters from a US realm to an EU realm or vice versa (or roll a Death Knight on an EU realm just because I have 55+ characters on US realms), but I could transfer characters between US and Oceanic realms?"
US and EU realms are completely separate, you can't transfer characters between them. You would need an EU copy of WoW and its expansions to play there. Oceanic realms are technically US realms in how they're run, the big difference being time zone and the region they're meant for. Oceanic realms are meant for the Australia, New Zealand, etc. region. You can copy characters there from US realms and vice versa, I believe.
To find out if that would be a better fit for you where you'll be, hit up a world clock and figure out the timezones. If the timezones work for you, go with that. If not? Stick to US realms. To play on EU realms, you'll need to start from scratch. No transfers there from US servers.
Ian R. asked...
"So was the bug with Ebon Plaguebringer ever fixed? Is it fixed in 3.1?"
It is fixed in patch 3.1.
alpha5099 asked...
"Why are trolls so unpopular? I mean, I get that (for some reason) a lot of people want to play the "pretty" races, so you end up with humans and both of the elven races being the most played. But then you get past those people, and you have all the other races, and so few people are playing trolls. Are trolls really that much less appealing a race than the undead or the orcs?"
If I played Horde, half of my characters would be Trolls (other half being anything but Orcs). I am the wrong person to ask about them. My only gripe is I wish they could freaking wear shoes. Gah. Just let them wear shoes! Why is that so hard! They look so stupid! Auuugh!
Sorry.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Toasty Mar 26th 2009 3:08PM
I'm a hardcore Troll-roller (Troller?), but sometimes I wonder what my boots actually look like.
For this reason, I picked up an Orb of the Sin'dorei, for the off-occasion.
Seriously Blizz - Darkspear would look so much cooler with boots.
Karilyn Mar 26th 2009 3:49PM
I have a similar feeling about my tauren's hooves.
Due to my hooves, all shoes lose their model, and become a skintight "bracer" around my ankles.
I'm sometimes surprised when I see a screenshot of a human, or an orc, or whatever, wearing the same pair of boots as me, and seeing that they have an amazingly detailed texture.
Actually... due to my weird leg shape, I often experience a similar thing, with how the pants textures are often stretched beyond recognition... and see surprise when I notice another class wearing them and how different they look.
I bet Draenai's feel the same way.
Taytayflan Mar 26th 2009 4:14PM
Same thing as for the Undead arms and legs. I have no problem with the models having exposed joints when there's no equipment in that slot, but seriously? I want pants that don't look like torn shorts.
Ircasha Mar 26th 2009 4:31PM
I'm also a troll lover (an 80 hunter and shaman - both males).
I just wish mine could stand up straight . . .
Kakistocracy Mar 26th 2009 4:35PM
I would also play almost only trolls if I spent more time on the horde side, and I agree that the shoes (or lack there of) are their primary flaw.
I can understand the shoe issues for the cloven hoofed folk, but trolls could, and should, do so much better. There are even shoes in game that claim to be made specially for trolls, but I doubt they show up well either.
kolo Mar 26th 2009 4:53PM
try being a gnome, even your own faction hate you. not that it matters, every self respecting, hardcore gnome hates all other races equally in return :)
Thebum Mar 26th 2009 6:03PM
I hate the troll jump animation. And I pretty much jump all the time when I travel so it gets very annoying when I play a troll character. That's why I don't play one.
Nexumbra Apr 3rd 2009 11:10PM
Boots would be nice, but I wish we could have better posture! Quit slouching!
kabshiel Mar 26th 2009 7:42PM
I love trolls, but they look seriously goofy in almost all armor.
Ben Mar 27th 2009 12:42AM
The troll racial makes it all worth it:
Da Voodoo Shuffle Racial Passive
Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%. Trolls be flippin' out mon!
Love it!
vazhkatsi Mar 27th 2009 3:52AM
why do they even bother giving caster pants skins? i haven't seen my legs since level 20 when i stopped wearing shirts. seriously, they need to make an item- the emperors new pants, only the truly righteous can see them.
oh and same goes for shoes, really i wish there was an interface option to switch between caster tunic style garments and caster shirts
rosencratz Mar 27th 2009 5:06AM
Personally i've never found a setup for trolls that i really liked.
I really like troll race and stuff but the face/tusk/hair combo's never really align with anything i'd personally like to play as. I really hoped the new hairdresser options would save them for me but alas no.
Thus i've stuck with Tauren so far, can't beat anything with horns,hooves and a tail(yeah i like Draenei too)
muffin_of_chaos Mar 27th 2009 2:20PM
All of these above commentors are not the type of person who can appreciate playing a troll. Let me explain...
Trolls are the only race in the game that can look goofy by our standards, and yet be deadly serious threat at the same time. Playing a troll means: "I don't take myself too seriously, I'm just gonna kick your ass because you suck, unless you're a troll, in which case I'm just better."
The fact that they don't wear shoes means they don't need to wear shoes like every other race, except Tauren who really can't. That's somewhat the most intrinsically "badass" minor model quirk in the game.
If you roll Troll, you're a badass. If you don't, you aren't, or you're a Paladin, Druid or Warlock.
Make that Druid or Warlock.
On a related note, if you play Alliance you are in no way a badass.
Holgar Mar 26th 2009 3:08PM
Idon't get it either....I love trolls all my horde ARE trolls I fell for trolls in the very first Warcraft III mission I could play them.
"Wha chou botha me fo?"
"Who ya wamme kill?"
"Chou wanna buya ciga?"
Ian R. Mar 26th 2009 3:37PM
I think one reason for the shortage of Trolls is the racial bonuses, at least compared to the other Horde races. Orcs have great DPS racials; Tauren have great tanking racials, and Undead have great PvP/leveling racials. The Trolls' racial has been tweaked lots as Blizz tries to balance it out.
ballistic3188 Mar 26th 2009 4:33PM
My first character was a troll rogue.
There are many reason people at least initially didn't like trolls.
1. their racials were the worst for the longest period of time. we have gotten better since then but the days of + throwing skill when the best throwing weapon was like a lvl 40 blue drop with no +stats. and berserking only activaing when you are like at 20% health. and troll regen which still is like 5 hp per tick. stopped people that wanted to min/max, whcih incidently made people mostly undead or tauren for the longest time.
2. their appearence is that of a gangly troll with a bad back always slouching. I always wanted to be the forrest troll they look at least menacing.
3. Blizzard only makes their gear with human toons in mind. so many gear clippings because of tusks and ears and various other problems. so gear looks funky on a troll.
also i decry the amounts of troll abuse wow has done. there are more instances with trolls then any other available races. seriously you can name the areas zul'aman, zul'farrak, zul'garrab, drakthereon keep, gundrak, sunken temple.
Also the leader and warlord among all trolls Zul'jin gets killed for the most stupid lore reason of loot from a caharcter that was just introduced which name is the anagram of red neck.
Teah Mar 26th 2009 6:00PM
Speaking as someone who has rolled a lot of troll female alts but never kept them, other than the boots looking horrible, there's trouble in just creating a troll female. There's ONE look that isn't mean/glaring and that look is rather vacant and drugged. And in total there's about six different faces for female trolls and that's IT. They do however look very regal wearing robes, especially the high end gear, but I believe the lack of faces in the creation screen stops most female trolls.
G Mar 26th 2009 7:59PM
I just started playing Horde side, and I like the Troll design a lot. It came down to racial bonuses and class priority over race. My first Hordie was a druid, hence Tauren. My second was a warlock, hence not-Troll. My third was a hunter. This was a very close call, but since I had planned to go BM, Orc's "Command" won. Not sure what else to roll, if I even have time, but I would like to roll a Troll eventually. Maybe next expansion?
Wulfkin Mar 26th 2009 10:08PM
I have always loved trolls, since WC3 ("wadda mean wat kind of accent is dis? Its a TROLL accent! Jah makin me crazy!"). But have never got one past about lvl 10.
I think part of the problem is that all Troll classes tend to have a cooler element in other races. Things like mages, priests, etc have a more cooler place in the form of Forsaken, who are understandably very popular. Similarly Shamans are often Orcs cos its fluffy or Tauren cos ppl love Tauren.
That and the fact mentioned above - Darkspear trolls are gangly. If they looked like the beefier forest trolls I bet we'd see an awful lot more of them.
Bigfish Mar 26th 2009 3:09PM
Despite the television trope that all women see an attractive female image as sexist and degrading, most women would rather see an attractive avatar than a realistic one.
Not that some of the bikini pieces don't make everyone scratch their head and say "huh, so that's armor?"