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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Blizzard Orc Statue and compass points of wisdom
by Kevin Kelly 
Jun 29th 2009 at 9:00AM
These will be featured in a story over on Joystiq at some point today, but in the meantime here's a sneak preview just for WoW.com readers. You may already know about Blizzard's massive courtyard Orc statue that's in the process of being installed in the front of the main building, but you might not know about the tenets engraved on each of the eight compass points that tout Blizzard's mottos. There's a peek at all of 'em in the gallery below, and they're also listed just beyond the break.
Read on for more, check out the statue and points gallery below, and stay tuned today for the drool-worth tour photos.
Each one of the Blizzard employees got to take home a scaled-down version of this sucker, with some even appearing on eBay, but none of them feature the massive compass that's being installed around the statue. Although the statue was supposedly ready back in February, Blizzard had contractors on-hand last week tearing up the concrete and putting new lights in ... or maybe that Orc just secretly comes to life at night and tears everything up. Who knows.
Anyhow, they were working on things while we were there, and upon closer inspection we noticed the compass points were surrounded by runes. The eight different points say (in English, who knows what those runes mean):
- Think Globally
- Lead Responsibly
- Play Nice, Play Fair
- Every Voice Matters
- Gameplay First
- Commit To Quality
- Learn & Grow
Although "Think Globally" reminds me a bit of Pinky and the Brain trying to take over the world, this is some pretty cool stuff. Now I'm starting to wonder what I'd be qualified to do at Blizzard ... maybe they need someone to photo-document all of their campus-improvement projects obsessively.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Mognet T Jun 29th 2009 12:44PM
It should read the real company mantras: "It will be ready when it's ready.", "Soon", "It's not perfect, but it's not terrible.", "Needs some work.", "We like it where it is.", "To the ground, baby.", "We are not considering that at this time.", and "Balancing Issues."
Love ya, Blizz.
Deathgodryuk Jun 29th 2009 12:56PM
Your statue... she's in pictures eh?
Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more!
RetPallyJil Jun 29th 2009 12:58PM
... but they don't favor the Horde.
impurezero Jun 29th 2009 1:09PM
My God, you're right. Blizzard must absolutely favor the Horde! After all, I'm sure the entire company got together to vote on a stupid statue, and 100% of the employees said, "It's gotta be a Horde character because Alliance sucks, lawl!" Then they must bow down before the orc on their lunch break each day, chanting, "For the Horde! For the Horde!"
Or...in a scenario that makes much more sense to anyone with some thinking capacity...they had a couple options for statues, and some higher up buerocrat who really has nothing to do with game design chose the one he thought looked neatest, and then moved on to something that was, you know...actually important to the company.
(Or, they just hired an artist, said, "Make a statue based on our game," and that was the result.)
micgillam Jun 29th 2009 1:22PM
Or maybe, as impurezero suggested, and others have said in the past, Horde races just make for a more interesting statue. Had it been an elf, human, gnome, or dwarf, it still would have look very close to human (except smaller, or with pointy ears) whereas the orc (and remember, the WC line started with Orcs and Humans. Playable units from other races came later) really showcases their designers' creativity, and is definitely more interesting looking and more unusual (there are lots of human statues around).
ToothyGrin Jun 29th 2009 1:26PM
It's a great statue. I think many players could learn a thing or two from reading the inscriptions! Although I have to say I wish "no whining" was included somewhere.
Thanks for posting!
RetPallyJil Jun 29th 2009 1:31PM
Doesn't Chris Metzen himself do Orc voices? I know he does ... oh, what is that NPC's name that the chief game designer does?
Oh yeah. Thrall.
But please, keep telling me how it isn't all Hordetown at Blizzard. It's funny.
micgillam Jun 29th 2009 3:50PM
Yeah, well David Lodge voiced Seer Olum, Monte Krol voiced a bunch of goblins, and Tracy W. Bush voiced the murlocs. Do you think it means something? Or do you think maybe they just used as many of their own people as they could for the characters that didn't call for a professional voice actor?
impurezero Jun 29th 2009 5:03PM
Or...they thought he had a good sounding Orc voice and he would do it for free? Or...being the lead designer, he wanted his voice in the game somewhere, and it was deemed that Thrall was the best fit?
No...that can't be it. He must have insisted that he do the voice, because somehow doing a simple voiceover was a planned and subtle insult to us Alliance players. Sneaky, sneaky developer. If it weren't for his obvious Horde bias, he would have contributed Thrall's voice to an Alliance NPC where it would have made more sense, right? Yeah...the King of Stormwind, or Bronzebeard would have benefited more from an orc's voice, eh?
Could your reasonings be any more pathetic?
RetPallyJil Jun 29th 2009 5:10PM
The lead designer gets to make-believe he's Thrall isn't a good reason for you guys?
Tell me ... which faction do YOU play? Be honest, little Hordies.
impurezero Jun 29th 2009 5:25PM
Yeah...that's not even close to being a good reason. It's a friggin' job. I would love to be the voice of anyone in Warcraft. If I had the strings to pull to make it happen, I would. If they decided my voice best fit Thrall, I'd do it, regarless of my faction preference or lack therof. This would not in anyway prove that as game designer, I'm biased against half the people who pay my salary.
And I'm Cutaia on Bronzebeard. Alliance ret/prot pally. Feel free to Armory it, since your weak-ass comeback is, "OMG, You must be Horde!"
Personally, I think you must just suck at the game and feel content blaming it on some ridiculous conspiracy theory.
impurezero Jun 29th 2009 5:34PM
Meh..I take back the statement about you sucking at the game. I have no basis to say that, and don't want to resort to personal attacks here. I still stand by my arguments against your previously posted reasonings for your theory.
micgillam Jun 30th 2009 10:37AM
I'm Alliance as well, rerolled over a year ago after several years with the horde (we parted on good terms).
RetPallyJil Jun 29th 2009 1:33PM
Oh and while I'm at it:
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s44/agentxxii/except_you.jpg
Pestilence Jun 29th 2009 1:43PM
FOR THE HORDE!
monkey Jul 1st 2009 1:27AM
anyone else think the compass looks more like a stargate?