One of the most endearing emotes in World of Warcraft is the /silly. In this classic command, you order your character to tell a brief, audible joke. Everyone around you can hear it, of course. But the fine voice acting of /silly and /flirt are some of the most sought-after content of each expansion. Some are racy and risque, but all of the emotes speak to fundamental concepts about each race. The goblin voices, for example, talk a lot about crime and money. That's not by accident.

In any kind of roleplaying, sound bites and one liners both tend to be a big deal. They evoke memories and define characters. They help frame action into a resounding "heck yeah!" kind of moment. Comic book heroes are known for their quips. Stand up comedians make fine art of the one sentence joke. It is, in a word, some good stuff.

To help encourage folks to prepare their own worgen and goblin one liners, I thought I'd spend some time going through some examples. I'll drop the line or quote, share where I got it from, and why I think it reflects on the worgen and goblin. Don't worry; I promise to avoid Metallica and Linkin Park lyrics. Then, let's play in the comments and create a bunch more.

Never underestimate the other guy's greed ... or your own

This quote is from Scarface, and I've obviously tinkered with it. Scarface is clearly safe inspiration for goblins since they organize in cartels and several of their voice quotes reference organized crime. One voice quote in the beta even says "I'm the little friend." The advice to not underestimate the other guy's greed is Frank Lopez's number one rule and it's damned good advice.

I added the "your own" because I feel like goblins are pretty self-aware of their own corrupt and greedy nature. If you try and slam a goblin by telling him that "all he cares about is money!" ... he's not going to be bothered. He knows that. And what's more, goblins are at peace with that. They're not bothered by the greed. The thing that would bother them is to suddenly find out they're even more greedy that even they initially thought.

In Kezan, our women are more dangerous than swords

Perhaps I've been hitting the mob movies a little much, but inspiration for this quote comes from The Godfather. I've taken the quote a little out of context, but I feel like it absolutely fits the goblin mindset. Goblin women aren't toys, they aren't objectified (any more than the pretty boy goblins, anyway). They're just as dangerous, ferocious, and profit-minded as the men. The sexual divide between men and women seems almost irrelevant. For that matter, there are more male models in Kezan than there are female ones.

I see goblins being proud of that. I see them taking pride in the fact that every goblin is a revenue-driving machine. No one's dead weight. Every goblin works, every goblin fights, and most importantly, every goblin earns. They're all dead. And when faced with comparisons to other races, I can see a goblin snarling at a human and saying with pride, "In Kezan, our women are more dangerous than swords."

Greed works, greed is right

If you've not seen Wall Street, I feel like you may be missing a fundamental cornerstone to the goblin experience. But for all that the goblins of the Horde are motivated by the shattering experiences of the cataclysm, they still believe in a core tenant: greed works.

This isn't an essential moral compass. Greed isn't elevated to some religious icon. Instead, fundamentally, greed works. You do your job, you get paid. You don't do your job, you fail to be a boss, and someone who's hungrier and smarter will replace you. The system works. You might wish for it to be difference, but greed is getting the job done. And that's how it works; get the job, do the job, get paid. It works.

Life is far too glorious to the cursed and the damned

In The Wolfman, Sir Anthony Hopkins explains why he can't bring himself to commit suicide. After taking huge, gaping bites out of the scenery, he claims that hovering on the edge of a curse has left him far too aware of how precious and awesome life truly is.

I see the embattled Gilneans coming to grips with this kind of stark acuity. Their world has been cast into chaos, their homes have been attacked, and they're fighting for a new place in Azeroth. With this kind of assault raining down around his head, a worgen must be coming to truly value his life. (I'm sure that there will be ample lone wolf character concepts out there who are plenty dark and mysterious. I'm aiming for something a little lighter.)

Consider how much fighting a worgen must have done to even maintain his own existence. They're valuing it highly at that point, for all that they've become heir to a horrible curse.

Huh. A werewolf in love.

The above quote is from my favorite werewolf of all time; Daniel Osborne from Buffy. Oz is probably the definitive werewolf for me. And for all that he's struggling with something horrible, feral, and wild that just wants to come screaming out in a bloody mess, Oz's stoic nature maintains a certain self-deprecating humor.

The worgen soundbites are full of sly references to their own werewolf characteristics. They make fun of themselves. They even make some "I'm a dog" jokes like claiming to be housebroken. While I wouldn't make the argument that the /silly and /flirt emotes are canonical lore, I still think that worgen are aware of the ironies of their situations.

So when Oz looks fondly at a departing Willow and says, "Huh. [I'm a] werewolf in love," I think the worgen of Gilneas would appreciate his attitude.

Just marking my territory

Wolf is an awesome movie, especially because you get to see Jack Nicholson redefine what it means to ooze menace, cynicism, and general corporate predatory evil. When he utters the above line, it's because he's just got done peeing on someone's shoes.

Again, like the Oz one liner, this acknowledges the werewolf nature. Gilneans are aware of their close relation to man's best friend. But in Nicholson's quote, he's using that connection to establish dominance. Just because he's a wolf doesn't mean he's not perfectly capable of delivering a verbal punch.

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