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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Are you happy with the new races?
by Andrew Ross 
Mar 6th 2011 at 8:00AM
One of the most anticipated changes next to a revamped Azeroth for Cataclysm was the announcement of two new races. The goblins would be joining the Horde, and the worgen would join the Alliance. These were two races the players have been asking Blizzard to make playable for a number of years. You couldn't browse the forums without seeing threads about what people would name their new goblin rogue or which class should Worgenfreman should play.
Cataclysm has been out for nearly 3 months, and most people have formed an opinion of the new races, whether it be positive or negative. Many people thought it would be a repeat of The Burning Crusade when you saw more draenei and blood elves running around than anything else. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Once Cataclysm went live, a number of people race-changed to one of the new races, while others started with a fresh level 1 to experience the new starting zones.
I played through the goblin zone first. I enjoyed it for the most part but at times it felt bloated or that Blizzard was trying too hard to mold the goblins into a certain image. It was still a blast, and I loved the Escape from Kezan cinematic. The only complaint with the goblins are the faces; all the faces look angry or like they are walking around with something "stuck." The worgen starting zone was fun but felt bloated and too repetitive at times. Overall, I'm not as thrilled with the worgen as I thought I would be. I'm not a fan of the appearance of the worgen, and the Running Wild animation is just weird to me. Seeing a worgen in a robe on all fours is even worse.
What do you think of the new races? Did your main undergo a race change, or are you leveling a new worgen or goblin?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 11)
SamLowry Mar 6th 2011 11:57AM
I, too, like Gilneas, but am rather perturbed that there's no reason to go back even if you could. At least the draenei and belfs got capital cities--we got a sinkhole, more or less.
Mordok Mar 6th 2011 11:19AM
I have played both new classes. I still play the Worgen but gave up on the Goblin. The Goblin just does not seem to fit the overall story line of WOW. With the Goblin Blizzard appears to be trying to make the game more modern and away from the, let me call it the Robbin Hood era look. The game was set up on a specific look and that look is one of the reasons I came to the game. Goblins just don't feel right.
I agree the story line for the Worgen is real light but it is a good story line. I just wish Blizzard had not just let it die. It appears that Blizzard was in so much of a hurry to get Cat out, possibly because they knew and feared the release of Rift, that they just did not want to take the time to complete anything.
In fact I get that same feeling about the whole expansion.....hurry....hurry .... hurry for the fear of losing out to a new game. Cat just feels lacking.
I only hope that Blizzard will take it upon themselves to add to the Worgen story line over the coming months and put more Worgen related quests back into the game. Send us back to our home and start rebuilding a great society and world.
Dreyja Mar 6th 2011 11:24AM
I love my Worgen. I'll love her a lot more when I can put a helm on her. 'Nuff Said. X-p
About 1/4 the snuffling would be perfect though.
I've said my piece about how the Worgen story got gypped. I shant rant anymore. ;)
There is absolutely nothing about the Goblins that would draw me to roll one. I feel that way about most of the horde but even more so about them. The shallow, gimmicky feel of their starting zone is coupled with a morality (or lack thereof) that smacks of "reality" TV. I freaking HATE reality tv.
Sleutel Mar 6th 2011 11:28AM
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/worgensniffremover.aspx
Elrandir Mar 6th 2011 11:29AM
Worgen females should be deleted from the game. Worgen males 2h forward jump animation is beyond stupid. Tried to make a goblin but all faces look the same. This expansion was rushed way too fast...
Oni Stardust Mar 6th 2011 11:30AM
I love almost everything about Worgen (including things that most other people seem to have a problem with, such as the male casting animation), so it would be much faster to list the few things I DON'T like.
-female faces viewed from the side
-lack of representation outside the starter zone
-being forced to play the evil, disgusting, NeoScourge in order to see the second half of the origin story
I don't care much about Goblins one way or another. I tried to play their starting zone, but didn't make it to any of the interesting parts before I quit. I will say this, though: I absolutely HATE that stupid little car they give you.
Dreyja Mar 6th 2011 11:46AM
Exactly what Oni Said!
Hear, Hear!
SlyFourroux Mar 6th 2011 11:34AM
Just wanted to add how much fun the gobbies are. Their irreverent attitude is a welcome break from all the seriousness and drama going on in Azeroth. Sometimes it is nice just to get in game and blow stuff up for an hour or two. Their racials are really useful to noobs too. Rocket barrage is a nice opener on bosses and named guys when leveling while the bank summon is nice since you start with very little bag space. The dances are awesome and their voice clips are pretty funny. Besides, why would anyone want to open cages and catch chickens with their hands when you can just attach rockets to it and shoot it in the air. Hell it gets the job done and looks way cooler.
Roy Inverse Mar 6th 2011 11:36AM
Am i happy with the new races?
I am with the goblins, i loved the starting area, was a little sad that i couldnt play with my friends until later on and i was underlvled by the time we got on the same phase, but the isles are sooo big, soo cool, we fight in lots of vehicles, we have a car, we get a jet pack ffs!!, i loved the area, and it gave me my first female toon that gets past lvl 10. Happy overall.
Also i think im happy with the worgen reading the comments up until now, since alliance got what they deserved, a dissapointment :D.
Dreyja Mar 6th 2011 5:16PM
Yes because disappointing the entire other faction, out of two, will be REALLY good for the game, overall. /eyeroll
Chops Mar 6th 2011 8:01PM
Goblins were never gonna be my kind of thing but overall very happy with the worgen, they're really cool and are the ''monster race' for the alliance that some people wanted dranei to be (not that I don't love dranei, my main is one).
I even like the casting animations and think they're nice and dramatic. And I don't mind the sniffing.
My one issue is the running wild animation, its great at lvl 20 speed, but it's just to fast at lvl 40, I can't see it! If blizz would just slow it down a bit I'd be happy
Marc Mar 6th 2011 11:49AM
WTB Dragonkin and Naga for the next expac! :D
Sky Mar 6th 2011 11:56AM
Worgens have become the Blood Elves of the alliance. If you go to Stormwind you'll see that probably 50% of everyone there are worgen. And like Blood elves, 95% of female worgens are actually male. I really like the worgens and all but I also like diversity in race choice and not just everyone and their grandmother picking the 'cool' race.
SamLowry Mar 6th 2011 11:58AM
...and they're female because, like nelfs, the males look hideous.
(so sayeth a male playing a female worgen)
Sky Mar 6th 2011 12:03PM
I agree with you that I would never play a Human male or a Night Elf male but I disagree with your assessment of Worgen males. Worgen males are one of the coolest males in Alliance (second only to draenei males and is on the same level as dwarf males). Also, there is nothing manlier than being a bad ass wolf wrecking orcs and taurens. Which is why I don't get the fascination with worgen females. Furries maybe?
Sukugaru Mar 6th 2011 5:27PM
Speaking as one of those males who plays a lot of female characters - usually because the male model of the race looks terrible or far too macho... my worgen character is male. Because eventually I just couldn't stand the female worgen model and voice anymore, and much prefer the male one. My male worgen might be overly muscled, with an extremely exaggerated V-shape to his upper body, but for some reason the "far too macho" look actually works for me this time.
Schadenfreude Mar 6th 2011 11:58AM
Female worgen are just horrifying. I quite enjoyed the goblin starting zone.
klashby Mar 6th 2011 3:58PM
I'm normally a horde player but I loved the idea of a worgen so I played through the starting area. I found the story line and the atmosphere to be the best starting area in the game but I dropped him as soon as the landed in Darkshore. Then I rolled up a goblin rogue and found the starting area to be incredibly silly and dull but overall I've enjoyed the character and have him up to 80.
Murdertime Mar 6th 2011 12:25PM
I'm actually quite fond of the design for both the races. Dapper werewolves are nifty, though I lost interest in my Worgen after I hit the outlands, and Goblins have some gorgeous animation.
I think the issue with the Worgen is, because like the Draenei they feel a little bit 'Well, we added a Horde thing so I guess we better add an alliance thing,' So you end up with these blue guys and dog men peppered throughout the quest zones and feeling kind of awkward because they've been shoehorned in there with their lore kinda shifted and nicened up to remove most of the interesting things about them to the point where they might as well be humans. So they're there. And they can do stuff. But you're not going to see them much after this expansion.
Which is kind of my issue between the Goblin and Worgen starting zones. The Goblin starting zones are an adventure. You've got a crew of people with actual personalities populating the zone. You go around having adventures and doing wacky things and battling a scheming nemesis on jungle islands and coool goblin cities and being a big damn hero and at the end, you get a big party where everyone cheers you.
As a worgen you're in yet another forest. Doing what amounts to the same damn thing you do in every zone. There's no sense of protagnism. You're not Max Worgen, Tormented Shapeshifter. You're Max Worgen, Generic Adventurer. There's no sense of adventure or atmosphere and everything feels kind of rushed. Even getting your curse under control felt a little...meh. At the end, you don't even get a party.
If we're comparing the Worgen starting zone with the other starting zones, it's really good. If we're comparing it with the Goblin one though, it feels more than a little thin.
KLRMNKY Mar 6th 2011 12:41PM
I too had high expectations for the worgen. Being able to play as those vicious wolfmen that were bane of my existence while leveling in Silverpine Forest? Sign me up. Then all the cool stuff about the worgen that they were talking about at Blizzcon? Great, let's do this!
Then Cata dropped and so did my expectations of the worgen....
They are just furry humans and night elf wannabes?? What happened to the vicious killers that we were told about in the lore? What's so cursed about being a worgen when you can just change back into a human, except in combat? Honestly, I felt that the worgen would've worked better if you couldn't change back into human. Now that would be cursed and you would get a race specific personality to go along with it.
Now they have no personality whatsoever, and they are more concerned about saving the forests then taking back their homeland, if that even gets mentioned. Besides the alarming lack of worgen NPCs in Cata, outside the starting zone. Take a worgen NPCs quest and exchange it with a human and night elve's and you don't notice the difference. For a group of people who were very proud of being Gilnean, independent, stubborn as a mule and technologically more advanced than the other humans, and now had the "feral" aspect, they really have just become another normal human or night elf. At least when you talk to a goblin NPC, you know that you are talking to a goblin and not a tauren or blood elf npc.
And the thing was I loved their starting zone. The ambience, the back against the wall, go down fighting spirit that really hit you. Then you get dropped off in Darkshore and the worgen story is never mentioned again and the worgen ambience disappears right with it.
Then I played as a goblin and you really felt like you were part of the Horde, not to mention that your story didn't stop as soon as you hit Azshara and got dropped off at Orgrimmar.
Worgen, like the Draenei, just don't seem like they are accepted members of the Alliance. It's a real "don't call us, we'll call you" aspect that really breaks it for me.
It really felt like the worgen were done after the goblins, and they ended the worgen story so abrubtly because they wanted to rush Cata out for Dec 7th.
After changing some of my toons to worgen, I ended up changing them back. Racials aren't great, and if I'm going to play a furry human or night elf, I might as well play the real thing and not a carbon copy.