Breakfast Topic: What about Gilneas?
by Matt Clerico 
Oct 14th 2011 at 8:00AM
I love Gilneas. I love the look of the zone, the ambiance, the music. I've leveled a number of Worgen alts (that I never plan on playing again) through the zone just to experience the storyline again. I've even run an Undead alt through early levels just to see the other side of the ending events.
What bothers me (and many others, I'm sure) is the fact that this fantastic zone is now phased out and empty. Presumably, the story of the zone isn't finished and may even see some closure by the time the current expansion's life cycle is over ... but what then? The most apparent answer is to make Gilneas City another Alliance capital city, but does the game really need a new dead urban center like Darnassus? Throughout the lifespan of World of Warcraft, players have asked for the ability to buy housing for their characters. Could an empty zone like Gilneas be good starting location for this kind of feature? Instead of a creating new world PVP location like Wintergrasp or Baradin Hold in the next expansion, could the ongoing struggle for the walled peninsula become the new focus of the war between factions (with all the associated rewards and daily quests)?
Now that Cataclysm has been out for a while, what can be done to make this zone a viable place to visit?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Shoikler Oct 14th 2011 8:03AM
Two words: Roller disco.
MusedMoose Oct 14th 2011 8:20AM
Not a chance, man. Don't you know that the Exodar is the one that should be a disco?
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/12/wow-moviewatch-exodar-disco/
^_^
Noyou Oct 14th 2011 11:41AM
Exodar or even Ironforge would make a good Roller Disco. Exodar would be cooler because of it's colorful nature but both would have areas you could force opponents into some compromising positions. Let's make this happen people.
Revnah Oct 14th 2011 8:07AM
(This'll be long-isgh. Bear with me, I promise I'll get to the point)
I believe Blizzard's decision to stop Dalaran from being "THE" hub by removing the portals was a good idea but they went about it the wrong way. Instead of Dalaran, we now have Stormwind respectively Orgrimmar as "THE" hubs. When Dalaran still had portals, I went to different cities just to experience their flavour, in order to do my banking and auctioning. That option is gone now.
The best thing imho would be if all capital cities could have portals to the Cata zones. Then we'd have a true choice again as to where we place our hearthstones. When every city has portals, maybe traffic will be less centralised in SW and Org. And then we could add Gilneas and Gnomeregan, Darkspear Isle and maybe one day Kezan, to the capital cities, each furnished with banks and auction house and, ya know, all mod cons ;-)
Hrothgar Oct 14th 2011 9:41AM
I too would like to be able to visit all the capital cities in a more convenient manner. So, how about once you hit level cap for a continent/expansion, all the flight points added on that continent/in that xpac become portals?
You're in Stormwind and you want to head over to Exodar for the trick or treats, you go visit the flight point and zoom, zap, zowie, you're there. If you haven't hit level 60 yet, you have to travel the old fashioned way.
Hrothgar Oct 14th 2011 9:43AM
Or, even better... Once you have explored a continent, all the flight points in that continent become portals. Then once you have your Explorer title, all the continents are linked by portals from the major cities.
Hoofio Oct 14th 2011 10:09AM
Blizz won't do this because they want to concentrate as many online players in one place to give the feel of a busy server. This is why they had the sanctuarys of Shattrath and Dalaran and is why they've made SW and Org the central hubs.
What they'll do in the next expansion is what interests me ... I suspect they'll stick with SW and Org with portals to new zones only.
Noyou Oct 14th 2011 11:56AM
There will always be a place where 80% of the people gather. Even when you had portals in Dalaran and Shatt, you still had the vast majority of people in SW and Org. Putting the portals back would thin things out to the tune of 10-20% max. Would 10-20% be good? You are damn right. Another thing they missed on was letting us do the cooking and fishing dailies in all cities. another 2 points in fishing and 2 tokens in cooking is going to break the game? If that is the sticking point, then only allow you to get the points once. Right now I have 3-4 toons still in IF from brewfest. If there were JC dailies there and a portal to Hyjal, I think all my toons would be there. LIke Revnah I used to stay mostly in IF but had my hearth in Dalaran or Shatt for quicker travel.
Coconutpete1 Oct 14th 2011 12:03PM
All capital cities have portals to all other cities. They are called Mages
avgjoe Oct 14th 2011 3:12PM
hoofio, blizz has already said they dont want to concentrate player population in ine citt. not only that but they havr made steps in the opposite direction.
Abbadon Oct 14th 2011 8:12AM
While it's been on my "to do" list ever since Cata was announced, I have yet to play through either of the new starting zones...
Daedalus Oct 14th 2011 8:44AM
I can't recommend both highly enough.
I'm pretty much straight alliance, but I have to give a tiny edge to the goblin zone; the combination of humor and pathos really worked for me.
However, Gilneas is epic as well.
Neither takes very long, so some time you have a couple hours free, definitely give one or both a shot; you won't regret it.
Amaxe Oct 14th 2011 10:42AM
"I can't recommend both highly enough."
Drop the "enough" and I'd agree with you.
/duck
Noyou Oct 14th 2011 12:05PM
Like with anything you pay for, you should try to get the most for your money. They are both well done, personal feelings aside, and worthy of the time you will spend there.
Aids Oct 14th 2011 12:38PM
@Noyou
You assume everyone has no problems with SW and org. I have a big problem, in that logging into WoW in SW, without fail, takes 5+ minutes on my shitty computer. It usually takes another three or so to get to the Cataclysm zone portals. I keep my alts in different cities to avoid this, but my main needs to use those portals, so I'm stuck with a massive waiting time because I *must* be in the same city that everyone else and their dog *must* also be in.
Transit Oct 14th 2011 8:14AM
Player housing?! Sure! The horde would love to build houses in a captured alliance city!
But seriously....
The zone cannot be a new capital city as then the Horde would need another Cap city as well.
The alliance (or horde) cannot capture the area as the battleground for that area will not make sense. And what is the point of a world pvp zone of an area that is already a battleground.
And the horde cannot actually capture it because that will just drive the alliance players nuts.
Also what would the story line of the worgen be if they did recapture it? Looking at their history would the worgen continue to stay in the alliance? Would wrynn kick the worgen out of Stormwind?
The driving force of the worgen being in the alliance IS that they cannot go back to their home city. Giving them the city back would take away a lot of their "steam" story wise so to speak.
MattKrotzer Oct 14th 2011 8:30AM
Have you seen how their story plays out, Alliance-side? That sort of takes the steam out of it all on it's own.
"Get on a boat. Look back at Gilneas. Now back at me. Now back at Darnassus. You're a night elf. I'm on a horse."
Sintraedrien Oct 14th 2011 8:31AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2nnKSqUHf4
Worgen of Stormwind!
Sintra E'Drien of the Ebon Blade né Sindorei ("Worgen hard?")
wow Oct 14th 2011 8:41AM
Speaking as someone who loved the Worgen storyline, but hated where it left off, I see many possibilities for Blizz on what to do the the Gilneas Zone. In the next expansion, they can do phased questing to retake Gilneas and even have the Gobs take The Lost Isle's and Kezan back. They would do it with the help of their respective factions. So the Worgen and the Goblins would remain part of their factions.
For Gilneas I see a lot of storyarcs involving Sylvannas Windrunner and her Forsaken even after the Worgen recapture their homeland. I would love to see an Alliance Capital City that far North in the EK. Since the Worgen can't be raise as Forsaken (I think this is true. Someone please correct me if I am wrong here.) they would be good soldiers to fight them.
So I guess what I am saying is, sorry for this long post, is that the Horde would already have a new Cap City, The Goblin areas and the Worgen can slowly recapture Gilneas through phasing, just as we had to phase as a starting area.
Since playing both sides of the storyline, I still roll alts just to play the starting areas. :) My Forsaken Hunter shows respect to Sylvannas everytime she sees her. Now, my Worgen alts, would sooner spit on her grave, but it makes for good a story. Revenge, betrayal, love, fighting, trash talking. Always happens.
Shinanji
Didax Oct 14th 2011 8:43AM
...or hardly Worgen?