The Queue: I don't want to go outside anymore

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today.

It snowed and then it rained and then the rain froze and now it's slippery and I don't want to go outside no more and then I tried to go outside to buy food and almost fell and I don't want to go outside anymore.

Rob asked:

Why does Blizzard hate the new Alliance races? You just said it yourself, the Gilnean story disappears right away. I rolled a draenei back in BC because I can't play a character that isn't engulfed in lore, and as soon as that expansion ended, they too disappeared entirely. In Cataclysm, you do see some draenei, but it seems forced, as I can't imagine a draenei pirate captain like in Vash'jir. The only draenei I ever really see are Broken with the Earthen Ring, and the only worgen I see are running around Stormwind doing quests like me.

Blood elves and goblins, however, are everywhere.

I think it's less about how much Blizzard cares about the Alliance races and more that it just might be a different mindset to incorporate the worgen. The draenei had always felt out of place anywhere but Outland to me, but slowly and surely Blizzard has been adding in something for them to do.

Goblins and blood elves have very defined roles in Cataclysm . The goblins exist to strengthen the Horde in a very goblin-esque way -- slap in some crazy machinery, give them a little humor to work with, and you're good to go. The blood elves' role this time around is that of the Reliquary, the Horde version of the Explorer's League, set out to uncover the history and arcane treasures from all over Azeroth.

The worgen had one of the coolest purposes in the game ... for about 10 levels. The Worgen Liberation guys in Silverpine and Hillsbrad are awesome, and if you're a Forsaken, you get to see first hand how great of an adversary they are. Unlike the blood elves and goblins, however, the worgen realization took a nosedive after those excellent starting experiences and the sparse population of worgen around the world. Maybe we'll get further information and story in a later patch.

Krsnik asked:

So is there really any point to working on Gilnean reputation beyond counting towards the exalted reputation achievements?

It's only at friendly, but the tabard is pretty neat! It's also a free reputation for the achievements, yes.

Nero said:

I've never really been one for the lore, but having read The Shattering, I really enjoyed that part of Anduin's story. The book as a whole was not really that good, though.

I liked Anduin for one very specific reason: He's going to be the king his father couldn't be. I don't hate Varian as much as I did before, but his conflict always felt personal and that he just wanted to beat up orcs because they were there to beat up and were maybe mean to him once. Political conflicts between huge factions are so much more interesting and tension-filled than personal conflicts. Anduin can be a king who deals with the enemies of the Alliance as well as the Horde through a king's eyes diplomatically, as opposed to the built-up aggro of Varian. That's just my opinion, anyway. Anduin is just a more compelling character to me because of his potential.

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