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All the World's a Stage: Something to remember me by
All the World's a Stage is a column for creative minds, playing with roles every Sunday evening.The best characters in novels and movies often leap into your mind from the moment you first see them -- something they say or do sets them apart and captures your interest, and from that time on, you're hooked. Likewise, when we roleplay, our characters should always have some memorable trait which can hook other people's interest. Too often, I see roleplayers focusing too much on dark secrets that they only reveal to their closest friends, and neglecting those mannerisms which could give everyone they meet an instant and profound impression of their character. Of course, if some people prefer to roleplay this way, that's fine. But to my mind, roleplaying is best when it avoids cliquishness, and the best roleplayers are those whose characters stay with you, even if you never see them again. When I'm creating my own characters, I think of such memorable traits as "gimmicks," but that word usually has a negative connotation that doesn't apply in this case. For now, the best word I can think of is "quirk." It's an instantly recognizable pattern of behavior or speech that can let others know who your character is right away. Below you will find some of my favorite quirks I have seen people use in their roleplaying in WoW, each of them entertaining and inspiring it its own way.
Fired for a screenshot
Reader Marc sent us this story of why he got fired-- just by reading it you can tell that there were probably other things going on the workplace, and the good news is that he sounds like he's better off looking for another job, but basically there was a misunderstanding at work, and as a result he was sent home for a half day. And to show his (sarcastic) thanks, he emailed back the screenshot above of his Tauren hanging around a node in AB, complete with MS Paint-ed gratitude to his co-workers and boss.Of course, as you might expect, the next time he showed up at work, they asked him to pack his things and go (apparently, even though one of his managers was impressed with his HP, they considered the screenshot sending the last nail in the coffin).We can't exactly advise anyone to quit their job to play WoW, but in this case, Marc sounds like he was on his way out the door anyway. Here's hoping you land on your feet and find a job where they appreciate you, bud.
Skinning Tauren for leather
We've definitely had this conversation before, but Bhou on the EU forums brings it up yet again: why don't we treat the various races like they, y'know, are those various races? He asks why we can't skin Taurens for leather, but that brings up all the other race issues in Azeroth. Why aren't Undead immune to fear? Why aren't Gnomes tameable? Oh wait, that last one might not be right (though it would be funny).But besides the game balance problems, the fact is that the racial abilities are about as well-represented as they're going to get (and in fact, if there are any changes in the future, they'll probably be towards conformity rather than radically away from it). You can't skin Tauren because, guess what, they're humanoids. Undead can't be immune because guess what, they're humanoids, too, and while a weakness to holy spells might make the game interesting, it won't help towards balance.The Warcraft world is a mean one, but would the Alliance really go so far as to skin fallen Taurens on the battlefield anyway? For game balance or for lore reasons, it just doesn't make sense.
Christmas gifts for your Second Life resident
Oh Gods of Yummy Things ... it's that time of year again, isn't it? Love it or loathe it, it's Christmas trotting toward you, antlered head held high and the glint of consumer-related malice in its eye. Regardless of your personal belief system, chances are you'll have to buy at least one gift for someone simply because it's traditional. Well, if that someone also happens to be a Second Life resident, then let this post help you in deciding what to get someone who has everything -- virtually.The Casual/Work AcquaintanceMaybe you have a supervisor or boss that spends time in SL, but you don't know their tastes well enough to know what they'd like as a gift (and consequently feel warm and fuzzy toward you enough to give you a raise). I suggest one of the fine guides to Second Life to be had on Amazon.com. In fact, one of them was co-authored by Our Aimee Weber! And if you can't trust a Massively blogger, who can you trust?
Tauren cat form updated a little in patch 2.3
We just talked about this issue in Shifting Perspectives a week ago, but it appears Blizzard is already doing something about the tauren cat form -- albeit not very much. Many tauren have long complained that their cat form is much uglier than the night elf version (compare for yourself here), and while these changes aren't comprehensive, at least they're a tiny step in a new direction. Beaux on the US forums showed everyone how, in patch 2.3, Blizzard has modified the tauren cat form's face to look more like a lion and less like a monkey, and changed the neck of the lion so that it doesn't look so hunchbacked as it moves. It's not as pretty as the tauren cat form suggestion submitted in Blizzard's art contest, but it'll do for now I would think.[Update]: Our reader tmklein supplied us with some interesting links for what the EU player Andrige thought the various forms should look like -- all with a distinct visual style. Would you like this sort of change? Dire Bear Forms Worgen Forms (to replace cat form? I don't know about this one...) Travel Forms
/silly: The tension is mounting
You know, this strip is called /silly, and it's the one dedicated place here on WoW Insider where you don't have to worry about the weight of the world (of Warcraft), but I dont think this guy pictured above is enjoying himself in the slightest. If looks could kill, poor Mr. Tauren would probably cause a very slow and painful death to anyone who met his gaze, like being run over by a steamroller or being nibbled to death by ravenous toothless kittens. I can't really blame him for being miserable, though. The WoW Dev Team in the fictional alternate dimension he is stuck in seem to have it out for his entire race. Click the image above to find out what I'm talking about. For those who weren't around during the original Beta, here is a little bit more info about what you missed. Don't worry, we wont hold it against you. (Slacker :P)
Shifting Perspectives: The same old animal posterior
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by Dan O'Halloran and David Bowers.Some people say that Blizzard is lazy. Players tend to start voicing this sort of opinion when it seems like Blizzard hasn't done something they think should have been done a long time earlier, such as adding new dungeons they won't visit, or new features they won't use. Sometimes there's just one particular thing that grates and grates on the players' nerves so much that they simply cannot understand why Blizzard hasn't done anything about it yet.Even I have been guilty of this sort of thinking now and then. But ultimately, it becomes apparent that, whatever the status of Blizzard's list of flaws -- laziness is not one of them. Indeed, we simply do not realize the massive extent of work that is required to achieve some things, especially the things we don't personally desire, and therefore fail to give credit for hard work done where we don't realize such credit is due.The topic at hand today is a prime example of such a problem, a druid pet peeve which has gone on for a long long time. Exhibit A, above, is the Tauren Cat Form, or rather, what some of us might wish the Tauren Cat Form looked like -- a player's own suggestion submitted in Blizzard's own art contest of 2007. The Tauren Cat Form that Horde druids have been seeing since 2004 is pictured to the left here in Exhibit B [Update: Tauren cat form has been slightly updated in patch 2.3]. Whether or not Exhibit A is the perfect replacement for Exhibit B can be left up to the good judgment of the reader, but for the purposes of this article, it is sufficient for us if we all agree that something must eventually be done about the feral druid's monotonous appearance problem. That's to say -- we tire of staring at the Same Old Animal Posterior (or SOAP).
Oxhorn talks to the Alliance Herald
We've covered interviews before, and there was even an interview with a Death Knight recently on the World of Warcraft website. But I haven't in recent memory been able to recall an interview with a Tauren, especially not one who is also a movie star. So when I saw that Oxhorn, actor, producer, composer and all around swell cow was interviewed by the Alliance Herald, I admit more than the usual excitement. Maybe I'm more of a fan than I let on. We learned through the Alliance Herald's questions that Oxhorn is both an only child and an orphan. Apparently there seems to be some hints that the elves had something to do with his current familial situation, but no real details were given. Oxhorn spends his days in Kalimdor, mostly roaming Mulgore and Orgrimmar, and has yet to set foot in Outland.
Breakfast Topic: Resemblance
Just a quick question this morning, from Indigo on Livejournal: if you compared the way you look in real life to a WoW race, what would you be? Indigo would be a Female Dwarf, and I'm sure lots of people would be human. Who would be a Tauren? Actually, now that I think about it, Samwise Didier, lead singer of Blizzard's L70ETC, would be a pretty good Tauren. But only because Pandaren aren't in the game yet.No doubts here-- I'd be an Ogre. Just the one head, but considering my height and size, you can call me High King Mike. I can definitely break out the dance, though, at a moment's notice.
Gronn sculpture in progress from the EU forums
Varedis of EU Draenor is working on what looks like a neat clay Gronn sculpture, and while it's still a work in progress, he's posting pics of it over on the forums. Did you know the Gronn were Ogre demigods? I had no idea. But isn't there a Mountain Gronn killing Ogres in Nagrand? Looks like there's another lore line that dropped through the cracks.Anyway, what Varedis has so far looks pretty good-- you can see how the clay gets modeled around a metal frame, shaped into the basic pose, and then each body part is fleshed out and shaped. So far all he's got is a right hand, it seems, but what's there looks good.He's also working on a Tauren sculpture (concurrently, I guess), which also looks pretty good. Very good start, can't wait to see how the whole thing comes out.
What class can't you play?
For me, it's rogues, hands down. I have alts of pretty much every other class, some more advanced than others, but no matter what I do, if I try and get a rogue above level six it's usually a disaster. Everyone tells me that rogues are the easiest class to play, but I'm not seeing it. How is managing stealth, figuring out how to get behind pathing targets to unleash attacks, and managing combo points easy? I even tried to play one of the level 70 uberrogues from the PTR, but that didn't go any better because (big surprise) I didn't have any idea what I was doing.I just don't get rogues. I don't get that when they talk about specs they're usually talking about what weapons to use instead of what talents they've picked half the time. I don't get that they're expected to do the most melee damage, that flies in the face of my gamer geek experience from years of tabletop play. I don't get how to use stealth propery, I don't understand how to stunlock. I'm just a hopeless case as a rogue. It doesn't help that Tauren, my second favorite race and my favorite horde side, can't be rogues.I'd personally and with great glee batter my head against the class if I could be a stealthy manbull. And don't tell me to roll a druid, I have one of those, it's just not the same. I have rolled Night Elf, Blood Elf, Human, Orc, Troll, Undead, and Gnome rogues. It always ends the same, with a dead rogue in some zone that I never go back to again. I think I left my highest level rogue dead in the Shimmering Flats.Come to think of it, my favorite alliance race and indeed my favorite race, can't play rogues either. No stealthy Draenei for me. As far as I'm concerned rogues are the hardest class to play. I'd play a Mage, a Warlock, anything else and do a lot better than I will on a rogue. It takes a skill set I don't seem to possess.Any class just totally elude you? Either because of personal preference, playstyle, or a frank and baffling inability?
The Great WoW Insider Stormwind Stampede
This was the scene last night on the Horde side of Zangarmarsh, as WoW Insider's It Came from the Blog made bovine history and ran roughly 500 cows from Mulgore to Stormwind. Amidst shouts of "For the Herd!" and "Moooo," hundreds of level one Taurens appeared in Camp Narache -- blue shirts were premade by our own Krystalle and given out to the guildies that showed up, but first we ran out of shirts, and then we ran out of guild invites as we hit the system limit. Last I heard we had eight raid groups going, we had taken over one Ventrilo server, tons of guilds from both Zangarmarsh and other realms (including those down for maintenance) got involved, and at least a few thousand yells went out across the land. Finally, at 8pm server, Krystalle counted us down and the race began.We stuck to the road for a good thirty seconds, but eventually got split up in the Barrens-- we'd planned to all go on the Zep, but another group (including me), split off to take the boat from Ratchet. In Stranglethorn, many burgers were made-- I stuck to the center of the group and watched cows get downed by tigers left and right. I didn't die until Westfall, when stupid human guards on the road decided to one-shot me.Finally, at Stormwind, the scene was chaos-- cows dead everywhere, as stepping inside an Alliance city, even on a PvE server, flags you. People were AoEing on the Stormwind bridge, and even just inside the city, guards were felling cows left and right. A few people made it to the tram (unfortunately, the closest graveyard useable by Horde is all the way at the Eastvale Logging Camp, so it was a long run back), but we heard that the first person to find our Alliance plant, Insiderspy, and blow her a kiss, was Fiverr, our winner. Fiverr gets exactly what everyone else got, though-- a great time. Here's a gallery of what happened (updated as we add more and more photos to it), and we'll put more videos after the break as we find and hear about them. Thanks to everyone who came out! For the Herd!*edited to add* Another video is available after the jump!%Gallery-5943%
Shifting Perspectives: If you were a druid, what would your life be like?
Druids have some of the best lore in the Warcraft universe. Unlike any other class, this lore is often a binding area of common ground between Alliance and Horde druids, and many druids say that they will help each other regardless of their faction. Certainly this is partly because the Cenarion Circle is the official druid organization in which both tauren and night elves work together peacefully, but also this has to do with the spirit of loving nature -- a sense we bring from our real life experience that nature requires her champions to put aside other differences in order to keep the balance. Many of us who play druids in the game share a genuine concern for the environment of the earth, and the symbols used for druids in the game have a real meaning to us. I'm a roleplayer, so learning background information about druid lore and visualizing what my character's life might have been life is useful to me. But for any player, whether you roleplay or not, it can help you get a more immersive feeling out of your game if you can really imagine yourself in your character's skin,... or fur, as the case may be. So, if you were a druid in Azeroth, what would your life be like? The one certainty would be that a strong connection to nature would have been your primary concern from a very young age, whether as a night elf or as a tauren, but your path to becoming a druid would have been very different depending on which race you were, with great changes coming to you and your people in the very recent past.
WoW Moviewatch: The Murloc
Behold, the ultimate battle between Tauren-kind and Murloc-kind. Of course, anyone who's ever had to fight a Murloc probably has a good idea of how this is going to end. (You'd think a Shaman of as high level as his equipment suggests would know better than to pick this fight!) After all, Murlocs are clever and devious -- and they ride in single file to hide their numbers.Previously on Moviewatch...
Breakfast Topic: Is WoW science fiction?
Yesterday we talked about similarities between World of Warcraft and other fantasy franchises. Commenting on that post, Baluki noted that "Warcraft is also somewhat unique in mixing some sci-fi elements into its fantasy universe." But not everyone thinks that's a good thing: back around the time that Burning Crusade previews were coming out, the draenei and the naaru caused quite a bit of stir among lore fans who felt that "space pallies" and "interdimensional ships" like Tempest Keep were going too far.One poster to the forums linked to this screenshot and said, "When did this turn into a friggin space game... Draenei, Exodar... hell this battleground feels more like UT Facing Worlds map than an RPG..." Drysc replied: "I believe you may be creating your own idea of what Warcraft is and has been, while it's been anything but a traditional medieval fantasy setting. The lore and history is full of interstellar travel and themes one may consider 'sci-fi'. There are warp gates that link various worlds together, planets blowing up, space traveling demons who enslave entire planets, inter dimensional ships, time travel, etc. "You say '[this] feels more like UT Facing Worlds map than an RPG... ', when RPG simply stands for Roleplaying Game. Warcraft has and always will be beyond a singular tolkienesque world, and I think those who know and understand the lore and history are more apt to recognize and accept how the story is progressing as 'clearly Warcraft'."What do you think? Are the "sci-fi" elements minimal enough that WoW still doesn't count as "science fiction" or even "science fantasy?" Or do World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade launch the lore off the Tolkienenque fantasy homeworld and into the anomalous nebulae of Stargate, Alien, or even Transformers? Personally, I think WoW gets the balance right -- I'm happy to see some creative mixing of different themes that breaks the traditional fantasy molds. I'd like to see more sci-fi elements in future expansions too, though I doubt that's likely. WTB more WoW Lightsabers!
Religion in Azeroth: Why God is Alliance
We got into a guild discussion the other day somehow about whether God is Horde or Alliance. There is never any rhyme of reason to why you discuss such things, but how about it? What do you think about the off-the-wall subject?I personally think God is Alliance, because in the Bible it says God pwns the cows on a thousand hillsides (Psalm 50:9-11). If God pwns the cows (read: Tauren) on a thousand hills and all the animals in the forest (read: Horde), he is clearly Alliance and has pwned all of Elwynn too, doesn't it sound like it?No offense to the Horde, but I think this is definitive proof that God is Alliance, not that this makes you evil at all, just not on God's side. If you disagree, or can find evidence to the contrary, I'd love to hear it. Oh, and if you're wondering, I am Alliance too. A question for next time, which class would God play?NOTE: I also have Horde characters (Tauren in fact) which I play and like very much, so I am obviously kidding here. This is for the benefit of those of you who never got the EPIC drop of [A Sense of Humor]. Cheers!
WoW Future-Vision: Express train to the level cap
The year is 2012. WoW fans are excitedly awaiting the game's 5th expansion, Revenge of the Gnomes, which brings two new races to the game (Sporeggar and Goblins, at last!), as well as a new class (the Tinker), and a slew of other features. As everyone knows, this is the expansion where the gnomes finally take back Gnomeregan from the troggs, pushing them back all the way into the "Undergloom," a vast and ancient network of caverns beneath Azeroth. Of course, the gnomes also accidentally stumble upon the long-buried prison of the Old Gods and unleash unbridled havoc on the World of Warcraft, but that's where the fun is, right?I could go on and on about the new features included in Revenge of the Gnomes, but I'm sure you've heard about most of them already (like the subterranean hovercraft group-mounts and blue-pill, red-pill potions for alchemy). Suffice it to say that the feature everyone is most excited about is that the level cap is once again being raised another 10 levels, to a grand total of 110. Like everyone else, you're probably wondering how in the world (of Warcraft) are you going to level your new Goblin Tinker character all the way through those tedious levels of 1 to 100? Everyone wants to try out the new content, but no one wants to slave away through Stranglethorn Vale for the 48th time. To complicate things further, Blizzard still doesn't want to add any more 1-60 quests in the lower-level zones (not to mention any of the Outland, Northrend, Emerald Dream, or Great Sea Expansion zones)! Fortunately, though, Blizzard's got what you need! Are you prepared for the "/level" command?
Know Your Lore: Cairne Bloodhoof
If you ran the Azeroth orphanage quests Hordeside this past week, your orphan probably asked you for the autograph of "one of the greatest heroes the Horde has ever seen." But it's not Rexxar, Thrall or even the shifty Sylvanas. No, he wants to see the quiet, unassuming, elderly leader of the tauren -- Cairne Bloodhoof. And when we polled the members of It Came From The Blog last night, that's who they wanted to see in today's KYL. So, straight from the home office in Thunder Bluff, here's Cairne! Who: Cairne Bloodhoof, Tauren Grand Chief of the Confederated Tribes of the Tauren. What: Tauren, as you may have guessed. History: Not much is known about Cairne's early life. When he comes into the story of Warcraft, he was a fully grown tauren chieftain, leading the Bloodhoof Tribe by the shores of the Great Sea in the Barrens (kind of near Ratchet.) The Bloodhoofs had once been a happy, peaceful tribe, but lately they had been facing attacks from the local centaur. Plus, the centaur had been hunting the same animals the tauren had, leading to fierce competition for food. Cairne came up with a plan to relocate his tribe to Mulgore, but he knew the centaur would wipe them out as they crossed the Barrens. So they were kind of stuck. Then one day, Cairne noticed some weird, green-skinned creatures fighting off a band of centaurs. Intrigued, he took two other tauren and approached the leader of the "greenskins." He told the new creature that they fought with savagery and valor. The greenskin told Cairne that he was Thrall, and his people were called the orcs. Thrall said that the orcs had come to Kalimdor to seek their destiny. Cairne told him that there was an oracle in the north that might help him, and Thrall casually noted that he'd noticed a big centaur army heading that way. Cairne wisely freaked out at this, and the two heroes formed up an army and headed off to fight the man-horses.
WoW Moviewatch: So that's where that dance came from!
We've all seen the videos of different dances. We've had ones where they all dance together, ones where the original source is cited. We've even seen video of a guy dancing like a Night Elf Female. Now we have another dance movie. There's one thing about this one that sets it apart, however. This is the first one I've seen that does a really good job of putting the dances side-by-side with their inspirations. As Bowzerblack on the WoW LJ said: "I didn't know that about ogres!" All I can say is that I didn't either. And yes, I know it's the Boomkin dance too, but you don't see a lot of (completely-bare) topless Boomkins running about. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing.Previously, on MovieWatch...[via the WoW LJ community]
Uber apron and other WoW crafts
Alice from Wonderland posted this great apron Craftster dishwasher182 (I guess we know what she does after the pizza is eaten) made for her significant other for Valentine's Day. That's a great on-equip buff. Too bad it's soulbound, though-- if you want one, I guess you'll have to make your own custom printed iron-on. And bonus points to another Craftster for pointing out that the apron itself is in fact a blue item. Ha!There's also this knitted Tauren hat, which looks great, but I can't quite see how it's supposed to be worn. How can you see wearing it with that big bullsnout hanging in your face? Also Tauren-related, this hilarious sketch currently for sale on Etsy. And there's also these handmade (not by the same Alice, though) Ankh earrings-- perfect for the shaman in your life who occasionally needs some resurrecting (see #5 in the description).It's probably because I have no craftmaking talent whatsoever, but all this great fanmade craft stuff continues to amaze me. Keep up the good work, guys.
