Project Lore

Before we had any confirmation at Blizzcon that Goblins and Worgens would be introduced as playable races in WoW Cataclysm, we had a plethora of speculation that that might be the case. If you recall, it all started with the discovery of four new textures for Hallow's End masks datamined from within the depths of Patch 3.2. Of course, later, new textures also were added (perhaps to throw us off the path, a successful tactic) for murlocs, Vrykul, ogres and naga.

But now, of course, information on the expansion has been confirmed, and I know I'm not the only one itching to play the new races for more than just a few-minute demo. So, what could be better than to pretend to play the new races as part of the fun of Hallow's End?

One of the things I was most looking forward to for the holiday this year was getting a chance to don one of those new masks while riding around on my Magic Broom. The original file names of the four masks found by Scrolls of Lore specifically include "Halloween" in them - for example "Helm_Mask_Halloween_WoF.blp" - so it's a reasonable conclusion that they're the same as the other masks for Hallow's End. But at least so far, the masks are nowhere to be found.

I wouldn't even mind adding to the difficulty of A Mask for All Occasions. We already have the near-impossible task of collecting 20 unique masks if you want the achievement. What's four more? Heck, even 12 more, if you include the other textures? Still impossible, but I'd be happy. And Trick-or-treating every single hour until I got one of those masks!

So, if the mask textures were added in 3.2, why aren't they in-game yet? Your answer may be simple - because Cataclysm isn't out yet, obviously. But we already know that worgen and goblins will be playable in Cataclysm. It seems, to me, that Blizzard could benefit from building up anticipation of the new expansion by adding the new masks.

Perhaps there's something still that we're not aware of. We still haven't seen any official artwork on the female worgen, so maybe that's still something developers want to keep a surprise. She could end up looking completely different from our first impressions of the mask image.

Whatever the case, I propose that the new masks be added, stat! Who's with me?