Project Lore

All right, it's time to get down to business. We've seen a little gameplay footage of the Goblin and Worgen. We've read first-hand accounts on how each new race plays. We know that Goblins like to blow stuff up and Worgens are still shrouded in mystery. But what real crux of the conversation are we all missing? It must be that we don't know what either new Cataclysm race will do for their /dance. After all, I think we learn a little bit more about what makes each race burn with passion inside by the way they shake it. Plus, with us recently learning that The Old Republic MMO also will have a /dance, Blizz has to step up to the plate again to proclaim its /dance supremacy. On the new Cataclysm forums, there have been a few threads speculating on what dance possibilities lie ahead for WoW. We've also had a few of dance suggestions here on our own forums and on previous Project Lore blog posts. I've taken some of the best suggestions I've seen, added a few of my own wild ideas, and put it all together for us to laugh, and perhaps, cry over. Let the show begin. Worgen male I had to start here, because I've seen so, so many people begging for the Worgen male to dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Now no matter what you think of the man, I think its undeniable that MJ was a dancing genius. But some may question whether "Thriller" is right for the Worgen. After all, the dancers in the videos are more like zombies, and the only wolf-like creature from the video doesn't actually do the dance. Plus, Blizzard could not secure the rights to Micael Jackson's "Billie Jean" for the BlizzCon dance contest, so I wonder if that might inhibit them from any sort of rights required to borrow another of his dances. Regardless, "Thriller" has been performed by inmates and movie stars alike. Perhaps male Worgen are destined to be next up. Another idea from the forums that I had to include, although I'm not so sure it would work. Perhaps for those of us who like to think of the Worgen as no more than cute puppy dogs. Here's the Snoopy dance: Worgen female Next up, the female Worgen, with another obvious but perhaps fitting suggestion. We still only have a loose guess of what the female version of the Worgen will even look like. But many forum posters are betting that she'd look good performing a dance inspired by Shakira's "She Wolf." While I like this option, I think it'd be fun to incorporate a lesser-known option (at least for those of us not from Asia). In the past, Blizzard has borrowed dances from French artist Alizee and Bhangra singer Daler Mehndi - so why not some Korean pop influence next? Here's the super-cute Girls' Generation performing "Gee." Goblin female I haven't seen too many suggestions yet for either male or female Goblin, so these are mostly my own ideas. Knowing the Goblins' stereotypical love of commerce and exchange, why not have the females dance to a song demanding a diamond ring? It's a great dance song with some neat moves, plus it's already been the inspiration for a WoW spoof song. Know what I'm suggesting yet? Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)." Here's a version that includes a preview of what could be the next BlizzCon dance contest. Beyonce not your cup of tea? Here's something a bit more classic. A scene from the movie "Flashdance." Goblin male Do Goblins already have a dance? Well that depends on whether you think this is enough for a full on /dance: If that's not satisfactory enough, I'll suggest an alternative: Soulja Boy's "Superman" dance. The little green Goblins would look fantastic pulling this one off. One final suggestion that I've seen thrown around a ton on the forums should not be taken lightly. This goofy, crazy, seizure-inducing meme could be inspiration for the Goblin male, or really, any of the new characters. Here's some Caramelldansen: Well, there's your list folks. What are your fave options? Did I leave something out that you think would work better? Let me know. This post will serve as a good running list of possibilities - so we can see if any of us predicted correctly once Cataclysm is released!

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. Welcome to the first edition of Blue Stew! We know that trying to find anything useful on the official forums can be a lot like tip-toe-ing through a minefield, but if you look a little harder, you can find some surprisingly useful information from the development team and various Community Managers (collectively known as "Blues," due to their specially-colored text). The goal of this column is to provide you with the highlights each day, as well as our own brand of commentary on the subjects at hand where appropriate. Considering the nature of the beast, there might not always be a lot worth talking about. But since this is our virgin voyage, why don't we go ahead, crack the bottle on the bow of the ship, and get this thing sailing?

• First up is an inquiry from transmogrification fetishist and part-time Druid, Saberclaw, who idly wonders why Goblins don't get to transform in the same way that Worgen do? Maybe it has something to do with our fuzzy, were-wolf bretheren being the only race with a reason to change the way they look? He quickly recoils from his stupidly outlandish thread title, stating that he was really just trying to ask whether or not we'd get to pick from various goblin types at the outset. Wryxian was kind enough to step up to the plate, stating that while the playable Goblins aren't as vastly different from their current in-game counterparts (as opposed to the Draenei, when they were introduced), you can expect them to be more than just another "standard green short guy." And I have to agree. Just looking at the picture to the right, you can tell that this particular set of Goblins has been bred and prepared for combat. There's something leaner and meaner about them. Something that says they'd rather drain your blood than your bank account. I don't know if it calls for drastic changes to the race, but I bet they'll be a lot more expressive and interesting than your average, "time is money, friend" NPC.
• Axelhander, when he's not busy squishing grapes between his toes, spends his spare time correcting the development team on their flawed game design.  Today, he called out Kalgan (a.k.a. Lead Game Designer, Tom Chilton) on some comments he'd made in a locked thread about the nature of Rated Battlegrounds. His major beef? Why, as a primarily solo player, is he being locked out of the best gear able to be obtained through the new rating system? Kalgan already addressed this issue in the previous thread, stating that the reason they didn't want to allow single players to queue and participate in the rated Battlegrounds was because it would be too easy and convenient for them to game the system by afk-ing. The natural assumption would be that, as a part of a group, any individual player would have more incentive to perform at their best. After all, think of it like an Arena group: a member that just sits there while his comrades do all the work (or, more likely, get slaughtered) isn't going to be on the team much longer. Kalgan adds that the current design philosophy for end-game PvE content is to reward organization, and that they'd they like to do the same with PvP: "I understand that you're expressing a philosophical disagreement as to whether rewarding for organizational effort and coordination is the right approach for the game, but I'm not sure why the expectation would be that we'd do that in battlegrounds when we don't do that in pve. You certainly can't 'get gear on par with the game's best' by doing solo daily quests either." Hey, I like to solo as much as the next guy. When I level a new alt, I almost never team up with anybody until I hit the level cap, but what's the use in rewarding someone the finest gear in the game if they don't care to engage in the level of content that requires it?
• Zomber had to put on his "smart" glasses for this one. He asks: What's going to happen to the Argent Tournament when Cataclysm hits? Will it simply become another Quel'Danas, a once-major hub of end-game activity reduced to obsolescence by new content? Or will the event end once the crusade against the Lich King does? Zomber then expanded his query to incorporate other pockets of "dead" content in the game. The inimitable Bornakk answered the call, stating that since not everyone will own Cataclym right away, it makes sense to keep the Tournament, and areas like it, in the game. He also emphasized that it may stay in play longer than Quel'Danas did because it's currently one of the easiest and most convenient ways for a player to raise their reputation with their faction's major cities. Bornakk acknowledges how tricky managing this sort of ephemeral content is: "Generally speaking - spending a lot of time on new content and then making it end and disappear is not something we like to do and have to be very careful on when and how often we do it. We are changing some of the classic continents because they have been there for 5 years so we feel it's okay to change it around after all this time."

So that's it for the first edition of Blue Stew, which we will pick up starting again on Monday. I hope you were entertained, enlightened, or both. But it's clear that there are many ways in which we could improve this column. So, please, in addition to adding your thoughts on the content above, let us know how we might make it better! What sorts of issues should we focus on? How can we make it more interesting to read? The floor is yours, readers.

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Undeniably one of the best aspects of attending BlizzCon for us WoW fans was the chance to play the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm demo. Take a look here to see a little bit of gameplay on the new races, narrated a bit by me (don't mind the short little bit on Frostmourne while I was getting my camera set), and scroll down below for my thoughts! For both races’ demos, we start off with the level 5 characters in a bind. As iTZKooPA detailed, the Goblin has fainted and needs revival, while the Worgen has been taken hostage and faces an angry mob of humans who have him in a medieval pillory. But (surprise!) in both cases you regain control of the characters and move along to some pretty standard low-level quests of collecting shiny things hidden in the area around you and killing random creatures. The demo only allowed choosing either race as a male. We obviously have an idea of what the female Goblin will look like from released screenshots, artwork, and based on how they’ve appeared in the game thus far. But I am still incredibly curious about how the Worgen female will look. So far, the only thing we really have to base that on is the Worgen female mask found through data-mining, and who knows if that will even end up being an accurate picture when the game comes out. Another note on appearance: Goblins look downright mean. I scrolled through every available facial expression combination, and it seemed each was a varying level of permanent scowl. Granted, Goblins have a lot to be pissed off about right now, but can’t at least one version have a smile, or a smirk, even? Perhaps they’ll add one in before all is said and done. I guess I shouldn’t fret since I’ll roll female anyway! As for the Worgens – they all have pointy teeth, obviously, but they didn’t all look as angry. Perhaps all that fur makes them soft on the inside, too. Blizzard is also leaving plenty up to speculation, since the Cataclysm demo obviously was not the complete game. I mention this in the video as well, but another unknown is the dance that each race will perform (or any of their other emotes for that matter). One of the first thing I tried out while on both characters was a /dance, but to no avail. Only when the Worgen was in human form would he dance, and it was the usual Saturday Night Fever groove. The world map wouldn't zoom out beyond just the zone view, either, and based on panel discussions it sounds like they’re still working on the exact placement of new areas and how the post-Cataclysm map will appear. So other than seeing how the characters move, and what kind of quests they're up to at level 5, it's hard to glean too much from the gameplay. Regardless, it was still an awesome opportunity to get an up-close look at how the new races will play. So how are you guys feeling so far about what you've seen of gameplay? The video can be difficult to discern at parts -- some of the screens were too bright for my camera to handle -- but I hope you've enjoyed getting a bit of a sneak peek!

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The info just keeps on rolling in today. A week out from the rockstar event that is Blizzcon and we might have our first major leaks. Heartbourne has already clued us in on potential new class combinations, but our friends over at MMO-Champion seem to have found a whole lot more. Boubouille absolutely insists that none of this is speculation, and while I remain skeptical about his sources, his track record is proven. This is as close to gospel as we're going to get until we hear something officially official. So keep on reading to find out what we know (or think we know) so far. Be warned, though, spoilers are abound if you want to keep your sense of surprise. SPOILER WARNING Herein is a rough list of major content changes that we can expect to see in the next expansion:

• New Class Combinations - No new classes will be added to the game. Instead, existing races will be given access to classes that they never had before. It is currently unknown what classes will be available to the new races, however.
• New Level Cap - Surprisingly, it's only 85. This may fit in with a new philosophy of improving characters through gear instead of pure XP. Likewise, if the end-goal for WoW is 100, it leaves a little more space for successive expansions to grow.
• Azshara, Queen of the Naga The Cataclysm - This titular event, set in motion by Deathwing and Queen Azshara, will bring many changes to the existing content in the game, as well as open up several new ones.  Their motivations for unleashing such destruction upon the world may be in part due to those pesky insanity-inducing Old Gods.
• New Horde Race: Goblins - The Goblins have found their island home virtually destroyed by the events of the Cataclysm. Washing up on the shores of The Barrens, a quest line involving Thrall's capture (and subsequent rescue by the Goblin race) will explain how they ended up as the new consorts of the Horde. With their homeland gone, it's unclear whether or not we will get to visit Kezan, the island where the Goblin capital of Undermine exists.
• New Alliance Race: Worgen - The Greymane Wall, which separates Gilneas from Silverpine Forest, has been shattered by the Cataclysm. Bewildered from their self-imposed exile, the Worgen venture forth and find friends in the Alliance. It is unclear what the Goblin starting area may entail, but the Worgen will be receiving the Death Knight treatment. Gilneas will be a heavily-phased zone that will shuttle your character through the nation's history before unleashing them on the rest of Azeroth. Did I mention that Worgen do get to transform? That's right, you'll be able to shift from Human to Worgen at the click of a button, though we don't know if it will afford you any special abilities to do so.
• Azeroth Remade - Goblins and Worgen aren't the only ones who have felt the impact of this catastrophic event. Existing zones will be remade or phased in order to accommodate the current state of the world. The examples given include remaking Azshara into a 10-20 level area and splitting the Barrens into two distinct zones for players of different levels.
• New Areas - There will be no new continents introduced in the expansion, but instead, unreleased content in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms will finally be filled in. In addition to the aforementioned opening of Gilneas, you can also expect to see modern-day Hyjal and Uldum. These are only examples and do not represent the entire breadth of fresh content that will no doubt be introduced.
• Mainland Flight - Restructuring the two core continents has allowed Blizzard to add flight to those zones that never had it. Now you can ride all the way from the Plaguelands to Booty Bay on you very own flying mount. Presumably, you will still need to take a boat or zeppelin to go from one continent to the other.
• Dungeons Remade - Onyxia was only the beginning. This does not preclude the addition of new 5-man dungeons or raid content, but many of the old instances will be retrofitted for players progressing from Level 80-85. Reportedly, we'll also be seeing Ragnaros again. It is not known how extensive the changes will end up being (new bosses/new graphics or merely upgraded stats on mobs and items).

That's a lot to digest and I'm honestly eager to see how everything fits together. There are some controversial ideas in there, as well as changes that players have been clamoring for year after year. In fact, a lot of it sounds like the kind of stuff that Blizzard employees have wanted to implement themselves, but have repeatedly insisted they haven't been working on. Phasing, as I previously proposed, will play a large role in the recreation of mainland Azeroth (self high-five!). By treading this path, however, I'm afraid there is also the chance of alienating a certain portion of the  player base who see this as merely reusing old content. That may or may not be the case, and we may have to wait another week to find out. I think it really depends on how fresh the revamped content ends up feeling. Will the graphics of many areas be significantly improved or changed? Will the new quest lines make it worth adventuring through old zones? Is this the vanilla WoW that we always wanted? Or will the new Azeroth be a whole lot like the old Azeroth? A yet-to-be-confirmed post on the Something Awful forums indicated huge, sweeping changes for the landscape, though. Thousand Needles flooded, many zones in absolute ruins, Orgrimmar sundered in two (with the introduction of a new Orc main city). The forums are private, but the summary has be re-posted on MMO-Champion. I'm sure you all have a lot to say about these revelations, so feel free to strike up a conversation in our comments section. I know I'll be watching it closely!

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BlizzCon! Rumors incoming! With BlizzCon less than two weeks away there is no surprise that we are starting to see leaks and rumors. MMO-Champion had reported on the races first with their data mining showing new Halloween masks that featured Goblin and Worgen races (of both sexes) and then pixiestixy brought us news today that WoW.com confirmed this information with sources close to the company, and specifically that Goblin will be Horde and Worgen will be Alliance. To be quite honest, this news is a little underwhelming. This doesn't specifically add content outside of the starting zones and is quite a bit of work (all items have to be remodeled/skinned for these new races) for something that really doesn't ADD to the gameplay (argue all you want but it's merely a cosmetic upgrade). With the races apparently set in stone (we will know for sure at BlizzCon) I find that to be disappointing. The announcement of Blood Elves and Draenei had a much stronger impact because of the classes that you could use with those races, which were previously exclusive to the Horde (Shaman) and Alliance (Paladin). Blizzard really should make these races start out neutral (can't interact with any Alliance/Horde player characters) and either the actions you take through your questing will decide your faction at, say level 20, or you just flat out get to choose. With faction transfers incoming, this would seem to be a logical extension of that model and where Blizzard wants to make the game as accessible and varied as possible. This alongside the lore implications that both these races are (generally) faction nuetral. Based on past experience though I am inclined to believe that the new races are in the next expansion. We knew about Burning Crusade days before BlizzCon 2005 and BlizzCon 2007's announcement of Wrath of the Lich King was known a few days before as well. Funny though was that when I picked up my press badge that year they gave me a program guide with all the details about WotLK (which hadn't been officially announced) so that kind of killed the suspense of the opening ceremony but it was nice to see that the rumors were true. With BlizzCon so close I expect to see a lot more "rumors" pop up, at this point be skeptical of nearly everything from this point on and we will all know August 21st (and we hope to see you there!)! Let us know what you'd like to see related to the new races, do you think picking your faction in game (rather than associated race) would be a good idea? What kind of ideas do you have if they continue down this path of alternating race/class additions every other expansion?

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It may come as no surprise since we've been speculating on this for quite some time, but it seems that folks over at WoW.com have confirmed from "multiple sources close to the situation" that the next expansion will be World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and will include the Worgen and Goblin as playable races.

While Goblins have up until now remained neutral, with currency their only faction of choice, WoW.com reports that the Goblin will be playable for the Horde in the new expansion (Go Green!). We've already received a ton of feedback from our previous speculative posts on what the implications will be for having this wide-spread race specific to only one faction. What will happen to the neutral cities, such as Ratchet, where they are a mainstay? I suppose we'll find out with time - perhaps some of the Goblin NPCs will remain neutral, or maybe we'll see a major upheaval of some of those villages. It could make for some great new lore - not to mention the Great Sundering, which also should make for a fun expansion topic.

So that leaves the Worgen, who up until now have played a much smaller role than that of the Goblin. They apparently will be joining up with the Alliance. We've already seen a glimpse of what the female may look like through Halloween masks revealed a while back. Now it just makes me wonder if all the additional masks revealed later (murloc, Naga, plus already available playable races) may have just been added to throw us off the trail? Maybe they're just included because they inevitably will play a large role in an expansion about the Cataclysm. Or, perhaps we'll see a couple more playable races still (One can hope, right?).

All this is still very preliminary and I'll feel a lot better about the information once we've gotten some kind of official comment from Blizzard. But that likely won't come until BlizzCon - and hopefully we'll learn much, much more at that point. New playable races alone don't equal a full expansion, so I'm sure there will be plenty more to report on in the coming weeks. Until then, I'll be crossing my fingers that I will soon be able to play green!

What does everyone make of these leaks and the possible lore behind them? Would you play a Worgen or Goblin? How do you think Blizz will handle all the complications related to turning Goblins for the Horde?

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Just days after the hooplah surrounding the addition of Worgen and Goblin masks into the game as possible signs of new races in the theoretical expansion "Cataclysm", more masks have been discovered by MMO-Champion, seriously hindering the chances that any of these are going to be new races in the new expansion. The masks that have models in the game now includes all ten playable races, goblins, worgen, ogres, murlocs (!), naga, and vrykul. While two of these races could be playable in the next expansion, I doubt all of them will be. When Blood Elves and Draeni were announced as playable races in The Burning Crusade, everyone was very excited. New races and the introductions of paladins into the Horde and shamans into the Alliance was a huge change. Wrath introducing Death Knights was equally important; there had not been a new class added to the game since early beta. With the new expansion on the (distant) horizon, players are expecting a new playable race, and probably two (for each faction) at that. Blizzard has said that new playable races in the future will be familiar to us (contrary to the retconed Draeni in Burning Crusade), so expect lots of speculation. Pandareans are as good as retconed out at this point, so don't expect the to jump from obscurity to playable so soon. That leaves a lot of possibilities, and these masks may be some sign. As for the masks' actual role, I hope this is some sign of a revamped Hallow's End event. Blizzard added achievements for world events so that players would have incentives to experience the content they spent time and money developing, but players who already got all the achievements from last year would have little reason to participate in the festivities this year. With new masks, this may be a sign of new Hallow's End content and maybe even achievements! Or at least making A Mask for All Occasions doable. Would you re-roll one of these races? What if they started at, say, level 80 in their own starting areas in the new expansion?

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