Undying Loyalty in WoW

                             left: 1st WoW cinematic, feat. forsaken,
                 right: screenshot from Return of the
                 King feat. Undead Army.

I lied. I've never been unsure about them, I always thought they were poor choices for a playable race. Their popular appeal aside, their motivations have always been weak, and their leader, and those alliances always suspect. I've also never been particularly drawn to the character class: Warlock, but I will attribute that to my own prejudices.

Inherent in my dislike of them has always been a question of loyalties. Their own, and also in-game, or even the player-base as a whole.

1.) In the Warcraft universe, the Burning Legion and all its affiliated demons are the cause of countless worlds' destruction, and untold loss of life. Inclusive in this category are the Forsaken.

2.) All Forsaken used to be human, and supposedly all have their own free will. All supposedly now hate the living-humans. Not the orcs, not the remaining highborne elves. Just humans?

3.) Some (or all) retain some degree, if not all of their past memories, and some even have living relatives.

4.) They appear to almost worship their leader as a deity, who attempts to spread death and corruption just as their former murderer and oppressor: Arthas- whom they loathe.

5.) Their leader makes alliances with demons (who caused the curse of the undead, which made the Forsaken) and other undead, like the Valkyr- who also helped Arthas as the Lich King spread the corruption... you get the idea.

And so on, and so forth -one of the best in-game (in my mind) starting zones  quests, is in the Scarlet Enclave, wherein the player (regardless to whichever faction he/she belongs) gets to experience his character fighting back against the indomitable will of the Lich King. Willpower and the identity of self are paramount, and the sole goal of the player, eventually.

I love the Death Knight experience, and wish there was a way, in-game to alter the undead experience... but I am sure it is too late (nearly 8yrs., not including Warcraft) to re-align loyalties.

Remodeling in the World of Warcraft

I think it is about time for a few new edits to the main capital cities in WoW.
Namely the Park in Stormwind City, and the Goblin Slums in Orgrimmar. Neither is appealing, nor do they fit in the storytelling that most of the environments in WoW are capable of expressing.

For these and other reasons, I believe the two areas should be reworked. If
The Park served no original purpose, (I seem to recall a few druids wandering around, pre-cataclysm) other than being a copy of the Mage District, then it should be given a clearly defined use, for example, it could be both a subset area for the Gnomes, who are still without a legitimate capitol, and the new SI:7 base, (again?). There is an area set aside called the Dwarven District, why not another Little Gnomeregan, with turning gears at the entrance, escalators winding down, and a submarine base leading out into the bay? There could be a set of retractable bridges leading to the district, and a water pumping station to filter ocean water, and re-fill the canals.

If that idea is dismissed, then it could also be returned to an actual park, and an environment for both the Druids, and the Shaman. It could have as its centerpiece, a floating island from Nagrand. It could be chained to the cliff side of the coastline, and could even have a barrow den hollowed out underneath, and/or a Shaman circle above.

Or it could be a docking station for a smaller craft in the style of the Exodar. I hear it is considered lore, that the Draenei ship is operable again, there could be a shuttle between the still hard to reach place, like Silvermoon City has always had an Orb of Translocation.

Now as far as the Goblin Slums, I found that its organization to be fairly complete, and well thought out. Same as the Tauren, and Trolls; their section of the city is fairly self-sufficient. My only concern is building typology, and time. Given the duration of the Goblins stay in the city, the Slums need to evolve. In Kazan, everything was over-crowded, and built up, and as the player explores the Lost Isles, there are Goblin inventions like the Town-in-a-Box.

I think a) a few cliff-hugging skyscrapers, b) a couple of well placed lifts, and c) a single centrally located profession-training machine: they're Goblins! The town needs to reflect their engineering background. I was also thinking the ramshackle array of tents could be replaced by poolside gazebos, and maybe a trebuchet to launch players to the top of the red cliffs, but I'm a purist to the aesthetic.