The Queue: Why are Tauren the best?

Because man, they really are. I sincerely hope we get Taunka and Yaungol as Allied Races in the future. So far I’ve been disappointed with the selection on the Allied Races — each side has two Elves now, for example, and then basically duplicates of races they already have (so two Tauren and two Trolls for Horde and new Dwarves and Draenei for Alliance) but I’d be okay if we just kept getting variant Tauren.

Well, it’s time for the Queue so let’s talk Blizzard.

I’m not 100% sure what you mean by this question. Do you mean what real world culture should they draw on for a new expansion, or do you mean what already existing culture in the Warcraft setting that they haven’t already made use of? I’m going to assume you mean the former.

WoW tends to be generic with the real world cultures it borrows. The Vrykul, for example, are generic fantasy ‘Vikings’ and not really based on real world Germanic or Scandnavian cultures. Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden all have their own specific cultures and WoW tends to just borrow the bits they can make use of. They did this with Mists of Pandaria as well. It borrowed from China, Japan and other cultures, although it was most strongly influenced by Mythic China (and of course it couldn’t contain all of what China or Asia has to offer).

I’d say do a Greco-Roman expansion. I’d actually really like one that drew from Bronze Age Greece, using the Iliad and the Odyssey as templates. Independent city states, chariots, champions engaged in single combat, and a lot of architecture borrowed from the Roman and classical Greek period with some of the Mycenaean and Minoan palaces thrown in for flavor. That’s what I’d do. Maybe I’d even set it on Alternate Draenor, that southern continent they teased us when we first got to see the maps of Draenor back when Warlords first came out. Use the Ogres as the pseudo-Graeco-Roman civilization, it sort of suits the Gorian Empire anyway. If you really wanted to get crazy, have some fragment of the Gorians have come through the Dark Portal after it went red and show them conquering a land somewhere on Azeroth and setting up their own society, making a new Gorian Empire.

Okay, true story — I proposed to my wife while we were running Molten Core back when original flavor WoW was all we had, and so, my headcanon is that my Warrior proposed to her Hunter literally just before we killed Ragnaros. For me, Molten Core is the best place in WoW for marriage proposals.

Joanna Blueheart and the story of the Blueheart family when the Horde came through the Dark Portal. This one has always been one of the missed opportunities of WoW, in my opinion — they introduced her in Cataclysm and then didn’t use her ever again. Of course, considering how many people died in Legion after making a return, maybe Joanna is lucky they haven’t used her again. But I think a TV series that followed Joanna as her world gets destroyed by war and she becomes a defender of her people would be pretty cool, and for the Horde side of things we could see the lives of the two Orc children Gorgonna and Krenna.

So you’d get to see Gorgonna and Krenna’s parents drink the Blood of Mannoroth and become part of the Horde, and watch as the sisters come to completely different outlooks on what happened from that moment on, intercut with the story of Joanna and her family trying to escape the same Horde forces. Maybe it was Gorgonna and Krenna’s parents that killed Joanna’s family. Joanna says that her parents died saving her from the Horde, and Gorgonna says that she witnessed her parents kill innocents during the war — you could do a lot by contrasting these three girls and their wildly different experiences during the war, and how each of them grew up carrying that burden into the future.

That’s what I would do.

As for whether or not I’d watch it — sure, at least long enough to determine if it was any good. I’d rather have an Overwatch series, though.

As far as I know, all the Allied Races will be able to play Warriors, and all the current races can play Warriors, so no. I’ve never had that experience. I never tried to roll a Blood Elf until they were allowed to be Warriors. It never even occurred to me to try and roll a Blood Elf until I heard they could be Warriors, so even when it was possible for me to have that experience, I failed to do so. Sorry.

I won’t put it past Blizzard to just drop 7.3.5 on us without warning next Tuesday, but I’m fairly comfortable with my prediction of January 23rd. We’ll see what happens, of course, and I’ve been wrong about these things more often than I’ve been right.

Well, I’ve already mentioned the Draenor from Warlords hasn’t been fully explored — I’d love to see Farahlon, for example, when it was still alive, as well as possibly exploring that hidden continent on Draenor. Both Farahlon and the mysterious southern continent can be seen on this image.

We can see that landmass just south of the Spires of Arak, and I’ve wanted us to go there since before Warlords came out. Who lived there? Did they ever travel to the continent we’re familiar with, considering how close it looks in that map? Considering what we know about the Breakers and the Primals, it could be a fascinatingly wild place.

I know nobody’s clamoring for more Warlords but I feel like a patch where we get to see one of these places would be pretty cool.

Okay, that’s the Queue for this Friday.

Yeah, I know it’s weird that I love Tauren but am not into the Horde very much. Tauren are just awesome.  Call me when Baine overthrows Sylvanas and becomes Warchief.