I kind of feel the same way. I tried making a Vulpera, but each time I would log into them… I just couldn’t get into it. There was nothing gripping about not having a history for me.
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https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/731/143/3e3.jpg
It is really, really weird. I’ve come across Troll and Tauren Druids screeching about Vulpera being the ‘furry plague’ and there’s just this weird disconnect, like … Trolls have fun, albeit very short. Tauren are most definitely furry.
If we based what every RPer was on a single interaction, or LFG/Trade chat, the WoW Server Clusters would have been burnt to the ground by outraged mobs back in Vanilla.
Right now they’re the ‘easy target’ for people who enjoy ragging on others, and until in-game moderation jumps back up to what it used to be, all you can do is just report, don’t respond or interact and hope the automated system will actually work for once.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love lore and backstories, but I… Just can’t get into WoW’s story nowadays. I’ve been spoiled recently with great stories through other games and media and when I come back to WoW’s now it’s so… meh?
This change in my mindset is pretty recent, though.
I’ve been examining my own feelings on the matter and I think what I’ve come to realise is that I love the extended universe/backstory of WoW. But recent storytelling has been less than ideal. A bit too “Great heroes” focused, and not focused enough on the small scale stuff. The cultures and peoples of Azeroth, primarily, get neglected in favour of great leaders.
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I’m late to this one, but this is a genuinely similar struggle that Gnome Roleplayers face. Where people fail to take us seriously no matter how serious or respectably grounded one could make their character.
It’s a hard knock life for the short races that aren’t outwardly ugly or embrace the rough nature. Goblins manage to elicit respect purely because they are greedy to a strength and a fault. While Vulpera and Gnomes are just a bit too zany and kooky to take seriously. I’ve RPed gnomes who’ve dedicated service to the Alliance war efforts, had a no-nonsense attitude and the like…
At the point where you feel neglected. Taking breaks is recommended. But also to find a balance where you can just embrace the non-serious platitudes of your race. Vulpera may never be taken seriously and be met with hatred. But if you just don’t let the mean spirited folk get to you, you’ll get a lot more love in the long run.
I play a mechagnome, and I’ve gotten no shortage of ridicule and hate purely for my race. But that all tunes out quick once you find your grounding and enjoyment in the race.
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I find it a little puzzling that so many people seem to have experienced so much negativity on their vulps but not me. I have played mine as pretty much a main/alt-main since they were released but not one nasty whisper or bad rp experience. I guess he’s one of those more atypical types, but I doubt that factors much into the hate?
Anyway.
I have seen way worse from undead and orcs in my experience, but like you said no one is blameless. I just take it in stride. I have been rp’ing online since ye olde AOL chatrooms. Nothing shocks or surprises me anymore.
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I think for myself it’s the setting and atmosphere of the game. I can go to Zuldazar and imagine the humidity making my cloth俺es stick to my skin or Tanaris and feeling the sun bake my skin and the light reflecting off the dunes blinding me.
It makes me want to shove a character in it all and immersing myself in the world.
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I straight up blame Blizzard for initiating this. Within their horrible writing and the overarching desire to not know how to write Gnomes, they don’t do us any favors. Sure, there are glimpses of writing where the Gnomes are taken seriously, but people take their cues from the game, from Blizzard and it just started out badly. It’s almost impossible at this point to get it back on track, unless they just devote a strong, solid storyline to Gnomes and we all know that won’t happen.
When you have a game design team, a writing team that considers Gnomes the joke, it’s pretty much over before it begins. Players see Gnomes, the way the game designers see Gnomes.
Pointing to what Vanndrel said earlier, Gnomes have the capability to wipe the whole of Azeroth into dust. Where is that in the game? Where is the strength Gnomes do have, in the game? Tucked into a corner, behind “Gnomebliteration” and “punting”.
I’ve almost always exclusively played Gnomes, barring a few moments through the years. (LOVE Dwarves also) Around the time I got into WoW, I had an incident IRL that resulted in a lot of physical injuries. Being stuck in either the hospital or the house while healing up, I got more into WoW and the Gnomes struck a major chord with me.
Undeterred and determined underdogs, it felt like they were always having to work harder to prove themselves. Everything was a challenge to them and they took it straight on. They were not the strongest race, but they would make up for it in other ways. I knew that physically IRL, I was never going to be what I was before, I’d have to find ways to get through life, differently - just like they do. I’ve stuck with playing Gnomes ever since and I don’t regret a minute.
As to Vulpera? I’d love to play a Vulpera - the idea of a nomadic desert adventurer is a pretty attractive thing. My big issue is how they look. I’d prefer if they had a face, if they had some visuals that made them a lot more rough around the edges. Has Blizzard even seen anyone who lives largely in the desert? They are tough folks, with rough skin and often very weathered. Give me THAT Vulpera and I’ll play one.
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Anti-gnome prejudice derives from animosity that the bigger races weren’t allowed to ride mechanostriders. Gnomes were greedy, and kept their mechanical chickens to themselves.
Blizzard may have undone this crime, but we have not forgotten.
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Don’t forget generic Gnome guards all are wielding the Chainsaw sword weapon, which when you sit down and think about it is absolutely horrifying. I know I wouldn’t want to be a proud Orc Warrior, charging at the Gnome - probably laughing at the absurdity - and suddenly realizing both his feet have been severed from his ankles and now the Gnome’s looming over him.
Heck, Mechagon itself is rather horrific in that before we turned up, the procedures of mechanization were mandatory and some citizens were little better than mindless automata.
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MFW people say the most technologically and politically stable race in the game is ‘weak’.
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I don’t know if it’s so much that people consider Gnomes weak, as much as they simply don’t…consider them at all.
I forget which trailer it was, but there was a trailer and every single race had a cameo in it, except Gnomes. Someone from Blizzard responded that Gnomes were in it, you just couldn’t see them because they were below the camera frame. Funny Blizzard.
It’s a lot like Draenei for quite some time. Blizzard seems to occasionally forget what races are in the game. This is why I largely gave up on the story a long time ago and just do my own thing.
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This is about how I feel.
I had a blast through Legion, then BfA’s story wasn’t interesting to me and I found myself actively loathing it at times and finally SL’s story had potential to pull me in at first but the more I learn and progress the more I find myself disinterested in what’s going on.
I’ve had a few bad experiences but it was mainly during the first week Vulpera launched. Afterwards was relatively uneventful for me.
I don’t think so. I think they finally got past the trauma of Garithos and the remaining government of Dalaran attempting to wipe them out at their lowest point, and then diplomats trying to sabotage their recovery afterwards, only for, as they’re considering the Alliance to have changed back to the long-standing allies they once trusted for longer than they’d ever been with the Horde, the Alliance to turn around and do it again.
Remember, those who survived the purge of dalaran would tell the others what happened there. If they stayed they would be killed or imprisoned, and the silver covenent went around killing everyone’s mounts so that they couldn’t leave the flying city. I can’t imagine Blood Elves ever feeling safe in a room with the Alliance.
An IC view I don’t understand is the whole “The path of Glory was right” from Mag’har. Like, I understand how the character gets there, but how is it fun to write that? To write someone that gross? Even my characters who talk about going that far, find every single actual example of genocide in the story disgusting and wrong, and if you made them have a conversation about it next to one of those examples they’d mellow out.
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sun king loyalists in 2021
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not going to lie…
I’m not actually sure where the ‘gnomes are weak!’ thing comes from. Like, yes, their people haven’t been in the best position after nuking their capital, but they’re far from weak.
If you break it down to physical capability? Sure, gnomes and goblins aren’t walking beasts and to rip boulders in half like tauren or kul tirans. But if we operate on only one standard a shark is a terrible tree climber. Gnomes could probably bring the Alliance to heel if the humans really started acting poorly through wit alone.
I actually remember that. I think it was the Burning Crusade cinematic trailer. There were tons of cameos in it. Between the Classic and Burning Crusade trailer, we had all races in those trailers - except gnomes.
This problem has, sadly, persisted until this day. Blizzard pretty much refuses to show gnomes in any serious capacity in a cinematic. There’s some genuinely great supporting lore in the extended universe. The issue is that most of those great examples are never brought into the game. By all accounts, some gnomes love battle-engineering (Steam Warriors) and are often powerful mages (e.g Indus). They just never do anything with it.
At this point, this entire “no gnomes in blur trailers” seems to have become some sort of running gag at Blizzard. Which is too bad, considering I love my gnome mage.
I’m not actually sure where the ‘gnomes are weak!’ thing comes from.
It’s been somewhat of a running gag for ages. Gnomes have always been somewhat of a “light-hearted” race in World of Warcraft. In Warcraft 2, they were simply unseen inventors operating on submarines and the gnomish workshop, but they were crucial to the war effort.
With WoW, Blizzard added a trademark “funny” side to them - they would invent crazy devices and new things. Exploding sheep, teleporters, lasers and other things. The sky was the limit.
The issue was that Blizzard went overboard with it at some point. When you actually read up on gnomish lore, there are quite a few dark sides to it. Thermaplug actually irradiated their city. He was “cut in half” by Mekkatorque and left to be consumed by…rats, I think? Mechagnomes tried to forcibly cut out their humanity and become machines.
As said above, there are great gnomes hidden within the extended material, such as Indus, who was the “engineer of Dalaran City.” However, we rarely get to see these confident and complex gnomes in the game. The entire Mekkatorque and Mechagon plot was the first time in close to sixteen years gnomes got a serious storyline. Except for that one event during pre-Cata where they retake Gnomeregan.
I think Gnomes suffer from the same issue shamans suffer from in serious content. A running gag has been repeated so many times over that it’s taken as a fact.
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I think about the gnome mage and daughter who was the apprentice of Jaina a lot.
That actually made me sad. I always appreciated the lighting of the lanterns.
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Yeah, I was also really sad about the character whose name I can’t remember that appeared in a book I didn’t read. It really tore me up.
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That’s fair. I meant moreso that it was one of the few moments in WoW where I was like “Aw that’s sad” when I actually went out of my way to figure out why there’s a dancing gnome girl in the lanterns during Legion.
It’s something that I think WoW can actually use, small world tidbits that a minor character does that effects the world at large.
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