Do ppl like goblins? are they your favorite?

Lore Story Forum
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What more development do you want?

They are the only race to have harvested stone giant poop and turn it into a weapon, created a talking raptor, and then successfully sent that raptor to Azeroth’s moon.

Also, unlike gnomes, their tech actually works. It’s just also an explosive. At the very least you know you are getting effective bombs. Do you want the race that advanced the quickest or the one that nuked it’s city not once but twice.

With Gazlowe, they have also already addressed the human rights issues but you must’ve skipped over the mechagon quests where he talks about not skimping on pay, paying out hazard pay, and ensuring the families of those who died in one of the vaults getting full life insurance payments.

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I don’t generally like playing any of the tiny races personally, goblins have some great lore though.

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Trolls are my favorite WoW race but I’ve always thought the setting’s goblins were pretty interesting.

My first encounter was in Mulgore, with the Venture Co. Based on that, I figured they were going with Goblins along with Gnolls and other such classic D&D cannon fodder races in the same role.

Imagine my surprise when I get to the Barrens, get sent to Ratchet, and see they’ve got a whole city down there. A bank, an auction house, ship that comes in and out that’ll take you across the ocean. And they serve EVERYONE! I was not expecting goblins to be the ‘neutral tradesmen race’ and the venue by which a lot the steampunk stuff existed in the setting. I was super into steampunk and any kind of mixture of magic/technology. I was also running a D&D campaign in Iron Kingdoms at the time, and they reminded me a lot of the setting’s Gobbers.

I also realized that the Venture Company was distinct from the Steamwheedle Cartel. Steamwheedle Cartels had the cozy settlements, rigorously enforced neutrality, fought against piracy/banditry and came up with cool inventions. Venture Company were basically robber barons: pressganging people into service so they could extract as many natural resources/labor out of any given area as they could and nobody seemed to like them. I liked the juxtopisition. The rivalry/cooperation with Gnomes was pretty entertaining too.

I was really excited when Catacysm introduced them as a playable race, but a little disappointed when we got Bilgewater, which were in many ways, more Venture Co-lite than Steamwheedle. I did end up liking how they actually seemed to explore the ideas of consumerism, celebrity/pop culture, and class/status divides a bit among the Bilgewater, though. And it’s also the point I think where I could identify WoW Goblins as really starting to become a send up of Americans.

And the idea of taking a nominally fantasy setting like Azeroth and just plopping down this sort of expy of 20th century America into it is just too fun a concept for me.

Like so much stuff we take for granted or don’t think too much about in our day to day lives are used by Goblins in WoW for comedy or even occasionally, mockery or conflict. Goblins live in a society that’s an unregulated economic powerhouse, the leading polluters on the planet, generate an unprecedented amount of mass media, chug cola and gorge on take out, obsess over guns/explosions, drive around in gas powered vehicles, engage in war profiteering and their many religious/medical/educational/political institutions are often motivated by profit?! And it took them that long to oust that buffoonish leader of theirs?

What cartoonishly vile creatures! :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m surprised there’s not more sympathy/empathy/pity for them tough; especially for the majority of goblins who seem to be just trying to make it though blue collar or service industry work.

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24

Ain’t just in novels…

25

Goblins… I will say that I have sort of come around to them. For most of my WoW Playing years, I absolutely loathed them. But I am starting to enjoy them and like them as part of the Horde - I wouldn’t play one very much, though.

I remember when I first started playing WoW in Vanilla. I played a Troll Rogue. One of my earlier experiences was fighting the Venture Co. and those Goblins. They were my sworn enemies. I really grew to hate Goblins.

When they became playable in Cata… Blech… I hated them!

But around BfA, I started to change my opinion of them. Maybe because they got a little more focus, and screen time, and were showcased well. But I went from absolutely hating Goblins to liking them as part of the Horde. But I still would not play one very much.

Gallywix was a big reason why I started to like the Goblins. He was loads of fun. Especially after Legion. And then he gets removed. Ah well. At least he isn’t dead.

Gallywix, the Gob Squad, and other little Goblin tidbits in BfA really smoothed out my distaste for Goblins.

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26

For me it’s kind of Trolls> Undead> Goblins> Orcs> Tauren=Pandaren> Blood Elves when it comes to Horde races.

Just because Goblins are in the middle of the pack for me, that doesn’t mean I dislike them though. They can be funny, sure, but they can also be cunning and a little cruel, things I really enjoy in a fantasy race.

To be clear, I have a very marked preference for the Bilgewater Goblins in particular over the other cartels. While Goblins i general are entertaining enough, it’s the ones that blew up the Azshara coastline so it would take the shape of a Horde emblem as seen from space that really interest me. Goblins don’t do anything by half measures, and I think that’s fantastic, even when it blows up in their faces with catastrophic results.

With Gallywix in particular I never got how some players had such animosity for him. He was such a classic scumbag, a total loud mouthed lout, but in a way he was the most interesting and dynamic of the Horde leaders - especially in BFA. I’m glad he survived Saurfang’s coup and I hope the next time we see him in game it’s not as a quickly disposed of dungeon or raid boss. He’s far too entertaining for that treatment.

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27

I love Wix as a character, I just came to really hate him as a Racial Lead.

His personality was too oppressive, and sort of created by design to suppress and ostracize any other Gob with enough talent or intelligence to put up with his BS. Which mean, other Gob reps within the BW themselves were very limited. His retaining the Trade Prince title at the end of the intro questline was in a word “Arbitrary”, and he kind of rendered the entire PC Goblin race as little more than greed filled lemmings meant to die by the hundreds for his schemes. If you wanted any other type of Gob stories, you for years had to look to the neutral SW. Which truly sucked if you were a Gob fan.

As for Wix going forward. Pretty clear that since the Trade Prince of the Venture Co. died in the Motherlode dungeon (and Wix was the one that settup that hit), he’s being primed as the next leader of that Cartel. He can be his classic, lovable, scummy self, with a Faction of Gobs that are far more in his wheelhouse of ethics.

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I always felt Gazlowe should have always been the racial leader from the get go, should have killed Gallywix at the start.

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I have no doubt in my mind that had Goblins been a Horde race from Vanilla, Gazlowe would have been their racial leader. But since the Bilgewater are what they are, it really should have been Sassy who was made our Trade Prince. Since, obviously, you can’t really have a PC be it. But she fell into obscurity, and Mida’s Trade Princess movement only really resulted in her being added into the game as a minor NPC.

As it is, I don’t mind in the slightest how they went about Gazlowe becoming Trade Prince of the Bilgewater; and would not be shocked if Wix does turn up as the Trade Prince of the Venture Co. Cartels aren’t families. Aren’t clans. Aren’t nations. They can share traits with those things depending on their Trade Prince, but at the end of the day they are businesses. During the Trade Wars, Cartels likely rose, fell, and changed hands many times. And even Wix himself took over the Bilgewater from Trade Prince Maldy. So, it changing hands to the guy who always really should have been our racial leader this whole time is long overdue.

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Sure do.

No.

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31

Well I knew when I first met Wix I wanted him dead.

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Goblins are up there in my list. They shift around a bit but always top five. Even if the faces of them in the community are less than favorable. If I ever rerolled to the Horde I’d be a Goblin main.

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I agree with you there! I’ve always thought that hating Gallywix for being outrageously greedy and self-serving is like hating Elmer Fudd for being gullible and incompetent.

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Well he was designed to be hated, I mean hell he even captured the PC goblin and others of their race and intended to sell them into slave labor. It’s just what he was designed to be, which was easy to hate.

Gallywix is like Joffrey from game of thrones.

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Not favorite but I enjoy them.

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There are characters you hate, and there are characters you love to hate. Some people don’t love to hate Gallywix; they just hate him, plain and simple.

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Its why I loved him as a character. But after 10 years of having a Racial Leader that only ever represented the worst of your PC race; who was deliberately written to suppress, ostracize, or just kill any Goblin smart or talented enough to not put up with his crap; and subsequently rendered the entire Bilgewater as little more than Greed Filled Lemmings … a Character I love, became a Racial Leader I hated. Especially as time went on, and it became apparent that if you wanted any Goblin story that wasn’t just dying for Wix’s schemes … you had to look to the always neutral Steamwheedle. I’m glad Wix is alive. I’m also glad he’s not our leader anymore.

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I love Paizo’s goblins, especially with the depth they’ve been getting with Pathfinder 2nd edition.

I did do a double take at a goblin cleric of Sarenrae though, but on the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t have. Redemption is the goddess’ thing, after all.

I’m seeing a little of this depth expansion in Warcraft, but not nearly enough.

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I like the Steamwheedle Goblins. Way back when I got exalted with the Bloodsail when the only way was to kill a single NPC named Jazzrik over and over on an 8 minute timer, and then to repair my Steamwheedle rep I went to kill thousands upon thousands of Southsea pirates, as killing them raised Steamwheedle rep without lowering Bloodsail rep, and I got exalted with the Bloodsail and all four of the Steamwheedle Goblin groups. When the Cataclysm happened and introduced new quests for the Steamwheedle groups I did all those quests, then had to rebuild my Bloodsail rep to fully exalted, and then had to kill more Southsea pirates again to once again restore my Steamwheedle rep to fully exalted.

The Steamwheedle always came off as hard working, willing to do jobs that needed to be done if there was money to be made, and ultimately saw that there was more profit to be made from offering help to all potential customers.

My favorite of all the Goblins is the reoccurring character Ricket, who we meet in K3 in The Storm Peaks, then again in Deepholm, and then again at Mount Hyjal to help the Guardians of Hyjal against Ragnaros at the Molten Front, and latest of all at Mechagon. My Goblin Warrior is a ode to her.

Though, Ricket’s original outfit is actually made of poor quality gear pieces, so cannot be transmogged, however a gold version is transmogable, which if anything is probably even more fitting to a Goblin:

I enjoyed the initial Bilgewater questing experience, as well as the Bilgewater Heritage Armor quests, but unfortunately the Bilgewater were not actually allowed to follow through the player Goblin’s group of friends and instead got saddled with working for Gallywix, Garrosh, and Sylvanas with no consideration to their own well being, so the Bilgewater ended up being a lot of wasted potential with no real differentiation from the Venture Company.

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40

Not my favorites, but I like them.
Their over the top style. The mafia attitude. Goblins like Gallywix, the Bombsquad or the crazy explosion loving sort are a lot of fun.
From their start in WC2, to helping build Orgrimmar and reshaping Azshara in to the Horde symbol, they have a special place.

Same for me. Gallywix was kept in power by Thrall. But he represented a part of Goblin culture very well.

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