I doubt we’ll see Tanaris get renovated, but I actually enjoy the story not just being an absolute political dig into the ethics, boons, and negatives between capitalism and socialism.
Seems Gazlowe actually has a really good, firmly rooted and positive mindset about capital gains and the developmental future of goblinkind.
I almost want my goblin to move to Tanaris.
I’m anticipating him being dead by the end of this Worldsoul Trilogy. Simply because we can’t have sensible leaders, Red-Side. Reactionaries and Wallpaper only.
I enjoy this a lot because it makes it really fun to play my CEO jerkwad goblin, now that there’s consequences for it. She’s a villain, and Gazlowe’s plans means she can actually be cartoonish in hilarious failgirl fashion.
I feel like I just read a corny business book on how you can revitalize your company with a few changes and I’m going to tell you what those are through mediocre dialogue.
The message doesn’t feel like an organic tonal shift for my people. It’s forced in an uncomfortable way and, while I appreciate that they’re making an effort to take us more seriously, they’re trying to rectify a flaw that makes our race interesting and gives us a shot at depth. Goblins are hyperbolic recklessness incarnate, and it is a fundamental change to who goblins are with a realignment towards careful planning, ethics, and healthcare of all things.
I’ve got a few nitpicks about the story and one of them is making Noggenfogger the buffoon to Gazlowe’s suddenly idealist hero act.
Kind of a miasma of feelings on this piece. It needs a little more grit to give it authenticity. It just reads like a lecture.
I liked it. Gazlowe’s always been one of the better Goblins in the setting, less crummy and slimy and more hard-driving businessman and leader. What we saw in Battle for Azeroth, where he paid his people what they were worth, not what they’d survive on, and be willing to take a hit rather the go back on his word, only further endeared him to me.
Still reading through this, but I appreciate that there’s the weight of tradition pushing on the Goblins, that it is Dog-eat-Dog and if you ever slip up, you’re dog-food, but the whole situation is unsustainable if allowed to carry on. Gazlowe at least is acknowledging this and isn’t demanding a huge upheaval of the Goblin social system, but a gradual shift, starting with less eating each other alive for a macaroon and selling their loved ones into slavery for a pile of moolah. He’s aware a huge change will fail and be undermined by other Moguls and Cartel Bosses who are so traumatized and ingrained with ‘this is how it works’ kind of mentality that even if they could see the benefits, they’d be driven to fight the change at every turn out of sheer instinct and belligerent pride. By a gradual shift and being willing to step in and take some of the heat himself, he’s showing them that even the most powerful and influential Cartel Leader on Azeroth is willing to change, and willing to work with, rather than against, their rivals and counterparts.
I don’t mind Noggenfogger getting clowned on a bit here, he was always the stereotypical Goblin with a Gift, leveraging their work to make as much money and influence as possible, and completely unashamed at throwing people under the bus to keep that stream of money coming in. Having to eat crow, even just a little bit, was hilarious to watch, but I do think Noggen might end up coming around in the next expansion as a Belligerent Buddy to Gazlowe, somebody to bounce off of and keep each other honest, or at least as honest as a Cartel leader can afford to be, as the Goblin social structure gets re-worked to be more survivable in the years to come, rather than the reckless headlong charge into destruction that Gallywix, Razdunk, Kebok and the rest exemplified, all to stay alive and keep getting richer for one more day.
The story feels very on brand for Gazlowe, but it also feels very on brand for NuBlizzard. So… it’s kinda a toss up 50/50.
I really like it, and also it’s really just, the ONLY way forward for Goblins to not have their future be rocks and sticks.
The haphazard rapid invention booms with no need for sustainability or stability, are from kaja’mite. There was more kaja found, but it’s a stopgap tbh. Gazlowe shows no signs of thinking about this, sure, but he definitely is doing what would be necessary for the Goblins to have any tech left after the last vein runs dry. If it doesn’t get maintained, they’ll lose the ability to have it anymore when they someday lose the hypergenius juice.
Also it’s just so much more fun to play an evil CEO when they have to hide what they’re doing or face consequences.
Seeing a bit of goblin overhaul (or worldbuilding on a literal sense) in-game is the dream, and while I certainly enjoyed this short story I’m also ICly looking at Tanaris as a ‘Welp, Gazlowes crew is making everything cheaper and the pay better, time to migrate.’
Even knowing full well it will probably be another 10 years before Blizzard ACTUALLY overhauls a zone to show genuine urbanization and growth. A core tenet of goblin culture.
It’s alright, and it does fit Gazlowe’s current depiction, though I have always preferred his depiction as a reasonable - but nonetheless cunning - goblin in a sea of cutthroat money-grubbers. I don’t particularly like it, though. There’s moving away from a stereotype so self-destructive it fails to suspend belief, and then there’s swinging into absurd idealism. Gazlowe is great, but he’s not perfect, and it can take someone out of a story to see something so absurdly perfect never fail; he’s the dream boss everyone wishes they had, who values them as an employee and a person, who ensures the ideal working environment, and turns a profit. Basically, he reads like propaganda.
If blizzard carries on with this characterization then they need to show the complications of the ideals he champions clashing with an imperfect world, and at times failing to meet his own standards. Perhaps one of my favorite examples in WarCraft is Arthas at Stratholme or Aethas delivering the bell; both were caught in events well beyond their control, made a decision, and shown to be wrong despite their intentions. The difference being these are two very flawed characters, and as of yet Gazlowe has exhibited none.
I don’t care for him in the same way I don’t care for Calia; they herald a change of characterization that, as blizzard is won’t to do, abruptly changes the expression of a race people know and love. It shouldn’t be an extreme departure, but a de-escalation of ridiculous extremes. And if there is anything blizzard struggles with, it’s nuance.
Eh, for me it’s like. Long-standing character who has remained largely the same, now being in a position of greater power, and running things his way, versus asspull character who has no reason to be followed somehow not being assassinated despite naivete and prominence. (Can the Naaru just consume Calia’s mind so she can go away already?)
Also Goblins just, aren’t written centered around their leader. They’re very much the “here’s a random character you may or may not know for zany hijinks” race, where their leader is nearly a separate story. Gazlowe as a WC3 character will get more attention than Gallywix, but on a meta level this story says to me he’ll be hanging out with Thrall now that Metzen’s around to write and voice him again. Talking about changes with other leaders, sure, but zany explosion junkies should be what we see most of the time, maybe with less worker exploitation jokes depending on if the writer even remembers this is going on lol.
In general short stories have never really been about anything that changes the game, even if they SHOULD, we don’t really see it. Even in quests made after the story where its events are relevant. NOVELS barely impact the game, even.