I know, I know. I’m about 10 years late with this hot take. But indulge me.
The Goblin starting experience is hilarious and dynamic, the story is good and the characters are quirky and endearing…
“Wait, what? I thought you said the Goblin Starting Experience was bad!”
I’ll get there in a second, imaginary heckler.
Despite all the good stuff present in the zone, it commits the worst act of intrusion that an MMORPG can inflict upon your character: It defines your backstory for you.
You are the boss of a Kaja-Cola factory. You have an assistant, you have a premade group of friends, you have a girlfriend (if you’re a Guyblin) or a boyfriend (if you are a Girlblin), and you have a personal rivalry with Trade Prince Gallywix.
No. Don’t do that. My character’s backstory is for me to decide.
So despite all the good things in the Goblin Starting Experience, this intrusion in the sanctity of the Player’s Character Identity stinks so much it ruins the whole thing.
Feel free to disagree, that’s just my opinion 
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That’s only the first part. Then they all die (well, not Gallywix), and it’s up to you to decide what the character’s identity is.
Well, it’s only like than for the first hour or two from doing the starter area then it’s free game.
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Plus is assumes you’re straight when most of my goblin characters are obviously lesbians.
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They don’t, really. Your assistant Sassy is still alive and kicking in Stranglethorn Vale, your Rival Gallywix sticks around as the Racial Leader of the Goblins until BfA (and even after that he is still alive), and all your friends survive (one of them becomes your Racial Hobgoblin).
Only your boyfriend/girlfriend dies.
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Hm, don’t think I leveled through STV on a Horde, and I rarely use my Hobgoblin, because I don’t like him all that much (some friend). You can still write your own story.
Pandaren and Worgen got named characters that are still around too, so I don’t believe it’s just a Goblin thing.
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Everybody meets named characters.
But it’s one thing to meet characters, do quests for them, etc.
It’s a completely different thing when the game writes on the plot that those characters have a personal relationship with you. Like “this person is your assistant, these are your BFFs, this is your rival and this is your girlfriend”.
That sort of thing doesn’t happen on any other quest zone, and for a good reason!
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Right, and Worgen and Pandaren both have relationships during the opening zone. You run around with them in both, not just get quests off them.
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How they handled that is probably what bugged me the most about the Goblin starting zone. He tries to sell the entire Cartel as slaves, tries to kill you all off after the shipwreck, and then Thrall puts him back in charge. I mean, we all know Thrall’s an idiot but why did the rest of the Cartel listen to him about it? I get that they’re not going to have the PC be the next Trade Price/Princess but why not literally anyone else? Hell, at least make it the Goblins that chose to keep him around.
That’s OK. I’m pretty sure they were just there as status symbols.
Its been a while since I did the Worgen zone but Pandaren you meet both Ji and Aysa during the starting zone. About the only person you knew before was the master.
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For starters, you travel around with Greymane and Crowley in the Worgen zone.
On the turtle, you choose a side and learn about their leaders in order to make the decision.
Surely you can see the difference between that and the Goblin stuff.
You have no personal relationship with Crowley and Greymane. They have a relationship among themselves and you just tag along to move the plot forward. No, “king and subject” doesn’t count as a personal relationship lol
The same on the turtle: You don’t have a personal relationship with Ji and Aysa, you just pick whichever philosophy you like the most at the end, and that gives you a faction.
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This describes WoW from the last few expansions. It’s getting even worse with every expansion, you’re forced into a story with very little choice. Shadowlands is the pinnacle of this bad direction.
No, I really don’t see the difference. The entire Worgen zone is about sticking together and pack mentality.
The difference, at least as I see it, is that the relationships in the Worgen (and Pandaren) zone are developed in game. The ones he’s talking about from the Goblin zone are pre-established for you. About the only one you start out with as a Worgen is talking to your class trainer.
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Okay. I don’t really see that as all that different, especially since your actual relationship dies and then you just become another minion of Gallywix with a minion of your own.
But to each their own. If it’s an issue for y’all, so be it.
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The difference is that the game tells you who your character is in the Goblin starting zone, and it doesn’t do that in the others.
Your Goblin starts the game with a job, a rival, a circle of friends and a girlfriend.
Your Worgen starts the game as a blank slate, which is the right way to do it.
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Does Sassy or Gallywix personally acknowledge you when you encounter them outside of the starting zone?
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I don’t think Sassy does, but Gallywix mentions your character in his book, and then you face him again in a grudge match for the Goblin Heritage Armor.
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