My Forsaken fans thread seems to be having some success in getting it’s relevant community to be more active in talking about themselves so where are the Heckin Good Boys and Girls?
Same general idea. I want to promote the Worgen fanbase actually voicing their opinions on their lot in the story. What do you think could work to help make playing a Worgen feel better?
Take back Gilneas?
Found a new city capital? Maybe on Kalimdor?
Should we embrace the Princess’ view or is Ivar the real MVP?
Admittedly these are just bits and pieces I’ve seen from the Worgen community so as long as the topic is constructive and about helping make the Worgen presentation more enjoyable have it!
Only have 1 Worgen Alt anymore (all my alliance alts used to be Worgen) but my main opinion the Tess Greymane plot of “I don’t need to be a Worgen tee hee” needs to be 100% walked back. She needs to be a Worgen in the eventual death of Genn
Also yeah give Gilneans Gilneas back and just have a cold war between Forsaken and Gilneans basically.
I have a Worgen alt myself, but as it’s not my main, feel free to disregard the rest of my post if you want.
I feel like the Worgen Curse needs to come to a resolution that’s more satisfying in terms of narrative, and establishes the Worgen as their own race, as opposed to cursed humans. Perhaps Goldrinn experiences some sort of power-up which transfers to the Worgen, making the Pack Form a more complete transformation. Also the Devs need to make it clear when two Worgen decide to have a kid, the kid is born a Worgen as well. That’s one of the most detrimental things to the Worgen as a racial concept.
I think this pretty much sums it up. Worgen work great as cursed humans under the current story direction but not at all as their own thing. They have the same reproduction problem as the forsaken but rather than being rejected by their former comrades they can just revert to their human form and pretend they’re just normal humans.
I think the main problem is that Blizz has proven they don’t want the worgen to continue as a race. As people have already pointed out in this thread: 1) If two Gilnean worgen have a baby, the baby is human. 2) The whole worgen heritage questline was about coming to the conclusion that the curse is indeed a curse, and should be fought against and not spread.
That’s how Blizz sees the worgen. As a momentary infection that has gripped a segment of Gilneas’ population. They’ve also had numerous opportunities to have a “Reclaim Gilneas” story, and each time they’ve passed on it and had them remain refugees in other kingdoms. I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I think it’s clear that Blizz has no desire to pursue the worgen racial fantasy. If anything, it seems to me that they regret making Gilneas worgen altogether.
Sorry, but… why? Why not have it be a choice? A solemn cultural ritual, where the young man or woman understands what they’re getting into and chooses to become a part of that legacy.
I don’t understand this obsession with “race” as some kind of sacred category. Worgen are Worgen, whether or not that counts as a “race” is stupid semantics.
Maybe I just see worgen differently, but it seems to me that first bit I snipped is the worgen racial fantasy?
I don’t really know what you’d view the worgen racial fantasy as if not that. That’s what it’s always been presented as. I know that some werewolf fiction has the werewolves adopting wolf traits, like acting more wolf-like and viewing the world through the lens of packs (which itself is scientifically inaccurate, by the way), but that’s never been how the worgen have been depicted and I’ve never liked that kind of werewolf fiction.
I’ll always enjoy werewolf fiction where the werewolf half of a person is simply a monster to be overcome, lest it dominate them and turn them into nothing more than a savage beast. That’s what the worgen have always been. They’re not wolf people, they’re humans with a curse they’re fighting against. The worgen heritage quest is one of my favorite story bits in the game from recent memory for my personal tastes.
I mean look at Greymane’s quotes in Heroes of the Storm. He talks about using his curse as a weapon. That is the worgen racial fantasy to me. Overcoming the beast inside, retaining your humanity and using the curse to fight your enemies.
Good lord it is so blatantly obvious that Blizzard regrets adding worgen as a race, they have to keep them somewhat relevant because they are playable but they don’t even try to hide that they regret adding Gilneans/Worgen to the game.
The entirety of BfA was crapping on Gilneans/Worgen:
They were made homeless and are now stuck as just refugees in Stormwind.
They changed the Gilneas flag to just being the Stormwind flag but darker.
Everything that made the Gilneans unique from Stormwind Humans were taken and given to the Kul Tirans.
Finally, the nail in the coffin, the heritage quest comes out and says that being a Worgen sucks and it needs to die out with this generation.
Like really? Blizzard couldn’t make it anymore obvious they regret adding worgen and that they really want to just have them fade away and assimilate into being Stormwind Humans.
The Worgen heritage armor was blue/gold, even aesthetic wise they weren’t even consistent with Genn’s color scheme or the Cata Gilnean aesthetic
The fact Kul Tirans are a Gilnean diaspora originally isn’t touched upon even vaguely (could’ve had a Harvest Witch - Drust connection but no)
The fact Worgen have a Druidic-Wild-God curse could’ve made them default-sorted into Ardenweald, and there could’ve been some ties between the Night Warrior and the Worgen Curse (because of the Staff of Elune possible thread) but also no
Lets not forget the Gilnean settlement in Legion were non-Worgens
If they just walk back the heritage armor questline’s nonsense and let Gilneans and Kul Tirans share the Spooky Humans aesthetic (Werewolves in top hats, harvest witches, Death-druids, lovecraftian priests, and sailors, what’s not to love!) it’d be aight
I thought it was neat that they let us wear that outfit in WoW, since I was a fan of it in HotS and thought it fit pretty well.
I just wish the colors were more muted like the HotS version.
And I mean if anything HotS frequently nails the Warcraft vibe way better than Warcraft itself does, in my opinion. Greymane, Thrall, Kael’thas, Kel Thuzad, Illidan, Muradin, all way cooler over there.
They do, its a shame that Blizz wrote the entire curse idea so bizarrely.
Not only does the Worgen curse not get passed down through birth, but its also alters the very soul of the person afflicted by it. Which means that the curse itself requires a person to either accept it, or have it forced upon them; and once they have it … there is no escape for them. Even after death. And while within game its rarely mentioned, there are some pretty potent psychological and behavioral consequences to being a Worgen. Which all sort of compiles into one portrayed reality … its a curse. Its a cross that those afflicted with it will have to bare, even after death; but not something to be spread to others. Especially once “It being an alternative to Undeath” ceased to be a real tangible motive to accept the curse.
So, “Worgen” are left in this bizarre place where no one should reasonably want to become a worgen. There is no motive to accept it, and if you force it on others you’ll be hunted down like the rabid dog you are.
Its not really a bad or good way, it is just what it is. The Worgen Fantasy is in a tough spot until Blizz actually writes a sufficient motive for people to want to become Worgen. Unless we want to go the route of people forcing that curse on other people without their consent … which is classic Werewolf … but those individuals or groups doing that will be recieved as villains.
Long story short. They need a sufficient reason to want to become a Worgen. Beyond just the player reason of “Worgen and Werewolves are Cool”.
I don’t see a general consensus that playing a Worgen is suddenly problematic. Or for that matter playing a Night Elf either… outside of the Angst Factory that this forum has become.
It’s not like Genn Greymane has been stuffed in a closet somewhere and not getting a heck of a lot of screentime in this and the previous two expacs. I don’t think that any faction leader has as much screentime as the Old Wolf.
I remember him getting the better and then some on his one on one with Sylvannas.
10 years of zero pay off for their introduction into the game being them kicked out from their capital and subsequently humiliated is problematic. I don’t expect you to understand that though.