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Want Inane Rantings? Look No Further!
Aroinak — Jan 1, 2010 14:02:35

Okay, I've been gone for a long while. Time to catch up.

Happy Halloween! I hope you all had a great time loitering around, bouncing from house to house, bar to bar, or hosting your own Halloween party! I hope your costumes were well thought out and brilliantly executed.

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't know about you, but my Thanksgiving was fantastic. Great meal: some of the best meat I've ever had (prime rib, because my family hates turkey), incredibly great stuffing, garlic bread, the works. I do hope you all had a Thanksgiving as good as mine, and that you all got to catch up with your families.

Getting closer. Merry Christmas, to the Christians out there! Happy Hanukkah, to my Jewish readers! Happy Kwanzaa, to all my American Black readers! And, to my fellow Athiests, Happy December 25th. I add that last part because I realize there are tons of Athiests out there who, like me, have realized that we don't celebrate Christmas for it's original meaning, the birth of the Christian savior, Jesus H. Christ (what does that H stand for?*). I know that my family celebrates it for Jesus' birthday (which was actually in June, not on December 25th, but that's a whole different story), but I really don't. I do it for the feasting, for an excuse to see my family every once in a while, to actually see some relatives I haven't seen in years, for the opportunity to spread joy to others and get them gifts, and for me to receive joy from others in present form.

Many of you will find this horrible. Many of you will find this disgusting. In fact, many of you will find this blasphemous. To you, I say that I've said worse. Far worse. I say this because this is the truth. I don't celebrate it for the sake of Jesus, I celebrate it for the sake of my happiness, and the happiness of my family as a whole. Yes, my family celebrates it for Jesus, but I sit through the bible stories for their sakes (and so that my Grandmother doesn't write me out of her will for not being Christian).

Funny story out of that, actually. I just came back from a fun trip to California, which is where (frighteningly close to literally) all my family lives. We went to 5 different Christmas parties, including our own in our hotel room. One of those was making up to be fairly uninteresting(it was at the house of a portion of family I am completely unfamiliar with. They all seemed to know me, but I literally didn't know a single one) until they did the one thing I've never seen anyone do on Christmas that just utterly blew my mind: They brought out a cake and started singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. No Bloody Joke. It's a good thing I can keep a reasonably straight face, because I was ready to burst out in a cacophonous roar of laughter. I'm sorry, I respect the Christian religion (no, really, I do!), but singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus? And bringing out a fully decked out Birthday Cake, complete with Candles (no, there weren't 2014 candles on it, but that would have been awesome)? That's just a little over the top. I get that it's for the kids, to remember "Hey! This is for Jesus! Not just presents!", but still. I have had many the laugh since.

Where was I? Oh, right. December 25th. Yay! I will say, however, that my December 25th celebrations went well. I achieved some free clothing, 2 new DVDs (one of which is a classic I never bothered to buy: Good Guys Wear Black. Classic Chuck Norris), and 2 brand-spankin-new games: "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Borderlands"! I've been enjoying the crap out of both, and will hopefully find time to review them.

Speaking of reviews, I have been hard at work on the new site revamp. As I announced a few months ago, it is Ecoticity, and it will be the host of Game/Movie reviews, a newly revamped WoW Landscaping portion (which is actually already done. It turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted the AFK one to turn out.), and will host a brand new webcomic from the mind of me. This website would be live now if it weren't for the matter of the webcomic slowing me down.

I have plans to set it to be a twice-a-week comic, maybe thrice-a-week if I can actually buckle down and git-r-dun. The problem that's actually slowing me is that I am deathly afraid of missing a deadline with the comics. I did it far too much with the Landscapes (which is why they won't have a regular update day), and also far too much with the reviews. This is why I'm doing a minimum of 50 of them ahead of time, so I never fall behind. I set my deadline to March, but I have a snowball's chance in Hades of actually making that deadline. If I'm phenomenally lucky, I'll have it done by May. One thing I can say about it is that it will not be close to worth the wait. Heh. But I encourage sticking around for it. I would love to have a few readers to get me to make more.

Well, this has been my rant for the New Year 2010. I look forward to the year and hope to make progress on my projects. Thank you for reading my drivel and I hope you continue to, regardless of my controversial stupidity. This really is more of an outlet for my thoughts than anything. So, once more, I thank you for sticking around, and hope to death that you keep sticking around. Until the next review or blog post, I'm out.

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse.
Aroinak — Oct 4, 2009 11:04:44

I know that I haven't been updating in a long time. I still update frequently on Twitter, so you can still follow me there to get adequate updates. Also, if you've been following me, you know I've been promising to write reviews for some time now. I owe you, what 5 of them now? Ich. I'll see how many I can do in due time.

As thanks for keeping with me in these trying times, I present unto you an article on staying alive in the Zombie Apocalypse I wrote for my local newspaper. They made me keep it down with the weapons (I can do one strictly on weapons later, but only for the blog, and only by popular demand). They made me keep it to defense. So, I bequeath unto you "How to Stay Alive in the Zombie Apocalypse."

Zombies: mankind's bane since the first human resurrection. These undead horrors seem perfectly harmless at first glace; they just shuffle around all slow-like, they're not smart enough to operate a plank of wood--let alone something as complex as a gun--and they have the intelligence of a banana slug. These points are true, but that doesn't mean they're just something to ignore completely. They have their own special apocalypse for a reason; a couple, in fact. They travel in hordes, they never tire, and they fear nothing. Many shrug off zombies as an overplayed horror movie gimmick. You know what happens to those people? They get bitten, turn into zombies, and get blasted in half by people smart enough to prepare. I'm here to tell you how to prepare. Specifically, I'm here to tell you how to fortify your house, and what tools you should keep equipped.

First things first, if you live in an apartment, condo, or similar structure, find a new place to hole up. You can't really preemptively prepare your apartment for zombies. Same for you people in rented houses. Unless you have a really lenient/apathetic/awesome landlord, you can't modify your house heavily enough to prepare it for the oncoming apocalypse. Either set up a shack somewhere outside of town (towns = bad, very populated; middle of nowhere = very good) and use that as your zombie defense HQ, or purchase yourself a living space somewhere. I have a shack, myself, but that's because I'm cheap. Houses are bloody expensive; shacks just require enough money for the materials and enough friends to help you build it (and maybe the cost of the land itself).

Zombies are ruthless, tireless, and fearless; so don't think that boarding up your windows will keep them out. They see fresh meat inside, they will hit the window with whatever strength they have in their feeble, degenerated bones, and they will just keep on hitting; never stopping for a breath, never giving up out of boredom, hardly ever distracted. This is why you can't just put up boards and hope they hold. I'd actually suggest you test the walls of your living quarters, if possible. Test their strength with your hands, some nicely placed kicks, and maybe even a hammer of some kind. If they're easily breakable, renovate them. You don't have to tear down all the walls and rebuild better, stronger walls (good, smart idea, but costly). You could just pretty much build a second wall on the inside. Think of it this way: better insulation, stronger, and no destruction needed (con for some people, but a pro when it comes to energy required/cost).

Windows are your enemy. Windows are needed for airflow, and a reminder that yes, there is an outside and the sun still rises in the east. Some may use the roof for that (me), and may use vents for air flow. That's a good idea, guy, kudos on the idea. That may be a good idea to toss into your renovation plan: just board up the window, and build your second wall over it completely, just make sure to include vents!

Also, always include easy access to the roof. The roof is as useful as the rest of the house, if not more. The roof is where your watchmen will go (always keep lookouts on patrol 24/7, security cameras will not do), where you'll put your spotlights (for night visibility), where your guys will be during an attack, and where you'll always go to get fresh air. Never use the front door to "step out and get some fresh air." Use the roof. The front door should almost never be used, if ever at all. You might just want to keep the front door shut and build the wall over it, keep a ladder on your roof for any newcomers you discover, or if you need to get supplies of some kind. Overall, any openings from inside to out are a bad idea, minus one opening from the inside to the roof. Everything else should be sealed off and given the same strength as the walls.

Some might say the best thing to do would be to build a house on stilts. Nice, strong, metal stilts could keep the zombies out, or rather under. That being said, keep in mind that zombies will pool underneath the house as soon as they catch whiff of flesh. They will be trying to bring down the stilts at all times, so get some strong ones.

Another great idea is the "bomb shelter" approach. During the 60s, many people were freaking out about the bombs getting ready to drop, so they build large, elaborate, sealed-off bases underground, built do withstand an atomic bomb. Those shelters are perfect for the Zombie Apocalypse. If you're completely underground, with the only way up being a nice, thick vault door, and maybe an escape tunnel, zombies will never reach you. Also, the escape tunnel is a very, very good idea; you might want to toss in two or three of those. Having one exit is a bad idea, mostly because if zombies huddle around that one door, you're stuck in there until they leave, which is bad.

Okay, so you sat idly by and laughed at the people fortifying their houses for the Apocalypse, chuckling to yourself about how they're all wasting their time. Now that the zombies have hit, you're screwed, right? Might as well blast your way through a horde and take out as many as you can before you get bitten yourself, right? Wrong, you still have a chance. First thing you should do is find a party of people and join them. Party etiquette is kind of obvious, don't be a jerk, don't hold grudges, never hoard anything, share the spoils of war, etc. If you can't find a group, it's not the end of the world (no pun intended). Either go out there and fend for yourself, try to contact family and friends outside of the area, or wrangle up some stray survivors and build your own group. Again, look at the party etiquette for starting or leading a group.

When it comes to finding your party's HQ, don't go to the nearest Home Depot, pick up as many supplies as possible, and build yourself a shack out in the middle of nowhere. Get shelter immediately. Find yourself a vacated house, and call it your own. Plant the flag on its roof, spray-paint gang symbols on the walls, put a sign outside saying it's yours (zombies can't read, you're safe with signs), just put something to say "Hey, this house is used by a group of survivors. Join us in our hunt to stay alive, won't you?"

Overall, be prepared for the apocalypse. You're not screwed if you don't, but you're phenomenally better off preparing before the fact. During the event itself, you're constantly on edge, paranoid, and in a rush to get things fixed up. Not to mention if you do it now, you'll be safe come the horde; but if you wait until the zombies flood in, you might get hit before you're ready. Follow a few of these tips, and you'll at least have a basic idea of what to do. If you want a full understanding of zombie defense, house renovation, what weapons to use and what not to use, what tools to keep on hand, all that good stuff and more, there's a book called The Zombie Survival Guide, written by Max Brooks, a true zombie expert. You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore. It's chock full of useful information. Read through it, you won't be sorry.

Until next time, may the zombies be merciful.

P.S. If you find any typos or something wrong, please email me through the contact form on the site. In fact, just email me any of your thoughts on this topic.

- Aro Out

WoW: Wait, the Rumor Sites were Right?
Aroinak — Aug 24, 2009 22:06:41

Holy bajeezus, this weekend was absolute madness! Far from being Sparta, the madness was originating from Anaheim, California, where Blizzard was doing their annual showcase event they call BlizzCon. I'm sad to say that I didn't go, I didn't have the money to switch to DirecTV, and I kept putting off getting the Live Streaming feed for too long. I did, however, follow Twitter like a madman watching about 3-4 of my followers pumping out news from the show floor like nothing I'd ever seen. This is how I found out that this year, some stuff happened. A lot of stuff happened. I'm going to relay whatever I can remember from it.

STARCRAFT II!

Nothing happened at all. Really. It was phenomenally boring, nothing new was announced regarding it. No release date, no cinematic, nothing. We did learn that it'll be hooked into Battle.net, thus needing a login and an Internet connection to play it, but that's it.

DIABLO III!

Yeah, nothing much happened here either. Like all games here, there were playable demos available. They did announce a new class, "The Monk," and demos were available for it, but that's it. Not much here either.

NEW BLIZZARD IP YET TO BE NAMED!

Nothing. At all. Whatsoever. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT!

Here's where everything gets interesting. Apparently, rumor mills such as WoW.com (formerly known as WoW Insider), and MMO Champion are actually credible! Their phenomenal leaks? All of them were confirmed! Well, not all of them, there were a few they neither confirmed nor denied. The high majority of them were confirmed though!

The Cataclysm has happened, all because of Deathwing. He was hiding out, healing up down in the Earthen elemental plane. He has just now decided that he's strong enough to take on Azeroth and it's heroes, so he burst out of the crust and laid waste to the whole gorramed planet. Northrend is damaged, Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are horribly ravaged, and Outland is undamag- well, not damaged any more than it already was. But the Barrens is split in two, Darkshore's flooded over with molten lava, Uldum has been broken open, Blackrock Mountain has broken open/erupted, etc.

Worgen are indeed our new Alliance race. They came out of Gilneas, which was previously blocked off by a giant wall (which got destroyed in the Cataclysm). Behind the locked walls of Gilneas, which we never got to see, the Worgen disease spread to the inhabitants and corrupted them. After a while, they learned of how to break the virus, sort of. Now, the people of Gilneas are capable of sentient thought and capable of controlling which form they're in. That's right, as a Worgen, you'll be able to switch back and forth between Human and Worgen form.

They get to play almost every class (every class except Paladins and Shamans). As soon as I heard this news, I made a placeholder character to hold a name for me to use for my Worgen. Being the Hunter addict I am, I'll make a Worgen Hunter. I might end up making a Shadow Priest as well/instead, but we shall see as time progresses.

Goblins are indeed our new Horde new Horder race. They ran from Kezan (home island) when the Cataclysm caused an ancient volcano to surface/erupt. A Trade Prince figured this was a brilliant time to load panicked goblins into boats promising to bring them away to a safe place, when he only planned to sell them into slavery for sweet, sweet money. Well, he got caught in the crossfire of a Horde/Alliance ship battle and they all got stranded on the Lost Isles. That's where you play.

Apparently, these goblins are an all new type of goblin. The Steamwheedle ones we're used to seeing are NOT the Kezan Goblins we'll be playing as. They can play every class but the Paladin and Druid. I'll probably make a hunter, then a rogue. I'll most likely get bored of it and just run it to the nearest capitol city to make it my new bank toon.

Guild Leveling was also announced. Apparently, Guilds are finally getting attention in this expansion. TONS of work is being done on them, including a new interface, new guild-wide achievements, guild leveling, guild talent points, and special guild abilities depending on the talents (Mass Resurrection, Cheaper Repairs, etc.) Interesting prospect. I'll need more on it before I can come to a conclusion.

You can find more at many more sites across the web. I'd suggest, again, WoW.com. They cover the news fairly well. Look through the backlogs and you can find them covering every little bit of Cataclysm step by step.

- Aro Out.

WoW Talk: Cataclysm Leaks TO THE EXTREME!
Aroinak — Aug 15, 2009 13:10:00

2 WoW posts in a row. It's bound to happen what with the announcement of the next expansion right around the corner. I really, really didn't want to have to write this. I didn't. I really want to wait 'till Blizzcon. But now I don't have a choice, do I? If it was only the Goblins and Worgen, I'd let it go. But MMO Champion just let leak TONS of dirt on Cataclysm. All their information obtained from "reliable sources". That translates into "Don't trust them as far as you could throw them" in my mental book. Don't read on if you don't want "spoilers", though I don't know if they even really count as spoilers or not.

1: The Cataclysm

People have speculated that it's named for the sundering, thus "The Maelstrom Expansion!" People have speculated that it's named for the emerald nightmare issue finally being handled, thus "The Emerald Dream Expansion!" People have speculated that it's named for the near-obliteration of Azeroth, as it gets torn asunder. Most people claim the latter to be "Freakin' sweet, but Blizz wouldn't have the guts to do it." Apparently they do.

The Cataclysm

I'm still not sure who is the true end boss of Cataclysm is, but the cataclysm appears to have been caused by attempts to incantation to summon extremely powerful beings using an ancient incantation by Deathwing and Azshara. They're both very powerful, but the cataclysm itself suggests something more powerful is behind it, perhaps their shared past of Old God influence?

I don't know. I really, really want this, but the reasoning is complete bogus compared to what I've been hoping for. Also, some of their biggest "caused by the Cataclysm" incidents seem like bogus to me. We'll touch on them in a sec.

2: Level Cap is 85, not 90.

This comes as no surprise to me; at all. This is a very Blizzard thing to do. We all expected this. They claim they're saying "It'll take you as long to get from 80 to 85 as it did from 70 to 80." That reminds me of a time when Burning Crusade was announced. They said "It'll take you as long to get from 60 to 70 as it did from 1 to 60." That didn't happen, to say the least.

3: New Classes! No, wait. New Class/Race Combos.

New Class/Race Combos to make up for lack of a new Hero Class! A: No. Blizz wouldn't just say "Oh, look at the success of the Death Knight! Better not give Hero Classes a bad name by releasing a new one that might suck!" No, they're going to have a new one; probably.

    * Human Hunter

    * Orc Mage

    * Night Elf Mage

    * Dwarf Mage

    * Blood Elf Warrior

    * Dwarf Shaman

    * Undead Hunter

    * Tauren Paladin

    * Tauren Priest

    * Gnome Priest

    * Troll Druid

Human Hunter: Long Overdue. Orc Mage: Couldn't they already be mages? Night Elf Mage: Couldn't they already be mages? Dwarf Mage: Couldn't they already be mages? Blood Elf Warrior: Long Overdue. Dwarf Shaman: Oh dear God NO! Please, just NO! Undead Hunter: Makes sense if Humans can be hunters. Tauren Paladin/Priest: No! Tauren follow the Earth Mother, not The Light. This will take some serious lore-bending and religious-slaughtering to pull this off (not physical slaughter, the slaughter of the Tauren's ideas of religion). Gnome Priest: Couldn't they already be priests? Troll Druid: What? No! Trolls... unless it's some kind of weird Voodoo druid, it makes no sense. Plus, that makes the Horde have 2 druids, and the Alliance have 1; Blizz wouldn't do that.

4: New Races! Goblins and Worgen!

See previous post to gain overall opinion. The explanations behind the races this time? They both make sense! The Goblin one could have been handled much better than it was, but still handled in a sensible way. Worgen backstory was handled exactly how I wanted it to be handled! I want that to be true, every bit.

5: The Aftermath of the Cataclysm!

This I'm not so keen on. I'll handle this one at a time.

The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.

Good. It's too freakin' big as is. I'm for this.

Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.

Wait. What? How does that make the least bit of sense? How would it be made lower-level friendly, and why Azshara of all zones?

Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.

Whoawhoawhoa. What? According to the terrain, that means Thousand Needles, Silithus, Feralas, Un'Goro, Tanaris (perhaps), maybe even Desolace would be flooded. That's almost half of Kalimdor! What?!

Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.

WHOA! That's major! That's big! That's... WHOA! Sounds like a good idea in my head, but also sounds like another Sunwell event, which is good in my book! I loved doing the Sunwell dailys, watching the fruit of my labor blossom into new buildings/dailys. But wait, that's for Horde!

Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)

Ahhhh... Just what I've been asking for since I first ran Gnomeregan. I've always said "This kinda sucks as an instance, but wouldn't it be sweet if we just took it over and made it a new Alliance Capitol city?" I hope this is right. But wait, does that mean that Teldrassil fell during the Cataclysm? Ironforge got caved in? Exodar got smushed? Because if none of those are true, then the Horde would end up with 4 Capitols, while the Alliance would have 5, and that is not cool at all! Willing to bet that Teldrassil falls.

Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.

Isn't it... already... a lush, tropical area? That's the point of it, it's an oasis in the Barrens. It's lush. That's stupid.

The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.

Makes sense with the recent Onyxia 2.0 announcement. Not that exciting though. But if I have to run BlackRock Depths again at level 85, I'm not going to be anything close to a happy camper.

6: Thanks to the Cataclysm, you can Fly in Azeroth!

Yay! Wait, this makes perfect design sense, and makes players happy, but explain this in a lore sense, I dare you. They couldn't explain why they weren't allowed to fly in the Old World before, how are they going to pull this one off?

7: Dungeon Revamps!

Not surprising. Don't care.

8: Unreleased Zones Now being Unleashed!

Hyjal, Gilneas, and Uldum, among possibly more, are to be unleashed soon unto the world via Cataclysm. Hyjal - About Time. Gilneas - Makes sense what with the Worgen. Uldum - Wait. Zone? NOT Instance? Interesting... And how are they going to pull off flooding Thousand Needles and not take Tanaris with it? The answer is, of course, very carefully. It's possibly, but not probable.

9: Deathwing and Azshara!

Supposedly, those two caused the Cataclysm. Deathwing should have been here a while ago, and Azhsara, well, I forgot about her. Neither of them are big surprises, but I'm just wondering how long it's going to take until we get to kill both of them. A Patch or 3 later, or right off the bat?

10: And the New Guardian of Tirisfal is...

Thrall! Yes, Thrall. Can you believe it? Thrall. Not only do you need 7 Archmages to do the ritual required to appoint a new Guardian of Tirisfal (we don't currently have 7 Archmages capable), but you can only be a Guardian if you're a mage. Thrall, in case you didn't know, is a Shaman, not a mage. This had better be wrong. But if it's true, what is to happen to the horde? Who'd in charge of rebuilding Orgrimmar?

11: Garrosh Takes Over.

This is what I like. I never liked Thrall. He likes the Alliance too much. The Alliance and the Horde are meant to fight, and Thrall keeps trying to make them buddy buddy. Garrosh just wants to kill every human, night elf, space goat, etc.

Thrall will hand over the leadership of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream, while he serves as a coordinator for both the Horde and Alliance forces in and effort to combat the new threat of the Naga and Black Dragonflight. Without Thrall to keep Garrosh in check, he declares open war on the Alliance.

Good. This makes me very happy. Wait. What's that?

In the political upheaval Cairne Bloodhoof is implicated as a traitor to the Horde and murdered by Garrosh. Cairne's son Baine takes over as the new Tauren chieftan.

WHAT?! Garrosh just outright KILLS Cairne? I know that the Tauren are peaceful, but they wouldn't aid the Alliance against the Horde; The Horde is what protects them and where their home is. What hi-jinks ensue causing Garrosh to kill Cairne? This I must know.

Well, that's all they had to say. That's my horribly long ranty opinion on it. Thanks for reading. I'm amazed you made it to the end and survived by inane rantings. Come back later for some more!

- Aro Out

WoW Talk: Worgen and Whatnot.
Aroinak — Aug 11, 2009 12:07:05

First things first, you can find my latest reviews, Wii Sports Resort, and Taking of Pelham 123, through their respective links.

Now to the real topic of today's post. I refrained from posting this way back when the masks were found buried in the patch files because, hey, it's just Halloween masks, could be anything, right? Well, WoW Insider claims that an Inside Souce tells them the new races are confirmed to be Worgen and Goblins. Can't say I didn't see this coming, what with the masks, but it's still pretty big. Keep in mind, everything from here on out is in both hopes that this is true, and pure speculation. Here are my thoughts.

Worgen

I'd say that this is the last race I'd suggest for the Alliance, the least plausible player race, but I'd be lying. They make sense if you twist the lore and interpret it in your own way. Sure, they don't make as much sense as the High Elves (boring), or the Broken (also boring), or even Wildhammer/Dark Iron dwarves (too similar/too evil). My initial logical thoughts on this (beyond the first "Ooh! Pretty! Fun!" thoughts) were that they didn't fit in the Alliance unless they went a special route.

1. Gilneas has been overrun by Arugal's magic and all human settlers there have reverted to Worgen. They wish to come back to the Alliance and join forces yet again. [Starting Area: Gilneas]
2. This "Alternate Dimension" that they were pulled from by Arugal/The Scythe of Elune is actually the Emerald Dream. This expansion would focus on destroying the Emerald Nightmare with the help of the Worgen; a "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend" deal. [Starting Area: Training Ground, Emerald Dream, something similar]
3. Alliance forces all along the northern coastal area (Gilneas, Hillsbrad, etc) have been reverted to Worgen, a totally primal mind. An area past the unused gates in Stormwind (speculated to be used for player/guild housing) are opened to a "training ground" where the Worgen go through Physical (weapons training, etc) and Mental ("You are human, remember?") therapy. Eventually, you get your human mind back and you can use regular weapons and fight. [Starting Area: Training Ground (emptiness north of Elwynn, west of Burning Steppes)]

My first thought was they'd go for the first one. After talking it over with another speculator who claims that they were going to use the area past the gates, the third one came to mind. After reading comments by the WoW Insider team, I thought of the second one. Personally, I think the choices up there are in order of their likelihood of being the true choice.

When it comes to the "They're pure evil! You can't have a pure evil race playable!" Well, each of those has an answer. #1 says "They still have humanity and sanity, just a primal form; thus they come back." #2 says "The Emerald Nightmare changed them. Without the influence of the Nightmare, they turn into the Worgen like Velinde Starsong summoned with the Scythe." #3 says "The Mental Therapy sets aside the primal mind-melting and brings their human minds back into control. They almost 'Tame' them." #3 fits into the Roleplay side of it, featuring the whole "Battling within oneself, trying to contain the inner beast" story.

Also: I really hope they don't give them mounts. They should have the ability to purchase and use mounts, but instead of a racial mount, give them a spell (same cast time, same function, not plainsrunning) to make them run faster, lope on all fours, you know? It'd go the same speed as a mount, they'd have a normal and epic speed spell. Or maybe they could just do it like they did druid; give them a 40% increase on all fours. Just my thoughts.

Goblins

Goblins make phenomenally more sense than Worgen, but are also phenomenally less interesting. Don't get me wrong, I've wanted a goblin this since before Burning Crusade. I just think they went the wrong way making them a horde race. I have a huge idea plotted out for goblins that I could put into blog form, but that'd most likely be too boring to read through. It's an awesome idea, but it's not going to happen. I figured they'd be a neutral faction, then at level 20, they'd choose to go Alliance or Horde.

I have no doubt in mind that Goblins are simply put in the game to be the Horde equivalent to the gnome. We're trying to balance out the races as much as possible nowadays.

• Draenei = Alliance Tauren (shape/size).
• Blood Elf = Horde Night Elf.
• Worgen = Alliance Troll (shape)/Tauren (tribalness).
• Goblins = Horde Gnome.

I don't know quite what to think about the goblins. I'll definitely create one and mess around with it, but I can't help but think it'll be diminished to an almost purely bank-alt race. I have a hard time seeing goblins out on the battlefield of Wintergrasp, or Warsong Gulch, or Isle of Conquest; but I also had a hard time seeing gnomes out there hacking away with an axe at enemies in the heat of battle. Who knows?

That's all for this time around. If more pops up, I'll definitely post my thoughts on it. Please, again note: this isn't confirmed, it's just highly likely. Thanks for reading!

- Aro Out.

WoW Insider: Cataclysm races leaked