One step forward, two steps back (aka another Gnomer post…sort of)
October 9, 2009 § 5 Comments
So one of rumouncements (that’s rumor/announcements for those of you playing along at home) posted on WoW.com today was about the retaking of Gnomeregan. Seeing as how this issue is near and dear to my heart I was super excited to see a semi-official source saying that we will be retaking Gnomerergan. I looked at the image in the article and read the text in it, “For Gnomeregan! After five years of players purging Gnomeregan of its irradiated inhabitants, Gnomes may finally be able to reclaim their home as a new capital city for the Alliance…”
Seriously. Awesome.
However my joy was short lived. First I had to bring myself back down to reality and remember that this was all hearsay and speculation anyway. The second thing that I realized was I had missed the last part of the text in the quote on the image. “…until they mess it up again.”
Ok look. I love gnomish engineering in all its quirks. Sometimes the failures are more fun and exciting than the actual intent of the device (catastrophic poultryizer failure anyone?), and it’s these little quirks that make playing Gnomes fun. We’re eccentric, clever, ingenious, and loyal. We are not however, children, footballs, fools, or failures.
What I’m getting at I suppose is I am bothered by the continual lack of respect for gnomes, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the players who play them. I’m not railing against the taunts and cries of the Horde. They are the opposing side. They are supposed to hate us. I’m bothered by those who would call us allies. Goodhearted teasing isn’t the problem. I tease my friend who plays a Night Elf about being a dang dirty lazy hippie. So when a few jokes about my stature or the reach of my arm comes my way, it doesn’t phase me. It’s when people step in with the attitude (and sometimes the phrase), “Step aside shorty, let the real heroes take care of this.” It shows a fundamental lack of faith and trust. So when I read that we might get to retake Gnomeregan “until [we] mess it up again” I can’t help but feel the heavily implied (intended or not) disrespect.
Don’t write us off.
You may regret it.
“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”
~Fizz
PS: Anyone who doesn’t think that the gnomes are heavily denigrated, just go read the comments in that post I mentioned. Yes, many of the comments are cheers of huzzah, and there are an equal amount of people crying “If you give the Gnomes back their home, the Trolls should get theirs too.” But if you really read the comments, you will pick up on an immense amount of flippant disregard for the Gnomes.
PPS: Just as a side note, for anyone wondering, yes I support the Trolls getting their own city (whether it be the Echo Isles or not).
The Cranky Old Gnome 
I think you might enjoy this if you haven’t seen it already 🙂
That video is awesome. I mean, the ending was a little anti-climactic, but the gnome separatist part is great.
I don’t think the Trolls will get their own city.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot. My first reaction was “cool, I guess this means trolls get a city too”. But on further reflection, I doubt that’s what will happen.
Let’ suppose Gnomes get their city back. Let’s also suppose each faction will be getting a single new city with this expansion. Given what we know about Worgen and Gilenas, this seems like a safe assumption. Worgen aren’t getting their own city, they get a district in Stormwind and have their capital become the new Wintergrasp (or new Grizzly Hills Venture Bay :p).
So, if each faction only gets one new city, are the Trolls getting a town or are the goblins? Again, we know the goblins are going to do some serious reshaping of Ashara. We also know Orgimmar will be expelling the trolls and not letting the goblins settle. Odds are it’s the Goblins building the new Horde city, with the trolls helping out.
Of course, there’s no way know, but speculation is fun!
Well, if it happens that the Worgen get a district in Stormwind and the Goblins become integral to Garrosh’s new Horde city (i.e. getting their own small part of the town) it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Trolls could get their own place, if the Gnome get there’s. In terms of ‘if you get one, we get one’ that would be fair.
But if you move out of that realm, I would suggest that while the Trolls may appreciate having a town to call their own it doesn’t carry the same weight that Gnomeregan does for the Gnomes. None of the Trolls cry out ‘For the Echo Isles!’ or even ‘For the Darkspear!’ when charging into battle. And as far as I can tell, there is a much greater respect between the Orcs and Trolls.
The Trolls want their own place. The Gnomes need their own place.
Awesome video… thanks for sharing oh Cranky one!