I don't really like the Goblin starting zone that was introduced in Cataclysm.
To me, the goblin backstory is "over-determined". For all the other races in WoW, your background before the starting zone is left very blank. You could be almost anything or anyone. But the goblin zone gives you a very defined place in goblin society. You have a job, a history, friends, and even a girlfriend or boyfriend.
It seems too pushy for an MMO. It might have been fine for a single-player game, but it seems really out of place in an MMO. I like having my character start out as a blank slate.
I think a better idea for the Goblin starting zone would have been to play out a twist. When the goblins escape Kezan and their ship gets blown up, have a "dream fade" in to the next section. You know, one of those wiggly fades that indicates what came before was a dream. Then have all the NPCs treat you as more of a no-name goblin, like all the other starting zones.
So the goblin experience of Kezan becomes a dream or fantasy experience, which accounts for the over-the-top nature of that zone. This makes the true reality of events more obscure, and more in line with all the other starting experiences.
I agree. I played the goblin starting zone only once, just to see it. To me it felt like a an old NES game.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't particularly enjoy the goblin starting area.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do think you can do though, is treat it as one of two things:
1) Your PC has an over-inflated sense/memory of his importance. Like a lot of people in real life who in their own minds are the cog around which their school/workplace/social group turns, but really they're just another person.
2) The starting area is essentially your PC's background story as told by the PC to another person (either you or some nameless person in the game world), complete with a goblin's typical gross exaggeration. I.e. the PC knows that's not really what happened, but Kezan is gone, so good luck proving it.