Since the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta launched several months ago, it seems those poor Worgen have been getting the bum end of the stick. Their starting quests have been thoroughly bugged, beta testers have been saying that the starting experience for that new race isn’t as robust as the goblins’ and there have been no female Worgen available this whole time (and there still aren’t). So, what’s the deal?

Let’s get the bugs out of the way first. I’m pretty sure several of the major ones have been taken care of in the last few beta updates, we just may not hear about them as frequently as other big content being added, like the guild leveling system or archeology. So, if you want to play a male Worgen on the beta right now, you can probably do so with little to no issues cropping up.

Next let's look into why the Worgen experience may not seem as fleshed out as the Goblin one. To answer that inquiry, we don’t have to look any farther back than the beta and release of The Burning Crusade expansion, which was the last time new races were added. During the beta, the Blood Elf race was by far the better of the two starting experiences. It left the Draenei in the dust. While I think the Draenei models are better, their starting experience didn’t even include their own low-level reputation build to coincide with Tranquillen rep for the Blood Elves. To this day I still think the Draenei experience is rather lackluster to the horde equivalent.

Aside from that, the Blood Elves were something that a lot of people were looking forward to from a lore perspective, and the Draenei simply were not. This isn’t to mention they attempted to stealthily change Draenei lore that had already been established to make their presence on Azeroth more streamlined in that respect. Ultimately, I really enjoy playing as a Draenei. Most of my alliance characters are members of that race. However, I enjoyed the experience of starting as Blood Elf more.

Fast forward to now. We once again have two new races – Worgen for the alliance and Goblin for the horde. It seems once again, also, that the horde get the better end of the deal, because the goblin starting experience is pretty much a huge can of awesomesauce. Whenever two new races are introduced, one always seems to miss the train and is left standing in the rain, and this is how I see it here, as well.

Finally, the fact that female Worgen models are still not available for play in the game is upsetting to some. Rest assured, they will be in the final product, I just think Blizzard’s designers are having a hell of a time trying to get things right, because it seems like every time we turn around the models look different. This goes for male Worgen too, but especially for the females.

Right now you can create a female Worgen, but when you log in as that character, you’re left with a fugly male human model to play the actual game with. I’d rather they take their time now to make the models look awesome, than to throw something they’re not proud of into the game. However, this is beta, things can be changed. We have nearly two months until Cataclysm releases, that’s plenty of time to update the models, just let us log in and play as female Worgen, because I really want to try out the Worgen starting experience and I can’t stand to even look at human male character models because they hurt my eyes and make me laugh, at the same time.

Anyway, this beta report was more of me rambling about my thoughts as to why the Worgen aren’t fully up and running as they should be yet. Just remember, folks, we have two months left and Blizzard isn’t one to half-ass things. All will be well for the final release.