The Brewstrider 18-A: A Modest Proposal

The Problem?
Every year in the World of Warcraft, Brewfest descends upon the denizens of Azeroth.

What is Brewfest, you might ask? Only the most fun of all of Blizzard’s seasonal events. Developed in 2007, this event encourages players to partake in a variety of drinking related minigames for prize tickets and other rewards. Of course, you wouldn’t necessarily even know that all of these exist. For instance, the Wolpertinger’s Tankard summons a pet that only drunk people and a player’s party members can even see!

Arguably, one of the niftiest quirks of this event’s freshman outing was that Blizzard saw fit to give a specially decorated riding ram as a reward for the most dedicated of players. (Technically, anyone lucky enough to play during the first day had a pretty good shot at this mount due to issues with the rewards system.) What’s particularly novel is that while a riding ram is typically an Alliance mount, Horde could take part in the festivities for their very own riding ram as well.

Amidst complaints from Alliance players who rely on very, very low droprates to get ahold of comparable Horde mounts. Thus, before the 2007 Brewfest had even ended and continuing well into 2008, Blizzard employees hinted to Alliance players that they would be rewarded with a comparable mount come Brewfest 2008.

However, news broke in June of 2008, shortly after pictures of the new Great Brewfest Kodo had leaked, that Blizzard had reconsidered its prior stance on cross-faction mounts. No more Horde players would receive riding rams in 2008 and the Great Brewfest Kodo would be reserved for members of the Horde.

This resulted in a fairly noticeable uproar and has resulted in hundreds of pages of debate on the forums. (Which aren’t really worth linking to as they’re basically two sides reusing the same arguments without really engaging eachother with a few people egging eachother on. Blizzard’s forums sadly seem to generate an atmosphere in which trolling is FAR too tolerated.)

Essentially, the arguments are as follows, regarding whether both sides deserve a chance at the new Kodo mount.

Pros:
– Blizzard already allowed Horde to receive easy, soloable cross-faction mounts last year. Any attempts by an Alliance player to obtain Horde-style mounts are more difficult and less reliable than Horde efforts to obtain Alliance mounts have been in the past.

– If Horde receives a new mount out of this year’s Brewfest while Alliance players are limited to last year’s option, there is no real incentive for Alliance to participate in Brewfest this year, at least for those players who earned the riding ram last year.

Cons:
– Alliance already has access to more Horde mounts, numerically, than Horde has access to Alliance mounts. (There is some debate on this issue how difficult to obtain the Swift Spectral Tiger is to obtain and whether the Cenarion War Hippogryph should be considered an Alliance mount that Horde have unreasonably easy access to.)

– Cross-faction mounts dilute the sense of faction identity that the game has typically provided thus far. (I’m not sure I think this is a bad thing. Something is desperately wrong when one faction’s players get Horde tattoos as a badge of pride and Alliance players are generally embarrassed to speak up. I subscribe to the rather unpopular view that Blizzard should be responsible for balancing the levels of morale and pride between the Alliance and Horde if they want to be true custodians of an organic play environment.)

These arguments went back and forth for well over a thousand pages of discussion across many forums with very few new points, compromises or suggestions being offered as to how to resolve this issue, which a LOT of Warcraft’s playerbase seems VERY passionate about. (Or at the very least, the passionate ones are vocal.)

The Solution!

The Brewstrider 18-A Schematics

Blizzard has made a very conscious design choice here to re-affirm the boundaries of the Horde and Alliance factions by segregating the mount options offered at Brewfest. Weighing this in with the arguments made, it seems almost futile to hope that Blizzard would reverse its decision on allowing members of the Alliance to receive the Brewfest Kodo.

While design choices cannot be made in a vacuum, this is also perhaps the least democratic area of online collaborative play. Blizzard will respond (albeit slowly or in unexpected ways) to perceptions of imbalance in the game mechanics. However, design choices don’t seem to have nearly as much weight in determining Blizzard’s decisions regarding the shiny objects littered throughout Azeroth. If they did, surely Horde would have access to the Sprite Darter Hatchling or the Wintersaber Trainers faction.

So the real crux of the issue to address here as I see it is that Horde players will be receiving new content that encourages them to take part in the Brewfest holiday while Alliance will be receiving nothing new of note. (Yes, there is a new boss with a few purple items but that’s not the real heart of the holiday and with Wrath of the Lich King impending, those items really won’t have the staying power of a cool new mount.)

So with this in mind, I submit my design of a Brewfest Mechanostrider into the discussion.

The Mechanostrider works as a reward that is comparable to the Kodos is several ways.

First, Gnomes are pitted opposite Taurens in the game itself in several key ways, notably in the Orb of Deception costume change. Taurens ride Kodos. Gnomes ride Mechanostriders. There is a symmetry to offering a Mechanostrider and a Kodo at the same time.

Second, since the Mechanostrider is an Alliance mount, giving it to Alliance players does NOT dilute the faction rivalries in the game.

Additionally, this would be a nice show of good will towards disgruntled Alliance players since the standard Mechanostriders are only ridable by forty percent of the Alliance races. (Special event mounts almost never have race restrictions.) Therefore with a holiday Mechanostrider, many people would be getting something new and special.

The Mechanostrider is also practically the only Alliance mount not to be redecorated or offered in a “limited edition” form.

And what about the Brewfest Ram you ask? Well, I think it should either remain as a crossfaction mount or Blizzard should discontinue offering it. Anything else seems unfair to the Horde players who have spent the last year awaiting their next opportunity to earn one. If Alliance can still receive it, it seems like a bitter taunt to those players. Either keep it as it was last year or get rid of it.

Comparing the 2007 Swift Brewfest Ram to the Swift Brewstrider 18-A. Side perspective.

Compared to Last Year’s Model

In my own rendering of this hypothetical mount, I took steps to retain as much of the design aesthetic as possible. Note the signature eerie green light emanating from both models, the keg parts riveted on as armor, the dull shade of gray employed and the decorative red and yellow highlights.

Comparing the 2007 Swift Brewfest Ram to the Swift Brewstrider 18-A. Front perspective.

I made an effort to retain the aesthetic as much as possible, right down to the rivets fastening on the keg armor and the reddish tint of the leather seat pad, which makes the Brewstrider’s seat look a bit like the rich, leather mahogany interior of a sports car.

One key difference, however, is that while the Brewfest logo is embroidered into the blanket of the Brewfest Ram, the Brewstrider, being metal, instead has a faded decal advertising it as a relic of the yearly boozing celebration.

What do these two mounts have in common? Neither has been implemented in game.

Compared to the Standard Model

Much like the ram, it is only when comparing the Brewfest Mechanostrider against its non-seasonal counterpart that the changes become apparent.

The most obvious of these changes are, naturally, the keg panels and green tint. However, the coloration has also been vastly modified from that of any previously seen mechanstrider.

Q: What's red and brew and drunk all over?

The highlights on this particular model are original and, in some cases, I had to cheat or tweak the arrangement of existing items to arrive at the desired effect.

Spiralling out from the idea that a Brewfest mount might have wooden keg armor, I quickly realized that the inorganic Mechanostrider could carry this motif further. The legs are also made from a shade of wood similar to the keg armor with metal reinforcements. In place of the Gnomish bolts found on standard Mechanostriders and other mechanical Gnomish creatures are tiny wagon wheels which mimick the keg-hauling carts that appear during the Brewfest event.

Finally for a bit of flair, a very faded yellow skull and crossbones appears on the front chestplate of the Brewstrider.

Lore Wars

Finally, the only question remaining would be an issue of how incorporate the mount into the game proper. There are, after all, story reasons that dictate and govern events, even in a game like WoW (contrary to the opinions of some).

With that in mind, I supply the following example backstory for what the Brewstrider 18-A could represent:

The people of Ironforge are always in search of the next great ale. When members of the Dwarven Explorer’s Club ran across a recipe for an ancient Thalassian Fel Ale, many brew connoisseurs thought it would be a cause for celebration. Many Harvest Golems were turned loose in Outland and on the Isle of Quel’Danas in search of the elusive Felweed that would be fermented and brewed for this lost alcoholic elixir. Unfortunately, after the Thunderbrew Distillery had already brewed an entire warehouse full of the stuff, several curious workers sampled the stuff and learned that it was too pungent, even for the Dwarves’ iron stomachs.

Shortly afterwards, King Magni Bronzebeard outlawed the consumption of Thalassian Fel Ale by royal decree. Naturally, this wasn’t good news for the Thunderbrew Destillery as they had spent virtually everything they had into developing this new ale in time for Brewfest.

Fortunately, a brilliant young gnome named Molly Voltsteed entered the picture. She had been working on developing a new, more powerful variety of Mechanostrider. This new breed would be strong enough to support the weight of an adult Draenei! However, although Molly had traveled throughout Azeroth and all through the fires of Outland, she could not find a fuel powerful enough to drive her new prototype Mechanostrider.

However, after a chance meeting in a Tavern, Molly Voltsteed became aware of the Thunderbrew Destillery’s overstock of Thalassian Fel Ale. Experimenting with the banned substance as a new form of a fuel, she discovered it was a startling success! Thus was born the Brewstrider 18-A, Azeroth’s finest hybrid fuel vehicle!

However, a crisis struck shortly thereafter when Brewfest organizers realized that they had accidentally given an entire shipment of Brewfest Riding Rams to the Horde the year before. Worse, they would be completely out of Rams this year for Brewfest and have no new mounts to offer the celebrants this year. Fortunately, they caught wind of Molly Voltsteed’s invention and managed to strike a deal for the festival to act as exclusive discributor for the new concept ‘strider!

Oh. And in case you’re wondering? “18-A”, besides being another serial number applied to a piece of Azerothian engineering, is a reference. The 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution banned the sale of alcohol, launching a period known as the prohibition.

Similar laws were put into effect courtesy of the Volstead Act, which also helped launch the prohibition. And one of the people who pushed for this prohibition was a beer-busting vigilante named “Molly Hatchet” who took her name from a legendary 17th century serial killer (not the rock band).

So the WHOLE THING is a booze reference.

Whew! I need a drink…

Comparing the 2007 Swift Brewfest Ram to the Swift Brewstrider 18-A. Side perspective.

Comparing the 2007 Swift Brewfest Ram to the Swift Brewstrider 18-A. Front perspective.

What do these two mounts have in common? Neither has been implimented in game.

Q: What’s red and brew and drunk all over?

The Brewstrider 18-A Schematics