The steamwheedle preservation society? Noggenfogger in Legion? The Sixtrigger brothers? Mogul Razdunk? (Albeit a different kind of neutral)
And while goblins have been a horde race for a long time, they haven’t really pledged allegiance to the horde before the Bilgewater Cartel did. They’ve always just been contracted to do a job. The Steamwheedle cartel has always stayed “neutral”, as it’s the most profitable option.
Gazlowe is a tricky one since he’s been flip flopping around for 20 years pretending to be neutral while waving horde flags and blowing up alliance ships. He’s always had a soft spot for (Thrall’s) horde, which isn’t very neutral of him if you ask me.
Him randomly becoming trade prince of a cartel he’s not even a part of is really stupid imo, but probably comes from there not being any other candidate available that’s an actual character. There’s Boss Mida and ??? Sassy Hardwrench?? The Gob Squad?
If only this power vacuum was used to create some storytelling, alas.
Consistent storytelling?
Lol, what’s that? :V
Are we playing the same game?
Kinda sus thing 2 say
I’ll take this one, true, but the rest are, like I said, just characters from Vanilla. Of those you listed, only Noggenfogger had any real spotlight, with the Sixtrigger Brothers being another movie reference that served as one questline.
Like I said, I am not denying that there are still neutral goblin NPC’s; what I am saying is that they are vastly outnumbered by the Horde-aligned goblin NPCs, with Blizzard treating the race as mostly Horde-aligned. What I’m saying is that there is less and less Steamwheedle/neutral goblin representation as the game moves forward.
Going from “there aren’t any” to “they haven’t had enough of a spotlight to matter” is quite the leap, though. Especially when goblins get so little spotlight to begin with. Yes, out of like three actual written characters, two of them are more Horde-aligned (with one of those claiming neutrality and the other abandoning the Horde)
You quite literally did but alright, I’ll let it go.
I don’t disagree with this, but I think it’s a matter of where the story is going and the perspective. During the Horde vs. Alliance faction war where the Horde-aligned Bilgewater goblins are attacking Alliance settlements using their patented Bilgewater technology, there’s not many stories to tell about the neutral citizens of Bogpaddle. And even then, there is an emissary from the Steamwheedle Cartel in Dazar’Alor, who is neutral to the player.
Similarly, we haven’t heard anything from faction-aligned Pandaren since MoP (Ji and Aysa don’t count because I said so), so I guess they’re all neutral now. We haven’t heard anything of the Taunka in over a decade so they’re actually extinct.
Is this that far off? Noggenfogger is, as I said, a character introduced in vanilla, which was a part of my statement.
Show me where I said this.
It’s a crying shame and the reason I hung up RP on Mogi.
I know you’re memeing, but you’re vastly misunderstanding or just purposely misrepresenting what I said. My argument is that the Bilgewater Cartel, a supposedly small and insignificant cartel from a single island, has somehow grown to be the most populous and influential goblin cartel on Azeroth, vastly overshadowing The Steamwheedle Cartel, who I’ve argued hasn’t had any decent spotlight since the Bilgewater’s introduction.
Nowhere have I argued neutral goblins do not exist. I have argued that they are not very plentiful in-game excluding the ones already present before Cataclysm, and the faction in WoD that I admittedly forgot about (I remembered killing hippos in Nagrand for something, but I’d forgotten the goblin part).
It is not a lore assertion. It is an observation on the way Blizzard has shifted the goblin narrative to be Horde-centric. I’d also disagree that goblins haven’t had much spotlight at all; I’d argue they are featured only behind orcs in how many questlines involve them in Horde-areas, even in non-Cataclysm zones.
The Bilgewater Cartel is successful seemingly because it’s naturally more vicious than the other Goblin Cartels. The Steamwheedles make their coin from setting up outposts and towns across the world in places that would otherwise be completely inhospitable, their economy being evidently more service based. Meanwhile, the Bilgewater Cartel has a highly production based economy with, in the past, a large metropolitan city, giant factories and oil platforms/industrial resource areas seen in places such as the Barrens, Azshara, Stranglethorn and the Stonetalon Mountains. They produce weaponry and war machines as seen by some quests in BfA, and after joining the Horde they even have their own organized military which other Cartels such as the Steamwheedle Cartel don’t have. So that’s why the Bilgewater Cartel is so dominant, they’re not about having loads of little pockets of the world that they offer refuge in, they sell and use weapons to dominate.
For the record I don’t mind the Bilgewater being portrayed as the largest and most powerful Cartel; I just find it a shame that, consequently, the original goblin position as “the neutral race” has been pushed out of the limelight. I also find it a shame that we still haven’t encountered any other Cartels beyond these two and the Venture Company, likely because of how the focus for goblins as a race has been on Horde-aligned goblins.
Unless my reading comprehension is way off here, or you’re making the point that us not seeing =/= them not existing. I might just be misunderstanding you here though.
The Steamwheedle Cartel should still be the largest cartel, at least unless an official source states otherwise, but the Bilgewater cartel is more represented in the story, simply because that’s where our story is. Again, we don’t really disagree here, the goblin narrative has been more horde-focused lately, but that shouldn’t discredit what the Steamwheedle cartel has done previously. Their trade prince is still alive and kicking, K3 still stands, Fuselight-by-the-sea has not sunk into the sea yet.
When I heard we were revisiting Kezan during BfA I was so excited for some fresh new goblin lore involving cartels, and all we got was a kinda crummy dungeon and one fewer cartel in the world.
That’s alright, I could have worded better. When I say “beside existing ones”, I refer to characters that include Noggenfogger, i.e, goblins that have existed since vanilla. I don’t think it is far off to suggest there has not been a new neutral goblin character introduced in any major capacity; https://wow.gamepedia.com/Goblin
Just look at the “Notable” tab. The majority are either Horde, “Neutral” Bosses, or characters added in Vanilla back when goblins were “the neutral race”.
We agree, because like I said, I wasn’t making any comments on the lore, only on what does and does not get represented in-game.
And one fewer goblin character, likely. Gallywix apparently “fled with Sylvanas’ associates”, but I very, very much doubt we’ll see him in Shadowlands. Could be years until Jastor gets another appearance, just like how he hibernated from Cataclysm-BFA, seemingly.
I’d take that list with a grain of salt since it’s missing quite a few more notable goblins, both neutral and horde. Where’s my man Goldmine?
Tune in next episode of World of Warcraft: Loose Threads, where we also find out what the heck was going on with that whole Cult of Ragnaros thing that was mentioned for all of five minutes.
This is something I’d love to learn more of as well. Also, you all talking about neutral goblins and yet you all forget Everlook in Winterspring 
A basic building block of writing?
But then again…
On topic: Horde RP’s alive and well. I’ve met a lot of people, both within and without of the RP community I’m in.
Don’t tell the WoW writing team, it might scare them.
Did I forget?!
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