This question came into my head today and I can’t seem to find any solid explanation anywhere. In a world where cars, motorcycles, planes, battle tanks and even spacecraft exist, why do we primarily keep using animals to get around?
I’m not complaining, just want some insight into the reasoning within the Warcraft universe, if such exists. Evidently we have the technology, so why isn’t it more widespread?
In the real world cars only fully replaced horses at around the early 1900s. Cars have only been around for about 25 years in the WoW world and there are still places in Azeroth where horse or other animals are more feasable for ground transport.
Cars have not fully replaced pack animals , even today in the real world , let alone in the 1900 .
There were more horses and generic animals used in world war 2 than in world war 1 .
And the reason is that animals can walk where cars cannot pass . aka where there are no roads , which coincidently is most of the world ( of warcraft ) …
Although you could also bring another reason from the real world . Which is , animals usually eat either your food or grass , while cars need fuel , which is not readily available in the middle of no where . Also fuel is more expensive than grass .
Although realistically for wow this is not a reason , cause you have Magic .
The real question is why do we use transportation at all , instead of floating and teleporting everywhere with magic .
And the answer is , because it is cool to have a flying fire breathing horse .
I was thinking along those lines as well, but thank you for your input.
That’s a fair question indeed.
I can answer that!
Portalling/teleporting decays the leylines, and the more decayed a leyline is the more unstable it becomes.
Floating is a difficult spell in-universe and if it runs out over a canyon? Good luck!
The safest way of transportation is still animals.
One factor, I’d guess, is that infrastructure hasn’t fully caught up. Yes, there are paved roads throughout Azeroth, but they often don’t extend into every corner of a zone. More commonly, you’ll find a single main road with smaller dirt trails or rugged paths branching off. The quality of these roads is inconsistent—some abruptly end due to terrain or damage.
On top of that, a comprehensive road network would be difficult to maintain, especially in heavily contested, war-torn, or lawless regions. Even existing roads often suffer from neglect due to ongoing conflict. Building new infrastructure would place a heavy burden on any faction’s resources—resources that are likely prioritized for military needs.
Given all that, it makes sense that traditional animal based mounts like horses remain the practical choice, especially for adventurers frequently heading off the beaten path.
In the case of spacecrafts that, in my opinion, related to availability. There are only 2 and one of them smashed into the ground, the other…is just a plot device.
For this next part I’ll have go to by player experience, which might not be true in cannon. The cars and motorcycles we can get are as fast as a horse, wolf or strider. If this logic applies to the world at large, then there is no point in spending your life’s fortune for a goblin car when horses might be cheaper. Another reason for cars and motorcycles is that goblin(and to an extent gnomish) engineering tends to blow up. In real life nobody would own a car if there was a 50% chance it would explode.
Regarding tanks, well, I guess its the same reason we don’t use tanks for transportation in the real life. Military weapons and lack of civilian access.
Now for flying, we do have flying ships, but these I think are in the same category with the tanks. Not for civilian use. Of course with the exception of the Zeppelin used for vast distances. No different than a boat. I also think copters are in the same category with flying ships and the tanks.
Really it seems that availability and cost seem to be the main reason animal transportation is still a thing. But I think there is another, Warcraft still tries to be tied to the fantasy genre so replacing knights on horses, with knights on motorcycles, would ruin that fantasy. Pretty much like seeing Bilbo drive a Mazda CX7 during the battle of the five armies.