This review of Gelbin Mekkatorque: Cut Short by Cameron Dayton is a mild spoiler-filled type. Be warned.
Much like the Vol’jin: The Judgement, Gelbin Mekkatorque: Cut Short explains one of the more shadowed leaders encountered in World of Warcraft. I must admit that I, unlike iTZKooPA, cannot say that I’ve ever had a soft spot for Gnomes. Ever in the lifetime of my gaming, I’ve never cared for them in any way, shape, or form beyond the fact that they have a superior intellect and actually care for safety in their inventions, unlike their Goblin counterparts.
Being one who was always happy to jump into a “Gnome Punting” joke session, when I saw this short story released, I was slightly hesitant to read it. But, despite that, it surprised me in a few spots.
I remember it wasn’t long ago that all us Alliance players were jumping into Operation Gnomeregan. Again, like with the troll counterpart, there was some lore explained and furthered through this mini-world event — however I felt that the Troll event was done in a way that players actually understood what was going on. I felt in Operation Gnomeregan that not much was taken back – considering I still need to run Gnomeregan as a dungeon to claim it from the Troggs. The end boss has always been Thermaplugg, but I never knew why. And considering that he… disappears in the short story, it still doesn’t correlate to the dungeon changing ever.
It was to my surprise to learn in this short story that Thermaplugg was indeed a close and dear friend of Mekkatorque – akin to the Anakin / Obi-Wan construct. Thermaplugg saw a twisted view of the world and wanted to build it for himself, and Mekkatorque wasn’t willing to go along with it, so he had to be eliminated.
While the story is sometimes bland, it’s fun to see how Cameron Dayton takes us through Mekkatorque’s logic and thought process as he finds himself an escape route from a trap of Troggs laid by Thermaplugg. I almost felt like I was reading a logic walkthrough of a Sherlock Holmes “observation.” It had some indirect combat, and some fun little banter between the antagonist and protagonist, but didn’t delve more into the deep character personalities that could exist beyond the surface.
With the story being just 19 pages (in PDF format, 7 on the web), it feels just long enough to get you through this anecdote of the leader, while being too short of making me care for a character that I didn’t care for before picking it up.
In the end, I was entertained as I read. It kept me busy from doing things I should have been doing. So take a few minutes to read it, if you like!
I was really hoping for a quest to open up in Wrath of the Lich King that had evil Gnomes.
There was a quest line in Borean Tundra that explained how the Gnomes were created. And then had an ancient Machine undo the curse of the flesh. As hardcore as the Gnomes seem to be into tech and perfect plans I was surprised no Gnomes came later and stole the defeated machine’s broken body, rezed him and had a mecha cult.
I think a group of gnomes turning people into machines would be a nice parallel to the lich king turning them all into zombies. In fact it could have been a nice Alliance bad guy thing. Where the Gnomes could have been actually divided on this cult. Some wanting to stop and destroy them, and others wanting to curb them in and of course study them. Having read up on the Gnomes a lot I was surpised their curiosity about that machine ended there. I could seriously see their society weighing the pros and cons of going back to machines.
Then this could of course give the Horde a logical reason to attack them since they would be turning horde and alliance alike. This could also bring in some Alliance fracturing that the side so despratly needs. Maybe have a scarlet crusade against Mecha? Maybe have the Dwarves start to distrust their stalwart allies?
Maybe this Mecha cult could have rezed some of the Ulduar Consruct Guardians to help them along. Maybe even opened up a new Hero class, of Meched up toons to play or at the very least a different mech skin for future gnomes to play with. Maybe add a new racial.
More wasted lore by Blizzard.
That was another thing that interested me, it explained some of the Gnomish culture, but I didn’t feel it really important to add it.
It said that because they were the smallest race know, they were always afraid of everyone but other gnomes. There was a sense of unity because of that, and no one went against another gnome. They did things only to help the gnome people as a whole. That’s why Thermaplugg is such a wild card because he was the first gnome ever to turn against the people.