I don’t often roll new characters in World of Warcraft, mostly because I have a finite amount of time and MMOs are intense. But when I do, I often gravitate toward the humble tauren. I think it’s neat that a video game got done with the usual fantasy race options of humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves, and their next thought was: cow people? Cow people. Very good.
Anyway, as a result of rolling several tauren over the years, I have often quested my way through the plains of Mulgore, a zone not entirely unlike my home state of Kansas. And in both Mulgore and in Kansas, there is a little animal beloved by all who see it crawling around in the grass and dirt that I feel the world needs to know about.
It is, of course, the prairie dog. This is a prairie dog:
Prairie dogs are great! They’re cute little rodents that, in real life, burrow around the plains of North America. They are important to the ecosystems out here, mostly because so many different other species eat them, but we all do our part in whatever way we can. Farmers don’t care for them much, but I am not a farmer, I am someone who likes seeing funny little creatures.
Look at it!
World of Warcraft‘s prairie dogs are a very different sort, though. They are by far the ugliest creature in all of Azeroth, and perhaps one of the ugliest little beings I’ve ever seen in a video game. Take a look:
Mm, no, that probably doesn’t do it justice, does it? I tried to get a better screenshot but they are very small and scurry everywhere quite fast. Fortunately, if you target the prairie dog, you get a close-up of its face:
Waagh, woah, yikes! What happened to you, little guy? Why is your head…pointy like that? Why are your eyes so…empty?
The full model isn’t much better. You can see it over at Wowhead, it’s all weird and hunched over. Absolute monstrosity of a critter. How did this happen?
I love it.
This is what the prairie dog currently looks like in WoW: Forever, because it’s based on the original version of WoW, when prairie dogs were just…like this. Unfortunately, Blizzard eventually replaced the model with one that actually looks like a cute prairie dog, and that’s what exists in the retail version of the game.
But of course, happy as people were, there are still many fans of the old, polygonal prairie dog. Which is why I’m so happy to see this freakin’ weirdo in Forever. I can go to Thunder Bluff, sneak around the Hunter’s Rise entrance, and a nice lady named Halpa will sell me a pet prairie dog just like this for 50 silver that I can bust out at any time and enjoy (I don’t have 50 silver).
Three cheers for the humble prairie dog! May you thrive in the vast plains of North America, and in the polygonal plains of Mulgore. We love you forever, ugly prairie dog.
