Me & Transmog Collections: Why Do They Matter?

Some people love collecting things, and some people love trading them. In WoW, players have been able to trade items with each other for years now, but the advent of the auction house has made it easier than ever before. The same goes for a new type of player that has emerged in recent years: the collector.

If you’ve been following my blog for a long, you’ve probably figured out that I have three main World of Warcraft draws.

The first is, of course, mythology and the universe as a whole, which I’ve been a fan of and felt at home with since the 90s series additions. So, for better or worse, I’m going to see this through from the first person viewpoint until the last expansion’s conclusion. Furthermore, the planet itself is arguably the richest, largest, and most expansive, providing infinite opportunities for exploration and creating new tales outside of the existing mythology.

Second, gaming is my primary pastime in general. I don’t do well with extended periods of no-gaming, as shown by the 9.0. content break, and WoW (usually) offers enough material and long-term objectives to keep me going between expansions – which is fantastic. Besides, as a casual player, I’m not concerned with farming anything to increase the strength of my characters; I’m content with just enough to keep me going. If I don’t feel like doing anything, it’s simple for me to attempt a new system or gaming activity and then abandon it. I’m playing the game for pleasure, not for a challenge, to relax rather than to stress, and WoW enables me to do just that.

Three, it is a collection of many kinds of things. There are achievements, map exploration, and other things, but since Draenor, my primary emphasis and interest in the game has shifted to transmog and, to a lesser degree, horses. The rationale is simple, apart from the completionist’s guilty pleasure of having a collection tied up and ready to enjoy, with no gaps. My World of Warcraft experience is on people and their journeys across the world – personal storytelling and creating not a DPS machine, not a technical toon, but – first and foremost – a Character with a capital C.

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WoW, like any decent MMO that recognizes this, goes all out with character customisation, successfully satisfying this need. Choosing a faction, race, class, and spec determines your character’s personality, but the actual fun takes place in the barbershop and transmog interface. It’s more than simply a little tinkering or a stylish appearance.

If we get a gnome subtlety rogue, for example, it’s not going to stop here. Yes, if you choose that, you’re playing a sly character that enjoys cuteness, eccentricity, and fun, but your character may go down any number of routes. The same gnome subtlety rogue could be played and perceived as a ninja, a sellsword or ranked SI:7 spy, a royally clad assassin who lives in high society, a member of a street gang (you really don’t want to know about the Stormwind mafia), a village bandit from a cave hideout, a smuggler – you name it.

For example, my own rogue Pins is dressed in finery since she aspires to high ranks and high society, and she feels at home among Alliance nobility, so she naturally chose Venthyr in the Shadowlands, where her clothing and persona also fit:

Furthermore, your route and narrative are not set in stone and may vary depending on events. In an ice-and-snow expansion like Northrend, for example, you wouldn’t want to wander about in your underwear and would instead choose a complete costume, perhaps with fur components. Alternatively, during the Alliance-Horde conflict, you may choose to wear the faction colors in your clothing to show your loyalty, or – while in Rome – adopt the locals’ wearing style, such as in Pandaria or Draenor – even if you’re not a panda, orc, or draenei.

So, who knows, maybe when we go for the next expansion, it’ll be a hot and humid location, like the beach or the forest, and she’ll strip down to her sandals? 🙂

Faces, scars, and haircuts are all important. You must not only choose an outfit to create your character’s personality, but you must also match it in the barbershop. I discovered that hair color has a significant impact on character perception.

For example, my more harsh and hasty characters, such as DK, DH, warrior, and warlock, would have dark and black hair, while a calm and down-to-earth goblin shaman would have light brown hair. Schlitzchen is colored in a calm and grounded chestnut, with additional rave alternatives (orange and turquoise) for characters that want to shine out. But white is my favorite color:

It’s not an old-man (-woman) gray-white, but rather a sign of a calm and logical personality, always ready to reason and empathize. Naturally, each of these cartoons has a unique history, age, attitude, and willingness to laugh, but this is the character characteristic that unites them. A draenei hunter and an elf druid wear white since their tranquility derives from wandering in starlit forests, paladins and priests wear white because of holyness and sacrifice, and my main is a scholar type ice mage, thus.

But let’s go back to the collections from the barbershop. Since the character creation screen and at any time throughout the game, Barbershop has every choice accessible. Transmog collections, on the other hand, are not.

My characters, as previously said, are flexible and adapt to their surroundings. They may wish to radically alter their mood – and therefore their clothing – even within the same patch, save expansion, and surrounding in-game cultural influences. Because expansion techniques vary, people change (often to the point of a race change), and their attitudes alter, you can never know what will come in useful ahead of time. I’d go through hundreds of daggers, staves, chest pieces, and boots just to discover that only one choice fits – and it’s either from vanilla levels or had to be farmed in prior raids or dungeons. Even recoloring is important – a lot.

This is why I put so much work into this, making it my main aim to collect as many costumes as possible. Because that one hideous outfit from Bastion or Twilight, or a strange, primitive Ahn’Kiraj bug costume, could be the only thing that fits how your character feels right now. And what makes me roll in WoW and other games is being in sync with my characters, creating their tales and attitudes about the universe.