The legendary gnoll from the Elwynn Forest, Hogger, becomes a laughingstock in World of Warcraft Dragonflight. Fans are upset – and have a solution.
With the new expansion World of Warcraft Dragonflight, Blizzard is significantly improving the graphics for the aging MMORPG. Many old creatures are also being given new models. One of the oldest enemy species, the gnolls, is receiving a comprehensive overhaul. However, this results in the notorious gnoll Hogger losing his appearance – and in the eyes of many fans becoming a complete laughingstock.
What is the problem? Hogger is considered by many players to be the epitome of menace. Even though the appearance of the gnolls has aged significantly, many still associate Hogger with terror and panic. The fact that this once feared character now appears much cuter and less threatening doesn’t sit well with them.
The new Hogger model looks significantly less menacing. Especially the clearly recognizable eyes, the much smaller head, the lighter fur, and the lack of armor contribute to Hogger simply not appearing as threatening as before.
Hogger is ‘Disney-fied’, criticize WoW players
This is how players react: Even though a fundamental graphics overhaul of the gnolls is well received by many, it is primarily the new design of Hogger that is under criticism. In the World of Warcraft subreddit, comments like these are piling up:
- “Looks more like Hugger than Hogger. The new model doesn’t look threatening or dangerous at all.”
- “Yes, it looks too inappropriate. Too Disney-fied with the eyes and so on […]. Especially sad that Heroes of the Storm got it right, but they [WoW] wanted a cuter direction.”
- “His HotS model is great. This model here is nice, but really dampens his viciousness.”
- “This is not Hogger. This is a generic, rehabilitated gnoll.”
In short: The new model is not well received by the players.
Hogger has special significance: For newer players, Hogger may just be “any elite” encountered during quests in World of Warcraft. However, veterans have a special connection to Hogger. For Alliance heroes, who began their adventure in Elwynn (especially humans), Hogger was the first elite quest they ever encountered. It was the first time many players were forced to find a group to complete a quest.
At the same time, Hogger also has a high nostalgic value, as it often led to “level 1 Hogger raids,” where 20 or more players gathered to try to defeat Hogger – but at level 1. This was during a time when the world still did not scale to the player’s level.
Hogger is so popular that he had a long-standing entry in the statistics: every character could see how many times they had been killed by Hogger.
Community builds better solution in 20 minutes: As is often the case when the player base is not satisfied with content in World of Warcraft, they sit down and create their own solution that they believe looks better. The Reddit user SunwellDaiquiri has restored some of Hogger’s old menace within a few minutes. The fur was darkened and made more shaggy, the tusks were made longer, the eyes returned to their former color, and the shoulder pads appeared more imposing.
This “new new design” has garnered a lot of support within the community. Almost 6,000 upvotes have resulted from this redesign of the gnoll.
Whether Blizzard takes the criticism to heart and reworks the iconic scourge from the Elwynn Forest again remains to be seen. But there are still a few months until the release of Dragonflight.
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