A Tale of Two Cities

So I dusted off my lvl 80 gnome mage earlier this week. I’d been flying around farming for herbs in the Twilight Highlands and was wondering how different the Alliance story line was in the zone (judging from the numerous areas I flew past that I hadn’t done any quests in, I figure it’s pretty different). So flipped over to my old server (Silvermoon) and moved some gold around between my characters (when I’d switched to Horde, I’d pretty much ransacked the toons I’d left behind), chose a talent spec (I already had arcane glyphs so that made the decision easy), bought Old World Flying, and upgraded my professions.

*Nub Moment Confession* – My gnome had been hanging out in Ironforge for the past year and a half, and in being so forgetful of teleports, I rode the flight path to Stormwind. Didn’t even realize the time I’d wasted until just now as I was writing this.

But now to the point of my post. As I was flying around Stormwind preparing for to embark on leveling the little mage, it struck me how unchanged a big chunk of the Human capital is compared to Orgrimmar. Org saw a complete overhaul in the aftermath of the Cataclysm, and was clearly designed with players and their flying mounts in mind (as evidenced by how long it can take your little pre-mount toon to get from the flight master to the rear gate that exits into Azshara). Stormwind on the other hand has the same narrow streets and alleys as the day it began life as a digital destination.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the layout of Stormwind. It’s a beautiful city that is one of the most lively cities in the game (even before it became the hub of Alliance activity), but it could stand to be opened up a little bit. What do you think?