The Tielfling and The Gnome: On the Set of 4th edition

[Spatula]

Funny stuff with the gnome.

But that wasn't a tiefling, that was a red-skinned Draenei, right down to the pseudo-Russian accent.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Draenie_copy.jpg

 

[Tewligan]

I never laugh when the joke is predicated on someone else's pain. It's called empathy.

I...are you serious? You can't be serious. Are you talking about the "pain" of the gnome? The pain of the nonexistant, totally imaginary, never-was-real gnome? Or do you mean the "pain" of someone who's upset that the aforementioned imaginary creature won't be in one book about an equally imaginary world? Either way, that's not empathy, that's being an oversensitive crybaby. And stereotyping gnomes is equivalent to real-world blackface? You have a seriously freaking twisted sense of perspective.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Uhm...was this supposed to be funny? Mrs. "wannabe-ultra-cool super-bitch" meets Mr. "nerdy super-geek" and they face off with boring one-liners? "Bring it, Scruffy"?

Although...if spread on the Cartoon Network and similar channels, it might bring more kids into the game again. Everything's got a silver lining.

 

[Khuxan]

Funny stuff with the gnome.

But that wasn't a tiefling, that was a red-skinned Draenei, right down to the pseudo-Russian accent.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Image:Draenie_copy.jpg

I think the accent-tie-in-with-WoW was deliberate - I know I got a kick out of it.

 

[erf_beto]

Uhm...was this supposed to be funny? Mrs. "wannabe-ultra-cool super-bitch" meets Mr. "nerdy super-geek" and they face off with boring one-liners? "Bring it, Scruffy"?

Although...if spread on the Cartoon Network and similar channels, it might bring more kids into the game again. Everything's got a silver lining.

I guess it IS funny because I could not in a million years believe they would choose to that way, i.e. portraying the gnome like that. I always like when people go over the edge in unusual ways...

But it was freaking hilarious - not the tiefling killing him and taking his stuff (although that has a charming metagame component as well), but the fact the gnome is all jazz'd about having a lair and minions (a terryfing badger!), that was precious!

And yes, this will bring the attention of a lot of yongsters and WoW players. Seriously, why would a MMO munchkin play a gnome? They want a badass/hulk-smash/super-sayajin4/chuck norris kinda of character, hence the tiefling attitude (and accent!).

Of course, this is a CARTOON, people! With STEREOTYPES. Artistic license is given to portray these characters in a NON REALISTIC manner. The proper gnomes and tieflings will probably not look exactly like that, so no bug eyes and tiefling I-can't-pass-through-this-door horns...

 

[pedr]

And this answers a thread from a couple months ago: 'tiefling' is pronounced 'teef-ling,' not 'tie-fling.'

I didn't see that thread, but how could there ever be an argument? The name was invented by Wolfgang Baur, who I believe is German (and if he isn't is clearly of German descent and speaks the language). German - unlike English - has some very strict pronunciation rules: 'ie' is always pronounced 'ee' as in 'free' in English and 'ei' is always pronounced 'y' as in 'fry' in English.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiefling for the history of the word, although it lists both pronunciations, which I think is unfortunate (though understandable if there are significant numbers of people who pronounce it ty-fling)

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Fun.

Who's your minion?

 

[Wormwood]

Maybe they were assuming people had a sense of humor.

D&D. Serious Business.

 

[vagabundo]

I really like the spots, they are fun. Not laugh out load funny for me, but they do amuse me.

And I am in shock at some of the posts in this thread, I really hope my sarcasm filter is jammed on or Dear God, Mother Mary and all the Saints save us!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

It just seemed like they made him ridiculous and slightly retarded sounding.

Yeah. Well, that's because he was a gnome.