Azeroth Choppers Episode 7 - Vote Now!

Both are works of art, not here to judge certain aspects. (imo would have preferred a regular(?) chopper with tires instead of treads but oh well. I think the primary reason for this is Blizz wanted a new bike in the game, not engineer choppers 2.0.) That being said, I expected the Alliance to be a bit more conservative. Interestingly enough its the Horde bike that's a bit more traditional. At the same time the Ally bike is a chopper versus a trike. I was also hoping for more racial elements. I liked the tip of the hat to the gnomes with the gear on the left side -the elven arrows could have gone. That being said there are no elven / draenei themes, this is a pure eastern kingdoms bike. Same criticism can be applied to the Horde bike. No racial influences. To me, it's boring--two grunt shoulder pads and some tusks. The Horde has more to offer than that. Why not some skulls up in that front gap between the tusks? (Or shrunken heads mon... ) That being said the Alliance bike is much more creative and exciting. The gleaming armor plating looks beautiful. I agree the frame needed to be a flat tone, but with how clean that armor is how could you not.

TL;DR the Alliance bike impresses me; feels complete, the Horde bike does not; needs more.

The should have given them more time. I really can't understand why they didn't. I was wondering the whole time why it was so important to make the bikes so quickly. I really don't care whether blizz implements the bikes into the game in July or September.
The front fenders of the aliance bike look more like Southsea pirate cutlass than aliance knight sword if you ask me. Not a fan of the treads. Again, if they had more time for a proper research maybe the would get it right. Still, I admire the work and effort they put into both bikes.

Originally Posted by Visenna

The should have given them more time. I really can't understand why they didn't. I was wondering the whole time why it was so important to make the bikes so quickly. I really don't care whether blizz implements the bikes into the game in July or September.
The front fenders of the aliance bike look more like Southsea pirate cutlass than aliance knight sword if you ask me. Not a fan of the treads. Again, if they had more time for a proper research maybe the would get it right. Still, I admire the work and effort they put into both bikes.

Come on now, that whole "we need it in within x weeks" thing was obviously fake drama. Blizzard's most notable professional trait is that they dont release stuff before it is perfect. Do you really think they would invite error and mess ups of one of their products by putting pressure on someone extern? The OCC guys are the professionals in this case, who would blizz be to dictate them an apparently impossible time frame? And why would there be the need of such pressure? The episodes show snow, so it's several months past. Also, there's been a big delay on WoD alpha/beta progress, so there's no need for pressure on having it out till then either. Blizzcon 2014 meanwhile will be in November, so plenty of time there as well. It's tv drama, same as one of the horde guys dropping out, parts missing and whatever. The episodes were obviously recorded many months before release. Why would that be, if time was so essential? They obviously didn't have any deadline they needed to meet. For what could these bikes be so important? They dont fit in the new x-pack specifically, they are totally random. The OCC team had all the time in the world, and worked to the best of their abilities, I am sure.

On how they decided on tank treads, or why they wanted sabres for the fender, I dont know. One thing's for sure: blizz was not surprised when they were shown those bases. All act. Blizz obviously went through everything with these guys, and tanks treads and tractor wheels and a trike base, they were all decided on prior. OCC wouldn't want to put all their work into that and see blizz react like we do? Tank treads? Eeeeew, gross. Blizz wanted something epic(abnormal). A normal chopper wouldn't do, so treads it is. They likely did bet on players following the "it's a tank bike/trike!1!!1?!" mentality and be all over it. You really believe a company as high up there as blizz would leave the creation of the base up to chance, especially IF they really were short on time frame? What if the bases weren't satisfying? Doing it all over? So much crap in it. Blizz should've thrown this whole drama crap out of the window and instead of voting for one side, they should've offered a vote on different designs for each side, and come out front about their obvious intend to make them both avaiable through the b-store.

Originally Posted by pfbe

It is. The whole thing is a byke-themed Jersey Shore for autistic teens.

You insult autistic teens everywhere...

But on a serious note, since autism is at least partly the difficulty in grasping social cues, seems like most reality tv drama wouldn't be that attractive to them

Originally Posted by Omanley

Come on now, that whole thing thing was obviously fake drama

Fixed. I would imagine that the time frame being compressed was probably done because all the planning and design themes were figured out ahead of time. It seemed to me about episode 5 or 6 that the first four episodes all happened in the first week or so of the build... then the others were weeks later. I wish people would stop watching shows like these and make content providers make actual entertainment again.

Alliance bike looks like a fucking ant.

Tank treads were such a stupid idea.

Originally Posted by Neptuno

Fixed. I would imagine that the time frame being compressed was probably done because all the planning and design themes were figured out ahead of time. It seemed to me about episode 5 or 6 that the first four episodes all happened in the first week or so of the build... then the others were weeks later. I wish people would stop watching shows like these and make content providers make actual entertainment again.

Well yeah. My TV has been collecting dust for years now, guess why? Good shows can be watched online anway.

The actual deal with OCC, the design ideas, the decision on the bases, the entire thing was planned through, including the drama, to the end. Then at certain steps they record for the episodes, and put them together. I have no doubt that by the time they released the first episode on april 17th, all 7 were already finished already, and the bikes as well. Releasing it once a weak was just a tension raiser.

I kinda feel bad for people watching this naively and innocently like they are witnessing a work in progress (no offense ).

The fact that we can be logged into battlenet and repeatedly vote is kind of a big indicator on this "vote" thing. Think about it.

1. Those things aren't cheap. So do you really think they'd not use one?

2. The obvious outrage the losing side would have, especially considering the point blank obvious fake voting system.

Fake drama is fake. 10 year anniversary is coming up. Why do you think they had the bikes made? Come on this isn't hard.

Alliance all the way!

The Horde trike (not bike) looks too plasticky and cartoony. The finish on it doesn't give it that mean look they were going for. It's too generic and has been done to death. We already have tusks and spikes everywhere. Give us something new! I already have a trike on my horde toons anyway. It's just boring

I think the craftsmanship on the Alliance bike is far better than the Horde one, both look good, but the swords on the front of the alliance bike put it just a notch above the horde.

Doesn't matter, will not be voting for reasons already stated by myself and many others at the introduction of this marketing/publicity stunt.

After wasting time and watching all of the episodes, I would be willing to bet that if people didn't see the one episode that the Blizzard people mentioned Nerubian about the alliance bike, very high percentile of people in this thread complaining about it wouldn't make the reference to it.

Either way, the show was as fake as any "reality" tv-show out there. The whole horde bike not starting and stuff, yeah...
The horde logo on the wood part looks pretty bad. And somehow the I feel there is a lack of contrast, besides the metal-look that looks great, on the paint job on horde bike.
There isnt much of a paint job on alliance bike either as its mostly chrome & brass & blue, but the design feels slicker.

I dont like either bikes tank thread idea. Nor the fact horde is a trike and has a tractor wheel infront. Both equally bad-ish.

What I do have to give credit to is the phenomenal leather work on the seats on both bikes.

The clutch is horrible on horde one, seems too hard to use IRL. Luckily that isnt any factor in here.
Feel like they should have painted the tusk from wood to ivory color to make it feel little more genuine. Also the spikes on the "shoulderpads" in the back, and this is completely personal preference, should have been otherway around for the speed-look factor. And not sure what the places under the feet are supposed to represent in horde bike.

Overall I feel like alliance one on it is slightly better. Well with the tank threads at least both should work somewhat in the snow for "immersion" in the game for anyone who looks for it.

A few things here.

1) The timeframe. They wanted to push these bikes out around Wildstar launch to minimize damage. Activision is a business and of course is going to try to "compete" with the competition. What they will do, is give every subscriber the mount for free in the mail for like a week or whatever. People who aren't subbed to WoW will want to resub so they don't miss out on their mount, even if they don't know if they will be back. But this gives Blizz another chance at re-hooking people.

2) Reason for the tank treads. WoW mounts don't lean when you turn them. It's not in the coding of the engine. Yes it will lean on hills, but no mount in the game leans while turning. A wheeled motorcycle will look really funny if it drives upright without leaning. Mekginner's Chopper the front fork doesn't even turn. I think they knew it would look too odd on a slim sleek motorcycle to not lean/turn, so they went with big treads to counteract this.

3) They really dropped the ball on the Alliance bike. THIS is an alliance bike! cdn.orangecountychoppers.com/wp-content/gallery/good-guys-bike/IMG_5645web.jpg copy and paste this link to see OCC's official Alliance bike.

So I doubt blizz will release just one bike for the game, it would be kinda bad to put the faction specific bike in the game for one faction without the other faction getting anything. as cool as it would be to have a horde only bike I do feel bad for which ever faction is not going to get the free bike in-game.

I really planned on coming into this totally unbiased, I like to play the Horde die hard in game though, and vote for whichever looked cooler, but damn! That Alliance bike... Just ... No.

It's super low to the ground, and why scimitars?! If it had a big lion or eagle head on the front of it like they originally planned, then maybe, but as is I think it looks ugly and the treads don't scream, "Alliance!" to me.

The Horde "Trike" is really cool, however I would have much preferred it be a true bike. Shoulder Pads are awesome as well as the tusks.

Whoever loses will still probably get their bike some other way. My guess a Christmas gift this year, Winter Veil.

Why did they take the photos on a predominantly white backing and put a white background in there. Makes the alliance bike hard to look at and dimishes the brass outlines. The horde bike however looks great with this setup since it has a matte paint job with few reflections and is darker overall increasing the contrast.

I don't mean to be divisive (or maybe I do) but I think Blizz should only release the winning 'bike' and shelve the other one, never to see the light of day. I know they'll probably release both in the end but I think now would be a good time to start seperating the two factions. I mean, lets face it, apart from the obvious cosmetic differences, it doesn't matter if you choose Horde or Alliance. What you can achieve in the Alliance, you can achieve in the Horde. Your choice means nothing. You pick the race you like the look of best (or has the best racial that fits your class if you're super serious) and...that's it. There has to be a way of making this choice mean something...except faction-exclusive mounts (which is a start, albeit a small one).

Seriously? Front brake levers on both of the bikes look extremely uncomfortable. They've managed to pick angles that mostly hide both clutch levers but looks like they are similiar.. I'd HATE to ride them, especially the horde one.

That is if those things can even move at 50kph. Horde one might work when driving straight.. but I wouldn't even touch the alliance one. Tracks have absolutely horrible lateral grip.

I can see where they were going with the alliance design (someone pointed out the armour on the back in the same as the horse armour in game), but what's with the snow mobile treads? And why is it so low?

However, if they release both in game, it would be cool to have a snow mobile to traverse frostfire ridge.