Hmmm, well I will say that goofing off in chat modes can be fun, I'm susprised if anyone here hasn't done it before (including you Shamus). That's what Goldshire is used for, is a glorified chat room where people go to be silly.
Generally speaking people want an audience for this kind of thing, and to see other people in the same mood. Goldshire sort of got the duty because it's the highest traffic of the newbie areas. Arcane spellcasters are popular, and if you don't want to be a gnome, humans are your only option are humans. What's more the Night Elf Newbie areas are lacking (or were) you get better stuff and easier quests in the human areas, as well as being close to the "Deadmines" which is pretty much the "starter dungeon" of WoW to practice grouping.
The Barrens has a similar role for The Horde because it's an area everyone travels though.
What's more, wierding out newbies once in a while can be fun, if you max your character you'll eventually see why I imagine.
Also I will point out that your missing the other part of the equasion. Along with the insanity and people duelling and such, you also find that a lot of high end people give away a lot of stuff to low level characters in this zone because that's where they congregate. Some guy who has changed professions and need to do low level stuff is liable to do things like buy low level green items for gold (so they can disenchant them for parts), pay newbies higher than vendor rate for low-level hides, give away bags, wands and shirts, and other things. Just as likely as you are to find some level 50+ dude screaming for you to duel them at level 5, your liable to find some dude who is going to randomly hand you a couple of gold or a large bag.
While it was years and years ago, I remember that the big goof off in Goldshire was a female gnome (who later re-rolled another character) claiming to be the Mayor of Goldshire to any and all in the zone... constantly. She even composed her own anthemn. With all the goofing off I got handed a 10 slot bag (a big deal as a newbie) and a few gold while just wandering around.
There is more than one side to the whole thing is my point, it's been a number of years (I wasn't in WoW from Launch, since I played EQ II for a while before dropping it to go there) but I have a hard time imagining that it's that differant.
Generally speaking people want an audience for this kind of thing, and to see other people in the same mood. Goldshire sort of got the duty because it's the highest traffic of the newbie areas. Arcane spellcasters are popular, and if you don't want to be a gnome, humans are your only option are humans. What's more the Night Elf Newbie areas are lacking (or were) you get better stuff and easier quests in the human areas, as well as being close to the "Deadmines" which is pretty much the "starter dungeon" of WoW to practice grouping.
The Barrens has a similar role for The Horde because it's an area everyone travels though.
What's more, wierding out newbies once in a while can be fun, if you max your character you'll eventually see why I imagine.
Also I will point out that your missing the other part of the equasion. Along with the insanity and people duelling and such, you also find that a lot of high end people give away a lot of stuff to low level characters in this zone because that's where they congregate. Some guy who has changed professions and need to do low level stuff is liable to do things like buy low level green items for gold (so they can disenchant them for parts), pay newbies higher than vendor rate for low-level hides, give away bags, wands and shirts, and other things. Just as likely as you are to find some level 50+ dude screaming for you to duel them at level 5, your liable to find some dude who is going to randomly hand you a couple of gold or a large bag.
While it was years and years ago, I remember that the big goof off in Goldshire was a female gnome (who later re-rolled another character) claiming to be the Mayor of Goldshire to any and all in the zone... constantly. She even composed her own anthemn. With all the goofing off I got handed a 10 slot bag (a big deal as a newbie) and a few gold while just wandering around.
There is more than one side to the whole thing is my point, it's been a number of years (I wasn't in WoW from Launch, since I played EQ II for a while before dropping it to go there) but I have a hard time imagining that it's that differant.
