Thursday, June 14, 2012

Talking tabards...(or letting your freak flag fly...)

Tabards.

Someday, yes, someday, I will be exalted with the Kirin Tor and I can take off their purple-fuzzy-phallic prophylactic. (Or what was that Navi...fraggle?)

But until I find the will, or extreme boredom, to do the Dalaran dailies for those dolts, I shall work on becoming exalted with my new guild.

And--not a criticism--this is stacked purely, squarely in the "I don't have control over this" area.

Not a big fan of the baby blue that is so popular amongst Alliance guilds.

Now - what inspired this post? And do you get the play on words, "talking" tabards? That is because in the language of emblems, tabards do indeed speak. Reading the Game of Throne novels, the use of knowledge of keeps' and kingdoms' colors, banners, emblems, etc., comes at some critical parts in the exposition of the tale. Understanding who's zooming whom, in other words is critical information for survival. Designing tabards in game sometimes takes guildmasters and guild-starters careful consideration of color, threading, and sometimes just careless slap-dash of what's available. I think it could be better.

First of all - this is some damn lazy blog posting because I am exhausted right now--but wanted to get these thoughts out there. How do you "represent?"
Dornaa gets her Exodar on...


Rohawn the Forgotten Warrior is sporting the sage symbol of Ever Thus to Deadbeats. Perfect for anyone who wishes to aspire to Dude status.

Escarlata says, "Give me a D! D! Gimme an A! A!  [sic] What's that spell? DARK LADY!
This tabard looks awful on a Forsaken due to the poor posture --stand up straight, Escarlata! 



Sexytepi takes the colors for a spin...


One of my favorites is how my friend designed the one for our tiny guild - simple, elegant, and goes with everything...except for maybe shiny-pretty-gold-gossamer robes.
And still Mataoka has yet to acquire the Scarlet Crusade tabard, although both Luperci and Momokawa have it:

I guess what I wish it that even though there are some great looking tabards out there, I could see or wish that Blizzard would do more. I doubt the aesthetic of guild tabard design and colors will go much futher -- don't know how the pandas feel about it. I think what we're all feeling is a love of the customization -- transmog gave us a taste, but let's hope it doesn't stop there.




5 comments:

  1. Most of the time, my characters only wear a tabard for one of a few reasons:
    A) they're farming rep for some faction or other by dungeon running
    B) they had a tabard in their bags, their bags got full, they put it on to free up a slot, and then they never bothered to take it off again
    C) it's part of a specific RP costume or Transmogrification Template Kit (not very many of those)

    Mini-Kam was wearing an Illustrious Guild Tabard right up until she could wear her Shamadin TTK. Then she stopped wearing it, because it covered up her lovely clothes.

    I have designed tabards for my two alt guilds, but I wasn't able to find exactly the sort of symbol I wanted, and it took me a few tries to get the border just right.

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  2. Then I guess you would agree it'd be cool if we could have more control over the designs, and it would also be nice if perhaps there was some other object that could be, I don't know, infused or embossed with our guild colors? Ooooh....think I'm onto something here! I meant to add what cross-dressing rogue told me, that the hockey team the LA Kings used to wear purple and yellow, and now their uniforms are much more slick. black and silver look. Wow...think about that?! Changing colors provides different abilities like gems or buffs?! Dress up our mounts instead of covering our great looks...!

    Hey....this could be starting something!

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  3. The only tabard I really choose to wear on any of my toons is the Tabard of the Achiever on Euphyley because it looks nice with her transmog. For my other toons I so so so wish they would have some kind of "invisible" or "hide tabard" option. Like Kamalia, I only wear them when I'm farming rep or to free a bag slot. Most of them just really clash with my outfits. =(

    If it were possible...in GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire style way of "representing", I'd prefer to carry an actual banner around to represent my "house" ...or make someone else carry it for me. ;) "You there! Yes, the warrior doing half the dps as everyone else...hold this. That is all."

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    Replies
    1. Cross dressing rogue and I have often wished for a squire that actually does something, like hold things, fetches things, and gets that dopey look of his face.

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  4. I'd just be happy if they didn't get cut off at the waist on robes, even if you like the way the tabard looks that just ruins it!

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