WoW players are already using the new Warbands system for its true purpose: Memes and transmog flexing

A faithful recreation of the crew from the South Park episode "Make Love, not Warcraft" using WoW's new Warbands system. — (Image credit: u/ZOMBOSA on the WoW Subreddit / Blizzard)

World of Warcraft recently debuted its Warbands system—and with it, a shiny new login screen. For the uninitiated, a Warband is a group of four characters that get to share a bunch of stuff. Reputation, currencies, a bank, and 'warbound' items to name a few. They also line up on the character select screen like they're posing for an album cover.

Given you can arrange who is and isn't in your warband—and, naturally, the outfits they're wearing—the World of Warcraft community's already gone full speed ahead on memeing the everloving crap out of the feature. My favourite by far is this pitch-perfect recreation of the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" by user Zombosa.

Warband: How do you kill that which has no life - All Characters from r/Transmogrification

Turns out, the Sword of a Thousand Truths (aptly named the "Slayer of the Lifeless" in-game) can just be snagged from Gothik the Harvester in Naxxramas—or Skarvald the Constructor in Utgarde keep on heroic difficulty, no USB required.

There's a deluge of these things on the WoW and transmog subreddits, and they're pretty much all excellent—though I can't quite figure out what's noteworthy about this one, which features four completely normal alliance soldiers standing around. Doesn't look like there's anything amiss to me.

The Spy has already breached our defenses. There is 1 Impostor among us. from r/wow

Other contributions range from lore-adherent tributes to harebrained crossovers. Because variety is the spice of life, here's a faithful recreation of the Hellscream family placed next to Dr Strange, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. I'm personally a huge fan of both.

Hellscream Family Warband <- Golmash, Grommash, Golka, Garrosh -> from r/wow

Warband, Assemble! from r/Transmogrification

I'll confess, for some strange reason it hadn't crossed my mind how the new login screen was, in many ways, a massive boon to the game's transmog community. Like any MMO worth its salt, WoW has a pretty thriving fashion culture—and what Warbands offer, more than any quality-of-life boost, is an opportunity to dress up a specific squad in their Sunday best to gawk at on every login.

For example, here's Azeroth's first paladin boyband and a squad of the most elite Tauren chieftains with the caption: "I like them big." Much respect, it's good to know what you want.

Deus Vult, Warband. We're retaking Lordaeron! from r/wow

I like them big from r/wow

Whether it's housing communities recreating Howl's Moving Castle from a bunch of scraps or ingenious costumes in the recently fan-revived City of Heroes, I'm always super into seeing just how creative MMORPG players can get, and Azeroth continually fails to disappoint.

PRODUCTS

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.