Whither Tinkertown

(( The RPG sourcebooks don't offer too much information on Tinker Town, so I agree it's somewhat up to personal interpretation.  My take is a bit more positive than yours, however.

I don't see it as a ghetto.  Cramped yes -- gnomes actually like things cramped as a general rule, as the Alliance Player's Guide describes extended families in Gnomeregan living together under one roof, and the dormitories in the Gnomeregan instance reflect that -- but dirty?  Nah.  Not any moreso than Gnomeregan, at least.  While the in-game representation is just a small slice of the "reality" of the district, it looks pretty much like Gnomeregan minus the damages.  Blizzard is very good at defining different zones with evocative visual detail; if they really wanted Tinker Town to come across as slumlike, they would have made it look that way.

I'd be a bit more positive on the subject of the dwarves' general sentiment toward their guests as well, based on what we know of their history.  The two races have had a close relationship for about two hundred years.  When they first stumbled onto a gnomish village, the dwarves were "still marveling at the sheer majesty of gunpowder", according to Brann Bronzebeard's in-character account in the Alliance Player's Guide.  All those seige engines and flying machines the dwarves make now?  They learned that from the gnomes.  That's a pretty big change to their own society.

Gnomeregan itself exists because the dwarves gave the gnomes their blessings to create a city in the mountains of Dun Morogh.  The Alliance Player's Guide suggests the dwarves even helped the gnomes in its construction.

So while there might be some scattered feelings of "when are they going to find a new city already?", I can't really see much in the way of racism or resentment.  I think there's much more closeness and cultural crossover there than you're giving credit for.

I could ramble endlessly on any and all subjects pertaining to gnomes, but I've got a guild meeting to run, so this will have to do for now.  I'll likely post again later. ))

((I actually see Tinker Town as the small but respectable slice of IF alloted to the Gnomes and their refugee government. The Forlorn Caverns have both Dwarves and Gnomes in them, so it seems like a good number of the less fortunate refugees would get packed into the existing slummy area of the city while the important folks get to run shops and what's left of their society near the tram they helped build to begin with. It also helps the Gnomes scatter a bit to Stormwind and other Alliance cities.))

(( Chiming in once more on the subject of the general relationship between the gnomes and dwarves ... if you've never read it before, the following entry from Shari's "On Gnomes" series captures the spirit of things very well:

On Gnomes: Our Alliance With the Dwarves

One other thing I neglected to mention in my first reply: per the RPG books, the gnomish population of Ironforge is around 2,000.  Considering most of those gnomes would likely reside in Tinker Town, it's safe to say that, as Donagher suggested, there's a pretty sizable residential section despite lack of in-game representation.  For the sake of assigning it to a believable space in the game world, I like to imagine it exists between the wall behind the High Tinker's seat and the Great Forge, within that black area on the minimap:

Given the very high ceiling in most of Ironforge and the gnomes' predilection for efficient use of space, I imagine there are numerous dwellings 10-12 stories in height (estimating based on the height of the ceiling in the nearby Military Ward), likely with elevators similar to the ones seen in Gnomeregan or other gnomish dwellings.  The big generator behind the High Tinker seems to be powering something besides the various spinny gears, as there are cables/conduits leading into the back wall and beyond.

There are probably walkways between the buildings at various floors, ala the tiered sections of Gnomeregan.  As the ceiling above the in-game slice of Tinker Town is much lower than other parts of Ironforge, the residential section may extend out above that area as well.

And of course, much like in Gnomeregan, I imagine most of those buildings are packed with as many gnomes as can reasonably fit in one living space -- and most of them prefer it that way. ))

Since I have not read any of the novels, nor the sourcebooks (nor played WC2 - I know, I'm such a Philistine!), I don't get to know all the intricacies of the dwarf/gnome dynamic.  But I know we have some very dedicated gnomes and dwarves on ShC and I knew I'd get some great insight!

Tav, I love your vision of Tinkertown!  Those clotheslines need to be on a motorized flywheel though.  Also, lightning rods.  Gnomes would never let the fact that they are underground ruin a good time.

I'd always thought of it as somewhere in-between.  An 'inadvertant' ghetto (in the original sense, of it being somewhat lower-scale and filled with a particular ethnic group), but not an enforced or particularly unpleasant one.  After all, they had to move dwarves out of the area to make room, I'm sure.  I'm assuming even dwarves would be reluctant to hand over the nicest of their living space to the refugees.

I seem to recall a quest once making mention of how cramped it is with the gnomes there in Ironforge, but I can't find it, despite doing some digging.  Regardless, I'm certain everyone will be happier once they've got Gnomeregan back under their control.

A Naples full of gnomes?  Awesome.