Hello there
As somebody who has always been more invested in the lore and the story than online competitive gameplay, the announcement that we’d get quite some overhaul for the campaign really makes me a bit anxious.
While I do understand that there is room for confusion for WoW-players coming into Warcraft 3, I also believe that the story of Wacraft 3 should be preserved as it is like a time capsule. Warcraft 3 is an old game from another era, and I believe it is important to keep a clear picture of how storytelling and this past vision of the Warcraft universe were back in the day. Also, Warcraft 3 left things open on purpose, because in some way it was simply not necessary to give too much exposition for a 30 minute mission. World of Warcraft took the opportunity to unravel some mysteries, and also made a fair bit interesting additions. However, some lore that was firmly established by Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3 -era novels has been retconned by World of Warcraft simply to justify new content or because some writer was unsatisfied with it and, pardon me, wanted to insert their fanfiction into the canon. With this in mind, what I am anxious to know is how far the adjustments will go to bridge the gap between WoW and Warcraft 3 better, and how minor or major we can expect the alterations to be made in some missions. I would really like to hear a bluepost on this, if possible, because I don’t want to just screech in panic at what might be, and rather I would like to hear any sort of estimate at how far these alterations will go.
1 Like
However, some lore that was firmly established by Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3 -era novels has been retconned by World of Warcraft simply to justify new content or because some writer was unsatisfied with it and, pardon me , wanted to insert their fanfiction into the canon.
By definition, if a writer is employed by the company then it’s not fanfiction. There is nothing inherently pristine about the WC3 version of the lore. But I get the sentiment.
I don’t mind the currently observed level of changes (map layout to fit the WoW zones, for example, since it’s literally irrelevant for the game’s story), but I do agree that Reforged should be a retelling of the same stories as the original. Inconsequential plot details could be altered to fit the current lore, but only if they remain inconsequential and don’t detract from the original storytelling.
I think of it like a retelling of stories, so any plot changes should be within the knowledge of the characters involved. Geography is such a factor (Arthas and/or Uther obviously knew what Stratholme looked like), but things like explaining the Faceless Ones in Azjol-Nerub* would be unacceptable under my opinion, since they were completely unknown by the humans at that time, and while known by the Nerubians, that would add a new layer of story interaction between Arthas and Anub’arak which was not present in the original, and would deviate from the overall plot.
*Not that this has been suggested by Blizzard, I’m just picking a random example of something-that-is-technically-incomplete-in-W3.
That being said, according to the interview Grubby had with Nicholas Louie, it seems that that is roughly the case. They will make things WoW-player-accessible while retaining the original storyline. He didn’t go into any detail however.