Why the devs' arguments against total remaking of the campaign are flawed

General Discussion
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Hello! As if you likely already know, the developers stated that they have turned down the level of changes that they are making to the campaign (we still don’t know all the details, but tldr: the reforging will happen, but not on the originally promised level). Their main argument was that it would make the game closer to the original and more pure:

“Blizzard got a lot of really great feedback where the community was like, ‘Hey, hold on. We love this story. Maybe don’t tinker with it too much.’ So we actually veered away from doing that as much. Fundamentally, it was an amazing story, and everybody agrees it was an amazing story we don’t need to break that.”

— Robert Bridenbecker, executive producer and vice president at Blizzard Entertainment, in his interview for Polygon (Warcraft 3: Reforged’s story won’t be retconned by WoW, Blizzard says - Polygon)

Back2warcraft and wowpedia interviews, just as the Blizzcon 2019 panel follow the same notion. But sadly, this argument falls apart. Here’s three main reasons for that (and I won’t even mention giving the playerbase promises that they weren’t able to deliver, while having preorders open since day 1):

1. The original campaign won’t go anywhere

As you can see on the screenshot, the player can choose between the Original and the Reforged campaigns. So all the people, who actually despise every single lore change since 2003, can simply choose to play the classic version of the story with new graphics.

https://sun9-44.userapi.com/c858336/v858336774/cf902/Nopm9wiCCR0.jpg

The new campaign wouldn’t have deleted the old one. That’s the main reason, why there was no need to cut anything from the updated single player game to appease the old fans.

2. The retcons had already happened

Retcons and Blizzard always go hand to hand. Even the original Warcraft 3 steamrolled over Warcraft 2 lore. For example, Kul Tiras had left the Alliance during the events of the Warcraft II campaign, but in Warcraft III Manual it was retconned to the kingdom never leaving the faction and remaining its supporter even after the Second War. So there was no surprise when World of Warcraft gave the same treatment to WC3 right from the get-go. It happens to all Blizzard franchises.

Even so, Reforged wasn’t supposed to “tarnish” the game with more retcons, the idea was to actually show existing lore developments from WoW in WC3 engine. Because some of these “old” retcons are, indeed, very old: 10 years and counting. And lots of players from both WoW and WC3 fandoms were actually intrigued to see the events of the Third War in the expanded setting and in accordance with the ongoing canon.

So, those retcons had already happened thanks to WoW, novels, comics, the Chronicle (a very good read, actually) etc. Not showing them in Reforged won’t change that.

3. Reforged is a walking retcon of WC3 even in this state

Indeed, Reforged have actually managed to retcon the old WC3 even in its current state. Look at the buildings and units: they weren’t merely “uprezed” to HD standards, they were redesigned to fit the WoW canon. Dragonhawks aren’t simple giant birds anymore. Nether dragons are “shark-dragons” now, instead of being blurry space ghosts. Draenei buildings aren’t mushroom tents anymore. Voidwalkers are buff bodybuilders. There are female demon hunters and death knights. Antonidas wields his staff from WoW. This list can go on and on…

https://sun9-5.userapi.com/c858336/v858336774/cf8ef/AyYDOeenDZA.jpg

So, one can compliment (or scold: depends on your point of view) Reforged for actually doing some retcons, despite the devs’ stance on the idea. And come to think of it, that makes this redesign a huge problem, because while the campaigns will be reforged, it won’t happen on the level that was promised a year ago. So, what’s the point of all the effort with the models? It’s like a half-measure now. While at the same time, the redesign simply doesn’t fit with the new purist approach to the game, since now it’s more of a “Remastered”, instead of “Reforged”.

Dear developers, with all respect, If the actual problems here are time constraints or lack of resources, feel free to say that and just postpone the release. While I know that it’s, probably, too late for that, I also know that many people, including myself, will prefer to wait another few months or even a year to getting a partially cut project instead.

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Emphasis on that last bit on italics. Please!!

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just like bioshock infinite. but heyyy, it can all be patched in later. right. right? RIGHT! RIGHT?!

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Reforged was always going to be whatever Blizzard wants it to be. We’ve never had a choice in this matter, never will.

I mean we have no control over Blizzard wanting to release an adventure game in the Warcraft universe that has Deathwing smoking a hookah and Zul’jin as a flabby merchant. That’s the direction they will take it without any of our input. And fans were never in control of getting it released or cancelled, that was a completely internal decision.

I find it amusing that people use Remake and Remaster and label the game how they see fit when it’s never been anything more than buzzwords. Reforged is doing whatever Blizzard deems fit as a Warcraft 3 product.

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Totally agree!

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This guy really thinking they would ever delay the game by an year to give him his loved campaign. Love this. You get that the problem of a delay is not for the players, it’s for them. Get it? Saying “don’t worry blizzard, I can resist one more year” doesn’t make sense. Especially with all the refunds. They won’t get paid an additional year without delivering because of you, or those who want the wow rectonnects. Deal with it.

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you dont get that it was to be an addition to the classic campaigns, more content that was promised. and you telling me that its just sole me wanting this wannabe of a remaster to deliver on what was promised ever since the activision con, thats foolish. you deal with others having opinions and just learn to accept them

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and im getting sick of people posting and then replying to themselves…

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I said now it doesn’t matter anymore, if they had the chance to delay the game release to add more content they wouldn’t do it because it’s a loss for them. Learn to read.

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Seems like this is the case.

theQuartering even goes over some of this when he covered the Blizzard employees leaving. Basically Activision doesn’t have strong plans for the future of RTS, so it looks like whatever is being done here is just to get the game done-and-shipped. IMO it’s the internal decision to for no future RTS which is causing long-term Blizzard employees like Tim Morton and Chris Sigaty to look elsewhere.

This tells me there will be very little to look forward to in terms of long-term support or any hopes of extra content for Reforged moving forward. I’d hope that they would at least consider the prospect of a DLC campaign, but that seems unreasonable if the top dogs behind the RTS have jumped ship.

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I don’t care about the campaign even if I would do it like everyone else, I’ve buy the game for the multi.

I would just like blizzard to add SC2 unit management (HUD control) and shortcuts for buildings

Warcraft 3 is old, the game should have the same gameplay as SC2 for units / building.

If blizzard thinks that the game should be postponed to 2020 if it is necessary, it would not bother me if it is well optimized.

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What do you mean with shortcuts for buildings.

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This is a much better post, in both format and tone, than MY post a few weeks ago on this same topic, suggesting a 3rd campaign to appease all parties.

I’ll admit, I came off as a douchebag, so props to OP for the better, well-structured post. Not to use this as an excuse, but I’m very passionate about this game, as well as many others who argued against any changes - that said, it’s precisely why I asked why three campaigns couldn’t have been made, Classic, Enhanced, and Reforged, offering a variety of changes with no further need of resources since they had initially planned to do those changes anyways.

Anyways, I do hope that if we don’t receive something like it at launch, that we will get them eventually… we’ll see.

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What they could do is release Reforged in two stages under one price tag. All old campaigns fully operational with the new graphics and rendering. Shift gears here so instead of the new campaign at launch, they have a functional ladder system (and maybe even Reign of Chaos online play enabled again for those that really want it), and whatever else they need to iron out for the online functionality and features.

Patch in Reforged campaigns as another playthrough option at a slightly later point with more sweeping, drastic changes that are more congruent with modern lore.

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They never PROMISED anything. They said they were looking in that direction, and had some plans, but nothing was final.

That argument is incredibly flawed, you could literally use the same argument for any number of game-mechanic changes people were suggesting, like unit pathing and upkeep changes. Utterly stupid, what you’re asking for effectively opens the floodgates to people demanding everything from new races to heroes and mechanics.

That doesn’t change the lore-integrity of Wc3 as a self-contained story, which it is. Warcraft 3’s lore doesn’t change Warcraft 2’s, it exists separately. Just like WoW exists separately from Wc3.

Wrong. They’re using higher fidelity models of what the original concept art looked like. The difference between 200 polygons and 20,000 is massive.

You literally act like there’s no post-launch support or potential for content. Rexxar’s Campaign, one of the most iconic parts of TFT literally was added post-launch. Sure Triceron has some doom-and-gloom theories, but he’s literally just as in-the-dark as the rest of us.

You’re literally forgetting the main purpose of this reforging, which is to re-introduce this iconic game to a new generation, with more palatable graphics. If you go and start changing the heart of what the game is, you undercut that entire goal. What you’re asking for is either WoW: the RTS Prequel, or Warcraft 3.5: How It Should Have Ended

I’ve been waiting for Warcraft 3 and that’s what they’re delivering.

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DLC CONTENT FREE FOR DOWNLOAD. I can only hope at this point.

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Why you don’t just create custom maps for your campaign things… ?
Maybe better editor.

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Well they don’t have time to add additional campaign stuff for 2 main reasons - stockholders and social justice. Stockholders pretty much want their increased stock prices and blizzard needs to deliver, and who has time to add more missions that might need additional models when you have to do a female version of every male model in the old WC3 to make sure the social justice nutjobs don’t scream like little emotional dumdums over the game. Cause you know - why make some totally new building or totally new unit, when you have to feminize everything.

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I dont know why people want a rewritten campaign in Reforged. WC3 has one of the best Story in Games History. Why not rewriting the WoW Lore to fit with Warcraft?

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This. THIS. People don’t seem to know the difference between retcons and expanded and polished lore.

Also, I’d like to add some more:

  • Kul Tiran commissars investigating the missing ships (in Southshore?) after Thrall, Grom, and the orcs sailed away from Lordaeron
  • The fate of Maiev and her Watchers after failing to recapture Illidan in Outland
  • Where are the Sons of Lothar in WC3???
  • Katherine Proudmoore receiving news from the Kul Tiran survivors and officially declaring Kul Tiras to leave the Alliance of Lordaeron for good, and her daughter Jaina as persona non grata

Since you think so, help me point out to Blizzard about the inconsistencies in the game lore to make it even bester, and when all of the plot holes are covered up too, it might even become the bestest story ever:

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