The glasses are sold by a vendor. That’s it. That’s the sentence. No stupid currency. No stupid farming for Azerpexisshards or rep.
6 Likes
well thats nice
I really should not be this excited about something we should have had 15 years ago. I’m just happy I don’t have to farm rep to become best friends with Jay Lenscrafters, by farming glasserite mobs in Hellfire Peninsula, which would only drop shard per kill, per day.
11 Likes
yeah its just nice
that is excellent
Critics of Blizzard sometimes get accused of thinking Blizzard can do no right and, in all honesty, that’s probably true. But at the same time, I think I have an explanation for why.
The glasses thing is a great example. Yes, it’s fantastic that the glasses are just bought for regular currency from a vendor. The cosmetics are very accessible. But, at the same time, it does beg the question why everything that’s just nice to have needs to be gated behind so much other crud.
The glasses are nice. And the fact that we had to wait this long to get them and fully expected it to be more painful is also messed up. Both things can be true.
10 Likes
The glasses, when put on, actually delete the character instantly.
8 Likes
I can’t wait until the fun is almost immediately destroyed as all the questing heroes of Azeroth are suddenly found to have crippling nearsightedness and/or light sensitivity.
2 Likes
I’ll take a stab at giving an explanation.
(On second thought, maybe that’s a bad turn of phrase to use around a rogue…)
On the one hand, I do think that achieving something is more fun than just getting something. That’s rather the point of many video games vs movies, but having the player need to succeed to continue.
But the effort-vs-reward is walking in a knife’s edge - a little too far in either direction, and people stop having fun. (Really, every individual has a different balance, but so far games aren’t that customizable.)
In this case, the reward is normal glasses. They’re not some groundbreaking plot item. They don’t need an explanation of what they are and why they exist, they don’t need the player to seek out some reclusive sage and prove their worth in order to get this rare item - so if the player is made to jump through hoops for them, then the player gets frustrated. In much the same way that a player might not get enjoyment from purchasing a fully-ranked Heart of Azeroth from Joe the street sweeper for 13g 27s.
I feel like Blizzard has really slipped recently, with making the ‘effort’ part be too long, too boring, and too obviously timegated. Yes, games in general and MMOs in particular need to keep the player occupied for a long time, but it shouldn’t do so by stymieing their progress for paper-thin reasons.
And what annoys me is that the story really ties into this point - even for players who don’t pay attention to the lore, the mood of a scene can really affect whether they feel engrossed enough to excuse delays in progression. And it feels like in both gameplay and story, Blizzard has just given up and is phoning it in.
4 Likes
You must raise your reputation with the Lenslords of Azeroth to Exalted.
The only way to raise your reputation with them is to wash Kobby Botick’s yacht every weekend.
And by god, you must wear the uniform.
7 Likes
Quest! : Explodium is radioactive and it’s affecting everyone’s eyesight! Rogue, you are Hero and Savior of all that remains! You have been to the ends of Azeroth and back time and again. Save us all once more! But first, head to Donnie Bottle-Glass in Westfall and collect 6 Rotting Boar Eyes.
1 Like
Warlords of Draenor could have been THE Time Travel expansion. Time Travel is a really tricky plot device to pull off correctly and convincingly, but the Caverns of Time are my favorite place in the whole game and there’s so many different points in Warcraft’s lore that would be so neat to experience. For example, in the War of the Ancients book we get to hear about currently unknown Wild Gods fighting the Burning Legion, what if we actually saw these long lost Wild Gods in action? What if we got to see the founding of Stormwind? The War of Three Hammers? The sinking of Atal’Hakar? Heck what if we go waaaaay back and see Tyr’s sacrifice? Watch the Titans forming the world?
The point is a time travel expansion could be rad and fill in holes in the lore or just plum explore things already established but not given polish. And fighting Infinite Dragons is fun.
2 Likes
I think those dungeons in the Caverns were some of my favorite. I liked being morphed into a human or a Dwarf and running around in old Lordaeron. Seeing Medivh open the Dark Portal was also cool. I’d definitely like more dungeons like these.
3 Likes
Go back in time and kill the hero of azeroth who was killing the infinite dragon flight who was trying to kill Medivh.
1 Like
Preface: I actually really enjoyed Warlords of Draenor and other than some interpersonal issues with a lot of my friends not playing I’d consider it one of the high points of my time in this game.
That said… It really could have been. Interdimensional time dookery is a huge canvas to paint with and they blew it all on having another fist pump “woo! ORCS!” moment of showing off all the orcness of their favorite orcs and more Thrall and hey you never really got to see these guys when they were just units in Warcraft and ORCS! YEAH!
Say what you will about the Draenei, everything not related to Orcs was immediately just shelved when we went back through the portal into Legion and not referenced again until the Bronze Dragonflight for all their supposed neutrality and how much tampering with timelines post WoD was a Very Bad Thing, said hey Horde, you guys need some backup? You should go get MORE ORCS! during a faction war. The return of the Ogre empire and them being more than joke characters? Gone, slaves again. All of the new Draenei cultural beats we saw? Bad guy background filter for why the Lightforged might be EEeeEeeeEevIIIiiL. Arrakoa? Eh!
Sure, I’m not being generous by sweeping away Gul’dan but there wasn’t really anything him coming back through the portal did that anyone in the main timeline couldn’t have done, especially where 80% of his storyline in Legion ended up being to boost Illidan, whom this Gul’dan wouldn’t have known anyway. But even with that, imagine having a blank check to explore anything about your entire 30 year old series and ending up delivering something so poorly thought out you have to rush everyone through into another expansion.
6 Likes
The shades sunglasses (half moon sunglasses) are not sold from this vendor, sadly. So I assume another means will be used to obtain it. Sad because they’re the closest thing to aviators and I just want to have Altielle walking around with them on at night or indoors like a dink.
1 Like
i still think wod should’ve been the plot in how gul’dan has become a demon lord after being turned into a red mist in the tomb of sargeras
something something “Aaaaah, real demon orcs!”
who will be the first mechagnome to use this phrase IC to justify wearing sunglasses at night??
4 Likes
I would like to reiterate something here that I have spoken about on other forums and applications; not here. I find that it’s at its utmost necessary and why I don’t believe i am going to be continuing my subscription for World of Warcraft. A big reason why is because I am both a huge story and lore nerd. I find them to be crucial pieces of the puzzle that makes it prominent and becomes the foundation for people to viscerally enjoy both the game itself and the mechanics that are built upon said foundation.
With that in mind, I do not believe that 9.1 will be offering anything interesting provided by both of them. I feel that since Battle forAzeroth the storywriters have been creating multiple missteps and bypasses that - despite the minority of times where they’ve properly characterized a select few and written phenomenal arcs for them - have mishandled the story both in its greater and diminuitive format, losing a good portion of my faith in doing so.
A lot of writers start inherently by a vacuum. They themselves may be inspired, but when they set out to go and create things they are in essence distilling their own ink and blood into imagery based on words. The world becomes their own. When Metzen originally crafted Warcraft and took it in directions that made it feel like a living, breathing world, then I could both appreciate the nicety of how much and hard he’s worked on it and the skill in attempting to navigate it. Him, alongside the many other writers who’ve also helmed and were stationed beside him.
However an MMORPG’s longevity means that there will inevitably come a time where those who originally helmed and written these characters will take their leave. They will, sadly or fortunately, have to be replaced by others whose perspectives will, no matter how much they align, will inevitably different.
There’s a necessity for those people who take the helm after their predecessors leave that they will try to keep the course. And, I earnestly believe, Danuser and Christie Golden don’t really do it justice. I know there are other writers and people who also support the writing team at Blizzard, but I also believe that these two are primarily culpable because they’re ubiquitous in both presentation and having everything. They’re the lead writers and have a large influential hand in how things are kept.
Naturally the procedure, focus and style of writing changes with time. But there’s been so much dissonance lately in the World of Warcraft universe being plagued with horrible plot twists and holes, retcons, bad (and mis)characterization and dead-ends that it feels like it’s coming apart at the seams. The game was never written and designed to have such a character-heavy focus, and Danuser and Golden obviously show their bias in who they heavily prefer to both exist and take center-stage, damn to every other character in World of Warcraft.
It feels like with the appearance of both Danuser and Christie Golden there’s a deliberate messaging that they wish to create and have a lasting legacy on the similarity of Metzen’s and his crew. However, because that these characters weren’t created in an inherent vacuum, it feels that they’ve decided to co-opt and misconstrue, shape and transform Sylvanas and Anduin to how they prefer to see them, while adding in their own novelties along the way. It wouldn’t be as bad if the collateral wasn’t everything else in the World of Warcraft Universe. When Danuser steps in and tries to write something- and attempts to play the scope and moral relativism in terms of trying to justify how a character acts to try and say that they will almost be universally absolved and/or redeemed, everything downright goes into flames. Literal flames. The Player themselves understands they are a random in the universe, however insisting that everything that the player sees, interacts and plays with can be changed at a whim and were never really concrete destroys the barrier of permanence and tempers the player with the expectation of not getting attached or hopeful for whatever will come next. Attempting to try and play this out in a logical formality does not work on an artistic rendition because, likewise with a video game, it doesn’t need to have an algorithm to have its roundabout workings to apply a rating; it’s all about feeling, intuitive.
When you, as a writer, see everything that has come before you and only recognize it as a stepping stone to help propel your greatness and legacy, then your effort will not be characterized by how much you’ve built but instead how much you’ve destroyed around you.
7 Likes
I will never forgive them for introducing the most interesting Forsaken character in Zelling and then killing him off because Sylvanas needed an edgy moment.
18 Likes