With luck, the time will be upon us sooner than later.
Also, while I get that having books and other media to have a presence on is not only good business strategy but a way to entice people into taking a look into your universe from a different angle, part of the big thing with video games is that they’re interactive stories, and if you have books and such based on the game, they really should be based upon the game.
Putting new lore in books that doesn’t happen in the game and then basing events in the game off of those books is bad form. You want your central product to be on the pillar, with everything supporting it. By all means, cover what-ifs, AUs, or explore other characters in the books, but if it’s going to be central to the game, it really needs to happen in the game. The old ‘show, don’t tell’ deal, except in videogames it’s ‘do, don’t show’ because you can put it not only on the screen of your players, but have them be involved directly in the event instead of just as an outside observer. Plus, you get aspects of lore that spring up from the books and outside sources that try to impose oddball ‘rules’ on the game at large, which only further confuses and frustrates players looking to enjoy the game as it’s presented.
The main thrust of this is that books should support the game, not vice-versa. Again, part of the appeal of playing a video game is to have an impact on what happens in said video game. This kind of impact would lend weight to the argument that the PC is a notable, exceptional person and needs to be treated a little differently than typical members of their culture. I’m not saying shove us on a pillar, cram us into every cutscene, and make Thrall and Jaina swoon as we walk by. I’m saying don’t be afraid to have the game acknowledge that the PC are an individual character all their own, crafted in a unique manner that lends credence to whatever legend they’ve chosen to pursue.
You cannot think of the PC as a “unique individual” as they are technically NOT the only PC. Sure one Draenei warlock might be fine, but your not the only one with that option, and not every one of the over a thousand draenei warlocks running around is THE Draenei warlock PC. Same rules apply for every other race class combo honestly, cause again, this is not a single player rpg, and when everyone is the “special unique pc” then no one is . . .
That said Blizzard have stated their plan to open up the race class restrictions, but some will take more time then others (mages, priests, and rogues being last ones that can be truly opened up without breaking lore) and honestly, I WANT them to justify these things. SELL me of an undead infusing themselves with the light without being incinerated, on a draenei or fel, a LIGHTFORGED willingly going against their core beliefs to collaborate with demons! I want it to make sense at the end of the day, to be grounded in lore, not “cause it would be kewl”.
The problem with that line of thought is that we ARE the Horde/Alliance Champion. They don’t have more than one of those. We have titles that can only be given to one person because the feats the NPCs don’t take credit for the PC does. So we already have the ‘unique individual’ by merit, just not by origin. We never team with ‘fellow Champions’ we team with ‘trusted allies’.
The PC is indisputably a unique character in their own right and the other Rogues, Warriors, or Paladins are just the equivalent of NPCs, which can and do constantly violate the ‘rules’ of class and world lore. It’s about time we’re given the same leniency and trust.
Ok let’s establish this right here and now, the “class restrictions” thing does not apply to npcs, fel older npcs have some wild inconsistency as some would use random class spells to simulate a particular combat style (maybe a druid healing spell mixed with some lock dots and a warrior bleed or a hamstring).
This is all irrelevant though as classes will slowly open up, this is all but confirmed, and it’s starting with rogues, mages, and priests. I just hope they do right by the lore and explain the more lore breaking combos like undead paladins and Draenei warlocks . . . ya can’t just drop that tripe outta nowhere.
Actually, they already have. See: Dark Ranger Paladins on BE and NE. Also, Forsaken being healed by Holy power is a massive error that is endured for the sake of gameplay.
I agree completely and they should have their own starter zone.
For example, LFD and Draenei Warlocks and DH could get their own starter zone and it could be how they abandoned the Legion after KJ died. Towards the end KJ was displaying doubt at this decision to join the Legion so I’m sure other man’ari would feel that way. This race/class combo would be locked to dark gray and different shades of red.
Ya see that’s a race skin, and only only ever really seen on rangers prior to 9.2.5 but they weren’t gonna restrict a skin to ONE class (though DKs and DHs are barred from it)
I’m not opposed to new starting zones, but I still don’t see why it can’t just be Exile’s Reach and let the PC fill in why they’re playing a taboo grouping. Warlocks aren’t a Hero Class, and DHs can be handled possibly by a third party akin to ARs and becoming DKs.
Also, skin enforcement is a non-starter, already evidenced by the BE and NE options now available.
I mean, that’s totally understandable and I get where you’re coming from with more particular content, but the only reason I pushed Exile’s Reach so hard is because it’s fairly ‘idiot-proof’ from an origin writing standpoint, because it allows the player to fill in the details rather than relying the writing teams and cutscenes. Some people say ‘oh that combo means they’ll be killed before they set foot outside of their homeland’ so I figured Exile’s Reach happens ‘enough after’ they leave their homeland that taboo combos wouldn’t be hard to explain.
The game treats us as though we are. We are the Hero of Outland when we arrive at Northrend. We are the Chosen of Azeroth, and there is only ONE Heart of Azeroth, just as there was only ever one Ashbringer and any Paladin who played during Legion was the ONLY Paladin who possessed it, because again, there is canonically only one.
It really is for me. I don’t interact with ya’ll outside the forums.
Beliefs can change. When you’re physically infused with an energy (be it light, void, or other), you take on the native properties of that energy. However, your mind and beliefs remain your own and are always subject to change. Fel energy is not incompatible with the Light. Void energy is incompatible with the Light. Fel energy is incompatible with Arcane.
So, there’s literally no good reason a Lightforged Draenei couldn’t be a Warlock. There are plenty of reasons they shouldn’t be able to be Shadow Priests, though, but guess what?
. . . there’s a lot of good reasons for the current restrictions, good LORE based reasons that will over time be eased up (not sure why ya gotta be so smug about it your GETTING what you want just not right away). I just want to see it play out and be explained because you ARE linked to your people’s culture . . . well maybe not YOU the blood elf demon hunter but most other blood elves are . . . ok maybe not the Death Knights either . . . no multiclassing isn’t happening.
Blood elven warriors, paladins, hunters, rogues, monks, mages, priests, and warlocks are still linked to blood elf culture and society, hero classes have always been the exception due to how they come about.
Edit: fel the paladins and priests have kinda lead the paradigm shift in blood elf culture to the point where they are basically holy light elves who love orcs instead of humans . . .
That depends upon the individual. A blood elf huntress who decides to live ferally in the Ghostlands and bathe in the stream is not linked to blood elf culture or society. Nor is a blood elf mage who grows up in Dalaran, nor a blood elf adopted by a Pandaren as a child and trained in the Way of the Tiger, etc.
There are a thousand different reasons why any individual character may have next to nothing to do with their race’s culture and heritage.
No disagreement there, and I like the extra little bits of exposure ‘homeland’ quests generate, but I think it might be a bit more impactful to design those early quests around the class, letting racial culture serve as the background. For instance, rather than serving as a ‘youth recently turned of-age in Mulgore’, a character might do quests related to being a Warrior or Mage (to help them attune to the class) with some of the background being related to their race, Again, this is kind of what Exile’s Reach does already, so it’s hard to make it sound unique when it’s already kinda present.
More accurate? The lore in this game is fiction. It’s something that someone dreamed up. How can it be “accurate” or “inaccurate”.
It can be consistent with other stuff someone dreamed up but then if it isn’t, they can always invent some reason why it’s inconsistent. In SciFi that’s really easy since you can modify or extend the actual rules as to how the universe works.
