Only reason why I was able to enjoy BFA was because I was playing a character that was ignorant of everything going on prior. Because he was Mag’har, he could see LF Draenei and just assume “Oh. Okay, they’re the bad guys.”
It was still rough.
3 Likes
It gets worse. Especially with the handwaved redemption.
You know what, I’m still amazed how I’ve never once heard anybody raise the issue that the whole plot of Drustvar is literally a mishmash of the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, and we the players play the role of the historical villains who murdered hundreds of innocent people in extravagantly gruesome ways for imaginary crimes in order to maintain their dominant role in the social order.
Clearly nobody has told Twitter about this.
4 Likes
Don’t forget the part where the evil witches – who corrupt society by establishing girls’ circles – are in league with the also-evil indigenous population, who just can’t accept that the Kul Tiran settlers own their country now.
Drustvar had great atmosphere and aesthetics, but I started getting uncomfortable about the point where Lucille Waycrest told me that the mob who wanted to tortuously murder her on the basis of nothing were ‘good people, just scared.’ It never got any better from there.
11 Likes
I extra super deliberately avoided the War Campaign Hordeside. An easy decision for a casual player, when my character had just come out of Legion, working cross-factionally with Tauren and Humans and Dwarves and Draenei to defend our world. Know what race had zero presence in the Silver Hand? Forsaken. And that’s fine. (They are also absent from the Cenarion Circle and the Earthen Ring, but so are Blood Elves).
Once Sylvanas went all air fryer on Teldrassil, my little Belfadin lost any particular loyalty to the Horde as the Horde. Help Zandalar? Sure! Follow Crazy Dead Lady on her ruthless campaign against Hope? Nope.
I’ve always played at my own pace, cherry-picking content that appealed to me. BfA only made me double down on providing my own story content.
2 Likes
bUt ItS lIkE tHe WiTcHeR
3 Likes
Gorak Tul was just a bigot supremacist. Ulfar knew the right thing was to welcome the Gilneans, and now we have all these great restaurants.
Horde campaign only gets even worseif you played Horde in MoP. Seeing all the red side characters repeat the Garrosh arc shot for shot just makes the whole faction look like a bunch of complacent jackasses.
10 Likes
Drustvar, like all of WoW, it’s essentially a pastiche but the interesting part for me was how they tossed in such contrasting elements in terms of influence – and, of course, with little to no regard for the deeper implications as Azhaar and Tymb noted.
From the first preview at Blizzcon or whatever, those witches struck me as quite Disney-esque, where the matron characters gave off that horror flick vibe (e.g. Mama, the spindly floating ghost with the hair flowing around as if underwater). And they just… threw these things together with some wickerman kind of stuff and were fine with the level of originality being very, very low.
And look, I’m not knocking the zone, because I definitely “blind eye” the more tone deaf stuff and expect the fantasy mish-mash from blizz (and am fine with just zoning out and enjoying the aesthetic) but also: what the hell.
5 Likes
If anyone’s interested in a Drustvar style atmosphere but actually done well, I recommend picking up a copy of Josh Reynold’s Dark Harvest.
TBH Gallywix has never had any morals or reason to be a good guy, in “Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince” he pretty much says himself the only thing worth looking out for is yourself. I think it’s rather refreshing that for once a character has been consistently scummy and hasn’t had a forced redemption arc.
As for the overall Horde War Campaign, no it all sucks and you’ll need to endure it to get those sweet sweet Zandos. Be grateful that you can muscle through now instead of playing it Live and being told your a monster both in and out of game by some Alliance.
6 Likes
Mood.
10 chars.
3 Likes
Does it get better? No.
Is it better than the Alliance campaign? Arguably?
I enjoyed the Horde story more even if it’s just cut and dry evil. Only because the Horde have the decision factor on which side of the story they want to be on. Those who support Sylvanas and those who don’t. It was a welcome touch that Sylvanas supporters got a little different ending which, while it offered no answers. At least warned Sylvanas had more up her sleeve.
The Horde campaign starts strong with victory over the Alliance but a growing loss, and having to yield to a peaceful notion to survive. BFA’s story is god-awful and the whole scale war failed to capture what I wanted out of an All-out war event between the factions. Developers lied and changed too much. Just rushing this like they did WoD.
But I’ll take the Horde campaign where everyone felt involved, rather than Anduin and friends. Where I didn’t really matter in the story position. Just like 5.3 in Mists of Pandaria.
3 Likes
Even with MoP, the Alliance portion of things still felt more proactive since you are going after the Tyrant boogeyman and are doing so in his house, rather than dancing around islands most the time
Mogo here to tell you it get better.
You seriously believe the cat quest was more proactive then what the Horde got?
3 Likes
More Proactive? No
But MoP was at least better since even while the Alliance got less to do, the overall set up and what you were doing felt more meaningful since rather than island skipping you were actively dicking on Garrosh and the Kor’kron. It was not as good as it could’ve been (and I say this as someone who used to main RP Alliance during MoP) but it was certainly better than BfA by a few states over
1 Like
Indeed, the conflict was earned. but that was because people hated Garrosh from the start. Players wanted him out and they got what they wanted. but at that point, all the Horde were vindicated in some capacity to want his removal. the division between Loyalists and rebellion made this story convoluded in BFA.
The Alliance however… no, I wouldn’t go that far to praise the Story. While you do halt Garrosh, you never actually got an upper hand. The Alliance rarely had a moment that made them feel like a threat. Garrosh had a plan, the Alliance had to act, garrosh does a twist, Alliance have to adapt, Garrosh loses, but he’s not done.
But I mean, he did crush Anduin with a bell. So I’ll happily take that. If I need more stupid princes getting crushed to get a mount. Sign me up.
2 Likes
The Twilight Hammer killed the Ashenvale druids, and Hamuul Runetotem later said that Garrosh had a hand in it. Cairne went wild about it and then things went like this:
Cairne: YOU DID THIS, YOU MONSTER
Garrosh: I WOULD NOT DO THAT IT’S DISHONORABLE, REMEMBER WHEN YOU TOLD ME I WAS A GOOD ORCISH COMMANDER IN NORTHREND?
Cairne: I REMEMBER NOTHING ALSO I WILL FIGHT YOU TO PROVE YOU DID THIS
Garrosh: FIGHT?
Cairne: YEAH MAK’GORA FIGHT ME NOW
Garrosh: OH DAMN I CAN’T TURN DOWN A FIGHT ME STRONG ORC
And then that went the way we know it did. Garrosh later proved he wouldn’t have done that sort of thing by kicking whats his face off a mountain in Stonetalon. And yet, people refused to believe it. The same way that Cairne did.
Anyway, all that to say that I don’t think that Blizzard kicked Garrosh out in MOP because players hated him. I think that him becoming a radicalized and royal dbag was planned from Cata. It was all a natural snowballing from that first incident.
1 Like
If I got what I wanted as a player, we would have seen Jaina do more villainous things than “THIS IS SPARTA” kicking a bunch of blood elves off a floating city and Garrosh would’ve become an even greater Warchief than Thrall as he grew into the mantle, but that’s just me.