Ah, I went back reread the OP, sorry about that.
That does lead to a related question though. Since they did write this into the story what is the best way to deal with it moving forward? To be precise I mean what they have written now and how it should be dealt with later. Should it be ignored in the story or should the issues be resolved/dealt with in some way?
Lol I edited my last post instead of saying this in a new post. Silly me. Here we go again:
So, I really am not a good enough writer to tell you how Blizzard can “fix” any of this. I’m firmly in the camp of “reboot WoW, reset the timeline back to vanilla, let everyone keep their stuff, and start over from scratch” but I’m definitely in the minority here. I have ideas on HOW they should restart, what they should keep, what they should change, etc., but that’s a conversation for a different thread.
But to make my opinion clear on this:
I’m FINE with dragonspawn being controversial, dark, and a bit creepy. But it’s the CONTEXT AND WORLDBUILDING that matters.
The original explanation for Dragonspawn felt purposeful, and fit the almost Lovecraftian nature of dragons in the old lore. It felt INTENTIONAL. Like they were these demigods who cared about the planet and the Titans’ plan, but less so for the ant-like individuals beneath them.
It also drew attention to the strange magics that emanate from the dragons, since just being near them for generations can mutate your descendants.
In short, sometimes problematic concepts can enhance the worldbuilding (ever heard of the Witcher?), but the key is to have a clear vision and to know what ideas you’re trying to get across.
Dragons should have remained aloof, demi-god like beings. Except for Chromie, who was DESIGNED TO BE THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE.
Blizzard is notoriously bad at this (even in the good ol days) but I promise you: it is possible to make an ancient godlike being feel like an ancient godlike being, while still having a compelling character
Easy example: Elder Scrolls. I criticize that franchise a lot, but one thing they’re (usually) good at is characterizing gods.
When I talk to Vivec in Morrowind, I BELIEVE he is an ancient, enlightened being who rewrote reality to steal his own godhood.
I can also have a long conversation with him about what it feels like to be a god. I can also ask him his opinions on local politics and current events. He comes off as a person with a personality, beliefs, goals, and motivations.
Warcraft could have had this with the dragons. Instead, they decided to make them humans with horns.
So, what used to be an intentionally problematic concept that still had some nuance and gave the dragonspawn some degree of agency while portraying the dragons as scary and aloof, became a bunch of Titan-supremacists putting Order into the water and turning the reptiles into himbos
Ok I hate to use an Aex Jnes meme here, but again Blizzard is just WALKING INTO these weird political statements because they’re NOT ACTUALLY THINKING THINGS THROUGH when they change stuff, and they don’t seem to understand the implications they’re creating, nor how to create a problematic issue and address it in a satisfying way.
Do you ever get tired of lying??
Paizo had an interesting take in one of their more notable NPC’s a gold dragon who is attempting to breed a perfect human society. The consequences are the main focus of the Adventure Path, Age of Ashes,
Mengkare (pronounced meng-car-ay)2 is an ancient gold dragon who rules the island kingdom of Hermea in the Steaming Sea3. Mengkare created the island country in 4552 AR in response to the long and painful history of humanity. His goal was both simple and extraordinarily ambitious: to create a utopian society ruled by absolute good, within which he could sculpt humanity to a form befitting their enormous potential.4 This project he terms the Glorious Endeavor, or Grand Experiment.56
To join his utopia, all citizens must sign a contract yielding absolute authority to the gold dragon. Uncorrupted by this power, Mengkare gives each citizen as much freedom as they can handle7 and offers them not only his wisdom, but also his hoard3.
The dragon periodically sends agents throughout Golarion to seek out the best, the brightest, the wisest, and the most beautiful to join him on Hermea in pursuit of utopia.8
See my issue with the Vivec comparisons is it’s just not something you can really do in an MMO, his story ends at a certain point, and thus finite. On top of that, he’s less a god and more an indecisive dude with a lot of power and inflated ego, just like Dagoth Ur, just like Almalexia. Having every dragon like this would feel… Very tiring. Like I feel like it’s already kinda captured with the Titans and the Keepers, and that’s not even getting into the fact that the Dragons aren’t too different than say the Night Elves or whatever. Long lived mortal races changed by arcane forces with an agenda because of it, except Dragons still have their immortality I’m pretty certain.
Disagree, and also not the reason I used him as a comparison.
Even without Vivec’s story arc (which I didn’t mention for the exact reasons you listed) he is still a character who feels believably like an ancient godlike being. That’s the beginning and the end of the comparison.
Same goes for many of the gods in that setting. They speak with gravity, wisdom, and esoteric purpose, but they can also be entertaining tricksters, con artists, or just plain chaotic. They have personality traits that make them feel like living beings that exist within the setting.
Even Elder Scrolls MODS have done abetter job at this than Blizzard has. I recall a Skyrim mod that adds a lot of new npcs. One of them is a daedra you can have a dinner party with. He has far more characterization than almost any of the dragons in this game.
And again, I hate modern Elder Scrolls writing for many of the same reasons I hate modern WoW writing. But it’s such an easy comparison because, in my opinion, they handle this one particular aspect of fantasy writing in an objectively better way.
I can bring up other examples as well, though I’m coming up with this off the top of my head so keep that in mind.
I’m playing Fear & Hunger 2: Termina right now. It’s a Lovecraftian survival horror RPG. The details don’t matter. Whats important is that you speak to a LOT of ancient, unfathomably powerful creatures in that game, and they STILL FEEL LIKE CHARACTERS.
Genre or format is largely irrelevant here. If the medium you’re working within allows you to create a narrative with characters, you can create those characters well.
Actual literal lie. This misinformation has been going on for years and it’s hilarious because all you have to do is do a bit of research to disprove this.
I also, literally in this thread, mentioned that Blizz devs have talked about the origin of Dragonspawn in Twitter posts as early as 5 or 6 years ago, and it was the same as in the RPG.
The RPG was, for many many years, considered to be at least partially canon. It was written, in part, by Chris Metzan. It is a collection of ideas they had at the time for the Warcraft universe, mixed with generic D&D rules thrown in to fill in the gaps. Some of it even lines up with Blizzcon interviews where they reiterate stuff that began in the RPG.
There are so many names, locations, and ideas that came from the RPG that eventually made their way into WoW. Easy example: WoW literally quotes the RPG to every single human mage that does their first mage quest. This remained in the game until class quests were removed. I believe the concept of Rastakhan and the many details about the troll empires come from the RPG. Stuff from the RPG was taken, almost verbatim, and put into the World of Warcraft encyclopedia.
The RPG was intended to be like an expanded universe for Warcraft. You could also think of it as a “first edition” of the lore before it got UPDATED. Completely dismissing the RPG is like being a 40k fan and dismissing Rogue Trader. Yes, a lot of things have changed since then, but that doesn’t mean the first edition of the lore becomes completely useless.
For many years the RPG was considered to be an important tool for understanding WoW lore, and it was considered canon until something in-game contradicted it. There are npcs in the game RIGHT NOW that still vaguely reference the cosmology from the RPG. Quick example off the top of my head: The human warlock in Ratchet refers to his magic as “arcane”, which refers to the RPG lore where fel and arcane were two forms of the same magic.
You literally can not separate World of Warcraft from the RPG without removing content from WoW.
They decided the RPG was fully non-canon several years ago, so they could replace it with Chronicles. We can argue how much of it was canon and for how long, but to say the RPGs were never canon is straight up disinformation.
Not to mention it’s irrelevant. What’s important is that it is part of Blizzard’s body of work on the Warcraft setting, that other things came from the RPG and later became canon, and that Blizzard had the OPTION to do the same when it came to the Dragonspawn.
They chose not to.
Do you ever get tired of making that accusation?
Yes.
So stop lying.
You might be surprised. But that is for another thread.
I’ve only just come back to WoW, but those who remember me here know that I like to do fan fiction. And I agree with you that the direction Blizzard took the Drakonid/Dragonspawn was an unnecessary one and one that can have problematic implications. As for how to deal with it going forward, in an attempt to answer my own question, Blizzard has three options in my opinion.
Ignore it and move on. This is most likely what they will do.
Address it through flavor text or minor quest that shows how the Dragons are choosing to interact with Drakonid/Dragonspawn. For example, have a quest chain where players can see how each flight adapts to the evolving relationships with them.
Have it be a major plot point for a future expansion. This is admittedly the least likely of the three. However, if Blizzard were to do an expansion on general rebellions taking place throughout Azeroth the Drakonid/Dragonspawn’s treatment by the flights would be an excellent point to bring up.
Im not lying. Get new material.
You two going to actually add anything to the conversation beyond Nuh Uh! You! back and forth?
That is their entire shtick. Once it gets started just gotta wait it out.
Fun fact: the post that got me banned until October was literally me quoting what you said about ****** off Metzan, lol.
Did your ban get reversed, too?
Trust me the forums have seen crazier. I wonder how many people remember Vyrin.
Don’t recall ever getting banned unless you replied to the wrong thread.
Nah this is the right thread. Weird I got banned for quoting you then.
Now im curious what u quoted.
I just said what I quoted above, lol. It was the thing you said about ****** off Metzan.
I can’t copy-paste it properly, since the original post is gone (this is from the Blizzard ban notification) but this was lthe post I made, with the term ****** censored:
Absolute Chad moment. Preach it.
I also wanted to address this again. Aside from what I’ve already said about Metzan in a previous post (where I butchered the spelling of his name), I want to make clear that this isn’t just about Metzan vs. the new writers for me.
This involves holistic issues I have with poorly managed, long-running IPs. Name whichever one you want.
There is a reek of pretension from the modern writing team. A reek of condescension. An open disrespect for the very setting they’re working with, and a disdain for the limitations placed upon them.
Rather than looking to the work of those who came before them, taking the time to analyze and understand why decisions were made, which mistakes were made, and how to evolve the setting from there, the current story team seems to actively look down upon the lore of Warcraft.
This came into stark relief when they started inserting The Jailer into everything and pretending everything in Warcraft history up to this point was “The Jailer Saga”, and they were looking forward to moving on to an entirely new phase of the setting.
This is why I find it funny that some of you (Benediktion) think that this post is some elaborate way to accuse the writers of being racist, and why I find it hilarious that others (Daiza) are acting like we’re just ****ing off Chris Metzen, who’ve I’ve admitted has also made mistakes.
You’re refusing to see the forest for the trees, and inserting your own pre-conceived notions of what I must really be talking about, when I’m making it incredibly clear:
Edit: and to be clear, it was the quote that got me banned, lol. They even told me to avoid using that word or quoting it in the future. 
Ah. Weird that would get someone banned when I was the one posting it.
Well sorry to burst your bubble, but that comment was not even directed at you but more of the general sentiment of the forum with my usual passive aggressive (heavy on the aggressive) pot shots at the Story Boards and its usual posters of decrying the current writing team while ignoring the faults of the previous one.
Be it this situation, that situation, anything really. I don’t really care one way or the other if anyone likes the current writing team, or the old. I just got tired of people (again not specifically you) putting the old lore on some sort of pedestal where it can’t be changed when it has obvious problems that could be fixed. If or not the current writing team has the ability to do it well…sort of speaks for itself doesn’t it.
My mistake. When someone is replying to a post I made in a thread I created I assume they’re talking, at least in part, to me.
Glad we’re on the same page, then.