I think the dev just condensed it in a misleading way; the actual question was about how they justified contriving a player race out of a blood elf book club when a negligible population center disqualified the high elf request.
Which is and isn’t a fair criticism, because while Ion’s lore excuse defeated itself, the designer room decision to put a spin on the “high elf fantasy” was more solid than a lot of that race’s proponents will ever concede. Problem was they used the Void as story progression for the wrong faction of high elves.
Thank you. Don’t believe even a word from that cesspit of a site. I could list a hundred people on this very forum who easily could have written that in one of their infamous and ubiquitous rants about how much they hate the lore.
In fact, it very much reads like an everyday rant on this forum. That’s a red flag right there. How suspicious, written right on the heels of one of the most legendary WoW fandom nothingburger meltdowns of all time, in the wake of everything surround Beth’amel.
I’ve been an editor on college literary magazines. I’ve been around a lot of writers of different styles and I’ve learned to examine writing styles. This was supposedly a conversation between professionals, it read like a conversation between teenagers. Or posters from this forum.
My issue is, it wasn’t much of a spin. Ultimately it boiled down to the color, purple, and for some reason the Void Elves weren’t created from, say, the Silver Covenant, or Alleria’s forces in Outland, but Blood Elves. At the end of the day, the Void Elves didn’t use the void to do anything that mages hadn’t been using magic to do all along.
I didn’t think Blizzard could somehow make a void-based race and also make the Void look boring in the same process, but they sure did.
I’m gonna guess the first QA quotation is gonna be the most easily misinterpreted.
The way it’s phrased makes it seem that Blizzard’s policy is to try and find justifications for lore disconnects instead of throwing out ideas rather then the questioners concern that anyone can effectively write anything.
EDIT:
Uh, not to burst your bubble but… this was effectively a Reddit AMA. Just a guy talking about what his job entailed and answering questions from randos.
As a writer myself, I couldn’t help but be sad if someone overlooked and expunged my own writing for something “Cool”. But, in the end, “Cool” sells. You can pour your heart and soul out, but that matters little to an audience and designers who like “Cool” things.
Cool spared Bwomsamdi, Denathrius, the Primus, Sindane, Azshara, Iridikron and Xal’atath but not Stradama alas… …nor Krexus, Akarek, Raszageth, Sindragosa’s Simulacrum or Senagos…
WoW is in the Lukewarm of Rule of Cool… Neither Hot nor Cold…
If you are Lukewarm in regards to anything it is bad.
What ? This wasn’t a conversation between professionals, this was a former historian answering some random posters’ questions on Reddit. Not sure what you’re going for here.
Anyway, there’s always been a very small number of Lore Historians (5 back when this person was active, only 2 left now), so had this been all fake, I’m fairly confident it would’ve been called out as such already by (former) Blizzard employees, given the amount of attention this thread has been getting. So wait & see but yeah, this is probably legit, at least I see no reason to doubt it.
This isn’t surprising in the least. The lore was easier to play around when they were starting out, now it’s just a footnote to whatever amazing idea someone thinks they have. With only two Historians left for all franchises, they’re going to be ignored even more.
I have some shocking news for you then - they already do. TV, movies, books, video games, animated shorts, Youtube, podcasts, the list goes on. Either as full time employees or consultants that are hired for a certain time or topic. Plus, I guarantee you half the folks who got a bachelors in history, anthropology, etc, would love to do stuff like this and have few aspirations for a masters or PhD.
I have a BA in History lol. I can tell you most would not, this is armchair work for very little pay and little reward.
I get the idea behind this sentiment that we want more structured lore and care for continuity. I also read the former team members replies and I also understand why it’s not a priority. WoW isn’t a documentry it’s a storytelling vehicle. It’s not surprising that it would value creative storytelling freedom over rigid lore.
Sometimes rule of cool, is okay. Stifling narrative creativity is just as bad to the story.
There is literally no evidence to support this random internet person being legitimate. Anyone could have made it up. Anyone who believes this, in the year 2024, is lost. They must fall for all kinds of fake news.
The more I hear about how the story of WOW gets written… the less invested I become. Used to be all in on the lore and the narrative up until the end of MOP, with War Crimes being the last novel I read. I had a glimmer of hope that the narrative would start improving now that Metzen was back, but clearly they’ll even ignore his input if it conflicts with Ion’s team.
That’s fair. I do feel like there needs to be more lore rigidity and consistency. They need to find a way to weave these cool stories into established lore or they feel like disconnected one off stories.
That is what is narratively wrong with Dragonflight. We have this rich world that goes back to early development which was intertwined with Old God lore, and cosmic mystery. And we got a one off disconnected story on why dragons are sad.
Rule of cool sometimes works. Like Sargeras stabbing the planet. So cool, and makes sense, if he couldn’t control Azeroth he’d kill her and his desperation to save her from becoming a Dark Titan made absolute lore sense.
And Im 70% of the way through a masters thesis. Some of those nerds in undergrad who didn’t go into education would have loved to be writing, editing, and consulting various pieces. The amount of “if only I didn’t need a X to be taken seriously/get a job” conversations, you should know, are staggering.
WoW isnt a doc, but it is a world that takes inspiration from various cultures, stories, myths, and histories. To have someone familiar with the projects and retain some continuity as folks build them out is important, like Stillwater being alive in BFA after I sentenced him to True Death in Cata.
Creativity can remain within established bounds. Some rule of cool things have worked out like the relative unsinking of Zandalar, but then we get knock off Black Panther rather than a well fleshed out society using the Andean and Mexihcah inspirations they took for art and architecture (which we know the art team always knocks it out of the park).