I have been playing this game for 12 years, in that time I have come to identify with my character, and the idealisms that binds the Horde together. I find it disheartening that Blizzard’s writers chosed to humilate our faction by reducing us to a plot piece and killing off or shaming Horde leaders. To me, the story line should have gone in the direction of faction progression, instead of at the whelm of faction bias writers. (Alli fan boys) By structuring the writing according to what faction who is working the hardest to win would have forced both factions to participate in game. Instead of giving one faction high level rewards for being lazy or cowardly, in efforts to encourage them to wpvp. There is simply no cultivation of faction pride or identity anymore. In fact blizz, has been crapping on the Horde identity since cata and frankly I can’t take it anymore. Garrosh was a cool character before blizz sabotaged him, in WotLK he was the welcoming opposite of thrall. Instead they killed him off and allowed the Horde capitol to be sack just as they are with Rastakhan and Dazaralor. Both instances ruin Horde morale and paint the alliance as the better faction. In my opinion blizz writing is destroying the game. I just don’t think its good enough for the audience it commands. Its like they do not respect the fan base or the people that have been steadfastly loyal to their company enough to make sure that we feel good about our experience playing their game. I won’t go into the many player unfriendly mechanism (pet glitches, class imbalances etc) but having Baine incarcerated and labeled a traitor for being frankly Tauren, is just another blow that further diminishes Horde Morale. I honestly can’t wait until this expansion is over. They have failed to nail the reason why we play this game, Instead of others. The storyline is more important to me than gear, gear changes and loses value. However, the storyline is what grows the game and remains even after its no longer popular.
The story is what’s most important to me too, and it feels lacking or not planned well. There was so much story in Legion, and then we get this.
I’d like to think there’s some grand story left to be told, but this is feeling like a filler expansion while they work on the next one. While it would be fun and amazing if the next one was awesome and exciting and so much fun… it feels unfair to charge us a full XPAC for something that feels so lack-luster.
It baffles me that anyone can seriously think this.
Here we go.
That’s a whole lot of criticism, but I feel the need to point out that it’s ridiculous to accuse Alliance players of being cowardly for gaming Warmode. Choosing to opt out of a broken system unless sufficiently rewarded is pro-consumerist and should be lauded.
I agree with the story criticism, that is the only reason I hearted this post. For the record.
The rest of it is… just bad.
As much as I’d love to agree, I can’t; all of this expansion is deliberate - and it is what Blizzard wants/intends; this is what they feel the best path is. Each step is calculated, and they’re clearly in it for the long haul with the story.
The issue isn’t that there’s no “grand story” left, it’s that we’re in a grand story written by people who are out of touch with the culture, nature, and mood of the factions. Part of that issue stems from this game being as old as it is, at this point; we’ve had so many waves of players coming in and out, and swapping between factions, that it’s blurred the lines.
We aren’t the same player groups that we were in Vanilla, or even up through Wrath; things have changed, and those of us still invested in the story have to watch as its tugged in a hundred different directions, with no discernible, single voice. That’s a problem.
They keep trying to have the Horde find themselves, and it’s only getting them all more lost, unfortunately.
Also…
Like, don’t get me wrong, I get that this is a troll and everything - he’s got one post and he doesn’t even go here - but people say that kind of thing seriously, and it always blows my mind, because I think back to Blizzcon and the subsequent interviews where the dev team keeps calling the Alliance lame.
They’re right, of course, but they also always act like it’s not entirely their fault.
Its Wrynn and to a lesser extent Human bias more than Alliance bias. They are obsessed with keeping the Wrynns as squeaky clean as possible. So any time faction war comes up the horde’s gotta be irredeemable.
But it hurts both sides. Wolfheart, A Little Patience, the theft of the Divine Bell, were all to prop up a Wrynn. Even War of Thorns was just kinda slapped together to mirror the main event, Battle for Undercity.
Just in general the worgen and the night elves lost their fangs to better fit into the humans lawful good overdrive and people literally thousands of years old are taking orders from a teenager.
I believe that story criticism is all we’re really qualified to comment on, as an RP server.
We’re like that one jock you bring to trivia night because nobody else knows sports.
I don’t know why I never really noticed this, because it’s a huge point.
Teldrassil is the Wrathgate. Both Wrynn’s have attacked the Undercity for “justice” for the crimes of Sylvanas.
Wild.
One might think there’d be a lesson in there somewhere…
…but probably not.
Stop betraying your living allies, and trying to murder everyone at every possible chance you get?
Edit: Naw, I’m probably over thinking that. Such a silly lesson, after all.
Also consider the fragments we have of a different story. We were told,“most will believe sylvanas burned the tree, but how responsible the rest of the horde was will be debated,” and that Anduin would attack Undercity because of his pride. In game Rexxar talks about how he had to return after Jaina killed so many horde, an event that doesn’t seem to exist. The cherry on top is them saying horde attacking Brennadam was a last minute change. That combined with thorns overtaking the village in early beta builds means they changed the massacre of Brennadam from quilboar to horde so last minute its barely acknowledged in game.
It feels to me like they had a grey vs grey storyline and someone came through and declared it not lawful good enough.
And an aside that i forgot to mention when talking about Wrynn bias. It has to be Anduin that spurs Saurfang to action. He refuses the hero of the horde, but the king of the alliance can get him to act.
All in all, the meta doesn’t necessarily count as canon. E.G. the world is larger than it is in game, yada yada. Blizzard can tell us all they want want about x, or y, but the fact of the matter is:
- None of it is shown in game.
- Multiple perspectives and unreliable narrators, and last minute changes flip the lore on its own head.
- Blizzard doesn’t seem to care enough about story to issue a definitive ruling on any of the stuff we’re unclear about.
We can claim “bias” all we want, but at the end of the day, my biggest take is that Blizzard simply loses the thread of the story in the chaos of development, and never pick it back up - they just blunder through.
Was this meant to be posted in General Discussion?
Have you guys ever looked at Varian’s model, and imagined him without that long ponytail? The guy’s not… Very attractive.
Like if you imagine Anduin’s hair off of him, he’s still got some good facial features, but Varian is kind of this ugly bumpkin with some scars and a nice weave.
Great men aren’t always pretty, and they don’t have to be. His features are also very masculine, and that is in no way, shape, or form a bad thing.
He’s also still not nearly as ugly as some real life nobles like the Habsburgs popped out.
He’s just an anime dad. He’s got the hair for it, after all.
Poor ol’ Charlie. I’ve always dreamed of being remembered for “repeatedly baffling Christendom” though.
Horde morale is low? Why? You guys have all the top tier players in both pvp and pve from years of Horde races having meta raceals and you are about to get one more.
Story wise judging by all the posters on the general forms (mostly Blood Elves and Undead) are LOVING the story the Horde went in with this.