It’s one thing to see two sides to the same story but frequently Blizz creates conflicting scenarios that couldn’t have happened in the same timeline.
And the real kicker of BFA was we had an elder god in the wings who’s whole shtick is being able to warp perception and memory. So there for once was a really good reason why the player might be seeing stuff that couldn’t have happened.
Hell in Uldum we outright see just N’Zoth’s minions can make you perceive entire armies incorrectly. So - could’ve been a real cool last act reveal there but instead it was just lazy design.
I never even bothered to do the WoT. I saw what was going on immediately, said ‘#### that,’ and stayed doing Classic for a year, where I was very happy and finally did all the classic raids I missed first time around. I didn’t even buy BFA until the final patch had already been out for a few months, when all the content was out and there were no time gates to it.
I just continue to be baffled as to HOW War of Thorns was ever supposed to work for the players.
Because you’ve got the orcs over here going “finally! A worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary” et cetera, but the worthy opponent is Bob’thalas, local kimchi vendor who is minding his own business. And then you have the heroic fantasy of … trampling over a bunch of people minding their own beeswax, who historically have stuck to their own beeswax, and (beyond a shockingly rude reluctance to be stabbed and pillaged) are generally pretty reasonable about it. But just in case that wasn’t heroic enough, the narrative hammers home that this is a sneak attack while the actual fighters are away. Hooray. But to throw the Alliance a bone, they’re described as inflicting RIDICULOUS casualties to the Horde. You know. Off screen. So much so that the Horde victory is granted through a dues ex undefended unmapped smuggler’s route that feels really shoved in even by Warcraft writing standards.
So the Horde looks cartoonishly evil, and, almost worse, incompetent. And the Alliance gets a laser tight focus on victimization and traaaaaagedy.
Again.
And then Teldrassil burns down. Despite everything you know about live trees, scale, or the morality of normal Horde soldiers. Cherry on the nonsense sundae.
…I will never stop harping about what a deadweight that plot is on the narrative and how complicated it made writing after it.
Honestly I enjoyed the War of Thorns for whatever expansion it was promising. Because that was full of WPvP and had interesting quests where you could personally choose how brutal or honorable this war might be.
I was blown away that enemy Sentinels actually ran away if you let them. They were being possessed by Highborne spirits who were also puppeteering Horde soldiers. As the Sentinels were flagged hostile I killed the first one I freed immediately but she died saying something to the effect of;
“So much for honor”
So experimentally I freed another and to my shock she gives you a nod and ran off.
“Wow” I thought, “A faction war story where we’ll personally get say over how brutal or honorable the war is? Through ground level mechanic interaction?!Gold StarBlizz that sounds spectacular!”
That seemed to be the direction at least. Between the quest to sabotage Astranaar and some of those dailies I was floored at how much agency the player had. And brutal or honorable did seem to be the theme on hand.
That’s not much of a moral choice, really. But having any choice in a MMO - where the options are do the quest or don’t- sounded pretty unprecedented. Especially with one we could make through our actions or lack thereof, rather than a dialogue tree option or the like.
To me, the main problem is that Blizzard has made the Horde the agressors, again, even after we told them we were sick of it. We could see the hand writing on the wall, then the burning of Teldresil happened.
Well yeah. That too. But also, it just really irritates me that people think WoT was great for horde players. It wasn’t, it was terrible for both sides for different reasons
It rings true time and again. It is a bellwether and time capsule. I could list examples… but that is what this thread is to begin with.
I almost expect Yrel to take Horde Players on a pilgrimage of self flagellation through the Path of Glory before we can zone in to the Expac after Dragonflight.
I see no reason to just let it die, if it remains valid.
The Horde is a sad joke now, unfortunately. As an avid roleplayer, I was pretty much forced to make all my characters neutral, because I couldn’t justify them being in what the Horde had become. The stain upon the Horde that BfA had inflicted will take years to wash away, and it certainly won’t be done just by waving all the problems away and sweeping them under the rug, like they did thus far.
I hope they shall never make the factions relevant again, in any way. Time and time again have they failed to give them nuance and make the conflict between them believable. It’s time to move on and realize that the factions are a thing of the past, and that they should stay in the past. Fortunately, it seems that Dragonflight is doing just that.
And to think Blizz could have avoided that if they simply used technology that actually exists within game and lore.
For me, War of Thorns will always be that thing that should have remained in one’s personal RPG campaign and I hope everyone that works at Blizz remembers that to some effect. I remember people being excited upon seeing Teldrassil on fire and thinking “This isn’t for me” and that it wasn’t going to end well for a lot of people. Even those excited for a faction conflict.
It ultimately being just a marketing gimmick is what’s so baffling to me. Teldrassil ultimately had no real baring on the overall plot of BFA and SL. It also didn’t even set the tone for BFA. It was like watching a documentary about the brutal occupation of 1940s Hungary that decided actually it wants to be a fun adventure movie about pirates and dinosaurs 15 minutes in and screw you if that’s confusing.
Then there’s the whole Night Warrior subplot. Tyrande’s had this super sayian power up in her back pocket this entire time, and she unleashes it not to stop Archimonde or to charge up the Broken Shore or to slay the Lich King or Deathwing or any of the other world ending threats thwarted at the last minute. But to confront a sassy woodsman and his cadre of boney goth ravers. And then loses.
Seriously she does eventually get Nathanos much later, after he’s been softened up by a raid group, but that’s about it. The awesome power of a cosmic moon godesss shorts out when it’s needed most. Because Elune doesn’t want Tyrande to kill herself over this. But then why bother granting Tyrande that power in the first place? The goddess of the Moon alleged to be the settings only capital G God sure comes off as asleep at the wheel.
Seriously I don’t think they intentionally set out to tell a story where Bwomsamdi becomes the only deity worth worshipping in this setting. But that’s what they did as he’s the only one risking it all to rescue the souls of his faithful from the Jailor. He even does this to the apostates that died trying to destroy him as he is a loving god who understands they know not what they do.
Really? How so? I would have thought that the factions were so hard coded that it would be difficult to get beyond that divide. What are you basing this on? I’m not asking for proof because I don’t believe you, I’d just really like to read about it.
