But it needs to be communicated more prominently than a few throwaway lines in the lead up quests. Maybe have a narrative cutscene explaining the new status quo? A lot of people are going to miss the fact that time has passed.
17 Likes
A specific amount of time is vital as well.
Using terms like âseveral yearsâ works from a general storytelling sense, but it plays havoc on the roleplaying community, because it doesnât matter who you ask, everyone will have a different idea on how much âseveralâ is. For some people itâs 5, for others its 6, 7, 8 or 9.
And for some roleplayers thereâs a big difference between 5 years and 9 years. I have a character that I roleplay as a veteran in his early 50s (heâs 52) so 5 years puts him at 57, on the cusp of retirement, but 9 years makes him 61, so now he is retired. And that says nothing for roleplayers who have children in their stories, who then have to pull a Scott Lang and figure out what to do now that their child is 5-9 years older than the last time they saw them.
23 Likes
I am in favor of a good story with some logical build up, some follow through, consistency, and clarity. That can involve a timeskip.
A timeskip can be good or bad. Just depends how they do it. I am not reflexively reeling at jumping around the clock. But I also do not pretend it will make things better on its own. Moving from one day to the next can be haphazard if the writing is off the rails.
For my part, it feels too early to get too focused on it. I hear that Blizzard has some characters mention a time skip, while others previously did mention a time skip but that got removed. It makes me wonder if the time skip will make it to live, and to what degree. If they are removing mentions of it, does that mean the ones that remain are just laziness/mistakes? It just feels hard to nail down. Or I should say, I do not have a degree of certitude to one way or another. Things are still under development and in flux.
3 Likes
I highly suspect that it really wonât matter if they do. Or wonât matter at all to the vast majority of the player base. After all weâre used to the fact that different regions are timelocked to different expansions so there really isnât an operational difference here save for the fact that itâs being called out in this one instance.
Itâs kind of too early to tell, because lots of dialogue gets removed come live, so who knows if it will actually make it past datamining.
That being said, a time skip could be a good thing that advances certain things in the story OR it could just be their logical way of explaining that nothing of note has passed within the timeframe between expansions. If you think about it, itâs pretty ridiculous that every 2(ish) years Azeroth undergoes some horrific peril that needs to be dealt with by itâs champions.
Although, I am somewhat worried that a time skip might just mean something lame like âANDUIN IS BACK AFTER ALL THESE YEARSâ and now we have an older, more annoying version of him with literally no reprieve.
17 Likes
Yeah iâm terrified of this too. Probably my main fear of the timeskip, even though overall iâm in favor of it.
I hope this means though that Moiraâs son get aged up. I want to see him become the new King of Ironforge if only so the Dwarves have something interesting.
17 Likes
Yes! Please! Iâd LOVE to see some Dwarf development for once. Moiraâs son is LONG overdue for some story exposure, it really feels like theyâre sleeping on Dwarves in general cause thereâs a cache of awesome lore there. Although there is always that small voice in my head that doesnât want them to touch my precious Dorfs with a 10ft pole because of the way the writing has been recentlyâŚ
5 Likes
Iâm sort of out of the loop:
Can it really be considered a time skip if the âskipâ occurred during the 1 or so years we were in the Shadowlands? Or was there something more definitive that said â5 YEARS LATERâ?
Otherwise it should kind of be assumed that life on Azeroth continued as normal while we were gone. Time didnât suddenly freeze back home while we were dancing with ghosts.
2 Likes
According to the dialogue thatâs currently in the alpha, the timeskip occurs after we leave the Shadowlands, with âseveral yearsâ having passed since we returned.
7 Likes
Ah, so it is a â5 YEARS LATERâ type of deal.
Good to know and thanks.
1 Like
Until I see the in game execution, I have no opinion whatsoever.
1 Like
It can totally work, but if they literally have 0 old world and/or character changes it wont work. They actually have to put in the work, which we all know they are not planning to do. They even admitted as much. So with that in mind; I hope they remove all reference to it.
7 Likes
I also oppose time skips if theyâre just cop-outs to avoid answering questions and showing character development. If itâs used to say âthings are this way now. Donât think, donât question, just accept it.â And I strongly suspect thatâs what Blizzard intends.
1 Like
Iâm cautiously optimistic about it. It really depends on how itâs handled.
SWTOR used their timeskip to retool how the settingâs Red vs Blue factions worked, for the better imo. WoW could give much needed updates to the Horde and Alliance off screen and further the story past Cata/BfA, if Blizz wanted to.
2 Likes
The move from every single expansion to the next has been a timeskip. Blizzard has just never bothered to call them out until this one, more than likely to put some mental distance between this present expansion and the next one.
There wonât be any reflection of this out in the world. Westfall will still be on fire, Durotar will still be flooded. So it may as well not even be happening at all.
4 Likes
I would love to see a time skip but it would have to be done right as others have already said. I almost feel like we need a time skip so that the narrative can see some sort of âsoft resetâ just so we can move on from the current dumpster fire that the story has been the last few years.
Should blizzard put real effort into a true time skip with visible changes to the overworld and world map, meaningful character developments, a conclusion or new paradigm in regards to the faction conflict, etc? Absolutely yes, imo.
Will they? no. What weâll most likely get is mentions in dialogue of âseveral yearsâ having passed but very little tangible evidence of said passing of time with Anduin, Thrall, Jaina, and Genn getting new character models and being as annoying as ever.
13 Likes
As long as they use this timeskip as an opportunity to launch the story forward and possibly as an excuse to update some much needed old world content then Iâm fine with it.
3 Likes
Iâm not setting my expectations high at all. But at the VERY least, with a timeskip they should be fixing some of the CATA damage. Like can we repair Menethil Harbor? You really donât need to change the questing (Even though they should.) Just get the water out and fix the buildings/ships. Itâs obnoxious to still see these eyesores at this point. And itâs going to be even more so if itâs still there after a timeskip.
That doesnât mean Iâm wrong about Blizzard using this to try and sweep character development and plot holes under the rug.