The problem a lot of us have with this, is this is not the faction we were billed when the World of Warcraft MMO began. That I think is the cause of a lot of the irritation that Horde players have with the situation.
The story telling fits exclusively to the Forsaken narrative, and perhaps the Goblin narrative but all other races are left with no motivation, and “Because the Warchief commands” as a motivational reason has not worked since the Siege of Orgrimmar.
Because players realize this story is a regression, rather that progression, they reject it and the characters in question completely. Hence the disdain for Nathanos. Gallywix and Sylvanas.
You aren’t in the minority. I loved the old horde days of a group of outcasts struggling to survive. It was about maintaining cultural and religious freedoms and coming together. I’m finding it harder and harder to play on any of my Blood Elves/Tauren/new allied races. Especially Blood Elves when they were decimated and experienced genocide first hand. My pally and priest BOTH helped take down the Lich King, they certainly are NOT going to follow a Lich Queen. And if the story doesn’t change soon or the devs wont put Queldorei in the game, well I’m done with the Horde.
It’s not even the original Forsaken narrative. While yes, NPCs would say, “Death to the living,” there was never any talk about becoming the new Lich Kings/Queens until Cataclysm. Nobody ever said, “Undeath to the living.” They didn’t seem to wish their curse on anyone. I personally feel like the majority of the Forsaken just wanted to be left alone.
I’ll give you that, better to say that the Forsaken narrative is now a post-Cataclysm narrative, which most Forsaken players were against. I honestly prefer the original Forsaken narrative from Classic where they were simply trying to remain free of forces that would control or destroy them.
One can only hope that if Delaryn does kill Sylvanas and Nathanos, the Forsaken will ‘again’ be led by an undead Night Elf, and return to their roots and the core story they had where they were victims and the Alliance was aggressive to them. That always struck me as a solid way to give both sides reason to fight.
Forsaken: -murdered by Arthas- “I want to live on my father’s land.”
Alliance: “No. Lordaeron is ours.” -kills-
Night Elf: “Ashenvale is ours!”
Orc: “No. Need more lumber.” -kills Elves-
That was the balance and beauty of the original factions, one I miss and pray that Classic rubs off on retail at some point when people see exactly what Cataclysm robbed us of.
This was absolutely what drew me to them in the first place. Nowadays, if I RP Mal on Horde side, he’s trying very hard to keep a low profile because he’s a bit of a fugitive.
A friend of mine who plays a Forsaken loyalist (who is an old friend of Mal’s) started up a story with me in which he’s been sent to spy on Mal’valen and all his little neutral buddies, so that’s been a fun thing that’s come out of this whole debacle at least.
I need to make some more Forsaken characters that defect from the faction though.
The big problem with morality here is that we are part of this conflict, we are not spectators of a movie theater or readers of a historical chronicle of dubious truth.
A good way to understand the moral spectrum of societies within the game is to pay attention to the NPC and the books highlighting the war crimes.
If you notice the morale of these people is even more, white than we have in our world, even in the horde, this is mainly because this game does not stop being a PG12,Then it is normal that people are horrified to see acts that both for their moral compass as shown above are considered detestable, it is correct that the writer is guided by the universe where it is and respect the nuance that the world already has.
I think the message of the community to the DEV is this is our world too, we are not mere spectators of this story, we are not their puppets or their assassins.
That is just a misconception victors don’t write history. Writers write history. Which is why you can find several viewpoints on a topic.
Also history classes haven’t gotten much better in k-12 they’re very summarized with almost no insight on what was going on. You tend to have to seek higher knowledge sources like a college history class or reputable source to get any good clarity.
On topic the horde is conducting a war that would proably “realistically” end in demoralization. As horde keeps fighting a war where they slaughter everything in sight. Eventually no one will surrender instead Non-horde will just make it as painful as possible to take any territory. Which for the most part would lead to horde casualties increasing until various factions of the Horde get sick of the fighting such as BE, Tauren, probably trolls, ect.
Honestly, I think thats just the way I’m going to have to look at it to get any semblance of enjoyment from this story. My Pally helping the Zandalari against the blood trolls and whatever else on Zuldazar, sure thats IC but I just can’t with this faction war bs. Its horrible storytelling for any PC following the light or embracing nature.
I’m hoping that there are some improvements as time goes on, that we’re only seeing part of the story and that when more unfolds, it will explain some of why our characters have been forced into this instead of having any sort of choice. I mean, I guess we could choose not to do the war campaign, but that’s kind of necessary to progress through the expansion (or at least to unlock Dark Iron and Mag’har).
Doing the War Campaign stuff Horde-side has felt awful, and I’m usually pretty able to detach myself from the story despite the fact that (or maybe because?) I’m a roleplayer.
untrue. horde are being written as the plot device, until alliance destroy all of kalimdor. horde need a story, true. but thats why its always evil or questionable at best. its plot device, or justification, for everything that drives the first half of the narrative.
horde players will have to sit through those devices, while the alliance narrative uses it to march through kalimdor. until they reach our last bastion. at which point, something very extreme is going to happen in favor of the horde (defense) and then–the narrative will turn.
then the progress will start again with eastern kingdoms but a horde narrative. and alliance, will now be the plot device that drives it. horde will march through eastern kingdoms, destroying everything in their path. right up till the very last, their bastion.
its going to be a very long process, god only knows when everything will change hands but it will.
alliance need an evil baddie to fight against. being the righteous faction and all. and thats what they will get. and the horde needs to regain its honor, defend its self or be erased from the world.
sylvanas only exists in her current form, to be that device and when the time comes where that device isnt needed anymore- they will suddenly do a 360 with her and have her be the savor of the world. mark my words.
Calling it now(even though it has already been called before, kek), Sylvanas will get the Kerrigan treatment and all her misdeeds will be casually forgotten about. Will fit Alliance writing too since we will get walked all over with zero retribution.
I play a horde character to see both sides of the story and all the zones but some horde questlines and actions have always left a bad taste in my mouth. That has only gotten worse with BFA, now I just don’t want to do it. I do not want to be Horde at all.
Oh, and Nathanos? please just die. I’ve never wanted see a fictional character killed off so badly
But we do hear that argument, all the time. Just like we hear about how terrible the Alliance was to put orcs in camps, even though the alternative would have been wiping out the savage aliens who invaded Azeroth and tried to take over.
I just want to add: the proper LOGICAL reprisal to the Zandalari fleet, the burning of teldrassil, and any horde activity beyond border skirmishes would have been orbital eradication of thunder bluff, silvermoon, and orgrimmar. Undercity, being underground would have been the last place torched.
Sylvanas’ aggression in the face of what is the ultimate deterrent in the form of the Alliance’s giant intergalactic starships just shows how poor the writing is, how poor of a leader Anduin is, and basically has put me in a position that I either enjoy the game or not. The story has no bearing anymore because it’s ridiculous.
I hate Halfus Wyrmbane passionately by the way. Not once has he shown regard for his troops by saying “I won’t stand by deploying troops while we could effectively kill probably 80% of our opponents population in about an hour if our King wasn’t a halfwit.”