Posted on behalf of Kyalin:
There have been a few posts on the story forums recently about the Night Elves – in regard to their future, and I have found them to be fascinating – microcosmic in their description of the Night Elf problem, and Tides of Vengeances’ complete failure to address it. Given their presence – I feel now is a good time to give my last thoughts on it.
The Mortgage Backed Securities and Collateralized Debt Obligations that were the trigger for the 2008 financial crash are simple to understand now that they’ve done their work. On the surface, they were pristine and nearly risk free, being given the highest credit ratings by credit ratings agencies, and backed with so many assets that they were considered a diversified, safe investment. In reality, many of them were toxic waste dumps, filled with loans from consumers with awful credit, with no income verification, and no ability to repay when the low teaser rates expired.
Night Elf lore is something of the reverse situation. They are portrayed awfully, but the underlying canon is frequently solid, or at the very least, not anywhere near as bad as how it appears in game. The Night Elves won in Cataclysm, and assumed control of Ashenvale as of or during MoP. Tweets exist confirming this, but as I have pointed out, there is popular confusion about that fact to this day because that portrayal was never in the game. These days, people point to the 8:1 force composition number, and the 4:1 kill death ratio from Elegy and A Good War – but that wasn’t depicted in the game either – and nor was it clear as to whether the rest of the Night Elven military was obliterated, or if huge portions of it survived. I could go on, but if we were to regard them as a CDO, they’re the opposite of the ones that took down the financial system. They look like a toxic asset, but are in reality, comprised of very safe investments.
As far as a crisis of confidence is concerned however, the only difference between the fate of the banks holding these investments in the concentration that say, Lehman Brothers did, is that in the first case the bank run started after people started to ask, and learn about the underlying reality. Perception is all that matters.
It didn’t have to end in collapse of course, Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman, had a number of off-ramps open to him that could have saved the bank. But he didn’t want to seek the capital his bank badly needed for too low of a price. It was an odd sticking point in a crisis, as is the odd sticking point that Blizzard has had with the Night Elves for years – their reluctance to show them the sort of big, flashy victories that they routinely award to the Horde. Doing this could have restored confidence and a sense of pride, as well as communicating to the Horde that they were dealing with competent adversaries. Instead, like with Lehman Brothers, Blizzard missed the off-ramps and the situation continued to deteriorate.
They could have balanced the presentation of Horde victories in Cataclysm with Alliance victories. They refused.
They could have been more judicious with the presentation of the Horde’s victories, making them seem visually less complete. They refused.
They could have created patch content to update the status of the war, and show progress in Cataclysm. They refused.
In Mists of Pandaria, they could have shown the alleged “crack squad” of Night Elves, or Night Elves in the Landfall patch generally, as being competent and able to hold their own. They refused.
They could have shown that the leader of said “crack squad” at least had the discretion not to reveal critical military secrets. They refused.
They could have secured the divine bell, and thereby foisted the humiliation, in literally any location other than Darnassus. They refused.
They could have created a scenario, possibly mending the numerical faction imbalance of them in the patch that preceded the Siege of Orgrimmar to demonstrate that Ashenvale had been retaken in Mists of Pandaria. They refused.
They could have substituted the much-maligned “robot cat” content in that same patch to demonstrate that Ashenvale had been retaken. They refused.
They could have included quest or NPC text in that same patch to demonstrate that Ashenvale had been retaken, anything other than the out-of-narrative developer clarification we actually got. They refused.
They could have portrayed Tyrande as competent and respectable instead of brash, impulsive, ineffectual, and weak – on three separate occasions – on all three they refused.
They could have used Legion as a chance to prop up and rebuild the playable race – particularly in regards to the Horde. They refused.
They could have harmonized presentation between the novellas and the War of the Thorns to portray the mitigating factors that turn what looks like a one-sided curbstomp into the impressive last stand it was supposed to be. They refused.
They could have attacked literally anything or anyone else for their expansion kickoff that didn’t involve finding new and creative ways to victimize the Night Elves. They refused.
They could have been clear about the status of the remaining army, and depicted more signs of an ongoing fight in Kalimdor. They refused.
They could have created content or at least harmonized existing content with the mission table descriptions. They refused.
They could have put the warfront anywhere but Darkshore, a territory unique in its statement that the Night Elves had been completely driven off the continent. They refused.
They could have shown the Night Elves being able to fight back on their own terms rather than pulling an overly edgy powerup from Mars out of the blue. They refused.
They could have given the Night Elves an unambiguous, unstained roll-out of the Night Warrior. They refused.
They could have yanked the undead Night Elves after mass confusion and protest was lobbed their way from multiple corners, or could have chosen not to go with the suggestion to feature them so prominently in the first place. They refused.
They could have at least made Darkshore an unambiguous win. They refused.
This is not to say that the attempt made with Tides of Vengeance isn’t admirable, and in many areas, I do feel that they came close. But they once again, in several instances, were reluctant to provide much of anything that was a clear, resounding, confidence-restoring moment – and that was the state of things after numerous and sweeping revisions that would at least partially correct the significantly more troubling first released draft of the content. It was, however, too little, too late.
Sure, Terran Gregory can run around doing interviews about how Blizzard is showing unprecedented love and attention to Night Elves. Richard Fuld had delusions of a similar caliber – like SpinCo, the hairbrained idea to make a bad bank that was going to somehow ride off into the sunset with all of Lehman’s toxic assets – as if anyone would buy them.
As Richard Fuld had his delusions, the “shorts” (read: the Market) were singing a different tune. So what are their contemporaries saying now?
“Will the Kaldorei lose Darkshore? […] Personally, I feel like they should. It makes sense for the whole Horde-Kalimdor and Alliance-EK theory.”
“Still, everywhere I’ve seen tyrande she’s been brash, impulsive, impatient, and combative.”
“A win that will come at the cost of the Horde’s efforts in Teldrassil in the first place, and doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense in reclaiming considering the bulk of the Horde’s troops could just roll in there to do the same thing again.”
“You know the only thing that means is we’re due yet another series of severe beatings in the next few patches to even things out because muh parity.”
Will the Kaldorei lose Darkshore?)
On the state of the Night Elves:
“Completely obliterated is my fair depiction of that race, incapable of doing anything anymore, considering the amounts of time they went through extinction events and their increased life-spans making repopulation nigh impossible.”
“I think it’s a little late for undoing the damage done to Night Elves”
“I do believe that the Night Elves at this point should be depicted as a dwindling race of refugees”
Ideal, but fair depictment of Races- Round 1, Night Elves)
I’ve seen similar sentiments on discords and older threads, and like in these threads, remaining Night Elf fans can be considered as reliable in their ability to dispute these claims. In this case, by pointing to the underlying canon of the situation – canon that is often swept under the rug, and is not reflective of the impression that Blizzard has gone out of their way. Another faction insists that because the Night Elves are a playable race, Blizzard just wouldn’t be so foolish as to let the Night Elves lose again – a position out of step with the historical record, and a position that doesn’t address the core issue: believability. Elegy itself had Tyrande doubting the future viability of her people as a race – how then is anyone to believe that they will achieve a comeback sufficient for them to be regarded as a going concern again? For their fans to ever have faith or pride in playing them again?
There is no method. Because tonight it is September 14, 2008. All of the hairbrained schemes have failed. Treasury and the SEC are on the phone. They’re not saying outright to declare bankruptcy, but their implications are unmistakable. Mr. Hazzikostas, Mr. Gregory, Ms. Golden, distinguished members of the board. The paperwork has been prepared.
The terms are as follows: you admit wrongdoing, and clarify in an interview or a tweet that you’ve failed, utterly and completely, and that you have no choice now but to seek an orderly breakup of the company. First, the distribution of the remaining assets: Tyrande, Malfurion, Maiev, Jarod and Shandris are to be distributed to the Horde, killed in a heroic last stand that may take place in a short story, but it would be preferable and more efficient to do it in a tweet. The playable race is then to be distributed to the Alliance, with its remaining members pledging fealty to Anduin Wrynn. This must be done to send a transparent signal to the markets, and to potential new investors of the finality of this move.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we must also not permit ourselves to forget that there is more at stake here than just the dissolution of this firm. The entire global system is at risk, Blizzard lost 2 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter, all of them related to World of Warcraft based on information from their quarterly report – and in a release year, that much is historic, having no precedent amongst the fourth quarter performance of other expansions. There is not enough capital in the entire system to save both us and the rest of it at once, I will call the vote.