Lets say Blizzard decides to do a Alternate time line for Warcraft Classic similar to Warhammers Age of Sigmar. How do they bring back the mystery of the Warcraft universe similar to Classic had? Completely new titans and the way the universe works? New ways of channeling the light, fel etc. New Gods? Could this be done in WoW?
Iâd say that a reboot wouldnât need ânewâ Gods or completely new rules of how to change the universe, rather I think it would be best done by utilizing things weâre already familiar with in new ways.
For instance, if there was going to be a reboot of any kind that put us at Vanillaâs time, we have a lot of open ended stuff that can be taken advantage of and taken in whole new directions. Giving leaders like Tyrande, Sylvanas, Thrall, Bolvar, etc. some screentime to actually do something in what is imo the best era of WoWâs lore in terms of the potential shown by all the different races and factions.
More depth can be added to old villains like Neferian and Onyxia without a shoehorned revival of the character, more consistency can be added into the lore without seeming like a total retcon of some past material that doesnât at all add up with the new lore, etc.
I think thereâs already a very good foundation already to explore in any reboot of WoW there may or may (probably) not ever be, so adding in a bunch of new stuff imo seems like it would stretch the premise too thin.
3 Likes
If they reset they would need a serious level of in-house consistency for lore and character portrayal. Theyâd need a loremaster like Elder Scrolls has to makes sure every single thing in the game was consistent with the lore put forth.
So many of the issues now are basically due to them making up new lore to retcon the old stuff, and then retconning that too, compounded over time. Make the world the main character again, and continuously flesh that out while adhering to a master plan of âthis is what is canon for good DO NOT RETCON THIS!â
Imagine if every race had the same lore complexity and depth as theyâve given Kul Tirans, Zandalari, and even the stuff in Pandaria.
8 Likes
I would LOVE a multi-zone storyline where we go through Elwynn, Westfall, Duskwood and Redridge just learning about the local customs and history of Stormwind. Itâd give us an updated look at how those regions are faring, plus itâd do immeasurable good to flesh out the actual kingdom beyond the Wrynn family.
2 Likes
Well, firstly, I donât want a hard reset. I want the current lore to be good again.
Secondly, I think that, even with everything theyâve built, a reset would just come off a bit contrived and heavyhanded - we know most everything about Azeroth, so unless they make some serious continental overhauls, much of the mystery is gonna be manufactured and tacky.
Thirdly, if theyâre gonna do that, it wonât be Classic.
2 Likes
Well it depends on presentation. If weâre following the same basic story beats as WoW just updated then yeah it would be, but if it were a clean slate back to Vanilla lore and everything was fair game to mess with, I feel like there could very easily be a sense of mystery, supplemented by a familiarity with the characters and settings involved. If you were particularly interested in certain character before, and then saw that there were completely new paths that they could take and didnât know what was going to happen, there could definitely be genuine interest there.
But putting this all back into perspective, a WoW reboot will probably never happen and probably shouldnât. Maybe. Iâm not sure.
KulâTiran lore isnât remotely fleshed out compared to the Kaldorei or Quelâdorei. Even Blood Elves got better lore than KulâTiras. Zandalar, i couldnât tell you about because i only play Horde once in the blue moon.
Personally, i donât think thereâs that much problem with the lore today, as itâs a problem of activist pretending to be developers and writers.
What Iâm saying is if Blizzard reset the lore today, we will end up with exactly the same mess tomorrow because thereâs a conflict of inturest.
1 Like
I mean tbh, a lot of the Zandalari stuff is frankly pretty terrible compared to the lore they got in vanilla indirectly just from some NPCs talking to you about their cultural analogues for the playable classes, so it seems like a downgrade as far as that one goes.
Thats a good point.
Even if one wanted a hard reset⌠would you want the current crop at Blizz to handle that?
I would rather enjoy the lingering vestiges of good lore that remain, and the occasional good moments that pop up.
I donât think theyâre going to do a hard reset in game now we might get it you Chronicles 4 out of it where they do some more retcon on the lore to fix things up.
Which highlights annother problem. The current activist we have at blizzard, donât understand the psychology and history the original writers were trying to portray. Literally driving World of Warcraft into becoming a different universe and game.
A good example is WC3 Reforged. the redone cinamatic and character preportion was reversed; the sound effects made puny and out of place. Like practice foils clashing instead of axes and armor smashing. The armor of the human Units is monstrously out of proportion while the Orcs have had their heads squished. It doesnât look like Warcraft; it resembles to an extent to remind us what its supposed to be, but it isnât. It isnât because the Humans are wearing space suite amount of armor while the Horde units are given harry potter troll physical proportions.
When it filtera over to Warcraft, itâs like the writers donât know if theyâre writing a LotR or Eragon novel. Forgetting that Night Elves live in Desolated regions like Stonetalon, Desolace and Bladeâs Edge Mountains too.
This mentality even filters over into class balance and design. But thatâs probably a topic of its own, for annother timeâŚ
2 Likes
I kinda think that, if they wanted to do a lore reset, just remaking Classic would be the way to go. A lot of the stuff that would really help the lore is stuff they needed to do with the overall world setup and the Classic lvling experience. Simply tacking things on to the end only does so much. Yeah, they could do stuff like Hyjal and Uldum, but I donât think that goes very far in the long run.
Stuff Iâm thinking of would include but not be limited toâŚ
-The Kingdom of Alterac reforming in some form or capacity (redefining or replacing the Syndicate, since they were never really defined as an entity anyway). This would give WoW the evil human kingdom itâs always needed, and some moral greyness to the Alliance (assuming they work with the Alteraci to counter the Forsaken).
-Give the Horde a more defined endgame and overall central arc. The Classic Horde suffered from having no real progression after their lvling zones end, and just having to piggy-back on what the Alliance are doing. So, give them some stuff. See that Shadow Council plotline through to the end.
-Alternately, just have the Horde fully own itâs underdog status and openly admit that this is as far as their story goes. Itâs never really worked to pitch the Horde as underdogs but equivalent to the Alliance. Even the collaborative neutral organizations generally skew Alliance. So, just embrace it in the writing that, yes, the Horde just isnât a major power.
-Give the gnomes and Darkspear trolls something to do rather than fail at reclaiming some starter zone territory.
-Have the Forsaken present in WPL and EPL. Have them interact with the Argent Dawn in some capacity. Make it understandable why the Forsaken tolerate the Argent Dawn so close to their territory. Or have them fight each other.
-âMaybeâ have the Nelfs split into northern and southern groups (North = Ashenvale; South = Feralas) and have them as independent entities. Maybe some sort of conflict between them.
#RedoKaelthas
4 Likes
As far as I am concerned the lore, story and characters have been wrecked from Cata onwards. So much of the world lies in ruins, the themes of the factions and races flipped, characters twisted into flanderized monstersâŚWe donât even have the Legion or Scourge left as a threat, just boring Old God Shadow whatever tentacle monster garbage.
And it is the current team who is responsible, I donât trust them to deliver on anything when they prove time and time again they only know how to destroy for cheap shocks and twist out of laziness. They canât fix WoW, they are the ones ripping it apart.
5 Likes
They do have one. They just donât listen to him.
2 Likes
<puts on a red cap that reads: Make Warcraft Lore Great Again>
MWLGA doesnât really have a ring to it.
Mowlga.
1 Like
No. /10chars
This is a character name.
I often dream of a lore reset. Itâs comforting to think of.
One thing Iâd really like to see is the factions become more⌠how to put this⌠iconic. Putting the nelves into the Alliance and the Forsaken into the Horde diluted the identities of not only those races, but those factions. Both would have served much better as neutral factions.
Nelves wouldnât have been neutered to make them the purple helves of the Alliance, and the Forsaken wouldnât have had to of held back or spiraled into evil for the sake of a faction conflict narrative.
If they were to add new races to the Alliance and Horde, then those races should really BELONG to those factions. Ogres for the Horde, as an example. Belves (or helves) for the Alliance, as another.
I really wouldâve liked some racial storylines and customization options so that different ethnicity or nationalities within a race got some screentime. For me personally, add some Wildhammer stuff. For other races, Humans obviously would get some stuff from the varying kingdoms, Orcs could get stuff for different clans, etcâŚ
A return to the WC3 model of factions would be great too. A lot of unity and camaraderie within the Horde as it forges itâs identity of noble savages. More politics and issues of racism and schism in the Alliance.
Give the gnomes Gnomeregen back and turn it into a functional capital city.