Let’s be honest here. People won’t do the war campaign. People won’t have a reason to do the war campaign. People won’t see the 8.1 questlines for Voljin or Tyrande. People won’t have a reason to do them.
The idea that they are mentioned in BFA, but only in content that won’t be seen or experienced, is largely the same as them not being mentioned.
It will take significant reworks of the leveling path to make this idea work. Darkshore and Voljins urn quest folded into leveling. The War Campaign, at least some early stages of it, as a core questline that can be done while leveling (this should be done anyway to explain to new players the change in Sylvanas)…
But that’s why we have alpha. Why we discuss these things. So Blizzard can see and react.
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I’d wait until the full package is out before jumping to conclusions, but that’s me.
This is… something I hadn’t even thought of. It makes a lot of sense, though.
Personally, when I started playing WoW, I had absolutely no understanding of the events of Warcraft 3. I didn’t even know what the Battle of Mount Hyjal, culling of Strathholme, or Outland was. I wondered why there was this big tree/zone in Northern Kalimdor I could never get to. Who is this “Lich King” the Forsaken freed themselves from? Why is everyone so excited at this trailer with this demon elf?
But as I played more and looked into the background, I learned. But it never hit me the same way it hit those players who played through WC3 when it was new.
As terrible as Teldrassil was, in the grand scheme of Warcraft slaughters, it’s not particularly unique. We -the players posting- experienced it, though. We fought the war that followed. That made it so much more powerful.
But for new players won’t be coming into the game with an understanding of how important Teldrassil was. To them, Teldrassil means about as much as Stratholme. Or Theramore. Or any climactic battle or massacre that occurred during the third, second, and first wars.
It’s a part of the setting’s backstory and does indeed inform the current state of affairs, but even after learning it, it doesn’t do a whole lot to change the dynamic between Horde and Alliance as having a peace agreement that stands on shaky grounds due to a history of bloodshed.
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They kinda have too new players dont get the choice of expansion they do the new island then bam off to bfa till lvl 50 that would mean they do the war campaign.
I’m going to counter that, ultimately, as Blizzard has moved more onto character focused story telling, those moments like Battle of Hyjal and Stratholme inherently “felt” like backstory, and not an on going plot.
With Tyrande having a questline that is directly related to the burning, and not a mention of the burning, I feel like this is not an apt comparison.
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The War Campiagn isn’t mandatory. In fact, almost everyone I know in game didn’t do it until max level. It doesn’t lock quest chains, it’s locked behind a resource quest, etc.
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What do you mean not having a mention? New players after the intro island lvl threw bfa they dont get to pick expansion. The burning is referenced 9 times and cinematics they will know
You think you can get 40 lvls without doing it?
Easily. They are scaling leveling down, and you never have to do every quest to hit max level.
Ever. You rarely have to do every zone.
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Not according to alpha its not try looking at those who are doing the lvl process they completed all 3 zones and only reached lvl 39 meaning they would need to do the war campaign and venture to kt or zan to get to lvl 50 and see the story
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I mean, that’s why it’s Alpha. Because the War Campaign isn’t 10 levels of quests if all 3 zones are only 29 levels of quests.
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True but they clearly expect new players to have to do it hence why they would get the story. Its also why they don’t get a choice in expansion to lvl in its bfa only
I mean, they really don’t. Actually, according to Wowheads article on the speed leveling dude, he made it to 50 by doing Exiles reach, all of Tirigarde, and dinged 50 before even exploring all of Drustvar. To be fair, he did the war campaign entry quests, but as a speed leveler that would make sense. He wants to skip all the RP and travel time.
He’s never set foot into Tirigarde sound or most of Drustvar.
So the idea that people are doing all three zones and only hitting level 39 is… false.
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Like you said though 1 he is a speed leveler and 2 he did the intro war campaign quests so showing him the burning of teld as those are the intro quests
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Yes. He went out of his way to do the war campaign quests, because as a speed leveler he knows they are fast even if they seem out of the way. New players won’t have that .
Hence my earlier post saying it needs to be redone to make it a bigger part of the leveling instead of “do it when you can”.
And, on top of all that, chests now give massive amounts of XP. Half the amount of XP that completing a quest does.
People won’t do the war campaign as it currently is. And they damn sure won’t do the war campaign after the first few bits that unlock the zones.
So no Zandalari quests, he’s doing the ones with Brann regarding the Blood Trolls. No blood elves and Shandris in Voldun, he’s doing the ones where you meet the snake people, etc.
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So, the entire Faction War storyline? Too bad they were dumb enough to put it IN in the first place.
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So what was the whole point of BfA?! Aren’t new players going to be really confused when they view the burning husk of Telldrassil?
This sint exactly something you can ‘yadda yadda’ away. o_O
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While I get this point? I disagree. In part, anyway.
I think people are not getting the actual scale of Teldrassil. And I don’t mean in terms of moral gravity, or anything. I mean just the size. There were mountains in that tree. Theramore was bad. Stratholme was bad. Vale of Eternal Blossoms was bad.
But these places weren’t the cradles of their respective civilzations. They were war crimes, mass murders, and so forth, but…but Teldrassil was actual genocide.
The reason I bring this up is because of what happened after. Look at the war against the Lich King, or against the Burning Legion (either one), or against Deathwing and his forces. Huge, expansion defining things. We can kind of look back on it and go on about our business…because we weren’t the ones on the side of Arthas or Archimonde or Deathwing.
That’s a hard pill to swallow, especially because it was so successful. People who have been playing for a while might be a bit more jaded about that kind of thing. We’re at the point where we’ve had enough time to grow inured to Theramore, or Quel’thalas, or, yes, Stratholme.
But a new player? They find out that their team carried out a successful genocide for no reason other than to kill people. And your team went along with it.
I don’t know. I think that’s going to hit new players in particular harder than people think it will.
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Not to dismiss the losses of the Night Elves, but I simply cannot factually agree that it was like the single greatest loss of life the Warcraft franchise has ever seen, not even by the Horde as compared to Warcraft I and II. I mean, there were 7 human kingdoms, and now there’s like 2. Half of the races in the game have been driven to extinction.
I do stand by the idea that it was the recent nature and experience itself that heightened the drama. Not necessarily the act itself.
Like imagine if Stormwind got sacked. How absolutely and rightfully pissed people would be. Well Stormwind did get sacked. Only it happened before WoW and because it’s not something many players experienced, it’s not treated like the big deal it would have been had it been the finale of BfA.
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No, I get your point. I don’t think you’re downplaying the effect on the night elves, just that you’re looking at it from a historical perspective. “Historical” in the sense of the scope of the act–oh, I think you know what I mean.
I guess my perspective is that this event is a little different because it’s not some external force. Stormwind was sacked (Hi, Saurfang), but the idea is that that was the “old Horde”. Quel’thalas was destroyed, but that was the Scourge. Stratholme was culled, but that was Arthas. Etc.
This is different (it would feel different to me, at least) in that the people who orchestrated this massive loss of life aren’t some external force, or the product of antiquity. It’s the same people who would be giving you quests. And unlike a lot of those other things, you wouldn’t need to load another game to find out about that. That’s in the same game you’re currently playing.
I get what you’re saying. I just think it probably would weigh a bit more with night elves, as opposed to quillboar or somethin’.
I apologize if it seems like either I’m ignoring you, or instantly responding to you. I’m in about three different threads right now, so my attention is a bit scattered and focused.
“How can it be both at the same time?”
Darling, I’m an elf. That should explain everything.
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