Night Elf Fans Don't Pre-Order Part 4

Lore Story Forum
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I’ve already pre-ordered. In fact, I got the Epic Edition, because I’m fiscally irresponsible like that

But I have a best friend I play with. He hard core raids, and I do not any more (We were both hardcore raiders back in Burning Crusade, but besides picking it back up momentarily for Firelands in Cataclysm and pugging Heroic raids during Legion from the Emerald Nightmare through Tomb of Sargeras, I do not actually enjoy group content due to social anxiety issues).

However, we have been able to find shared content together in running Horrific Visions together and the dailies associated with gathering the currency to access them. So far we are up to full clears with three masks, and will probably try four masks next week.

This system seems like a rather promising preview of Torghast in Shadowlands, so I have a reason to look forward to playing.

I did not have that reason to look forward to playing in BfA, but Blizzard was successful in stringing me along enough that I made it through the expansion.

8.0: Azeroth at War: Kalimdor on Fire kept me around long enough to complete it.
8.1: “Terror of Darkshore” and the Darkshore Warfront hooked me enough to stick around to see where things were going.
8.2: I did not care for the story content, but I enjoyed the gameplay of Nazjatar enough that I got the Undersea Usurper achievement.
8.3: Here we are.

But if what you are looking for in WoW, and specifically Shadowlands, is for Teldrassil to be address, as we had hoped it would be properly addressed in BfA, well, it doesn’t sound like that will be happening right away, and Blizzard might be drawing this out for as long as possible:

    Sometimes I wonder if there’s a conflict between gameplay systems and story delivery. In the Warfronts, we saw Forsaken night elves very aggressively join the Horde under Sylvanas, filled with vengeance, only to abruptly return to the Alliance under Calia Menethil’s guidance in Patch 8.3, after Sylvanas revealed her betrayal of the Horde. I realize that gameplay might have to come first, but is it ever frustrating trying to marry gameplay features like Warfronts with logical in-game story beats?

    As a game, World of Warcraft tells stories very differently than a film or book. For us storytellers, this affords opportunities that aren’t present in other types of media, but it also means our stories need to fit in with the game’s structure. Features like Warfronts give us an opportunity to see characters react to intense situations and play out over a long period of time, but the needs of gameplay sometimes require us to hold off on resolving those plot points until later in the expansion. We see that as a unique aspect of this medium that we embrace.

    The Alliance seems overly accepting and forgiving of the fact the Horde burned down Teldrassil and genocided the Elves, in my view. I feel a bit like that is glossed over, perhaps?

    In the epilogue scenes in Visions of N’Zoth, we wanted to show that Tyrande clearly has not forgotten what happened and will not accept any treaty that doesn’t see Sylvanas—and the Horde—answer for the crimes of burning the World Tree and the murder of innocents.

    Wars have a way of changing the world and those who inhabit it, in ways both broad and subtle. These changes do not resolve cleanly in a short span of time; that wouldn’t feel genuine or true to the deep wounds inflicted by the Fourth War. So, while many fans are eager to see the resolution of what happened at Teldrassil, there is a lot more story that needs to unfold before it can be fully addressed. These characters have a long way to go, and many more lessons to learn.


So, yes, if you know you’re going to be playing the game and want to spend your money on collectables, I assume you’ve already pre-order the expansion. If you know you’re going to be buying the expansion and would rather get a level boost for a character now rather than later, I assume you have already pre-ordered the expansion to get that.

But if what you are playing for is solely for a desired story outcome for the Night Elves - if you have no other reason to play the game until then - obviously this expansion is not going to be what you want right away.

It sounds like they already have their plans laid out, regardless of whether or not you give them your money. Not pre-ordering in all likelihood will not influence how they are going to tell the story. Not buying the game will more than likely not have any impact on their decisions on what resolutions they’re going to give or when.

But if you don’t have a reason to play the game I certainly assume you haven’t pre-ordered, as I’m assuming you aren’t playing the game already any way and aren’t actually able to post on these forums, either.

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From you, Amadis? :open_mouth:

But from the Interview, the only thing I gathered was “Wait and see” once again, to me it just seems like they don’t have anything compelling to deliver in Shadowlands and just want to keep Night Elf fans around. I wonder if our complaints will have any influence on the story, but the soonest we will see something of that will be the Expansion after Shadowlands.
Maybe the threads in General Discussion, reddit or other platforms reached the writers somehow (I made another one in GD quite recently), but I kinda doubt it and even it they did, who says that they care?

I don’t want to repeat the countless points people have discussed in other threads about Teldrassil being ignored, but it really shows that they never planned to continue the Teldrassil storyline for the Night Elves if they can’t even deliver a conclusion in Shadowlands, which is 4 years after Teldrassil happened. Instead they indirectly told us “Yea, we actually want to focus on other storylines way before we even consider giving you a conclusion to Teldrassil”
Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this anymore…

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It felt appropriate to end off the expansion in the same place I started out at. This is my second most liked post I have made, and it still holds true:

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This is something I think players in general misinterpret, Anduin WANTS Sylvanas’ head and in-fact SUPPORTS Genn and Tyrande, especially Genn whom he gives his approval to just before he (and we) leave with Tyrande/Maiev for darkshore. Don’t know if this is just cause maybe most people charged out of the palace war room and out of dialogue text range before Aduin began his talk with Genn as Greymane was leaving or during it and before he could finish but he makes it VERY clear in everything he says in this encounter that if it weren’t for the stretch of resources the war with N’zoth/Azshara/the Horde and Zandalar had placed on himself and his kingdom physically and psychologically he himself would probably be launching a crusade for Sylvanas’ head. If anything what Anduin is expressing in the war room is REGRET at not being able to do it himself, not disappointment at Genn and Tyrande’s actions.

EDIT: may be showing my ignorance here but… Shadowlands is 4 years after Teldrassil In-game universe time??? i thought Sylvanas destroyed the tree and then almost immediately smashed up Bolvar to enter the shadow lands?

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I actually agree with you Hernex, but I think you might have meant to post this in a different thread?

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Why is it necessary to have four threads on this topic?

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I feel my messaging was sufficiently different from the first three.

Also, I started typing this out as a parody thread, but, as you can see, didn’t quite go in that direction when all was said and done.

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Your title is missing a comma.

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To be honest, I expected a parody thread too.

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Coz NE posters are sometimes… how to say… rhymes with druid?

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I intentionally did not use a comma. Originally title was going to be some sort of play on the No True Scotsman Fallacy, but I couldn’t work it in.

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That interview was a bunch of useless fluff in an attempt to blow smoke.

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To fully adress all the side effects of the 4th war, it would be necessary for a world revamp, remake some starting zones, and all that stuff.

I doubt that would come in shadowlands, since well, that is not on azeroth, so i doubt there will be any changes to the old zones.

There is a lot that can be done, and while Night Elves are my favorite races and i want a conclusion to the teldrassil, i’m also just eager to see what shadowlands will bring to the table both in gameplay and story telling.

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Fluid?

(something something characters required)