I see the concept of cosmic 3d printers as a modern rendition of ancient mythological tropes. Instead of being made of clay or dead giant flesh, or “sea foam” after primordial god castrations (looking at you Aphrodite) they used something more familiar to a modern person.
Either way, I’d say Shadowlands as a whole was a botched execution of the afterlife. Which is such a shame, there was a lot of opportunity for the machine of the death theme. They never even touched on the systems true purpose. They talk about a cycle of life and death but never completed the cycle and explained how death feeds back into life. If the point of the shadowlands was to purify a soul of its sins and its unfulfilled desires in life, until it finally was ready to be wiped clean and reborn? that be so much cleaner.
Are they old? they must be old. That is an old school approach to things. Modern library science is all about openness and providing new ways to offer information to patrons.
…but I know the feeling. Ive been fighting with my work to open up digitization of our genealogy records, and they are so stubborn. Because old people.
You’re either being disingenuous or you’re just don’t know much about WoW’s overall story. Teldrassil is only one of many tragic things that has happened in WoW’s story. I encourage you to do some research on a character named Gul’dan and also look up the burning legion. Their crimes far exceed what happened at Teldrassil. Ever been to the bone wastes in Terokkar forest? Yea that entire area is a field of draenei bones as far as the eye can see. You really have no idea the insane tragedies that have taken place in WoW’s story if you think nothing comes close to Teldrassil. Even some of the bad guys I saw in Rivendreth looked like they did way worse things than what happened at Teldrassil.
I don’t identify myself with the game, nor do I expect any of us posting here do. But like how a movie can evoke feelings, or a book, or a song, so can a video game.
It’s media. Media that doesn’t invest you with feelings, with emotions, with something, is failed media.
Teldrassil burned literally to evoke emotions. The dev’s have made no secret of this. Their surprise was the intensity of those emotions, not their presence.
And really, of course they underestimated that. The same dev team who thought Classic would be a bad idea (you think you do, but you don’t) and needed years to be talked into it clearly don’t understand nostalgia, or the power of it. Or the power of burning down that nostalgia for a villain arch to push a second HvA expansion only four years after the end of the last one.
The head archivist at the Toledo archives that had the early modern to pre modern records I needed to trace a branch of my family literally wouldn’t let me access the archives unless I could answer a question on the spot of obscure Spanish history.
Thankfully he asked something I somehow knew, “When King Alfonso 6 burned the Roman Missal and the Mozarab Missal in a fire, which survived and what happened after?”
Another time a nun interrogated me on my knowledge of Catholic theology.
Only one time did an archivist eagerly work with me and it’s cuz I am a descendant of the guy he did a dissertation on and have his last name maternally. (Most Hispanics use both last names)
Yup, it was really at the end of the day an expansion that decentered Azeroth, decentered all our characters, disconnected death from everything we knew beforehand, and botched the metaphysics thereby.
They tried to do a death expansion with no sound and stable theology.
But you see WoW has invoked feelings and emotions with me for a very long time. So has many other games, movies and stories. But they are just that: games, movies and stories. Nothing more.
o.O that upsets me on a personal and professional level. As Archivists we are the caretakers of history, we are not its gatekeepers. Our job is to help culture not forget things.
Or neither of your two assumptions are correct, and I was showing you why players would feel differently towards something they experienced, compared to so.ething they read on Wowpedia.
Nothing in WoW compares to UC and Teld. Period. In Warcraft, and all the lore? Sure. But players will naturally be more inclined to have feelings evoked from something they witness and play through than something from Chronicles.
I realize this may sound patronizing itself, but I’m being sincere here, not sarcastic: do you understand what speculation is?
I just do not understand why you are so angry that I have a different speculation of what may happen than you do. I’ve already explained that you are free to disagree with me. I’m not offended that you do. I won’t be offended if I’m wrong about my speculation; I often am, I can’t read minds or see the future. I’ve only been offended when you’ve talked down to me for no apparent reason. I don’t know you, I don’t recall ever interacting with you on the forums before, I am unaware of any previously slight or insult against you I may have made. I don’t ever recall even seeing you post on the Story Forums previously. Why are you so upset that I’m having fun?
Actually, never mind, I don’t think I need an answer. I’ve seen your responses to others here.
Well, its sort of interesting. The brain cannot fully distinguish between a fake location or a real one once you are emotionally invested in. So when you see it destroyed, you emotionally react the same way you do if you saw a RL location you cared about destroyed.
It is a very powerful psychological process to trigger, and not one the Dev team were at all prepared for trying to harness creatively.
Well lets hope they never make a prequel expansion in the before vanilla time if people are this emotionally attached to it now. WoW has many places of strong story relevance that new players today wouldn’t know anything about. When I go to Silvermoon and see that long dead scar across the land I know why that is there. When I go to the bone wastes in Terokkar forests I know why that is there. When I see Outland in its shattered state, I know why that happened. The horrifying things that happened in Scholomance are more disturbing to me than what happened at Teldrassil. When you do quests pertaining to these places you’re essentially experiencing the story of what happened whether it be past or present. I think people are just more emotional today than they were back when I first started playing.
I was more replying to your statement of “media that doesn’t invest you with feelings, with emotions, with something, is failed media.”
I simply replied by saying for me it has and does but its not things I stay too emotionally attached to for long periods of time. The only characters I’ve really kept continual interest in with regards of what happens to them in the story is Arthas and Sylvanas.
Danuser literally said they are nearly extinct, and it’s logical since they were wiped out in Ashenvale, Darkshore and mostly in Teldrassil.
Uh no, there’s a direct link between the lawsuit and how Blizzard treats the Night Elves, the race that had a matriarchial society. Why do you think they only have to suffer tragic events and never get a positive development, or why do they as victims have to forgive their abusers?
You’re making quite the claim there, with no proof whatsoever to back it up. Night elves have some of the most amazing story elements in the game. Their zones have the best music in the game. They are probably the most popular race in the game too or very close to it. And yet you think Blizzard has it out for their own creative work because it has a matriarchal society… that they also created. I’m worried how far you’re willing to go in your completely irrational claims to make sense of the things that has happened to the night elves lately. I suppose they better not have anything bad happen to anymore female characters anymore then right?
Lol.
Do you mean the part where they were wiped out, their zones were destroyed, the part where their souls were tortured and obliterated or the part where they had to forgive those that inflicted this misery upon them?
That’s subjective and has nothing to do with the story. The music is also very old and despite it being my favorite (which is part of why I loved Night Elves that much), it still doesn’t change anything about their complete destruction and endless misery.
Uh yes, because those are different people than those that created the night elves two decades ago.
Losing everything and always and going through endless suffering with no positives ever while also having to forgive their abusers is something that is exclusive to Night Elves.
We’re at the point where there isn’t really anything left of the race, they ensured that when they obliterated their souls in the maw so that there’s nothing left to save and no hope anymore.
I’m guessing you haven’t been playing WoW for very long. I’ve been playing it since the beginning and I can tell you there is way more to the night elf lore and story than just what happened to Teldrassil in BFA. I know shocker right?
And there you go again with the “there’s nothing left to save” bull crap you keep saying every chance you get. Your feelings towards BFA’s story and how you think it somehow relates to the lawsuit is completely irrational and not based in anything other than… well your feelings. You do realize you’re accusing real people of purposefully writing the story in such a way that it presents the night elves in some sort of continuous abused place because you think they get some kind of joy in seeing the night elves abused. That is why I keep saying you’re irrational. You’re responding completely out of emotion with no proof other than your feelings about a story to back it up.
Okay? And I can tell you that everything that had been established in the past has been torn down in BfA and Shadowlands by different people than those that wrote the past.
Yes because their souls are obliterated, this was the last chance for the night elves to ever recover.
Nope, it was unclear why the Night Elves would receive such horrible and disrespectful treatment, but after the lawsuit it’s all clear.
Uhm… did you pay attention to the last 4 years? Where the Night Elves have gone through nothing else than tragedy and suffering and when the writers were provided with tons of feedback, they decided to go the opposite direction and double down on it by obliterating the souls and forcing the night elves to forgive their abusers.
Checking the posting history of the unfamiliar weirdos we got in the past day who were stirring the pot and one is a Blizzard shill who thinks a white woman complaining about white men is racism, among other insane takes, and the other is a Blizzard shill who thinks mandatory vaccine mandates are the apex of tyranny and a violation of freedom (because nothing says freedom like dying from preventable diseases).
At least Blizzard shills are consistently unhinged and my intuition was right on the money.
I’m convinced that the Undead Heritage Armor quest they presumably have planned will be centered around Calia Menethil. Quite possible that they might be planning on doing a patch 9.2.5 that adds Heritage Armor questlines for Undead and Night Elves. At the very least, I think it’s likely that these two races are the next races to get their Heritage sets.
People like to argue that Undead and Night Elves will be among the last to get Heritage sets because of the Warfront armor, but I think that Blizzard would be missing an opportunity to have Heritage questlines tie into the current narrative if they don’t do Undead and Night Elves soon.
