Where the Horde is concerned, you have people who want them to be the badguys, and on both factions no less, and people who want them to be what they were in WC3. Because of this division not just among players, but Devs too, we had such conflicting narratives for the Horde over the game’s lifespan that make it impossible to tell a coherent story, much less one that paints the faction as heroes/anti-heroes, or outright villains.
Or at least that’s what I would have said until the War of Thorns. There’s no stepping back from genocide.
This is just another reason I support a WoW 2 timeline reset back to post WC3:TFT, because that’s about the ONLY way to move past the War of Thorns, and write the Horde as it was in WC3; a group of honorable savages walking a path of redemption for the past, that they may build a hopeful future for their children.
As I describe here, there was a way to marry these ideas in a more balanced way without the complete tonal whisplash the Horde is today. Obviously, this is just one suggestion, but I pulled it from my *** out of nowhere, and it goes to show that these stories issues COULD be solved if Blizzard gave a damn.
I have never agreed with you more on anything ever.
I wouldn’t say that it’s the only allowed means by which the lore should be defined moving forward, but rather that, it never was given much of a chance to be that. Imagine if you get to the end of the first Game of Thrones novel, and then in every novel afterwards everyone is super friendly and nice and it’s just sunshine and rainbows afterwards. Joffrey attends Robb’s wedding and gives him Ice as a wedding gift.
It’s that level of jarring, where previous installments set an expectation, but then the future installments utterly ignore it.
The Horde started with a disadvantage. Cataclysm thought to fix it. Now we are back to vanilla with Hillsbrad and Silverpine being contested. All in all the Horde had to take the L and it feels bad. A MMO with factions should make all sides equal in power otherwise the community will feel mistreated by the devs. Aion, Swtor and ESO did it right.
Alright I gotta agree with you here. Even other MMOs are doing the faction fantasy better than WoW these days. I play both factions in SWTOR and I have reason to be proud of each side and get invested in their story. It’s a shame WoW just can’t seem to learn or improve in this regard.
Even if the powers are different, like the alliance had the tech and “tamed” magic (mages, priests, etc) and the Horde had more the brute force/“wild” magic (druids, shaman, etc).
The main thing is the way the story goes most of the time, the Horde uses the power it has to go on the offensive aganst the alliance and as such we wind up losing that power after the fighting is over which leaves us weakened.
I think the main issue lies in what blizzard takes from warcraft 3. Blizzard looks at the Horde campaign and see most of it is killing alliance and Night elves. then the Horde falling to a corruptive force like the demon blood. Ultimately culminating in them teaming up with the Alliance to expunge that evil side of themselves and go on to defeat the overall bigger evil.
Blizzard doesn’t understand that isn’t the part of warcraft 3 horde players like. They want the Rexxar campaign horde where they are the victims of a more aggressive alliance. This is more a reactive horde that is at odds with the alliance and the alliance(jaina) see its self as going to far.
So I beg people to be clear when they praise warcraft 3 because blizzard will just repeat what they have been doing in BFA and MOP.
Again, this is like wondering why Elder Scrolls players obsess over Morrowind. it’s really quite simple, friend.
Certain games end up defining the worldbuilding of a setting. In many cases, it’s the third game, because thats when the lore and setting become fully established. I could also bring up Devil May Cry 3 for example. The first game was originally intended to be a Resident Evil spin off.
Same applies to Warcraft for many people. What began as a Warhammer knock-off took a few games to become its own fully unique IP.
I am happy with ESO. My Altmer has his own house and I haven’t even finished the main quest. Some times admiring the world building of a setting is enough to draw the fun.
We have TONS of things in lore that were not in WC3 and later added.
You could say it was more established than previous 2 games put certainly not fully established.
And that applies to literally every long-running franchise ever, especially those that disrespect their roots and try to twist the story into something it was never intended to be, instead of building upon what was already there.
All you’re doing is explaining my exact point, and why so many people latch on to WC3 as Warcraft’s narrative anchor-point.
Just like people do with Morrowind.
Just like people do with Devil May Cry 3.
Just like people do with GTA 3 and its spinoffs (Vice City, San Andreas).
My point is at what point do you realize what you want is just not there. Sounds like these people just want something that the writers did not really make.
Don’t get me wrong,. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing but seems to be just the reality at this point. And I’m not saying don’t keep asking for the storytelling you want, But if I could ask,what do you want to see in game that’s not there?
Except they literally did. And it was there for many, many years. It’s not like something that happened overnight. It was a slow descent away from the IP they created with so much love and passion.
Like most disasters, it happened very slowly, then all at once. The current writers seem to wish Warcraft was a different setting. They seem embarrassed by Warcraft. Like they think they’re too good for it. So they pulled it out from the roots and think they can just replace the core of the franchise with their own fanfiction.
This argument isn’t about whether or not Blizzard has given up on classic warcraft lore. Thats a foregone conclusion. But you’re wondering why people are so attached to Warcraft 3, and why many hope they one day return to their roots. This is why.
You were wondering why people see Warcraft 3 as the anchor point for the setting. I told you.
If you want to know how I would do things differently, I’ll drop a post from another thread, but whether or not you personally agree with these ideas is irrelevant. In short, it would require a complete story reset/reboot:
Edit: I see you replying already. Are you gonna read what I wrote? I provided you what you asked for XD
