I’m not saying that Warcraft isn’t drenched in racism. It certainly is, and there are a lot of ways in which we can point those out.
However, that does not undo the moral implications for the architect of a military campaign seeking to end a race of people as a people by imposing a wound that would never heal because said architect was convinced by means of sheer racial paranoia that the target races would one day come for the Horde - and that this couldn’t be avoided no matter what because that’s just how they think.
I’m not gonna argue against that. Good thing he is back, in some capacity.
I’m just saying, and I hope that you believe me, that I truly would not mind that the Alliance, escpecially the Worgen, became a bit greyer. I would not. In fact, depending on how it’s handled, it would probably be better than it is currently. And even if it’s not, it would probably still be more interesting.
At this point, my priority/dream really just is an Anti-Cata expansion. It truly sucks that “budget” is the reason that Gilneas, Southern SP, and Hillsbrad at least aren’t back in the hands of the Alliance.
The word you’re looking for is “competing priorities”, not budget.
This is an allocation issue. I’ll remind you that the budget was certainly there to make War of the Thorns as miserable for me as possible, or to give Saurfang five CGI cinematics.
God, those cinematics. They bother me so much. Someone at Blizz clearly knew what both Saurfang and the Horde Faction is supposed to represent on some level to invest a hell of a ton of money into them. But that sure as hell didn’t deter them from completely undermining all of those themes and values with the BfA story. Truly, I seriously cannot figure out who the hell BfA was aimed towards? Not the WC3 Horde players surely. Not the Sylvie loyalists (at least by the end). Sure as hell not the NEs.
Maybe the MHPs a bit? Since they got to siege Lord and rebuild Strom? Beyond that though, it sort of feels like it was just Blizz’s habit of “hating” the restrictive influence of established lore and themes, cuz “the vision”.
There’s an interesting conspiracy to speculate at, only race to get a net positive is Humans lmao (Deus Vult Interim Leader, Anduin out of the picture and getting a Bad Boy Makeover, Strom rebuilt, and half of Traditional Lordaeron Territory taken, with the way open for a Gilneas re-settlement).
Also just bizarre ideas of what people will enjoy.
A lot of BFA was clearly intended to assume the Horde player is super happy to still fight the Alliance up until the end of 8.2.
What possessed them to think what Terror of Darkshore most represented was in any way a good experience is beyond me. For the Horde, it was a character that was usually pretty friendly to them now acting all horror monster for a an all too justified reason, for the Alliance it was lipservice to the Horde crushing they craved.
That a disproportionate amount of the playerbase are people who enjoy bloodthirsty murder as if WoW were Call of Duty, that the stereotype of what a gamer is represents the WoW playerbase.
I mean, if there are beneficiaries to this - the humans are definitely up there.
They got all of the heroic moments, all of the character development, all of the screentime, all of the big bad kills, and all of that moral and martial superiority over their friends and their enemies alike and they didn’t have to give up anything for it.
and goes into the claims of that recent IGN article that the low-level devs are concerned about the corporate culture, fermenting with the recent ex-Trump-official hire for a high level position in Activision, and everyone who leaves critiques the current “culture” and look for studios who feel more like “family”
I don’t think it can be denied that the narrative as of late teeters toward the fascist, or at least fascist-adjacent.
Which is rather weird because BFA could be considered a critique of fascism, and in that respect it shares many aspects of that with Cata/MOP. But then again, if you do have a company that’s proudly proclaiming “never again is evil” - maybe there’s a point there.
Also I’m confused at the last bunch of posts since I last looked at this thread. Are the Horde the victims of terrible writing that forced them into an arbitrary villainous role or were none of their actions really villainous because they were wholly justified by things the Alliance did?
You can acknowledge that he horde could be entirely justified in fighting back against the Alliance’s hostile actions, while also acknowledging that blizzard took it way too far, because they treat subtlety like Lenny treats rabbits.
Pretty much. Blizz (or at least a select group of top devs) has one very small comfort zone that they’ve allowed themselves to squalor in more and more over the years. One that is very … traditional to say the least, with Human “Light” Worshippers at its core. The further you get away from that comfort zone, the less “by default” positive representation you get it seems. With many of the Horde races being far on the other side of that spectrum, and the NEs being the furthest away on the Alliance you can get.
I mean, hell, just look at Golden’s “Goldens” (the set of characters she seems partial to, since SLs has more than proven that Baine is a PET of a writers Pet, not a direct pet himself. He has been treated horiffically so far). Anduin, Jaina, Turalyon, Calia, Alleria, and our “Fallen from Grace” members of Sylvanas and Arthas (with evil powers corrupting their soul and appearance). Interesting that group lol! Quite “diverse”.
EDIT: And this isn’t to say that there aren’t good smaller stories for many of the other PC races. If I ever figure out what intern they shackled with writing Gobs in BfA, I’d very much thank them from the bottom of my heart. But … that sort of passion for the variety and world of Warcraft really seems rather barren at the top of those teams. With them seeming to hold established lore, Racial and Faction themes, and even Characterization for their Reps as irritating burdens in the way of their “Grand Vision”. A lot of their problems stem from that.
I’ve been on the “Baine has been ruined by blizzard” train for a lo~ong time and yet if you told me pre-SL that Baine’s entire “arc” in SL was to be captured, rescued, captured again, rescued again, and to sit on the ground and mope in the expansion capitol, I woudn’t have believed you.
If the upcoming patch has anything new in his story, I’m unaware of it, but so far it tracks with him being entirely passive and useless unless it’s to help one of Golden’s pet characters.
Right, Baine is simultaneously the Best/Heart of the Horde … and a worthless plot-device who’s only value can be found in what value an Alliance character can find in him. Specifically Anduin and Jaina.
We are talking about a guy who is the main rep of arguably the single most spirit worshipping PC race in this game, within the Land of the Dead. Who just was discarded and tortured as worthless by his own kidnappers, a pretty classic motivation for self-reflection and growth. Yet, he doesn’t seem like he could stumble into a meaningful personal story if he tried right now. Though to be fair, Bwon is a footnote and the Forsaken couldn’t even have a token representation in the story dealing with their creators.
Seriously, if WoW has done ANYTHING its proven without a doubt that Baine Bloodhoof is NOT a Writers Pet of Christie Golden. Rather, he’s an accessory and pet for a few of her writers pets. His personal story is in no way important. With even Thrall sort of just being there because he’s easy to use.