Has there been any discussion on if we’re getting short story videos leading up to the War Within? I really loved all the ones we got for previous expansions. My favourite being the Warbringers: Jaina for BfA.
Here’s a link to the first video in each expansion’s video series:
I was not a fan of the DF ones. War bringers were awesome though.
It seems like we might only be getting the short stories. Could be budget cuts, could be that they blew the budget on more fully rendered cinematics for the game.
I’m confused.
“Why are there no short stories”
“Here are the short stories”
“It’s probably because they are not in the budget”
“But here they are”
“Yeah too bad, no short stories”
Not to derail the thread but you made me wonder if we will have an actual cinematic for the war within? They made it seem like that one we saw during blizzcon was something else.
If I’m remembering right, most of the previous “series” released very close to their expansion’s launch. We’ll probably hear about them in about two weeks if they’re happening.
I noticed a placeholder card for a “2.5D” cinematic while watching one of Nobbel’s streams of beta gameplay. I believe that term has been used before to describe the painted-looking cinematics, so that may indicate that more are on the way.
Idk if they’ll do Anduin and Alleria, since they got short stories. It would be interesting if they did them on the denizens of Khaz Algar. One on the Earthen, one on the Nerubians, one on the Arathi and maybe one on the Harrownir (Cave Elves).
Previous cinematic series have mostly been used to establish backstory information for the expansion, either by helping introduce new characters and zones, or by giving catch up information for existing NPCs:
Burdens of Shaohao: introduced historical events and NPCs for Pandaria
Lords of War: introduced the titular Warlords of Draenor, including some of the AU details, as well as some backstory for Maraad
Harbingers: backstory on AU Gul’dan, refresh on Illidan and demon hunters, and refresh on Khadgar’s early history
Warbringers: refresh of Azshara’s history, refresh on relevant Warcraft III events for Jaina and Sylvanas
Afterlives: introduce the Shadowlands zones and some NPCs, reintroduce Draka and Uther, refresh on Warcraft III and Wrath events
Legacies: introduce Emberthal and the dracthyr, refresh on history of the aspects
Lore in Short–Arthas Menethil: made for Wrath Classic, features Jaina narrating a summary of Arthas’ path in Warcraft III in the same painted-looking art style as the retail WoW series
If the placeholder I spotted is in fact for one of those cinematics, then it will involve the Nerubians. I think given the previous precedent of using the cinematics to set up backstory information for the expansion, it’s very reasonable to speculate that any cinematics will set up the peoples of Khaz Algar. Individual characters already covered by new short stories are probably less likely. I could see us getting something for Xal’atath, but if she’s going to continue on through to Midnight, she might get the AU Gul’dan treatment and get a cinematic before that expansion instead. Besides, we’ve already gotten a small refresh on her history with the Dark Heart quest line, so I don’t know that we need to see further from her in advance of TWW.
Also, on the topic of pre-expansion lore material, I would love to get more audio dramas. “The Tomb of Sargeras” and “A Thousand Years of War” are fantastic, with good prose and excellent acting performances, and are just very enjoyable to listen to.
A video series on these Nerubians would be awesome. I know there’s some stuff in their zone about Anub’anark reaching out to them during the events of WC3, so building on that could be cool.
