People exaggerate the CSI jokes in Westfall, he does it one time at the start. Not a good first impression I’ll grant you but it’s absent for the entire rest of the zone. It’s nowhere on the scale of Redridge or Uldum.
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-devs-talk-new-expansion-how-to-improve-battlegrounds-without-breaking-it-and-the-problem-with-priest/2/
Ve’nari is the only member of a race called the Ve’nari. She’s the one and only and is very unique, which is one of the reasons we had to get her up there as a bartender. She’s a cool character.
Yeah, she’s like the arbiter for lost souls in the Shadowlands and she kind of sends them where they need to go.
Can this be seen as spoilers, or is it purely fragmented development teams?
I disagree, I think Stormwind is a really good fit.
This is supposed to be an alliance vs horde year for hearthstone and Westfall doesn’t say alliance to me as much as it says Defias.
I think it’s this, not spoilers for WoW. Hearthstone and WoW have separate, independent teams making each game, and moreover Hearthstone isn’t strictly bound by established Warcraft canon. This could be a case of a Hearthstone dev being confused about the Shadowlands character, or it could be that Hearthstone!Ve’nari has separate lore from WoW!Ve’nari.
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Genuinely saddens me that we will almost certainly never get content like that again in WoW, just umpteen variations of random cosmic realms or, at best, something like Undermine.
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Westfall has a variety of problems and the CSI-jokes is only one of them. It’s mostly that the zone uses a very crude and completely unfitting type of humor mostly going with, “lol hobos.” With quests where you literally collect dirt (instead of you know harvesting the perfectly preserved pumpkins), the whole, “He died a natural death!” “With two bullets and his shoes on his head?”-thing, and the absolute amount of stupidity from all characters involved.
At the latest after the rally in Moonbrook the entire garrison of Sentinel Hill should have been put on high alert, but nope. We let the Defias waltz right into the fortress and let them burn everything down. Which is also NEVER FIXED! Not even when you complete the heroic version of Dead Mines and “kill” Vanessa.
I probably have a bigger issue with it because Classic-Westfall is one of my favorite zones in the entire game. The nearly hopeless battle of the People’s Militia against the Defias, the sheer endless flats and fields, the music. Cataclysm threw in an unfitting, far too large fortress, a random tornado which is never mentioned anywhere and a stupid storyline with crude humor ruining one of the best zones.
In general the Cataclysm-zones nearly all suffer from unfitting, stupid and in many cases outright childish humor.
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And it serves as validation to people that Blizzard doesn’t give a care for the Alliance outside of the Wrynns and Jaina.
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Horde zones had the same issues; see Azshara as a prime example of dumb humor over substance and respecting the atmosphere of the old zone. It wasn’t just an Alliance thing, it was the mentality of quest writing as a whole during Cata development.
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Yeah it definitely goes beyond just the CSI intro. The entire zone was over the top goofy. One of the the most cringe things i remember was the homeless NPCs outside of Sentinel Hill yelling stuff like “This is Horse 
”
Like really? It felt so goofy and childish especially when compared to something like Silverpine. The zone did the Human story no justice coming out of WOTLK. There was a little potential there but the zone in general left a bad taste in my mouth with how goofy and silly all the characters acted. Not to mention the zone is an eyesore to look at too. That giant crater at that old farmstead and all the rocks/earth flying around…
Personally i liked the idea of a fortified Sentinel Hill, forging it into Stormwind’s version of a Hearthglen with Gryan Stoutmantle commanding it. But we didnt get to even remotely see anything like that since it burns down at the end of the questline. Ugh.
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I know this thread is old but there apparently was a reason for picking Stormwind and it is probably for the best it was chosen over say Westfall/Redridge:
- The original setting for United in Stormwind was in Westfall, but they thought that it’s going to be too close to Barrens fantasy-wise. Westfall also doesn’t have the same diversity of characters and monsters, so they settled on Stormwind.
They’re so close to self-awareness
Like it’s staring them right in the face.
“Maybe, centering Human Potential for the Alliance is bad and is limiting and possibly undermining the structure of our story”
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It has nothing to do with Westfall being human territory and everything to do with Westfall not having any characters. There’s Gryan Stoutmantle, the Van Cleefs, and a bunch of memes.
Sticking a bunch of Draenei or Worgen or Pandaren there wouldn’t suddenly create compelling characters out of thin air.
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Is it? Of all the “monsters” in Stormwind maps so far, only rats, demons, one gnoll and … end?
It worked with Gadgetzan. Why doesn’t it work with Westfall?
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Furthermore his temporary stand in Bishop Farthing turns out to also be a traitor and his stand in uses the same dialogue as Farthing indicating that he is a traitor as well.
The Church of the Light needs development even if it turns out to be the Twilight’s Hammer’s base of operations dedicated to the Void Lords.
We need Questlines dedicated to the Twilight’s Hammer corrupting the Kingdom of Stormwind through it’s branches and being used as justification by the Scarlet Brotherhood to usurp control over the Kingdom of Stormwind!
The Brotherhood of the Horse and the House of Nobles needs development as well alongside the Knights of the Silver Hand’s Stormwind Branch! Questlines of Development all leading to a Scarlet Brotherhood coup against both Anduin and the Twilight’s Hammer!
There is evidence that Stormwind was founded by the Arathi Bloodline so the Arathi Nobleman that the Scarlet Brotherhood has falsely claiming to be a child of Calia can easily have a more “legitimate”(so far as the Arathi lineage is harder to contest than the Menethil lineage which is easy to refute) claim upon the Throne of Stormwind as it would officially be the founding dynasty reclaiming the throne from a Usurping Dynasty(which the Wrynns clearly are due to the Arathi founding Stormwind).
What? They still ended up centering the setting on Stormwind. A human city and for the most part managed to give it its own personality. The questlines(regardless if you like or hate them) were done in such a way that made for a good use of the setting.
Actually that is most of the “monsters” used for the expansion. Which is relatively more diverse then say westfall. Boars, harvest golems, maybe a wolf or two. In terms of unique enemies, the Barrens would have more diversity consider the story it told was about a more wild and untamed land as oppose to Westfall.
Well for one, the various Horde mercenaries in Hearthstone don’t seem to have a compelling reason to go to westfall. For another, Stormwind, being the heart of the Alliance means ever race is more likely to be in Stormwind.
Because Goblins are the designated wacky race and their entire conception and background is that of comic relief. Gadgetzan being wacky is in theme and in character.
Humans by contrast, aren’t a designated wacky race. They’re one of several major races in the Warcraft universe that’s a designated dramatic race, whose established background is largely one of pathos. It’s the race of Anduin Lothars, Medivhs, Terenases, Proudmoores, Uthers, Aegwynns, and Arthases. Not the race of Gazlowes, Noggenfoggers, and Gallywixes.
They do not lend themselves well to wacky Dave Kosak comedy like Goblins do.
Imagine The Two Towers but half of the time in Rohan is spent on a reference to Batman.
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OK.
Was Gadgetzan really a comedy?
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It’s a Hearthstone trailer, they’re all in the same goofy light-hearted vein. I’ve never taken any of them seriously and this one has no reasons for me to make an exception.
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All it takes is black women in your fiction to get your underwear in a twist?
Can’t believe I missed this thread.
“Oh noes a black woman in Stormwind! This breaks my immersion and must be a political agenda or BLM conspiracy!” Relax my dude.
This reminds me of the thread yesterday… if you don’t like black people in Stormwind, might I remind you Anduin has a drop of mixed blood because his grandmother in the movie was a toasted brown colour. /s
Eh, not all of them are lighthearted. Like for example this one: https://youtu.be/CCJq7lE3JQs
Also the comparison was to the Barrens trailer which definately had an air of seriousness to it.