Eh, as I was saying to another poster before - you have more room to put things, but you also have to do things like describe environments, appearances, sounds, and scale. Images can just do that, and they’re far more impactful and memorable to boot. The accessibility problem also means that books just don’t get seen by most of the playerbase.
This is true. A picture is worth a thousand words, but actual characterization is better off in print. At least in my opinion. You can more naturally show a character’s internal thoughts. You can also naturally create longer scenes with print which allows longer and more thoughtful conversations than in-game allows, as you can’t exactly sit the player down for an hour and make them listen to Sylvanas and Saurfang debate about the pros and cons of a pre-emptive attack.
Granted, the benefits of print are only worthwhile if you actually make their internal monologues consistent with their actual motivations.
Overall the franchise would be much weaker without its prose additions. They aren’t seen by as many people but they do add additional context and lore that we can sink our teeth into. A franchise as big as Warcraft benefits greatly from making use of the advantages and disadvantages of a wide range of media. The trick is deciding what stories work best in which forms.
There are other MMOs that do this. They just throw up a warning that the cutscenes are going to take considerable time and that you shouldn’t start them unless you have the time to finish them.
I’m certainly not saying that books have no place, but there is a problem when books are used as a band-aid to try to say that something is the case in the lore that Blizzard doesn’t want to portray. The books for example are replete with examples of the Night Elves being martially strong and capable. We see this in stories like Elegy and A Good War actually - but in this case, we have a general trend of this sort of thing happening:
Night Elf defeats and reversals: Usually depicted in-game or in visual media.
Night Elf victories or successes: Usually depicted in novels, left to the imagination, or explained in tweets.
It’s not all one thing of course, but this is the general trend - and that trend results in this idea that Night Elves are weak pushovers who can’t stand up for themselves. It removes a lot of their appeal.
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I can understand that. Lots of people I’ve spoken to think Vol’jin is an incompetent idiot who never should have been Warchief because they skipped Shadow of the Horde and never actually saw what his character was like.
But that is also why I am so thankful for that book. Without it I’d have nothing to point to and go “See? Vol’jin is actually quite competent. He just never got a chance to really shine in the game.” Shoot, without it I might not even know what Vol’jin’s character is supposed to be like.
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The trouble is, most of the playerbase assuredly didn’t read that book. That’s why putting that detail in it without showing it in game is such a problem. It leaves people with a distorted impression of the character.
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I’d honestly agree books are good places to build up NPC character. There’s just so much you can do with quest dialog and cutscenes.
I wouldn’t really want an extended cutscene of Lor’Themar and Thalyrssa on a date. Not sure a quest like that would be great either. There are of course action scenes in the books that would be cool in game. Defeating Nathanos and the Dark Warden with Thrall, Baine, Thalyrssa and Talanji should’ve been fun to do in game.
But I’m also aware BFA was over and they weren’t going to devout the sort of resources to portray that battle in game. So I’m glad I got that scene somewhere at least.
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“Champion, I am in urgent need of aid! Go forth and fetch my standing stool from my office. I wish very much to kiss my lady’s cheek.”
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after BFA, I would do an entire questline where we just go around helping various Horde leaders going on dates in a heartbeat.
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Being Lor’themar’s wingman sounds like a rad time. Would take it over BFA any day!
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If a Night Elf adopts a SMALL part of Human culture, such as worshiping the Light, it’s homogenization.
If a Human adopts a SMALL part of Night Elf culture, such as worshiping Elune, it’s “appropriation.”
So, no matter what, humans are going to be the villain in this Narrative.
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Consider the following:
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In Warcraft III, the “Priestess of the Moon” hero (represented by Tyrande in-game) was equipped with abilities like Starfall, showing how she’s literally a priestess of the moon.
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In World of Warcraft, all “Priestesses of Elune” are canonically of the Priest class, both in-game (shown using Priest abilities like Heal) and in lore (questlines from Priest trainers, etc.). Priests, by the way, use abilities empowered by the Holy Light in-game.
As for the class that actually uses the moon for its power (Starfall, Moonfall)?
Yeah, that just got shoved into Druid as an extra specialization.
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Small?!
When did religion and worship become small? Especially in a theocratic society, worship of Elune is perhaps the most vital thing in Kaldorei culture…
You get no argument from me there. I mean, it sort of makes since from a lore position that Druidism is richly derived from Elune Worship as well. Owlkin are supposed to be a creation of Elune and channel her power themselves. So it makes sense that they would have a connection to Druidism and Elune.
(They really should of only allowed Balance Druids so cast Arcane spells.)
Of course, Player Character Priest COULD of just had our abilities using unique names and appearances but still FUNCTIONALLY operated as Light spells.
But MUCH of player classes don’t fit with lore class.
Tidesages that are Shamans.
Necromancers getting forced in to DKs.
Night Elves canonically having Paladins (two versions in fact) but not playable.
BUT, none of that had anything to do with my comment.
“Small” as in only one character in all of the Lore even done it.
One character is still one character written by Blizzard. Meaning, that one character is confirmation that homogenization is happening. And it seems to be going one way.
Open acceptance of the Arcane, despite that defining the culture for 10k years. Conversions to the Light, despite that being defining of the culture for 10k years. H U M A N P O T E N T I A L, despite Kaldorei believing they, themselves, have a divine heritage.
If I recall correctly, druid arcane magic originally wasn’t really meant to be arcane. It was supposed to be a sort of “lunar” element, but Blizzard didn’t want to add a new elemental resistance type for just one spec of one class, so they stuck the arcane element on it anyway. At some random point, the excuse just became canon instead.
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Which is to be expected in a mixed and diverse setting as a world with countless different unique cultures all intermingling and exchanging ideas.
It would of been wrong and unbelievable if it DIDN’T happen.
It depends. I did add to my post, you might not have seen it.
And more to Kya’s point. In an MMO, homogenization of the faction races only means that Blizzard is effectively erasing the defining elements of the game that people wanted to play.
I play a Night Elf… I dont want to play purple humans.
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Sort of yes and sort of no. Arcane itself is probably a far wider form of magic that permeates all others (indead, I think all forms of magic have a lot of overlap.)
I mean, there’s a reason the Night Elves thought that Elune Slept in the Well and believed it was a gift from her.