As the Horde narrative continues to unfold like some sort of dreadful slow motion train wreck, I find myself increasingly stumped by the question I pose in the title: who does Blizzard think their Horde players are?
Seriously…who are they writing for? Not the “rawr, Horde smash!” crowd, or they wouldn’t be emphasizing that we should feel shame for all the stuff they have us wreck. Certainly not the “noble outcast” crowd (i.e. the fools like me who actually bought Blizzard’s own description of the Horde). Not Forsaken fans, given that it is increasingly clear that Sylvanas is ultimately getting thrown under the bus.
Are there any Horde fans who want a narrative where we do monstrous things before once again being torn apart by civil unrest as we endlessly debate the “who is the Horde, REALLY?” topic for the umpteenth time.
Here’s the thing, Blizzard: Your basic concept for the WC3/Vanilla Horde (“They look like monsters, but they’re not!”) may have been sort of novel for a video game, but it’s not really that challenging a concept. We got it. We were cool with it. We certainly weren’t having an existential crisis over it.
I’m going to take a chance and explain what I think MOST Horde players want:
We want to be the faction described on the box. We want to be a ragtag collection of hardened survivors who have banded together to survive in a largely hostile world. We want to be capable of pragmatic and even brutal actions when we have to, but we don’t want to be evil for its own sake. We want to embody virtues such as honour, family loyalty, and tenacity. And most of all, we want to be the heroes of our story.
I don’t think most of us mind being villains from the Alliance perspective. We accept that conflict is an integral part of the game. But we don’t want to be villains from our own perspective. Nobody enjoys that. And we don’t want to be written as relapsed addicts struggling with the meaning of our own existence.
The next time you are preparing a Horde cinematic, Blizzard, pause and ask yourself what music you plan to score it with. If it will require ominous low tones, or a melancholy minor key…maybe we have had enough of those. Maybe think about the story you are giving us. Ask if you would enjoy a story that is ALL failure.