That would be a quadrilogy. 
It’s just insulting that you would even compare the genius of Tolkien with Warcraft writers.
1 Like
Because they didn’t hire Ralph Bakshi to make his own version of Warcraft movie from the other version. 
LOTR is based on Norse Mythology.
D&D is based on LOTR.
WoW is based on D&D.
It would seem that every step down from the original material is less popular than it’s predecessor.
Glory to the Allfather.
I hope your joking, saying Potter is anywhere close…SMH.
3 Likes
Bro, no offense to the creators of WoW, but you’re going to compare the lore crafted by a group of imaginative DND nerds to the lore crafted from the LANGUAGE up by a classically trained philologist?
I LOVE WoW, and I love that WoW, like EVERY other fantasy has drawn directly/indirectly from Tolkien, but the man is one step away from being the fount of origin of fantasy tropes.
1 Like
Because its not a movie franchise, and the one movie that was made about it majorly sucked and flopped because most of the audience had no idea who Gul’dan or other characters were. They just saw green orcs and humans and gryphons and without being able to relate to WoW, it fell apart. LOTR is known more for their movies then games.
Please tell me you are trolling…the alternative makes me sad for your generation.
oh please… half our lore isn’t even original or authentic… Alot of it is just borrowed or knocked off from tons of other games and prior literary to religion text.
The reason wow isn’t as popular as LOTR is because they’re the originator and yes we are the imitator like countless other mmo’s. WoW is popular, but it aint no LOTR the difference is like comparing twilight to dracula.
Nice summary. man nod
1 Like
I was actually shocked at how many people thought the Norse mythology ripoffs in Wrath were Metzen original ideas. /boggle
Yeah. WoW is based a lot off existing mythology. That’s true, but it is incorporated into the game and technically it is lore. Granted, J. R. R. Tolkien was a talented writer and Elves we have in WoW are from him! He was the one who made elves tall actually! 
I read full trilogy when I was around 11. I remember not understanding half the words 
But I still finished the book. Tiny font. No pictures. Just 600+ pages of text.
2 Likes
Well, there is the matter of the 57-year head start. The Hobbit was published in 1937, and has benefited from nearly 85 years of world-building. Warcraft was released in 1994.
Why would something that basically stole/cribbed its identity and races from LOTR be better than the original?
Metzen was a pretty good writer don’t get me wrong but he wasn’t on Tolkien’s level, he borrowed a lot of things and fair enough he wasn’t writing a super serious thing but a fun game series that over time got more serious.
The lore is a confused mess if not outright garbage that apparently is written to suit systems and game designers and their ideas and justify it after the fact rather than created as a holistic story and narrative with the systems and game design made around it.
Blizzard’s whole thing was taking ideas from other games and companies and improving them in some way or making them more accessible (aka easy). This is why WoW was successful. Warcraft RTS is another discussion but it’s at this point so far divorced from WoW that it’s not relevant and RTS never had that huge of a fanbase compared to the mass literature of Hobbit/LoTR and the fact both got movies, one starting in 2000 which was 4 years before WoW was released.
They never really had the greatest lore. It was at least up to wrath or maybe MoP kind of endearingly quirky, funny, had its own charm but it was never great and significant parts of the game had real life references, meme references, etc that just don’t improve the quality of a fantasy lore tapestry. Between that and dev plot armor for beloved waifus, recycling the same stories repeatedly with predictable outcomes and results and uninteresting, uninspired villains and motives as well as needless and forced conflicts that make no sense and are done entirely for gameplay’s sake and what you have is lore that doesn’t take itself seriously or even bother to try and be consistent and logical within its own logic so why would anyone else?
LoTR universe (Tolkien canon) is hardly the pinnacle of fantasy writing, and I say this as a big fan, but it is better than WoW’s stuff and provides a more solid, filled out foundation around which to fill in all kinds of details in games, fan-fiction, etc. Especially once you strip out or sideline the hero characters.
WoW has no mass appeal. It started out as the more accessible MMORPG, the one that drew in WC RTS players who were familiar with it and general Blizzard fans. It had decent enough writing, systems, content early and was successful but well planned for the longer-term or well written it was not. Those things make tie-in media very difficult which is what warcraft would need to break out to mass awareness. They tried a movie, screwed it up, upset the fan-base who wanted it to follow established lore and spent too much time indulging the game audience with what they assumed would be a favorite tale and not enough striking out on their own with more compelling stuff.
1 Like
Checks watch
Yep, it’s about time for me to go watch the JRR Tolkien vs George R.R. Martin Epic Rap Battle again.
Seriously, I think that thing makes the case pretty strong for Tolkien, lol.
Because wow lore is half assed lotr is genius.
Because WoW is a direct ripoff of lord of the rings. Very little of what you see in WoW is actually original.
Added to that, lord of the rings is well written. Wows story is god-awful at best.
1 Like
Surly forumer in 2221 : “I only play with gold, so there!!”
Prickly Forum retorter: " Well you are giving Blizzard $6,250,000 then!"
1 Like
nothing wrong with borrowed text.
Every JRPG has some greek or hindu diety in their game, heck look at the final fantasy series.
If anything most RPG’S heavily use classical text, and i do enjoy it.
Much can be said about most forms of media or literature including comics and kids shows now.
2 Likes
Warcraft lore is pretty fragmented and hasn’t been too compelling since warcraft i-iii, and for outsides who haven’t played the game (particularly the latest storytelling) it’s probably pretty cringey seeing the warcraft movie or some of these slyvanas trailers at major events.
Then you have the literal masterpiece of lotr.