Like, I’m trying to find a logic here, warrior women has been a thing forever in Warcraft, neither captain garrick or the horde equivalent are trying to push any narrative of “I need no man” or “I can do it on my own” on the contrary, those npcs are there to introduce players to the concept of making groups and joining forces with other players. She is a knight and he is a priest because most beginner players will start with DPS classes so you need a tank and a healer.
Maybe? Maybe not? Depends on the story I’m being told. If I’m told ‘this woman is a capable warrior,’ I don’t have some ingrained predisposition to go ‘nah, the narrative is totally lying to me.’
Also, again, character-wise, she’s an clearly-experienced captain that can handle a crisis situation, is cool-headed to the point where she doesn’t panic despite her son being imperiled, and she knows how to manage her forces to best effect.
Henry, meanwhile, has the entirely reasonable reaction to getting overpowered and nearly consumed in a profane ritual of being shaken up and needing someone to help him out of the funk. Henry’s not constantly going ‘oh god I’m terrible and I need all of the help’, he shapes up pretty much immediately after his rescue and becomes a proper member of the team.
Like it or not, the age of Warcraft being a boy’s club is long over. And I’m actually glad. Warcraft has had female characters take the lead/been part of the action since Warcraft 2 as well. Or did you forget the first mission of Warcraft 2 beyond the dark portal had Alleria, a woman, lead it?
Yeah, he’s clearly green, so whatever he got confronted with was probably pretty harrowing. The most important part though is he rallied and became an effective and contributing member of the team.
Not every soldier is Saurfang or Varian levels of stoic.
EDIT: Hell, Henry wasn’t even that despairing. He was disappointed in himself and reporting what he thought was a mission failure and a total force loss. He just needed a clap on the shoulder and some rallying words and he was ready to get back into the thick of things.
My main point is, why even tell this story? Why for both factions?
What is the benefit to the game of having this narrative for new players? Do you think it gets people hooked and invested into this world, better than the old racial starting zones?
This thread is about why warcraft doesnt feel like warcraft and things like this are why.
No one is looking at the WC2 box art with wispy eyes and scowling at Captain Garrick when they do Exile’s Reach. A new player, especially someone new to Warcraft as a whole, is going to look at Captain Garrick and go ‘Oh, she’s my commanding officer? Okay then. Oh hey, there’s a wolf dude and panda girl over here, this is kinda cool.’ They’re not going to look at her and go ‘Oh GOD what a disservice, why is some diversity hire leading this expedition?’ unless there are some heavy underlying problems with the individual player.
Or could it be that MMOs are a dying genre and WoW is a game that more then 20 years? If anything, the fact it is still kicking is a testament to its resilience.
The only bad side IMO of the new starting zone is the lack of race specific content. Besides that exiles reach works better as a tutorial than most starting zones. But every problem i could have with exile’s reach, the commanding officer being a woman isn’t one of them. And I dont think i have ever seen anyone but you being like: You know what ruin this tutorial island? The commanding officer is a woman.
Disneyland is not a video game. I would also point out part of its strength is it tapped the family friendly market which gasp, includes women.
Heck, find me any multiplayer game now that has little to no female characters. Heck, even mario has changed with the times and makes both peach and daisy(long time damsels in distress) playable characters.
Yes, but Peach is still Peach correct? I doubt they could get away with gender swapping those characters. Maybe in the next game they can put her in overalls and Mario in a dress.