World of Whorecraft: Battle for Asseroth

[Cyberarmy]

Yeah I know where that originated from, I just love watching those back then. Machinimas galore!

 

[Talby]

Reminder that Daelin Proudmoore was 100% right to hate the orcs and everything he warned about came true. Jaina is a traitor who sided with a band of bloodthirsty animals over her own flesh and blood.

 

[Scroo]

Watching these old pvp vids where everyone was backpaddeling in circles while sometimes even clicking their skills is quite hilarious today

 

[Zed]

new hype thread title

 

[Zed]

i just made a ton of 30 slot bags for my characters. im gonna play a troll warrior and then race change into zandalari

 

[Psquit]

"Morally grey" character. Pfffff, hahahahahahahahahaha.

Night elf: U do dis sylvanas?

Sylvanas: Oy vey remember QUEL'THALAS!

Spoiler

Garithos was right and you fucking know it!

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Just so we're all aware, the Alliance has a race that has access to the USS Enterprise, lasers and all, and Sylvanas decides that some big ass tree needs to go down first.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Watching these old pvp vids where everyone was backpaddeling in circles while sometimes even clicking their skills is quite hilarious today

It was hilarious back then too.

 

[Doktor Best]

Just so we're all aware, the Alliance has a race that has access to the USS Enterprise, lasers and all, and Sylvanas decides that some big ass tree needs to go down first.

Well to be honest, if your goal is to crush the morale of the nightelves, then this was the thing to do pretty much.

I actually think this is one of the better plot points of WOW. Finally a conflict that kind of makes sense, a reason for the Alliance to be united in hatred for the Horde.

I expect a similar response from the Alliance and then we will finally have a conflict with an actual premise and not some superficial meaningless skirmish between two empires that are both led by a bunch of goodymcgoodshoes hero figures who like to shake hands with the enemy and understand and tolerate one another until big baddie comes along.

What i do have severe problems with, on the other hand, is the point that Sylvanas managed to burn down a magically warded big ass worldtree that stands miles deep in water with a bunch of cheap fire catapults. Ehhh what?


Also WOW players are even too retarded to watch cutscenes. They all think now that Sylvanas launched the catapults because the dying nightelf made her angry. What the fuck.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I must admit that reading all the outrage from WoW players on the official forums has been particularly wonderful. Blizzard's biggest narrative adversary is their own playerbase wanting the faction war to remain overly passive until the next cosmic threat comes along so they can join forces to smite it with the combined might of friendship, truth and love.

This is my favourite one today when someone said it's just a game:

Except it isn't all a game. We pay very real money to play this game, and many people (including me) are unhappy with Blizzard's deception.

This is not a war that is complicated, nor are there two sides to this story. They literally just made the Horde the aggressor for this entire expansion.

Had they said, months ago, that they were going to demonize Sylvanas I would not have bought BfA, nor would I have played these last few months.

Blizzard lied to their player base, and many of them are angry about it. That isn't taking a game too seriously. That is being angry because they lied to get my RL cash.

 

[Nathir]

How can people be so autistic? They're literally complaining about how Horde are evil for doing this, when the entire point of the expansion is war. That's how war works. Someone attacks another. American propaganda has fried these people's brains and they think war is supposed to be only fought for ''good reasons'' (propaganda), when all wars are fought over territory and resources. Instead of cheering their horde, they are reeeing about how evil they are... Maybe you should go play another game instead of one called Warcraft.

 

[Maculo]

I thought the cinematic/short was pretty decent, especially compared to prior in-game shorts. I do not know why large portions of the playerbase are screeching over Sylvanas being an amoral dick. If I recall correctly, the character also was an amoral dick in WC3:TFT too. Plus, the game has been too carebear in the midst of a "war."

 

[Dzupakazul]

Also WOW players are even too retarded to watch cutscenes. They all think now that Sylvanas launched the catapults because the dying nightelf made her angry. What the fuck.

The description of the video says that "a choice encounter changes everything", which points to the idea that Sylvie wasn't going to burn down the tree until the dying night elf pointed out that her idea of demoralizing the night elves is going to fall completely flat because elves aren't that easy to fold. Given that killing off Cenarius only caused NEs to be more pissed off and fierce, it's a pretty legitimate assumption. Then she calls on to BURN IT! Even Nathanos, her boytoy, hesitates, and outside of some orcs that have a nostalgic spot for Garrosh and Sylvie's own Forsaken, nobody has a reason to follow up with this plan. If Lor'themar was around he'd probably have a very valid reason to draw some extremely unfortunate parallels when seeing an undead who was formerly a defender of life and their people showing up at a place that harbors an elven home and gives them their strength and then completely eviscerating it along with its defenders and civilians. If Baine was around, he'd probably realize that no Tauren, particularly no druid, would see the point in committing this sort of thing. Even Goblins would see no point in it because holding the tree hostage was supposed to be Sylvanas' trump card in ensuring the cutoff of the Azerite supply, and that means Syl just decided to throw away an extremely profitable advantage.

Not to mention that the beta dialogue shows that Sylvanas has no idea what happened and she is pissed off in her interactions with the Player Character, because she's like "where did the tree go?". Since, you know, holding it hostage was supposed to be her advantage. And nothing about her in-game actions in that time makes sense, either - she taunts Saurfang and mocks the memory of his dead son and even after all of this, she leaves him to finish off Malfurion instead of just doing the deed by herself. And that's fucking stupid. They could have simply had Tyrande or even Genn save Malfurion at the last second, but no, instead we have something approaching cartoon villainy. The lynchpin of her entire Pearl Harbor plan was to assassinate Malfurion Stormrage, and when she has him at the end of her bow, she is like "hey Saurfang, you're a pussy and your son died a pussy, now kill this guy for me". Surprise, surprise, Saurfang doesn't do it and defects to the Alliance and is currently sitting in the Stockades awaiting an audience with Anduin.

The character being an amoral dick in WC3:TFT doesn't hold water when she's supposed to have had character development, was vouched for the position of Warchief by Vol'jin, who was a fan-favourite character (who didn't get to do anything during his tenure, but still was very welcome after Garrosh), and the Horde isn't just the whims of the Warchief. We just had an entire episode devoted to a Horde mutiny because they refused to be associated with an orcish supremacist who did shit like bombing down the house of one of Thrall's best friends with a very flimsy motive. Now you have Syl committing actions that at least taurens, blood elves and possibly all shamans and druids have no reason to condone.

And for what reason? "Life is pain"? "I am against life"? "There is no hope"? Am I dealing with the badass, imposing, takes-no-shit-from-anyone, pragmatic, self-styled queen or with a walking Evanescence lyric? What does her death at the hands of Arthas have to do with anything at this point? She already had her revenge on him years ago, there's no fucking parallel here unless she decided she is going to do the same as Arthas so that everyone else can deal with her pain. In which case the entire Horde has even less reason to work for her, because they're still extremely attached to their official schtick of being a band of brothers in a tribal alliance of convenience for their own, continued survival, and that's extremely fucking hard to maintain when your Warchief has just gone full Lich Queen.

At this point there are two ways to go, given the reception to this story - either Sylvanas is appointed to be the next raid boss, making it certain that either Horde loses a warchief and any sort of dignity again, and it will take ridiculous amounts of mental gymnastics for Anduin to not dissolve it like Varian was supposed to years ago, or Sylvanas gets redeemed in some bullshit plot twist and proceeds to become Rotten Jesus. I don't think the latter logical conclusion to this plot would be particularly welcome on the Codex because I know you guys really didn't like Starcraft 2 and what it did to Kerrigan.

If you wanted the conflict to get darker and edgier, this wasn't the way to go. You don't make promises for years about how the entire conflict is two sides of the same coin, and then consistently keep doing the same retarded shit from Wrathgate onward. Declare "we evil now" and make Baine, Lor'themar and whoever is in charge of the Darkspear Trolls fuck off. Replace them with appropriate savages to satisfy your WC1/2 boner. Remove any references to warlocks being heavily distrusted in the lore and embrace them fully. Kill off Thrall to mark the end of the old New Horde. Maybe even find a nice demon to provide you with some much needed spunk, I feel like orcs could use a cool new red colour.

 

[thesheeep]

Man, the Warcraft movie really seems like a storytelling masterpiece now

Also, about the Horde vs Alliance conflict:
I can't believe I found a good explanation of all that nonsense on reddit, but here you go:

TL;DR: The faction war is based almost entirely on race with no philosophical underpinnings. Horde are outcasts, Alliance are traditional fantasy heroes. Horde is typically the aggressor because it would look bad if the Alliance shot first, and the fact the game is tied so intimately into this problematic conflict model really sucks.

I kind of agree. In such a scenario, pretty much every attempt to get both factions into a full war will be rather stupid.
What they should do is come up with a proper "last chapter", end the game, do a Warcraft 4, followed by a another WoW and probably get rid of the entire Horde/Alliance nonsense.
But that would mean killing off the gift that keeps on giving, so... off to another dozen stupid warmonger acts we go!

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

The passion people have for an elf girl in a hood is fascinating.

 

[Haba]

Since I have not touched anything Blizzard related in years, I had a quick look on what has happened to good old Arthas ever since.

Ruling as the dominant personality of the Lich King for years, Arthas was defeated in combat by adventurers of the Alliance and the Horde. Cradled by the spirit of his father, King Terenas, Arthas Menethil died.

WHAT THE FUCK :D

That was the Blizzard could do? LMAO.

 

[thesheeep]

The passion people have for an elf girl in a hood is fascinating.

Well, yeah, Sylvanas has always been kind of a fan favourite, seriously one of the most liked characters.
Even I, who hasn't really been following the game for about 10 years, found that Warbringers: Sylvanas video rather... fucked up.
I liked the character, and now she's just another "reasonable character turned evil because plot device". Also, this is exactly the same sudden "change of heart" Blizzard used for many characters, so this is just really lazy storytelling by now.
"Oh hey, the Horde leader has gone insane, in b4 kill off Sylvanas as a Horde player"
Add to that that she was just appointed warchief by her predecessor, someone considered rather benevolent and wise, and, well, none of this adds up in the slightest.
Arthas was at least driven mad by an external power, but Sylvanas just seems to have a bad day and becomes Arthas 2.0?

To me, this feels a bit like the ending of Mass Effect 3. A spit in the face for those who actually gave a shit.
And I agree with Dzupakazul that this will require some incredibly awful mental gymnastics to get into some logical direction again.

 

[Wilian]

Morally grey.

 

[Sykar]

Reminder that Daelin Proudmoore was 100% right to hate the orcs and everything he warned about came true. Jaina is a traitor who sided with a band of bloodthirsty animals over her own flesh and blood.

Except of course he was dead wrong coming WC 3 and early stages of WoW. Then Blizzard went batshit retarded with writing starting Pandaderp not that it was particularly good before. I am glad I jumped off this sinking ship in time so many years ago.

 

[Edija]

Classic is coming right after Bannerlord, right bois?

 

[thesheeep]

Morally grey.

What's wrong with human seedlings? I have two in my garden as well.

 

[Black_Willow]

Well, Sylvanas was like "I hate Arthas, but his style is pretty cool" since WotLK, when she "stole" some of his troops. And since the beggining of Cataclysm she was outright genocidal, so I don't really know what's the fuss about when she is just being herself.
What was actually retarded is that the other horde leaders just went on with her antics and Thrall said nothing about it (same goes for Garosh), and the fact that she became the Warchief because Vol'Jin heard some voices in his final hours.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I liked the character, and now she's just another "reasonable character turned evil because plot device". Also, this is exactly the same sudden "change of heart" Blizzard used for many characters, so this is just really lazy storytelling by now.

Wasn't Sylvanas always kind of fucked up after getting resurrected? I seem to recall her sanctioning and encouraging her Undead to create a new plague that would pretty much turn everyone else into Undead. She even had an entire section in the Undercity dedicated to the study and advancement of such. Her entire existence has always kind of been being a cunt, only now her cuntitude has been upped a few levels.

What I want to see are the Alliance stop being a bunch of sissies and actually do some cool shit as well. Every time something interesting might happen it's always intervened by some moral fuckhead. Just once I'd like to see Alliance do some real dastardly stuff like dismember Undead and leave them chained up to be physically useless in visible sight of other Horde or have Orcs hanging from trees with their bodies wrapped in a Horde flag. If they want to push a darker, "both sides are wrong in their own ways" narrative then start making the blue boys a bit less babyfaced.

 

[Aildrik]

Blizzard lore and storytelling is beyond atrocious. A good example is the titan pantheon. They had been building up that lore for countless expansions and when we finally meet the titans, its on a fucking outer space circle of chairs. I always envisioned the 'seat of the pantheon' would be this badass, sci fi sort of data center where they control and monitor their vast world ordering efforts remotely. But no! Blizzard can design a really cool titan facility like Ulduar, but the friggin seat of power of the titan pantheon is a fucking bunch of recliners in a small platform in space. I'm surprised Magni didn't just shake his head in disgust and hearth back to Ironforge.

NPC faction leader stories are on a level of bad that transcends even the titan pantheon debacle. Its hard to know where to even begin. Thrall letting Garrosh turn into a total prick right under his nose was laughable. Horde putting up with Sylvanas even though she was a clear liability the whole way back in WoTLK. Thrall, a shaman and protector of the elements along with the Tauren - who are largely good and honorable, putting up with the shady Foresaken was already tenuous at best.

Thankfully I've found a good way to deal with it and that is by cancelling my sub for the first 6 months or so of any given expansion while Blizzard gets their shit together.

 

[Aildrik]

Wasn't Sylvanas always kind of fucked up after getting resurrected? I seem to recall her sanctioning and encouraging her Undead to create a new plague that would pretty much turn everyone else into Undead. She even had an entire section in the Undercity dedicated to the study and advancement of such. Her entire existence has always kind of been being a cunt, only now her cuntitude has been upped a few levels.

Blizzard was on to something when they were at least framing Sylvanas's actions from the standpoint of her being a benevolent leader for her people and trying to figure out how to propagate the population. Some of her fucked up actions could at least be somewhat understood. The latest development shows we are right back to square one of picking a controversial faction character and making them into a total prick for no good reason.

And that cut scene... wtf was that. Did Blizzard farm that out to a local 5th grade computer class?