This isn’t his style at all - quite the opposite. This is the Dragonflight storytelling style. And they allegedly brought back Metzen to steer the game a bit more to its original direction. That’s what I find confusing.
That’s why I think that when Metzen was brought back, this reveal trailer was a done thing already, and he tentatively agreed to it. And what he said before the trailer played could be interpreted as “epic things are about to come” (implying that what we were about to see would not be so epic)
Because if we got just another bland Dragonflight cinematic or even an “epic one” like with Shadowlands, we wouldn’t see the literal change Blizzards Warcraft team is undergoing right now with Metzen at the Helm
For me personally, the always worst cinematic will still be the WoW original one. It’s basically just dudes and gals running/screaming/swinging weapons around with music.
I can’t post video links in the general forum for some reason , but cheers to having more cinematics like the opening of Warcraft 3 in the future : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2vm-QjK2xQ
Seriously? That’s designed to appeal to early teens, and not even modern teens (who are more sophisticate than that) either. It was probably good in its day, but it doesn’t work now, especially not with the audience being so much older.
I’m not sure. It appeals to me - a lot - but I’ve always been a fan of Anduin. What his detractors don’t seem to understand is that he’s just as much a hero as his father, but he doesn’t pretend he isn’t terrified while being a hero, and he’s shown to suffer the aftermath. (Varian got lucky. If Gul’dan had decided to capture him rather than kill him, we could have been looking at a character arc more like Anduin’s.)
I don’t think we’re at the point where Anduin in a Hero yet, nor is he ready to be King. We’re at the point where he is going through the struggles to make him those things.
Becoming King was thrown on him with the death of his father. He wasn’t ready. He then reluctantly pulled into a World War where he learnt who his allies were, and was then kidnapped and turned into a Lich King and forced to fight and try to destroy those very allies.
He went from being an innocent child of pure light, to having his soul and mind dominated into doing the most horrendous things well outside of his nature. But he wanted to do those things, it was made to feel like he made the choice to do them.
We saved him, but he was broken. He can’t forgive himself for doing what he’s done, and more-so he can’t forgive himself for wanting to do it. He feels the light has abandoned him because of those things.
Just look at Shalamayne. The sword is empty of power. There is no lights Glow in it, there is no power. It’s just a hunk of metal. The light is not there. Look in all of the Key art. Shalamayne is without the Glowing ball of light, that should be there.
Thrall has reached out to Anduin to bring him back into the fold. We’re about to see Anduins journey from a broken man, finding his strengths and allegation with the light again, to becoming a strong leader and hero, and by the end of the Saga, back to being a King again.
Maybe read what I said again. It isn’t about what teens ‘consider sophisticated’. It’s that the marketing methods employed on that old video are very simplistic and dated. Teens who have been exposed to modern marketing would see that as the blatant sales pitch that it is. They wouldn’t be taken in by it.
As for me… WoW is nearly 20 years old and I’ve been playing it for around 15 of those years. If the marketing pitch for the next expansion promised no more depth than “off we go to war again”, I would have got bored and switched it off part way through.
I dont think of this as a big expansion reveal trailer. It’s more of a linking up the story, a glimpse into what is coming. Anduin is clearly no longer in the Maw with Sylvanas.
I loved it, Anduin is growing up and you can see the events in the Shadowlands have taken a toll on him. I think they’ve done well staying true to Anduin’s character.
Alot of people seemed to miss this from the DF Pre-Patch (it might still be there at level 60 before you leave for the Dragon Isles). But everyone (including Anduin) returned from the realms of death after Shadowlands. Anduin just disappeared when he returned:
Where exactly are you talking about Market practices and any of that nonsense you just wrote ?
I asked you a simple question . To show me what you and /or the new teens consider appealing and “sophisticated” now .
Instead you talk a load of manager b…s to try and squirm your way out of the hole that you yourself put yourself in to .
Show a link with a good cinematic that you consider good , instead of b…sing .
No, he wasn’t kidnapped. He sacrificed himself so that Azeroth’s ‘champions’ could escape to fight back against the Jailer, exactly as Varian sacrificed himself so the Alliance forces could escape to fight back against the Legion. The only difference being that Anduin had already been the Jailer’s prisoner once, so he had some small notion of what he might be facing, while Varian expected to die fighting. (In my opinion, what Anduin did took more courage - and was arguably more ‘heroic’ - but people see Anduin as weak, innocent, ‘not ready’ because he has never been macho and ‘manly’, and he doesn’t hide his feelings.)
The best leaders are the ones who are aware of their own weaknesses and don’t think they know it all. They ask for advice, listen to it, and make decisions based on it. The very fact that Anduin felt he was ‘not ready’ to lead was the strongest sign that he was.
Whether he sacrificed himself or not, Anduin was not ready at this point. Yes, his Sacrafice was heroic in nature. But that was Anduin going through the motions because he thought that is what was required of him to follow in his fathers footsteps.
Now he was been through hell and back. He knows the worst of what’s out there and more. He is much more prepared for what’s to come in the future. He just needs to find himself again.
The players who want a more manly Anduin, will get their more manly Anduin. Because we’re in the part of Anduins story where he needs to be a strong man to get through it.
In touch with his emotions Anduin just caused him to run away for years and he just ended up more broken.
“You needed time to heal, but time alone heals nothing”. Says all there is to say about relying on your emotions alone.
There is nothing wrong with Anduin being in touch with his emotions. But that’s not going to give him the strength to get through this and be the leader he needs to be.
He needs both, Emotional strength and physical strength to be the leader he needs to be.
This is utter nonsense. It says all there is to say about thinking you can get through life without the support of other people.
This, I agree with.
Since you keep ignoring this, I’ll bring it up again and say what I really think. It’s a huge shame that Gul’dan did simply kill Varian (although I understand why it happened - it fitted Gul’dan’s goal of making the Alliance throw itself at the Legion in grief and rage). Seeing their macho hero broken might have made some in the community sit up and take notice.
Varian went through his own stories pre World of Warcraft which turned him into the hero he became. It was time for Varians story arc to come to an end.
Legion was the final chapter in a huge part of Warcrafts story. So it made perfect sense for him not to survive the final chapter. To help progress Anduins character, into the next era of Warcraft.
I’ve already said before the Anduin is the central and main character in the World of Warcraft overall story. Other stories come and go, and some of those stories have main characters of their own, some of those characters had games and expansions of their own. But World of Warcraft as a whole, is about Anduins journey from a child sitting on the thrown because his father (the King) is missing, through growing up and making friends and learning about the world, becoming the King because of his fathers death, going through traumatic events, to becoming the Leader and the Hero he needs to be.
Every other narrative or story around that is just adding flavour to the world around and setting the scene around this overall story.
My favourite part of BFA was that the Horde and Alliance had separate storylines. So I always try to run through on both sides to get both sides of the story.
