“How can we exploit nostalgia for forest trolls and their myriad tribes, without having to research our own product and put effort into figuring out how to integrate all of the forest troll tribes into our narrative in a satisfactory and immersive manner?”
This way, they can use the Vilebranch, Witherbark and Revantusk names without having to tie in the pre-existing lore of the tribes with those names. It also grants them the freedom to create whatever new lore they like for these tribes, while still profiting from the nostalgia invoked by their names.
They really did to the Revantusk what they did to the Bilgewater Cartel lol lmao even. The monkey paw isn’t even on negative fingers anymore the entire apes shrivelled up
Lots of “memberberry” quests including, but not limited to, mysteriously having the ToT bosses be alive again in the present day (you have to kill some for an Archmage’s pocket watch), going back to AU draenor to collect stones from Garrosh’s grave whilst also confirming that the Warsong Clan have been making said journeys very frequently (AU Draenor is apparently fine after all, isn’t dying and has 0x Lightbound to be found it seems), Eitrigg and Darius Crowley making you be their personal “My Kid is better than your kid” decider etc., you get the picture I’m sure.
It’s just all very. . .childish in its vibe and aesthetics. Fine if this was a Spyro Game for Ages 3+ but it feels very. . .odd in Warcraft.
Personally I find the idea of this special dimensional tavern made by the Kirin Tor where all these NPCs we know all meet up to hang out in peace and play Hearthstone together just not very coherent with the setting.
I don’t want to necessarily be that guy who’s all “warcraft is for ADULTS doing ADULT THINGS with WAR and ANGER” but the Arcantina feels far too ‘comfortcore’ with all the edges sanded off, and from the way they’re portraying it they intend this to be something they keep using going forwards as a hub for these sorts of little update quests instead of having characters be…out and about in the actual world.
Silly as it might sound, the Arcantina just feels too video game-y to me.
I remember in gta v there was a company you broke into to do something to a phone.
The more I read from the ptr the more it feels like it’s that satirical company making the game vs people who, while certainly deeply flawed and mistake prone, at least somewhat cared about what they did.
much as I may have liked or not liked a given xpac or story, I never got the sense that blizz didn’t care before.
Though both Meronspell and Elenthas covered it, the core gist is this:
Khadgar is responsible for creating a pocket dimension that takes the form of a tavern, where all of the Sons of Lothar, their friends and other familiar figures can congregate and carouse, away from the stresses of the outside world. This tavern is called the Arcantina and here, famous and important characters chatter with each other and offer the player various daily quests that take them back to old content to enjoy a little nostalgia.
I understand the complaints about how childish and comfy it is, but my concern is about how small it makes the world and how much smaller it could make the world, if Blizzard doubles down on it.
Imagine, if you will, the Arcantina being filled with all of the expected capital city amenities. Profession trainers, auctioneers, bankers and more. In this scenario, the Arcantina is treated both mechanically and narrative as the hub for heroes and adventurers, somewhere that they can come to and from for all of their needs, in their quest to save the world, sort of like the headquarters for the Justice League or the Avengers in superhero media.
In this scenario, there would be no need for expansion capital cities any more, as the Arcantina would have everything that the players need. There would be no need to go anywhere but to the Arcantina, the hero headquarters of Azeroth, whenever you aren’t out there saving the world.
That’s my worst case scenario for the Arcantina that I’m really dreading, so here’s hoping that it doesn’t come to pass. Even as it stands however, I dislike the idea of the Arcantina as a gathering spot for all of these eclectic fan favourite NPCs who just hang out and exploit our memories of the good old days.
well actually champion being stranded on outland wasn’t so bad, we had a cozy home we could have teleported to whenever we wanted to and we had a jolly good time there near the fireplace and drank ginger beer. oh i guess we never figured to use that kind of magic to just teleport back to azeroth, haha silly us
jesus h christ I couldn’t hate modern (disney) wow writers more if I tried
varian died after freeing the airship from the fel reaver when jaina clearly could have teleported him to a cozy tavern where he could have drank some cocoa.
