I do not understand the point of Arcantina.
Its not good as a hub. Its not worth the extra loading screen to go to. It feels disconnected from WoW. The quests have been so far a disaster that they are fixing up after huge backlash.
I do not see anyone using it as a ‘hang out’ Not even RPers because with player housing, you’ll have far superior hangout spots that you can make yourself.
It currently stands as a waste of resources. Anyone have input of any worth it could have?
Is to have characters who have no reason to exist together interact with eachother.
Darius Crowley and Eitrigg gushing about their kids
Nisha and Cyrus Crestfall yapping about being tired of wars.
Right.
Developers using characters as their own mouth pieces. Got it.
For Blizzard it’s an ‘evergreen’ location they can use freely going forwards in Midnight and beyond, allowing them to slot these daily/weekly/monthly quests into future expansions with fairly minimal effort or connection to the wider story of the expansion. By making it a neutral zone, they don’t need to put Gorgonna and Gamon in Ratchet for no reason so Alliance can get the quests too (god forbid we get more exclusive faction content instead of everyone seeing everything).
And by making it evergreen with quests that are on a rotation, it gives another reason for players to stay subbed, so there’s that too.
Dalaran could’ve probably fulfilled that role before but it’s a bit exploded now.
For players, conceptually, the idea of small story-focused tidbit quests about characters we aren’t really focused on is a good idea since it helps to widen and deepen the world.
Unfortunately it seems like all the initial quests they wrote are pretty dogwater. Guess it’s good that the alpha is so public these days…
Lemix reminds me, annoyingly, there are very clearly some capable writers and directors on the Dev team (or were…)
Even though his sidequest arc is relatively miniscule? I still catch Feels every time I do Runas’ arc in Azuna.
Every. Damn. Time.
Concise, well written, impactful. It doesn’t take that much to do it right. (It helps the voice acting was stellar)
I always stand by Runas until he is gone. Dude was only around for 3-4 quests and he had more impact on people than majority of the ‘main cast’.
I think my only real issue is the arcantina’s creation.
Had it just been a funny hearthstone reference or Medivh’s retirement home, where he would host parties for heroes and adventueres it be more alright with me.
Reminder that Senegos wrote about Runas in his arcane tome, just a few words but:
For you, Runas. The journal entry for today is just–for you.
Thank you.
I miss my boy, I can cry. 
The arcantina seems to mostly be a delivery system for random housing doodads from the footage I’ve seen.
I really, really like the “The Sunwell will soon be obsolete.” comment from him. The voice was a bit jarring at first as I always expected something different from him, but that line is pretty fun.
Can’t talk about the full story of Eversong Woods/Prey system as I’ve only heard about it through the miniscule context posts I’ve seen here/on bsky, but I’ve half a mind to assume that Astalor is making his own form of anima? If the Sunwell is to fall (or so he believes), he needs new magic etc.
https://x.com/Portergauge/status/1986628942057611746?t=3VnTkUqS8r6WnFnxmyRQoQ&s=19
https://bsky.app/profile/grandmastervole.bsky.social/post/3m4yuv2cn5s26
Pretty cool implications for Blood Elves in this. Blood mages are finally actually blood mages.
A recurring problem at blizz, the best quest writers seems to be stuck doing side quests.
Best quest of TWW is that one with the dying Earthen and his apprentice. The main quests made me wish the skip option was unlocked and available at all times.
Best Forsaken content in BfA was a random sidequest in Nazmir. Which is an amazing feat considering they played a major role for the expansion.
https://bsky.app/profile/portergauge.bsky.social/post/3m4yqyee3c22h
BElf NPCs got new voice lines too - M/F civs and M/F guards.
ehhhhh
think they might need to get the actors back into the booths for these ones and have another go at it. None hitting with the power of REMEMBER THE SUNWELL.
I haven’t dared listen, yet.
My guildies were laughing, though 
Probably not a great sign.
We are filling up on delicious side quest bread sticks because the main course is served to us is raw, not what we ordered and looks to have been dropped on the floor a few times.
Side quests are good but when they are better than the main content, you have messed up your storywriting.
The civilians sound like how a someone would try to parody an elf. Male civie just sounds… Whiny almost? Female civie speaks like she’s got a piece of hot food stuck someone in her mouth. The Guards are just OK.
This is why the Mag’har questline was a mistake. It permanently closed AU Draenor to any further interactions with Azeroth, ruining the potential for telling stories in that setting.
Also for turning Yrel into Space-Light-Hitler off screen.
Like… No. Just No. Get out.
Strictly speaking, Drek’Thar is in his 60s. He and Durotan were born of the same generation, and between Rise of the Horde, Chronicle 2 and Lord of the Clans, we can triangulate Durotan’s age during the Kosh’harg that led to the founding of the Horde and therefore Drek’Thar’s age during WC3.
He’s 60-something with about 5 years of leeway. As Durotan’s mother, Geyah would be in her 70s or 80s, since orcs reach adulthood at the age of 12. Their generational gaps are much shorter than a human’s.
I wonder if there’s any intentionality to this. I don’t know if I am in the minority in this, or if my palate has been ruined by not-so-interesting main storylines of numerous MMOs and other games besides, but in the case of WoW (and other MMORPGs) I find it tolerable that the main storyline is something I can just speed through to get to the next zone and the zone afterward, and then to the end game (afking in the current expansion hub, in my case).
The main storyline, in a way, is like a busy highway to me, and if I feel like it, I can take a detour and enjoy the idyllic small roads and footpaths of the side quests, with no perceived pressure of more gameplay and the continuation of some grand story looming in the horizon.
Does this even make sense or am I just a product of “24/7 online 30 seconds is an eternity” culture?!
Conversely, permanently closing that chapter of timey-wimey shenanigans might be perceived as a good thing.