Hey there,
i just returned to play to follow the story to see how evolved so far, and i can say, it is sad and empty, even compared to Shadowlands.
I did the two quest of Arathi and Dalaran and these are my POW, witht he hope you can do better:
-first of all: disabled characters - we are in a game where we can resurrect people, heal wounds and regenerate limbs…but we have a “fighter” with a shield arm prostetic and a blind eye…how can a person with a blind eye fight? I mean i’ve been blind at my right eye for 3 months and i couldn’t even drive, can you imagine to parry an hit or fight back? And also Khadgar…the mighty Khadgar…on a wheelchair. I mean, i perfectly understand that you want to honour and empower all those people that have disbilities, and it is commandable and worthy of praise…but this is World of Warcraft. There is magic, there is fantasy, there is heroism, might and struggle…things like disability, race wars, poilitics and stuff shoudl have no place in here. I use “should” cause i know it is hard not to put your personal belives in what you do…but if you do, than you know people is entitled to criticise you and oppose to your believes…theirs. And here we come to the other points
Arathi:
Premises, i’m not american and i do not care a lot about your politics and your internal struggle, as long as they do not affect me. Still i see your political issues in every trace of this quest line: The Arathy have an history, yet by the words of Trollbane this history is just mith and legends and a wall is just a wall…but than half of the conversation that come in the quest line are “we are Arathy”…so the history and the lineage matter? “We are better than this” so, if the black disabled female character says a line like “we are Arathy, we are better than this”, than it is good…but all of a sudden the quest is full of rethoric agains “Human supremacy”, a thing that every normal person that knows about what is happening in America, will read “wh17e supremacy”. All those “once refugee orks” are welcoming and open minded, while the indigenous Arathy are racist and intollerant…also they are all white, blondy and squeky (look at Joseph the Enlightened…it is probably the only name with Christian/jew origin i remember in this game, and it is being vilified and associeted with hypocrcy and being slimy). Do i have to remind that the indigenous american, accordingly to the current history, were welcoming and relatable, while the invaders from Europe came to america to raze and plunder? Didn’t the orcs came to Azeroth cause they did very bad choices, leading to the destruction of their own world? Didn’t the orcs committed atrocities the moment they arrived in the swamp of sorrows and redrige? Didn’t the orcs wanted to subjugate and conquer exactly like we europeans did in america? So why you decide to relate the orcs to migrants of these days, while you forget that the two stories are so different, while the story of the horde is much more similar to what the west did against the americans. Or you can say the orcs saw Azeroth as their promised land and came to destroy the indigeonous people, armed by the magic and the weapons of the much more powerful Legion…it reminds me of a story taking place now on earth on a very specific region in the mediterranean sea.
You see…the story you write to lecture us on how to think, how to behave, what is good and acceptable and what is wrong and not acceptable, can be read in at least two different ways.
-Dalaran quest: there too the story is empty and pathetic…why all this guilt felt by Khadgar, Jaina and the other characters, why the Kirin Tor must be reformed and was so bad? What did the Kirin Tor did that was so wrong? They were proud of themself, of their magic? Did this pride led to destruction when Dalaran has been targeted by an unespected and strong enemy? Din’t you teach us that Pride is good? Din’t you teach us that people, must be accepted and shoudl accept themself for what they are? Than all of a sudden we ear a Jaina say that they have to change, they there were not good enought, that they diud wrong.
They simply did what was right, they were at their best and behave as best as they could. History is not just a tale, and is not something to scuffle away…History, with it’s mistake and successes is what make us, it’s our roots, it should not be changed or forgotten, it should be embraced and kept as a reminder of what can be done better and what couldn’t be done differently at that time.
It is clear that in your way to narrate the story of warcraft you are trying to lecture us and to manipulate us to see things in a certain way; and those who do not see are either blind, or do not want to see it, or are part of this manipulation. This approach is ruining the game on the side of lore…amnd we see it and we recognise it. We see and understand you are pandering to all the minorities possible, but all the minorities together are not the majority and this pandering is just dividing even more.