When did Blizzard writers cross the line for you?

Lore Story
1

… which means… when did you stop caring about the story?

When I was a student (I’m talking 2009-2010), I had a roommate who loved WoW, but hated the flaws of the lore. In fact, it was this dude that got me into the game. He spoke too much about WoW and when I started playing, I was immediately hooked and became a lore nut. But then he began complaining all the time. He was constantly telling me how blood elf paladins sucking naaru power made no sense for him, how the Sargeras story was changed before the BC. Then we were on the verge of Cataclysm and he was annoyed with the tauren paladins. This was too much he could bear.

Remember, we’re talking about development that took place a decade ago! But the game was fresh new in my eyes so I didn’t play much attention to these changes and retcons. It was a wonderful world of me…

And when I got into the game, boy did I forgive a lot of things Blizzard writers did! I forgave when they admitted they forgot about Gilneas for years. I forgave when they turned Thrall into a mary sue. I forgave when they gave us the april fool’s pandaren race as the center for the next expansion. Then I forgave when Blizzard gave us the time travel/alternative Draenor thing. I forgave how they retconned Illidan in Legion and made him a good guy…

But recently I find myself that I can no longer stay interested in the WoW lore. It’s utterly destroyed. Some other forummates nailed the problem exactly - gone is the mystery from the fantasy world. Elune, Loa, the dead - the wonder is no longer here. I loved the concept of the Church of Light as described in the early WoW novels - but now the whole thing is sacrificed for the cosmic mess.

Patch 9.1 offers us more of the new Uther story… and what do I see here? He’s trying to have his soul mended back, but what the writers have offered has nothing to do with the old Story of Uther we had in WOTLK. Didn’t Jaina and Sylvanas contact Uther before confronting Lich King? Didn’t he help them? Then, in Legion… when I played the class campaign, didn’t I spoke to Uther’s spirit again?

Looking at this new development, I find myself playing a new game that has nothing to do with its predcessors. The continuity is gone. I can’t force myself liking the characters of old, because everything is retconned, rewritten and the writers no longer care about what was before.

This is the final straw. I can’t take it anymore from now on. I find myself not looking forward at all to 9.1. Instead, I look forward to Burning Crusade. Yes, it had bad retcons (Draenei controversy), but I started playing after they appeared and it still looks like the lore wasn’t totally messed up.

What about you?

7 Likes
2

On this exact point:

After all the talk the player character had with Thrall in Ogrimmar during Vanilla period about, leaving the past behind, starting a new Horde where friends and foes are treated respectfully, after all the chaos the Horde endured during Garrosh reign of terror and Vol’Jin dying on the Broken Shore, this is what Activision-Blizzard had to offer: a return to Blackhand past.

Saurfang:
“Thrall, Vol’Jin, they were not the true heirs of Blackhand bloody legacy.
Sylvanas Windrunner is !”

For me that was the last straw. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Cheers.

4 Likes
3

The introduction oft Void Elves did it for me. I was sceptical oft the story before, but the way they were introduced was so bad I prefer headcanon to canon now.

9 Likes
4

Looks like we badly need a new lore development based on Classic, but there’s noone who can do it. Modern writers are incapable, and many other influential people have retired.

3 Likes
5

Right here. At that point it just got worse and worse.

8 Likes
6

I got into WoW like 6 months ago so rn I’m in that state described by OP where I’m just constantly amazed at how cool this universe is and how easy it is to get lost in it. I guess I’ll get completely frustrated and done with the writing in, let’s say, 3 expacs from now on if the pattern yall identified turns out correct :frowning:

2 Likes
7

Ending to the War in 8.2. Quit for the rest of the exp and mostly stopped caring about the story.

It’s the same crap as the ending to the previous war… except this time the Horde was even worse and committed genocide and the Alliance never got revenge.
Couple this with Anduin defending the Horde right before that, kek.
Have to be masochistic to care about the story after that.

Shadowlands, for its part, is boring as a theme and over-explains the universe.

12 Likes
8

Hm with the start of WoW? Ok no, they did care, they simply couldn’t make it grand and show events and the world like back in WC3, which hurt the Scourge for example in my view during WotLK.

I say WoD, clearly. It started for me with the end of MoP and Garrosh going crazy. MoP was likley the expansion I enjoyed the most from the WoW originals.
Legion was in my book bad too. Too many retcons, the Legion was way too weak. BfA had potential but it was so out of touch with the players and ruined a lot.
Shadowlands is simply a joke and even more out of touch.
WoD seems fitting as a start for them not caring about the story.

Not making the Revantusk playable was something always bugging me, but that’s something else.

6 Likes
9

I feel wow was never as strong at conveying the lore as WC3. But generally through the various mediums I still very much enjoyed it until the end of Legion… Legion itself was both fun and annoying in the same time. I enjoyed wielding the artefact weapons but all the lore implications were just terrible. Seeing Taurens using Ashbringer and Draenei using Doom Hammer, Trolls wielding Felomelorn or Trollbane’s sword was just wrong… Not to mention that now all these really powerful weapons that had great lore implications are now basically dead bits of pixelated metal.

Didn’t enjoy the whole Sargeras stabbing Azeroth either, too much “rule of cool” not enough sense. Generally, and this is something I’ve mentioned before, the Legion was a bit too techy, the whole space ships porting really makes the WC3 era Legion look dumb in a bad way. I get that technological progress is possible in fantasy worlds but it was never made apparent. In WoD, there was a clear explanation as to why the Iron Horde was much better equipped compared to the MU Horde when they first invaded. It’s small details of world building like that which make me lose faith in the lore.

Goes without saying that BfA and Shadowlands so far aren’t particularly interesting. At least I’m looking forwards to seeing some of the character moments planned for 9.1 (Thrall, Uther, Kael’Thas etc)

EDIT: I guess I still care, but I’m way less invested than I used to be. I was very excited when they released the chronicles books, more than the novels. But now I feel even those are getting retconned, the whole “titan’s perspective of the cosmos” spiel they mentioned in an interview a few months back. There’s a book called World of Warcraft: Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond coming this July, I’m somewhat excited about that, though not sure what to expect.

2 Likes
10

I’m still following the lore, but the story has taken a huge hit for me with Cataclysm conclusion: Thrall is the best and Dragons now are useless.

3 Likes
11

Not a single person around this forum section, has reached the point of not caring at all. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here.

But if your point went along the lines of asking what made people lose interest in the story, I’ll personally say that this happened around the time I realised writers had zero regards to the work done by those that preceded them, and would rewrite and change whatever they felt without caring one bit about consistency.

4 Likes
12

Actually the lore got the biggest hit when Metzen said: “Rule of cool!” Since then everything changed.

13

I still care about the story, no doubt. But when did Blizzard cross the line? The burning of Teldrassil, and the whole fourth war thing. And what really shattered my investment in the story was that in 8.2.5 the game pretends that everything is settled, when in reality the Alliance should have ceased dimplomacy with the Horde at that point and simply treat them like they treat the Scourge or Legion, or the Black empire.

I’m interested in the story, insofar that i’m curious to see how Blizzard will fix the catastrophic damage they inflicted with bfa. More in the sense that it’s almost impossible for them to fix it, so it will be entertaining to see them try.

1 Like
14

My favorite point in this game, Shattered the alliance EGO so much they still whine about it 1.5 years after. :rofl:

BURN IT.

3 Likes
15

I am more confused that the 4th war was the straw that broke it for seemingly a lot of people, not a lot of the nonsense before.

16

I think you don’t understand how much a defeat is for the Horde rather than the Alliance. NEs will have a new home in less than an expansion time while the horde will be once again a bunch of nothing until the next crazy war chief pops out.

1 Like
17

Same here. Can’t wait to hurt the Alliance even more.

1 Like
18

We need all our old old heroes back to make the Horde strong again. The pansy crew around Thrall is pathetic and weak. I will help to get rid of the Horde council with as much force as possible.

20

Defeat?
How so?
Even your king that betrayed you now literally said hes not able to do anything against her :rofl:
Despite what i said above:

21

Yeah… let’s see how many characters with a background are you left with once we deal with Sylvanas and his baldie boss.

And if you have to troll at least don’t try to actually reason (and change race of the posting char), this makes it look like you actually out thought into the blabbering you are doing.

2 Likes