My issue with recent WoW cinematics

[Kolvarg]

It doesn't have to be the entire story THROUGHOUT the expansion, just at least what the main focus of the story is going to be, or even a small preview of it without spoiling it. Or even at least showing us that we're going to get Demon Hunters and cool weapons. Anything at all!

Vanilla one didn't show all classes afaik. WotLK one didn't show we were getting Death Knights.

Legion's shows us the main enemy is the Legion, it shows us things are gonna be dire, and it hints that for the first time we'll actually have to cooperate with players of the opposing faction.

That is the main story. "Legion is invading, we gotta band together to defend our planet". It isn't any less than "Lich King has awakened, we gotta go to Northrend before he grows too powerful".

It's just about as much as any other.

There's a reason they also release a Feature Overview trailler.

[Mehrunes]

Oh in the Alliance version we kinda just wrecked you and had you grovelling in the Throne Room. But still, SoO.

No one wrecked anyone in any version. Varian wanted to steal Undercity from the Horde, attacked the people who dealt with the bigger threat (and prevented Sargeras' summoning) while they were exhausted like a little coward. The combat started, no one died, Jaina froze Varian and his lapdogs, apologized and teleported everyone out. The ending was exactly the same for both factions.

Also, considering how Malfurion wasn't among the Alliance leaders present in SoO but Thrall was, trying to stir shit after Garrosh's downfall would be a death wish for the Alliance leadership. And Varian isn't exactly suicidal.

[zorkuus]

^.

TBC premise was basicly "Illidan went mad and teamed up with naga and elves. He's dagerous".

And it was only a premise. Illidan and his influence was largely just not present in Outland.

TBC was basically: here's some of your favorite characters from the RTS in a "random" setting, have fun.

[Mehrunes]

Sorry, I meant "Before IN BC and Wrath". And the Vanilla cinematic definitely showed you what the game was going to be like. A bunch of neat races and classes showing off their abilities, and then later showing them fighting against each other. That was a pretty good starting point setup to what World of Warcraft was originally about. A small preview without revealing too much or spoiling anything. The BC and Wrath cinematic were exactly the same.

Wrath cinematic showed nothing else than the Lich King and his army.

[Colmadero]

It doesn't have to be the entire story THROUGHOUT the expansion, just at least what the main focus of the story is going to be, or even a small preview of it without spoiling it. Or even at least showing us that we're going to get Demon Hunters and cool weapons. Anything at all!

The TBC cinematic did not show us getting Draenei shamans, BE paladins.
The WOTLK cinematic did not show us getting Death Knights or Shadowmourne.

You're just nitpicking at what you feel is right.

[Flower Milk]

Vanilla one didn't show all classes afaik. WotLK one didn't show we were getting Death Knights.

Legion's shows us the main enemy is the Legion, it shows us things are gonna be dire, and it hints that for the first time we'll actually have to cooperate with players of the opposing faction.

That is the main story. "Legion is invading, we gotta band together to defend our planet". It isn't any less than "Lich King has awakened, we gotta go to Northrend before he grows too powerful".

It's just about as much as any other.

There's a reason they also release a Feature Overview trailler.

I think the biggest issue for me is that the Legion cinematic doesn't do a very good job of conveying context of what is actually going on in the cinematic unless you have prior information. For one, I have no idea they were flying over the Broken Isles as part of an invasion. To me it just looked like Varian and Sylvannas fighting some Burning Legion while they happened to be flying on zeppelins. I have no idea what the symbol on the map shown means. Unless I go and look up what is actually going to be happening in the expansion elsewhere, the cinematic alone doesn't do a very good job of conveying the context of what Varian and Sylvannas are actually doing in that cinematic outside of zeppelins and Burning Legion. I hope that makes sense.

[ItachiZaku]

After SoO isn't it the opposite? Oh and battle of the Undercity. 2 major cities taken by the Alliance and handed back.

Not at all. SoO was an internal natter, Alliance leaders are lucky to have been allowed to leave. Same with BoUC. Thrall was about to bust up Varian's chin and he sure did GTFO cuz he knew. He knew. Really, Varian is constantly being saved by someone. Like Rhonin saving him from an ass whoopin' at the hands of Gary up in Dalaran.

[zorkuus]

I think the biggest issue for me is that the Legion cinematic doesn't do a very good job of conveying context of what is actually going on in the cinematic unless you have prior information...

...I have no idea what the symbol on the map shown means.

Which WoW player doesn't know about the legion at this point?

[Colmadero]

I think the biggest issue for me is that the Legion cinematic doesn't do a very good job of conveying context of what is actually going on in the cinematic unless you have prior information. For one, I have no idea they were flying over the Broken Isles as part of an invasion. To me it just looked like Varian and Sylvannas fighting some Burning Legion while they happened to be flying on zeppelins. I have no idea what the symbol on the map shown means. Unless I go and look up what is actually going to be happening in the expansion elsewhere, the cinematic alone doesn't do a very good job of conveying the context of what Varian and Sylvannas are actually doing in that cinematic outside of zeppelins and Burning Legion. I hope that makes sense.

...You can see the portal and shit coming out of it and the urgency of them GOING there to... I don't know... maybe STOP IT?

[Flower Milk]

Which WoW player doesn't know about the legion at this point?

I don't think many know what this symbol specifically means:
https://youtu.be/eYNCCu0y-Is?t=36s

That's the only visual clue they give to where they are in the cinematic location wise outside of there being ships and an ocean.

- - - Updated - - -

...You can see the portal and shit coming out of it and the urgency of them GOING there to... I don't know... maybe STOP IT?

Can you link what part of the cinematic shows a portal? I've watched it and I don't see anything like that.

Edit: Nevermind, I see it now. Sorry, I guess it didn't really look like a portal to me honestly. It just looked like a big green beam coming from the ground to the sky, and Burning Legion were around it. Just from that I still have no idea in what location they are actually in though, and that it is specifically the Broken Isles.

[Kolvarg]

I think the biggest issue for me is that the Legion cinematic doesn't do a very good job of conveying context of what is actually going on in the cinematic unless you have prior information. For one, I have no idea they were flying over the Broken Isles as part of an invasion. To me it just looked like Varian and Sylvannas fighting some Burning Legion while they happened to be flying on zeppelins. I have no idea what the symbol on the map shown means. Unless I go and look up what is actually going to be happening in the expansion elsewhere, the cinematic alone doesn't do a very good job of conveying the context of what Varian and Sylvannas are actually doing in that cinematic outside of zeppelins and Burning Legion. I hope that makes sense.

Hum. Then picture this:

TBC is live and you're playing it. You haven't played WC3, nor know the story behind it.

You don't even know Northrend exists, you don't know who the lich king is, you don't know you're going back to Azeroth.

All you see is a armored dude with chilly eyes in a snow and ice wastelend raising an undead army.


Pretty much every cinematic needs prior information to be properly understood/enjoyed.


With Legion at least you can see familiar characters (Varian, Anduin, Sylvanas), props and enemies you've already seen in-game even if you've only played WoW and nothing else from the Warcraft franchise.

[uopayroll]

They are a cinematic trailer, not a cinematic synopsis.

Vanilla trailer showed a bunch of classes, no story there
TBC showed the two new races and then an Illidan quote that is a meme of legendary proportions
WotLK (while an awesome cinematic) showed the Lich King raising the second last boss of the expansion from the ice, that horde of skeletons was not there
Cataclysm at least showed us the story of why everything was destroyed shifted
Mists was the first expansion where you could go back and revisit what happened (you can fix that hammer/ststue broken in the orc/human fight)
WoD cinematic explained why we were there
Legions actions takes place right where he cinematic ends.

So I would say the opposite of the OP and say the cinematics are getting better at introducing the expansion

[zorkuus]

I don't think many know what this symbol specifically means:
https://youtu.be/eYNCCu0y-Is?t=36s

I'm pretty sure they do. Even if they don't recognice the symbol per se, they can still connect the dots when they see it's basically felfire.

[Flower Milk]

Hum. Then picture this:

TBC is live and you're playing it. You haven't played WC3, nor know the story behind it.

You don't even know Northrend exists, you don't know who the lich king is, you don't know you're going back to Azeroth.

All you see is a armored dude with chilly eyes in a snow and ice wastelend raising an undead army.


Pretty much every cinematic needs prior information to be properly understood/enjoyed.

It's conveyed that he's a king, and he controls the undead. The title of the expansion is "Wrath of the Lich King". I'll give it to you that it doesn't really convey that they're in Northrend or anything, but I think it conveys the main threat of the expansion pretty well.

The main threat of this expansion is the Burning Legion. But just from the cinematic I don't really know much besides that. If they have a leader, who is the big bad dude we're going to be going after, etc. Like yeah, some demons and stuff are a big threat, but I actually have no idea what we're going to be doing or who we're going to be fighting to try to stop them outside of being on some zeppelins and joining together, I guess.

[StationaryHawk]

Cinematics are about introducing the expansion now. Besides, how did the cinematic for TBC represent what the expansion would be about at all besides showing Illidan a couple times and feature some draenei and blood elves?Illidan wasn't even the end game of the expansion.

[Mehrunes]

I think the biggest issue for me is that the Legion cinematic doesn't do a very good job of conveying context of what is actually going on in the cinematic unless you have prior information. For one, I have no idea they were flying over the Broken Isles as part of an invasion. To me it just looked like Varian and Sylvannas fighting some Burning Legion while they happened to be flying on zeppelins. I have no idea what the symbol on the map shown means. Unless I go and look up what is actually going to be happening in the expansion elsewhere, the cinematic alone doesn't do a very good job of conveying the context of what Varian and Sylvannas are actually doing in that cinematic outside of zeppelins and Burning Legion. I hope that makes sense.

TBC cinematic didn't convey anything about why we're going to Outland either. And Legion cinematic starts with Varian's narration that the Legion has returned. All previous "visits" by the Legion have been invasions. Rather obvious they are invading again.

[zorkuus]

It's conveyed that he's a king, and he controls the undead. The title of the expansion is "Wrath of the Lich King". I'll give it to you that it doesn't really convey that they're in Northrend or anything, but I think it conveys the main threat of the expansion pretty well.

The main threat of this expansion is the Burning Legion. But just from the cinematic I don't really know much besides that. If they have a leader, who is the big bad dude we're going to be going after, etc. Like yeah, some demons and stuff are a big threat, but I actually have no idea what we're going to be doing or who we're going to be fighting to try to stop them outside of being on some zeppelins and joining together, I guess.

It's almost as if you're talking from the PoV of someone who doesn't know anything about WoW or warcraft. Well guess what, they wouldn't have a clue what's going on in any of the cinematics.

Who's this Sauron wannabe summoning zombies in the South Pole?

[Mehrunes]

I don't think many know what this symbol specifically means:
https://youtu.be/eYNCCu0y-Is?t=36s

That's the only visual clue they give to where they are in the cinematic location wise outside of there being ships and an ocean.

The symbol of the Legion. Which has been all over the place in TBC and WoD.

[Baine]

Seriously. How does one say there is no 'story' or plot focus for TBC cinematic?

Except Illidan, there is no story at all. It is a bunch of random views. Sure, they show the zones and the races but it seems very random. Main reason why it lacks epicness.

[Mehrunes]

Cinematics are about introducing the expansion now. Besides, how did the cinematic for TBC represent what the expansion would be about at all besides showing Illidan a couple times and feature some draenei and blood elves?Illidan wasn't even the end game of the expansion.

Before someone says that SWP was a last minute raid to give players something to do before WotLK like it was the case with RS in WotLK, it wasn't. It was planned for the start. It was obvious since 2.0. A'dal outright said that Kil'Jaeden the Deceiver is returning. In interviews around the release of SWP they said it was to tie up Blood Elves story. In interviews during later expansions they said they regret their handling of SWP in that it lasted so short (among other things they regretted, other example being the gating). Besides, the title of the expansion. The Burning Crusade. The Burning Legion. Kinda obvious it's not about Illidan. Which makes the TBC cinematic completely off-point (plus, Illidan appeared in like 3 quests).