My issue with recent WoW cinematics

[Flower Milk]

I've pretty much always loved the WoW cinematics. The Vanilla cinematic still sends chills down my spine, the Burning Crusade one puts ridiculously thick and pleasing nostalgia goggles on me, and the Wrath cinematic will forever be my favorite cinematic for a game of all time.

Some links to them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlVSJ0AvZe0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBHL_-biMrQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck

In all of these cinematics the focus of the expansion and the story in the expansion were always shown. You watched them and you knew what the game or expansion was going to be about. But recently, I don't think that's been as much the case anymore.

In Mists of Pandaria the cinematic was about finding Pandaria and the inhabitants on it, but in reality the expansion ended up being mostly about the Sha and Garrosh, which weren't in the cinematic.

In Warlords of Draenor the cinematic was about Grom Hellscream not drinking the blood of Mannoroth and Garrosh being there back in time with them, and it shows them basically building up the Iron Horde. Now I will admit I didn't actually pay that much attention to the story in WoD, so I'm not 100% sure if the cinematic really matches what the story will be like in the expansion. But from watching the cinematic and having played the game they don't really seem to match that well in my opinion, at least not as well as Vanilla, BC, and Wrath did for what actually ended up happening in those expansions.

And now, the Legion cinematic. Watching it I have absolutely no idea what this expansion is going to be about story wise. We fight the Burning Legion, okay, I get that. But Varian and Sylvannas are teaming up as allies, and that's pretty much about it. I have no idea where else it is going to go story wise outside of that just from watching the cinematic, whereas in previous cinematics it was definitely a lot more obvious.

By this point you've read all that I've typed out and you're probably saying "Why do you care so much about what the cinematic is like? It's not like it has any affect on what the game will be like". And I get that (and for the record, I think it should have affect on what the game will be like, like a preview on what the actual story of the expansion will be), but for many people I think whenever there's a new expansion coming out and Blizzard releases a cinematic, lots of people get really hype about what is to come. And I'm having a hard time getting hype about "what is to come" in Legion because frankly, I just have no idea the direction they're going to go in with this expansion at all outside of the fact that we're going to be fighting the Burning Legion. Other than that, I honestly have no idea. From the cinematic alone, I have absolutely no idea what this expansion is about outside of the Burning Legion.

So, I don't know if Blizzard will even ever read this, but please in the future keep your cinematics more like a preview or a small window into what the expansion may hold. You don't have to give everything away, but at least have it stick to the theme of the expansion. I'm tired of seeing a great little cinematic preview of an expansion and getting excited about it, and then halfway through the expansion the game's story has completely changed and the expansion is completely about something different now and I have no idea what is going on anymore story wise.

[zorkuus]

TBC didn't have a story to mention, how could the cinematic show it?

the Burning Crusade one puts ridiculously thick and pleasing nostalgia goggles on me

It all makes sense now.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

The cinematic is the introduction to the scenario we'll have in the Legion pre-patch. You know, the scenario where we invade the broken isle through zeppelin and ships to stop the invasion? It ties directly into the core scenario of the xpac, what else could you want?

[Flower Milk]

TBC didn't have a story to mention, how could the cinematic show it?


It all makes sense now.

The cinematic showed that there we were going to Outland via The Dark Portal, and that we were getting blood elves and draenei. It also showed that the main focus of the story was going to be Illidan.

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The cinematic is the introduction to the scenario we'll have in the Legion pre-patch. You know, the scenario where we invade the broken isle through zeppelin and ships to stop the invasion? It ties directly into the core scenario of the xpac, what else could you want?

Before BC and Wrath you pretty much knew what the expansion had to offer just from watching the cinematic. We're getting Demon Hunters this expansion and artifact weapons and that seems to be the main focus of the content, but none of that is even mentioned in the cinematic at all. You'd have no idea it was even in the expansion unless you went and looked it up on your own. All you would know is that we're fighting the Burning Legion, and Horde and Alliance are coming together to do so. After that, who knows what is going to happen? Who is the one controlling them and are we going to fight him/her and stop him at all? Also, I actually had no idea that the Broken Isles were in the cinematic. I knew we were going somewhere new, but besides being on zeppelins, I actually had no idea they were flying to the Broken Isles to fight the Legion. It just looked like they were on zeppelins. There was a short scene where they showed a map with a symbol on it, but I'm not really the most informed on lore and have no idea what that symbol means. To me it just looked like a generic map.

[zorkuus]

It also showed that the main focus of the story was going to be Illidan.

Where was Illidan in the "story" of Outland?

[Tirilka]

But Why should they be a preview of what the story throughout the WHOLE expansion is about?

[thebelltolleth]

The cinematic showed that there we were going to Outland via The Dark Portal, and that we were getting blood elves and draenei. It also showed that the main focus of the story was going to be Illidan.

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

[Radaney]

The cinematic showed that there we were going to Outland via The Dark Portal, and that we were getting blood elves and draenei. It also showed that the main focus of the story was going to be Illidan.

And the recent one showed the Alliance and Horde going to a giant demon portal on the broken isles. What's your point. This thread is nitpicking at it's complete absolute finest. All the points OP said can be applied to any of the cinematics.

Eh well you see Lich King raise a dragon but you don't really see where the story is gonna go from there herpaderp.

Eh well you see a dragon come out a mountain and fly over stuff but you don't really see where the story goes from there. etc.

[PaladinBash]

Well yeah, the Wrath one had the biggest and best storyline so naturally it had the best cinematic that shows it. All of them except the first two showed the story pretty clearly. Whether you liked the storyline of them or not, it was pretty obvious what they are about.

[Pull My Finger]

And now, the Legion cinematic. Watching it I have absolutely no idea what this expansion is going to be about story wise. We fight the Burning Legion, okay, I get that. But Varian and Sylvannas are teaming up as allies, and that's pretty much about it. I have no idea where else it is going to go story wise outside of that just from watching the cinematic, whereas in previous cinematics it was definitely a lot more obvious.

So you want cinematics to be some kind of "TL;DP" - too long, didn't play, or what?

That you have no idea what's gonna happen is a good thing.

[Kolvarg]

TBC didn't have a story to mention, how could the cinematic show it?

^.

TBC premise was basicly "Illidan went mad and teamed up with naga and elves. He's dagerous".
WotLK was basicly "Remember Arthas? He's awakened, controls many and powerful minions and he's dangerous".

Both relied on pre-existing game lore, mainly W3 which is the biggest lore part of Warcraft for most people.

Cataclysm still relied on pre-existing characters to some extent, but was a new, unexpected event. It start being more cinematic, more about introduction, and less "showcase" of the big bad boss.

In MoP the cinematic perfectly showed what the xpac was all about: Discovering a new land with a non-war-based society, and ultimately setting differences aside to overcome an obstacle (why do we fight? and all that stuff)

In WoD it mostly connected MoP with what's coming. For those who didn't know about the novel lore, it informed how Garrosh escaped and was creating a powerful army to attack us. With the extra nostalgia bonus of mimicking the Warcraft III mannoroth fight cinematic.


In the end, like them better or worse now, they all do pretty much the same thing: Introduce the main enemy/setting of the xpac.

If you keep in mind TBC/WotLK was based on old lore, and the remainder are new story, I really don't know how you can think the newer ones do less of a job of introducing those basic things.

"Lich King has awakened, he's dangerous" seems about as deep of a message as "Legion is invading, they're dangerous".

[Furbolger]

I'd say the recent cinematics are actually way more story driven, even though they are also more action packed. Earlier cinematics were basically just some races/classes looking cool, now we have lore characters involved and big events shown. If your criticism is that they're not showing new features of the expansion now, I say we have the other trailer, showing ingame footage, for that, and I am really happy with the recent cinematics.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Before BC and Wrath you pretty much knew what the expansion had to offer just from watching the cinematic. We're getting Demon Hunters this expansion and artifact weapons and that seems to be the main focus of the content, but none of that is even mentioned in the cinematic at all. You'd have no idea it was even in the expansion unless you went and looked it up on your own. All you would know is that we're fighting the Burning Legion, and Horde and Alliance are coming together to do so. After that, who knows what is going to happen? Who is the one controlling them and are we going to fight him/her and stop him at all?

I think you need to go back at this point. World of Warcraft was fairly new, so making a cinematic tailored around your world and your classes made sense. But as the game goes on, it kind of become a given. To remake a new version of this wouldn't nearly be as cool or impactful as a direct story introduction - which is what many look forward - like we had since Wotlk.

To a certain limit, Pandaria was slightly different as it introduced the continent, the new race and the new class all at once and also because we had no idea who'd be the main villain. Right now, we do.

Also, TBC had Illidan, but when you think about it he was not the main villain of the expansion. Kil'Jaeden was.

[ItachiZaku]

The trailer was just a metaphor. Alliance can't get out of their own way, and the Horde has to always bail them out. Basically, the Alliance exists because we let them.

[Radaney]

I'd say the recent cinematics are actually way more story driven, even though they are also more action packed. Earlier cinematics were basically just some races/classes looking cool, now we have lore characters involved and big events shown. If your criticism is that they're not showing new features of the expansion now, I say we have the other trailer, showing ingame footage, for that, and I am really happy with the recent cinematics.

I think the Legion is the most story driven one yet, it actually shows what's happening in the story a few moments before the expansion.

The trailer was just a metaphor. Alliance can't get out of their own way, and the Horde has to always bail them out. Basically, the Alliance exists because we let them.

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

[Mehrunes]

The cinematic showed that there we were going to Outland via The Dark Portal, and that we were getting blood elves and draenei. It also showed that the main focus of the story was going to be Illidan.

And this cinematic shows that we aer going to Broken Isles via zeppelins/ships. It also showed that the main focus of the story is going to be the Legion. I'm not seeing much difference.

Before BC and Wrath you pretty much knew what the expansion had to offer just from watching the cinematic. We're getting Demon Hunters this expansion and artifact weapons and that seems to be the main focus of the content, but none of that is even mentioned in the cinematic at all. You'd have no idea it was even in the expansion unless you went and looked it up on your own. All you would know is that we're fighting the Burning Legion, and Horde and Alliance are coming together to do so. After that, who knows what is going to happen? Who is the one controlling them and are we going to fight him/her and stop him at all? Also, I actually had no idea that the Broken Isles were in the cinematic. I knew we were going somewhere new, but besides being on zeppelins, I actually had no idea they were flying to the Broken Isles to fight the Legion. It just looked like they were on zeppelins. There was a short scene where they showed a map with a symbol on it, but I'm not really the most informed on lore and have no idea what that symbol means. To me it just looked like a generic map.

Before BC and Wrath? So in Vanilla? That cinematic only showed playable races. Not all of them even.

[Flower Milk]

But Why should they be a preview of what the story throughout the WHOLE expansion is about?

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!

[Mehrunes]

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

Errr, no? Horde had their version of Battle for the Undercity too. Where they actually defeated the leader of the coup and secured the throne room and most important areas. Alliance sneaked in via bat canal, walked through more canals (including arriving at Khanok's corpse because the Horde already defeated him) and then killed secondary guy in even deeper canals. Then declared war on the Horde like little shits even though they already knew Wrathgate wasn't Horde's doing and had to be teleported out by Jaina. They knew that it was a coup even before invading Undercity (with the goal of conquering it for the Alliance and not giving it back to the Horde) but Varian didn't care.

There was no handing Undercity back to the Horde. Just Varian trying to attack Horde leadership while they were exhausted after fighting Varimathras and preventing Sargeras from entering Azeroth. Like the coward he is.

[Radaney]

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!

Like the fact we're flying to fight demons? Clearly shown in the cinematic?

When did the Wrath cinematic show anything except story?

Basically, lock this thread it's completely pointless.

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Errr, no? Horde had their version of Battle for the Undercity too. Where they actually defeated the leader of the coup and secured the throne room and most important areas. Alliance sneaked in via bat canal, walked through more canals (including arriving at Khanok's corpse because the Horde already defeated him) and then killed secondary guy in even deeper canals. Then declared war on the Horde like little shits even though they already knew Wrathgate wasn't Horde's doing (they knew it even before invading Undercity - with the goal of conquering it for the Alliance and not giving it back to the Horde - but Varian didn't care) and had to be teleported out by Jaina.

Oh in the Alliance version we kinda just wrecked you and had you grovelling in the Throne Room. But still, SoO. Varian still let you all live despite Jaina's insane ramblings.

[Flower Milk]

Before BC and Wrath? So in Vanilla? That cinematic only showed playable races. Not all of them even.

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.