Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde Review [Spoilers]

[Deleted]

exactly
Novels and games have different focus. Namely a novels main purpose is story, a games main purpose is gameplay.

Look at a comparison between the Tides of War novel and the Theramore's Fall scenario, 2 different experiences of the same event from 2 different medias.

And story (experience) is a part of gameplay as well, especially in RPG's.

[Combatbutler]

And story (experience) is a part of gameplay as well, especially in RPG's.

That is true, but it still comes not even close to a novel, that is just a fact.

[Dreknar20]

That is true, but it still comes not even close to a novel, that is just a fact.

Likewise
In a game you can only see what characters do and say. And in the wealth of characters of Warcraft you cant really hound/focus on a few characters either.
Yet in a book you can dwell into the deeper why/how that tag along with what those characters did/say

[Verdugo]

Funny, I expected Blizz to retcon Vol'jin into one that was accompanying Rexar and Chen instead of now forgotten Rokhan.

[Deletedaccount1]

The Game cannot compete with a book, it can be so much more detailed and shows us the inner workings of characters, while the game is just superficial with very limited amount of time and resources avaliable to develop lore.

Not everyone will read the book, so they are missing out on potentially crucial lore.

[Lavannah]

I feel like I'm one of the few that actually enjoyed it. I agree with a lot of points here, nothing particularly incredible happened in the book. Some points and revelations fell flat, and nothing hinted to a potential future act with any of the characters. I also wished a bunch of other characters had been involved, even if on briefly. Overall, though, i was pleased with Stackpole's work.

The novel itself really focused heavily on Vol'jin's inner thoughts and the ways of the Zandalari and Pandaren. A lot of stuff conflicted with what we experienced in game, particularly how Taran Zu was portrayed. I liked him MUCH MORE in the novel. The Taran Zu ingame probably would NOT have allowed Chen to bring Vol'jin into the temple for recovery. The few moments we see Li Li shows her as a lot more matured than when we last saw her in the Valley of the Four Winds. Her character is very head strong and independent, yes, and I've read Pearl of Pandaria and some of the travel journal entries online, but she just didn't quite seem like the Li Li we ran around with in VoFW.

I would say more, but i don't know how to put spoiler blocking over text.

I can, however, say what one of my favorite parts was without it being spoilery. One of the few humorous moments in the book lol. Vol'jin acting like a troll equivalent of a peon rat catcher. I couldn't stop laughing at that section, and i went back and reread it twice to make sure it was actually him.

[Zulkhan]

Perhaps blizz overcompensated to complaints that the books are TOO essential to follow the in game lore by making it too detached from in game events.

Probably. Especially if we consider that Blizzard's efforts for putting a greater amount of lore in game, with MoP, has been a lot more massive, even if it was mostly related to Pandaria and everything tied with it.

OT, I didn't read it yet, but it's very probable that my biased love for trolls and everything related with it will make the novel of my liking, plus I also like the idea of some additional Pandaren lore. I don't think I would bother that much the lacking of in-game hooks, to be honest I wasn't too interested in some "big revelations", mostly because there is not so much to be said about the main storyline before the release of the 5.4, which I expect will have a lot of storytelling.

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Not everyone will read the book, so they are missing out on potentially crucial lore.

Not everyone care about lore in this game, too. Spending exausting efforts in put every trivial detail of the story in the game would be a waste, a waste that, in the same time, would steal time and resources for all the other aspects of the game.

[Arrashi]

Funny, I expected Blizz to retcon Vol'jin into one that was accompanying Rexar and Chen instead of now forgotten Rokhan.

He isnt THAT forgotten, he appear in ONE (!!!!) quest in dragonblight. And Looking at us killing frostwyrm make him more accomplished troll than vol'jin can ever hope to be.

[Trassk]

He isnt THAT forgotten, he appear in ONE (!!!!) quest in dragonblight. And Looking at us killing frostwyrm make him more accomplished troll than vol'jin can ever hope to be.

actually it was the player that killed the dragon, not rokhan. he just gave you the quest and did nothing.

[Verdugo]

actually it was the player that killed the dragon, not rokhan. he just gave you the quest and did nothing.

Thats what he said. It still makes him more of a success than vol'jin.

[rcshaggy]

I haven't read the book yet for myself, but now to I would like to get it sometime this Friday or next week and get into it myself.
I usually love a good storyline and read it and I mostly have every single World of Warcraft book, and even the past Warcraft ones to.
Still to I would like to share my opinions on the book on how I like or what I think of it, but I really don't have anything to go on for myself.

[Zulkhan]

Thats what he said. It still makes him more of a success than vol'jin.

This is what I call a well explained and unattackable argument. In fact, I'll not even try to counter it, it's simply a too strong point. /bow

[KrazyK923]

Hah, I actually forgot about this thread, sorry if people were asking questions. Thought it died and I moved on :P

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Not everyone will read the book, so they are missing out on potentially crucial lore.

Not in this book...

[Deleted]

An interview with Michael A. Stackpole, the author of the book

[Destinas]

I would honestly rather have a long short story where nothing truly happens than have a book like Stormrage where TONS of important, huge things happen...yet we see none of it in-game. (I mean, there's seriously a WORLD WAR against the Nightmare in that book, yet all we see of it in-game is that Malfurion's awake, Fandral's imprisoned, and the Bough of Corruption is on Teldrassil...). It does feel as if the Vol'jin book was just an extreme opposite to Tides of War, so there would be more lore in-game than in the books.

For all they spoke of balance, I wish Blizzard could understand balance itself. They can have a book with deeper lore in it, but show a bunch of the events in-game so people won't feel left out.

[Deletedaccount1]

Hah, I actually forgot about this thread, sorry if people were asking questions. Thought it died and I moved on :P

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Not in this book...

Exactly and I think that is a good thing.

[KrazyK923]

Exactly and I think that is a good thing.

It makes the story completely irrelevant then.

There's an obvious spot in between "Stormrage" and "Shadows of the Horde" in terms of impact on the story. I'm not sure why people act like the book having no legitimate impact on the story is a good thing. Tides of War does this well from the terms of expanding upon Theramore and its destruction. Regardless of what I thought about the rest of the book, and regardless of how well the actual Theramore scenario was done in the game, it is how extended material is supposed to happen.

It should expand upon something that happened in the game. And this book doesn't do that. It barely even progresses Vol'jin's character, and nothing even remotely significant happens that would progress the story. Not even in the smallest of ways.

I kind of want my extended universe to have actual lore. The best way I can describe this book's impact on the story:

Imagine a character as a tall glass. The glass itself is the character, and the liquid inside is the character's personality/traits/ect. Everything that makes the character what it is. Vol'jin as a character is basically a tall opaque glass with a small amount of liquid in the bottom.

All this book did was make the glass a bit more translucent. There was no liquid added to the glass. We didn't learn anything new or Vol'jin's character wasn't really advanced. All that happens is that he decides that not all Humans are terrible.

[Yriel]

Mechanically the book is fine.

The story is just...

Doesn't matter in the slightest.

Actually that's how i think WoW books should be... Interesting side stories that tell stories about the world and characters but have no influence on the game. I hate it when Blizzard puts all their story development in the books and i think the books have a place telling other stories from the World of Warcraft that you can read if you like the setting but where you don't have to feel obliged to read them to follow the games plot.

[Lavannah]

Actually that's how i think WoW books should be... Interesting side stories that tell stories about the world and characters but have no influence on the game. I hate it when Blizzard puts all their story development in the books and i think the books have a place telling other stories from the World of Warcraft that you can read if you like the setting but where you don't have to feel obliged to read them to follow the games plot.

This was the intent of the book. Blizz wanted to steer away from the novels being too heavily centered on progressive lore. Shadows was meant to be a side story that fans could read and get a little enjoyable entertainment out of but not have it interfere very much with the in game lore. Shadows of the Horde is a stand alone novel. You don't have to read it to find out anything incredibly important. I would have liked some better development for Vol'jin though. We got inside his head a little bit, but that's really about all. We didn't learn much more in the way of back story about him, really nothing in terms of his childhood aside from what we had already learned in his short story. We learned more about Zandalari culture than Darkspear culture, which was partially the point.

This is what I learned about Vol'jin in the novel, and none of it is spoilery, so I don't feel bad about writing it:

1) He bathes regularly (Yep, that's the most mind blowing thing I learned about him in the entire book lol)
2) He herded raptors as a child.
3) He can act like a derp faced peon ratcatcher to get past guards. (yep, that happened)

I would loved to have learned more about his shadow magic. He uses magic a grand total of what.... three times in the book? Exactly how his spells and shadow magic work haven't really been delved into too much aside from the short story. Let's not get started with the inconsistencies ingame.

I could get into more stuff, but it more has to do with sappy familial stuff that most people don't care about lol.

Last two notes that made me giggle: Trying to imagine him in the pandaren armor (Blizz, make official art of this please lol!) and Li Li thinking he's one of the bad guys for about ten seconds lol. I wanted an interaction between Li Li and Vol'jin. It wasn't the 'Li Li teasing him to the point where he snatches her by the leg and holds her over a cliff' like I wanted, but it was something lol.

[KrazyK923]

Actually that's how i think WoW books should be... Interesting side stories that tell stories about the world and characters but have no influence on the game. I hate it when Blizzard puts all their story development in the books and i think the books have a place telling other stories from the World of Warcraft that you can read if you like the setting but where you don't have to feel obliged to read them to follow the games plot.

There still has to be some connection to the games.

They can't just go "Hey, its Vol'jin, he's in the game!" and then have an entire book about an irrelevant story.

Again, I want my books to actually matter.