"... unprecedented changes within the eternal land of Quel'Thalas."

[zael]

"The past few years have seen unprecidented changes within the eternal land of Quel'Thalas."

If by 'unprecedented changes', you mean 'nothing at all has changed since The Burning Crusade', then I agree, Mr. Narrator.

What a slap in the face.

[Nielah]

What is this?

[Caradinist]

Too early to tell. Even if i'm wrong, he may still be referring to the whole Sunwell reigniting and defeating the known Top Lieutenant of the Burning Legion ordeal.

[MyLostFish]

What is this?

The new Blood Elf intro video.

I would have loved to see some healing to the area, ideally The Dead Scar, there's no reason for it to still be overrun... Also, they could easily rebuild the part of Silvermoon that was cut through. We'll see though, I have some faith they'll update the two areas somewhat.

[dmiasek]

I think it's more along the lines of 'since the start of Burning Crusade' given the stuff the narrator quotes is from that expansion.

[zael]

Too early to tell. Even if i'm wrong, he may still be referring to the whole Sunwell reigniting and defeating the known Top Lieutenant of the Burning Legion ordeal.

Doesn't really matter. The entire area could be littered by squirrels that shit gold; it'll still be a ghost town if you can't fly.

[GennGreymane]

yeaaa b elf and draenei need to be updated

i mean who cares if its 2 years newer both areas need an update

[Nielah]

Oh yeah, something with the blood elves eye colour. Right? Alright!

[Koben]

so:
-Discovering their leader was a servant of the Burning Legion
-Joining the Horde
-Reclaiming the Sunwell and even powering it with holy energy

aren't "unprecedented changes"? Lore wise TBC happened a "few years" ago.

but yes, I think they should somewhat update BE and Draenei areas. I mean "you are one of Velen's chosen" means "you just woke up from crashing the Exodar"?

[zael]

I think that as someone with a passing interest in all the aspects of designing a videogame like World of Warcraft (and doubly because Blizzard has cited this exact reason before when answering why there are no auction houses in Outland, etc) is that programmers and artists, maybe some of the same ones who are designing Cataclysm will have their work left to rot.

Nobody (read: very, very few) will visit Eversong 'just because'. Nobody will run around in Silvermoon while all the amenities afforded therein are just as accessible in Orgrimmar (now with 100% more redesign!). This is the literal deathblow to an area that I've called home for the last four years - doomed to forevermore be the zone that new Blood Elves level in until they can reach Cataclysm content (and I imagine most will hop over to Tirisfal to partake in the Forsaken / Worgen conflict).

Saying something like 'unprecedented changes' and Quel'Thalas in the same sentence when this sort of thing has already been confirmed by a blue post is incredibly offensive.

[GennGreymane]

I think that as someone with a passing interest in all the aspects of designing a videogame like World of Warcraft (and doubly because Blizzard has cited this exact reason before when answering why there are no auction houses in Outland, etc) is that programmers and artists, maybe some of the same ones who are designing Cataclysm will have their work left to rot.

Nobody (read: very, very few) will visit Eversong 'just because'. Nobody will run around in Silvermoon while all the amenities afforded therein are just as accessible in Orgrimmar (now with 100% more redesign!). This is the literal deathblow to an area that I've called home for the last four years - doomed to forevermore be the zone that new Blood Elves level in until they can reach Cataclysm content (and I imagine most will hop over to Tirisfal to partake in the Forsaken / Worgen conflict).

Saying something like 'unprecedented changes' and Quel'Thalas in the same sentence when this sort of thing has already been confirmed by a blue post is incredibly offensive.

could atleast take out the kael statues

[OldHordeGlory]

"The past few years have seen unprecidented changes within the eternal land of Quel'Thalas."

Well to be perfectly honest, the Highborne/High Elves have lived an existence of perpetual change ever since they landed in the Eastern Kingdoms. So really the only unprecedented change that could occur, if taken literally, is the change to having no change.

Stagnation is an unprecedented change from the norm in Quel'Thalas. The narrator is legit.

[Cablecow]

All i know is that these two citys will be even bigger ghost towns if we cant fly in them ...

[Daziel]

Its obvious that that narrator talking about how the land has changed since Warcraft 3.

[coliseum]

Stagnation is an unprecedented change from the norm in Quel'Thalas. The narrator is legit.

lol ^this

[Simca]

It has to do with the servers, zael. The Blood Elf and Draenei areas are located on the OUTLAND servers. Merging the servers into Azeroth will massive issues, including having to redo the coordinate system for the world map, meshing all the terrain together, and somehow keeping non-TBC players from accessing Silvermoon/Exodar WITHOUT the giant instance portal because that is not a viable solution with an open skybox you could just zoom in.

I think that a revamp of those two starting zones is evitable with time, but it is beyond the scope of this expansion to do it.

[GennGreymane]

It has to do with the servers, zael. The Blood Elf and Draenei areas are located on the OUTLAND servers. Merging the servers into Azeroth will massive issues, including having to redo the coordinate system for the world map, meshing all the terrain together, and somehow keeping non-TBC players from accessing Silvermoon/Exodar WITHOUT the giant instance portal because that is not a viable solution with an open skybox you could just zoom in.

I think that a revamp of those two starting zones is evitable with time, but it is beyond the scope of this expansion to do it.

its within the scope

[Overmind the 3rd]

What a slap in the face.

I'm glad this came up in the very first post.

[Jekyll]

"The past few years have seen unprecidented changes within the eternal land of Quel'Thalas."

If by 'unprecedented changes', you mean 'nothing at all has changed since The Burning Crusade', then I agree, Mr. Narrator.

What a slap in the face.

[COLOR="white"]You do know Rommath is going to betray the horde right? yes Rommath, one of Lorthemar's boyfriends is actually a twilight hammer[/COLOR]

[zael]

It has to do with the servers, zael. The Blood Elf and Draenei areas are located on the OUTLAND servers. Merging the servers into Azeroth will massive issues, including having to redo the coordinate system for the world map, meshing all the terrain together, and somehow keeping non-TBC players from accessing Silvermoon/Exodar WITHOUT the giant instance portal because that is not a viable solution with an open skybox you could just zoom in.

I think that a revamp of those two starting zones is evitable with time, but it is beyond the scope of this expansion to do it.

You need TBC to learn to fly. You can not fly without TBC unless they provide a trainer in the New Azeroth that will teach you how. You can not zone in to a TBC zone (read: Thrallmar, Honor Hold, Shadowmoon Valley, Shattrath - Anything) unless you have TBC. No flying means simply 'zooming in' is a cop out and not a legitimate reason to keep these zones from being updated. You can make a giant phased Elven Runestone that keeps all the unworthy from crossing in to the wartorn Quel'Thalas.

Secondly, you think that the new zones (read: Uldum, etc) do not require a drastic overhaul of the world map? Right now, the world map ends just off the shores of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms respectively. They've already had to expand everything. If they have to do it again, I doubt they'll do it for Azuremyst and Eversong alone in the future. It's now or never.

And have you seen the video from BlizzCon that describes how they build a zone? "Meshing the terrain together" is a literal 30 minute job that involves the equilivent of a Photoshop paintbrush in the tool that Blizzard uses to design a level.

Your arguments are invalid and I don't see why you'd want to support Blizzard on this. It's a poor choice, and whether you care about the zone or not is irrelevant of the fact that others do. Ultimately it's Blizzard's choice, but it's bothersome that so many people are apathetic to the neglect of two entire, beautiful zones.

---------- Post added 2010-09-05 at 10:27 AM ----------

[COLOR="white"]You do know Rommath is going to betray the horde right? yes Rommath, one of Lorthemar's boyfriends is actually a twilight hammer[/COLOR]

Fully aware. That doesn't change the fact that nobody will know who Rommath is. Why? Nobody travels to Silvermoon. And with this errant neglect, nobody will. Lor'themar's new voice files and armor will be overlooked by players who are enjoying their time flying around the bluffs of Mulgore or speeding through the boughs of Elwynn forest. New lore is great, believe me. I'd be happy to have an entire expansion dedicated to Blood Elf lore (TBC2) but it's all for nothing if the Zerg wipe everyone out. Err, if nobody's around to see it.