DesMephisto Interview - The Cinematics of World of Warcraft

It was more of a curiosity type of interview. But I enjoyed it.

Good Work Desmephistos

"The cutscenes involving us defeating N'Zoth largely came about from player feedback of wanting to be more included in the defeat. A lot of people don't like when you defeat a boss only to see things like "Thrall getting the credit.""

This is why listening to the community sometimes is thoroughly wrong. Thanks to those who were whining because the MAIN CHARACTERS OF WARCRAFT were "getting the credit", we got one of the worst cinematics ever made.

Listen carefully, Blizzard: we don't care if our characters show up in the cinematics; we are basically spectators of the storyline, and it's absurd to expect us to be part of the main events, it's just childish.

Give us a good cinematic where the protagonists of the expansions are present.

The ocean in the cinematic is not glowing from Azerite, but simply bioluminescence from the world waking up.

Taliesin speculated this was something big in his cinematic analysis but I commented on that video suggesting it was simply bioluminescence since I live here in California near Blizzard HQ and every so often we get those waves off the coast here as a result of algae being stirred up. Seeing as how the devs live out here it's no surprise to where they got their inspiration.

If you haven't seen them before, just go on Youtube and look it up, you'll get thousands of videos.

The team did not anticipate the popularity of Zappy Boi. They were already working on the Old Soldier cinematic when his popularity took off.

Curious if this was a US only thing. I pretty much didn't hear anyone talk about Zappy Boi on the EU servers I played on.

Originally Posted by Nork

"The cutscenes involving us defeating N'Zoth largely came about from player feedback of wanting to be more included in the defeat. A lot of people don't like when you defeat a boss only to see things like "Thrall getting the credit.""

This is why listening to the community sometimes is thoroughly wrong. Thanks to those who were whining because the MAIN CHARACTERS OF WARCRAFT were "getting the credit", we got one of the worst cinematics ever made.

Listen carefully, Blizzard: we don't care if our characters show up in the cinematics; we are basically spectators of the storyline, and it's absurd to expect us to be part of the main events, it's just childish.

Give us a good cinematic where the protagonists of the expansions are present.

Did you stretch before making that reach? Don't want you hurting yourself.

The fact the player character was in the cutscenes was not what made it crap.

The Dragon Isles have been a point of discussion for an expansion setting for the entire history of the game. Not to mention the hundreds of threads talking about playable drakonids, a dragonsworn class, and the like.


The community was definitely talking about dragons prior to them starting on this cinematic. They just weren’t listening.

Originally Posted by Nork

"The cutscenes involving us defeating N'Zoth largely came about from player feedback of wanting to be more included in the defeat. A lot of people don't like when you defeat a boss only to see things like "Thrall getting the credit.""

This is why listening to the community sometimes is thoroughly wrong. Thanks to those who were whining because the MAIN CHARACTERS OF WARCRAFT were "getting the credit", we got one of the worst cinematics ever made.

Listen carefully, Blizzard: we don't care if our characters show up in the cinematics; we are basically spectators of the storyline, and it's absurd to expect us to be part of the main events, it's just childish.

Give us a good cinematic where the protagonists of the expansions are present.

While I don't want to speak for the whole community, I will say that personally, I really dislike the idea of the player character being centered in these moments. I like when NPC protagonists spearhead these moments with our help, not the other way around. Our characters can't talk, don't have unique relationships with other main characters, they're just a blank page. It doesn't feel right to me. Having us go super sayan to defeat Nzoth feels worse to me that super sayan Thrall defeating Deathwing. NPC main characters are filled with personality, backstories, they can emote, they can be built upon and developed, and they're recognizable by everyone. Us players are just kind of "mercenaries" really.

The cutscenes involving us defeating N'Zoth largely came about from player feedback of wanting to be more included in the defeat. A lot of people don't like when you defeat a boss only to see things like "Thrall getting the credit."

Such a shame it became the worst thing in the game.

Originally Posted by Thestrawman

Did you stretch before making that reach? Don't want you hurting yourself.

The fact the player character was in the cutscenes was not what made it crap.

Beat me to it. The player being the center was the least offensive issue with that cut scene, and if this how Blizz's mind processes player feedback... they need to get their heads checked out.

Anyways, this summary line explained a lot when it comes to the narrative: "Cinematics have gotten longer simply because they have become narrative scenes instead of just trailers." That's actually one of the issues with how the game tells the story, as cinematics have become massive lore/exposition dumps with the rest of the game gets glossed over. Cinematics can have story and lore, but they shouldn't be almost the sole source of them.

I liked the N'zoth cutscene. Got some great screenshots.

Zappy Boi sucked. Most overrated piece of shit character the dumbass droves of the internet communities hyped up. That chump did nothing. Where is he now?

Varok was a badass through and through and people couldn't badmouth him enough. He was the best Orc character since Garrosh.

Originally Posted by draugril

The Dragon Isles have been a point of discussion for an expansion setting for the entire history of the game. Not to mention the hundreds of threads talking about playable drakonids, a dragonsworn class, and the like.


The community was definitely talking about dragons prior to them starting on this cinematic. They just weren’t listening.

i think they mean more so before it became a HUGE talking thing (when the dragon bundle came along)

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by exochaft

Beat me to it. The player being the center was the least offensive issue with that cut scene, and if this how Blizz's mind processes player feedback... they need to get their heads checked out.

Anyways, this summary line explained a lot when it comes to the narrative: "Cinematics have gotten longer simply because they have become narrative scenes instead of just trailers." That's actually one of the issues with how the game tells the story, as cinematics have become massive lore/exposition dumps with the rest of the game gets glossed over. Cinematics can have story and lore, but they shouldn't be almost the sole source of them.

peoples complaint was all the cool stuff happened in a not-prerendered cinematic, and so we were left with a meh "thematic" cinematic after, which is all a lot of people saw.

the cinematic would havew been way better if it showed wrathion looking at nzoth preparing to dominate his mind and he looks over, grabs the heart of azeroth and flies into the air and then aims it at nzoth, and a massive influx of azerite slams into the necklace from the portal behind and then blasts nzoth.

that would be epic, but then it would be "omfg kill stolen AGAIN"

People have been talking about a dragon isles expansion for like 15 years now.... Ever since that map with dragon isles as a level whatever raid and the dragon isles concept art the with the nautilus were leaked.

Dragon isles was planned to be in Vanilla after all... People have been speculating since TBC... The main reason I thought all the dragonlands leaks were bullshit is that its been going on for so long... So I guess that watcher cinematic has been kicking around the office for almost 2 decades.

Originally Posted by Thestrawman

Did you stretch before making that reach? Don't want you hurting yourself.

The fact the player character was in the cutscenes was not what made it crap.

Yes, the player's character being the protagonist in the cutscene was the problem, whether you like it or not. Our characters shouldn't be the protagonists, we're just another soldier. Period.

Originally Posted by Nork

Yes, the player's character being the protagonist in the cutscene was the problem, whether you like it or not. Our characters shouldn't be the protagonists, we're just another soldier. Period.

So if nothing else about the cinematic was changed except instead of our character another npc was in their place the cinematic would have been great? I don't think you'll find many (if any) people agreeing with you.

Originally Posted by Thestrawman

So if nothing else about the cinematic was changed except instead of our character another npc was in their place the cinematic would have been great? I don't think you'll find many (if any) people agreeing with you.

If the problem was our character being in the cutscene, it means that the whole cinematic is wrong. I thought it was obvious, I apologise.

The team did not anticipate the popularity of Zappy Boi

Next to "Emo-Saurfang", Zappy Boi is the worst thing coming out of the lore team the last few years... and that says a lot!

Originally Posted by Nork

If the problem was our character being in the cutscene, it means that the whole cinematic is wrong. I thought it was obvious, I apologise.

So if Magni was in the PCs position the cutscenes would be great right? Because otherwise the issue with the cutscenes isn't the player character.

Originally Posted by draugril

The Dragon Isles have been a point of discussion for an expansion setting for the entire history of the game. Not to mention the hundreds of threads talking about playable drakonids, a dragonsworn class, and the like.


The community was definitely talking about dragons prior to them starting on this cinematic. They just weren’t listening.

Lol, i was about to say that, even in Legion people were already actively asking/waiting for dragon isles because the implications, and saying they are a potential exansion, and continued to discuss the hints about it even before the leaks started.

Originally Posted by Nerph-

Curious if this was a US only thing. I pretty much didn't hear anyone talk about Zappy Boi on the EU servers I played on.

indeed, on the OCE servers and people I know, I never saw anyone talking about zappy boi... honestly, I've only ever seen some people on twitter/a post on reddit here and there talk about him, never once in game o.o