Is the Lore of WoW becoming a big Frankenstein?

[RangerDaz]

I really don't know what to say about everything that is happening in Battle for Azeroth.



If we see every single element by itself, without thinking into the rest, it looks cool:

- All cinematics and stories by themselves are amazing.

- All the artwork of wow is stunning.

- It is a very interesting concept of horde leveling on Zandalar while Alliance in Kul Tiras. Navy verus Troll themes are great after countless legion stories.

- It is an interesting concept of having a heart of Azeroth to heal the land from Sargeras' last attack.

- It is cool to have a war between factions and see more of the faction leaders in the storyline.

- It is nice to try new things like island expeditions or warfronts.

- It is an emotional rollercoaster for many races in BfA, like night elves, forsaken, void elves, trolls and humans, different from the past.

- It is interesting to have Sylvanas to have more relevance in the WoW Lore (not sure if she is a better solution than Vol'jin though).

- It is interesting that Sylvanas was elected warchief because of Vol'jin's visions of the Loas.

- It is interesting to see so many sidequests about Lore characters like Tyrande, Vol'jin, Saurfang, etc

- It was heartbreaking to see the destruction of Teldrassil and the Undercity.



Ok. So all cool ideas. And how about lets connect them and glue them all together, and try to fit everything in the middle of the existing WoW Lore built in the past expansions, in the previous warcraft 1,2&3 games, and in the chronicles.




So what do we for this new big Lore in Battle for Azeroth? ... ... ... ... ... ... I see a big Frankenstein expansion, made with many interesting ideas, but when joined together, they seemed glued, sewed or hammered into each other, with very few logical and reasonable connections with each other.

- I haven't seen any reason until now that justifies the Loa convincing Vol'jin that it was the best idea to make Sylvanas warchief. In 8.1 it is now learnt that it wasn't the Loa after all...

- Considering everything that happened in all the history of WoW, the whole exaggerated and sanguinary faction war that we are witnessing has been totally out of place, especially Sylvanas erratic and bloodthirsty behaviour.

- why is the Horde so interested in Kul Tiras and the Alliance in Zandalar, especially after they have so many and better warfronts against the opposite faction in Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor? Blizzard's answers to this are called War Campaigns and Warfronts. But as a strategical tactic it doesn't make much sense to prioritize those locations instead of others. Why will Alliance raid Zuldazar, who haven't done anything against them since Mists of Pandaria, if they can go directly against Orgrimmar? After all, they were successful in destroying the Undercity after arriving there with their Stormwind fleet.

- Why aren't the factions falling appart faster than they should? It is only Saurfang and Zappyboi that have the guts to go against Sylvanas?

- Why didn't any other race help the night elves when the Forsaken attacked Teldrassil? At least the Worgen, the Draenei and the Lightforged Dranei could have reached there in time. And aren't there portals between the capital cities as well, that allow armies to pass instantly from on side to the other? After all the "heroes" of the Alliance and the Horde both managed to reach Darkshore in time and they waited a whole week between part 1 & 2 of the storyline to unfold.




I could go on, but there is so many things in today's WoW that are interesting on their own, but when joined together they don't make any sense.

Of course we can always try to make excuses or find new hypothetical reasons to justify everything. But really, why is it necessary all this mental gymnastics?

As a huge Warcraft fan since Warcraft 1, I am disappointed where the Lore of WoW is heading.

The fact that WoW has become too big, its storyline is starting to collapse on itself, because we see Blizzard doing retcons all the time and trying to find multiple justifications for the ongoing plot (aka Sylvanas deeds and consequences).




I still hope Blizzard will surprise us after 8.2. and make Lore stories more logical and more realistic connected to all the previous and existing stories.

And, if its not asking too much, i hope they give us a real LOGICAL reason for Sylvanas becoming warchief, besides making us all believe it was just a marketing decision of the company to give the leadership of the Horde to her.

[Sigxy]

Like you, I've been a huge fan of the series since Warcraft 1 (It's even the first game memory I have, so it's extra special to me). On the things you wrote; some of the things are explained somewhere, some will be explained... but probably in a disappointing way. Yet sadly in my opinion a lot of the stories just makes no sense and, well, there are plotholes everywhere.

I think Blizzard messed themselves up when they decided to try write the story as if it belongs in books, rather than in games. Too limited and too forced upon us who are the players inside of a MMO"RPG". In 8.1, at one moment we're aiding Saurfang and killing off Sylvanas' most loyal Dark Rangers, yet later on we join her to raise a lot of Night Elves as Forsaken that for some reason want to join her. The whole "Elune wasn't there so we'll join the ones who did this to us" idea is just plain stupid to me. Then there are all the retcons which honestly have started to make me think lately, whenever something shows up:

"That's really cool, but... how long will it take until it's no longer canon?" I seriously wish I could stop caring about the story entirely. Maybe then I'd like the game more lately. ;_:

[Pheraz]

Totally my feeling. Looking at the small individual pieces it looks like an amazing expansion. (Wait? Is this the south seas expansion? Awesome! But no... what is that horde vs alliance stuff? Oh no...) But looking at the big picture... I feel like I am stuck in some story driven PR campaign with some "triggers" to get the attention to the story of those who normally don't care for it.

[Deleted]

A better analogy would be The Thing from Carpenter. The lore mutates, depending on the needs, and often poach in other games/series/novels, to add to the Warcraft universe. And just like the Thing, it can become quite horrifying.

[Louz]

I'd say WoW has become The Simpsons.

They keep making up nonsensical stuff for sake of keeping it going.

Fortunately for us players, this is not a TV show you just watch, it's a game, so as far as the gameplay is good, you can ignore the bullshit story and have fun doing whatever activity you like.

And yes, I hate how fucking dumb is the meta story turning out to be.

[Fixxit the Gnome]

I agree that the overarching story is all over the places.

But I quite like the individual storylines of the zones. I even like some of the questlines pretty well.

[Zandalariprelate]

I have the same feeling about you, hell I was telling people this expansion was like the average fan service of a generic anime, the south seas expansion with a non sensical faction war to look more cool.

[Houle]

Oh, so you have noticed that the lore is one giant fcking Thaddius by now?
Good. The more people, the better.

[Feanoro]

Daily reminder that the "lore" went to shit a long time ago.

[vertigo12]

It just needs a coherent story telling and it just needs putting the pieces together but yet it is quite a job.

[Anufis]

snip

I have always treated warcraft universe similar to marvel universe, so I am fine with whatever they do.

[Monkeymoo]

Daily reminder that the "lore" went to shit a long time ago.

Nobody wants to hear it. People just want to blame everything on BfA.

[Aeula]

The Lore of WoW is a joke. It always has been, but this expansion has been particularly bad.

The Gameplay of WoW is a patchwork ensemble of features Blizzard got precious about from previous expansions. But worse.

Overall it feels like Blizzard employees never communicate with each other and everyone just goes their own way doing their own thing without having the others check their work to make sure it ligns up with previous lore and the overarching story.

That and the narrow focus on their stupid plot at the cost of characters and lore. Focusing on the worst part of their narrative.

[Deleted]

I really don't know what to say about everything that is happening in Battle for Azeroth.



If we see every single element by itself, without thinking into the rest, it looks cool:

- All cinematics and stories by themselves are amazing.

- All the artwork of wow is stunning.

- It is a very interesting concept of horde leveling on Zandalar while Alliance in Kul Tiras. Navy verus Troll themes are great after countless legion stories.

- It is an interesting concept of having a heart of Azeroth to heal the land from Sargeras' last attack.

- It is cool to have a war between factions and see more of the faction leaders in the storyline.

- It is nice to try new things like island expeditions or warfronts.

- It is an emotional rollercoaster for many races in BfA, like night elves, forsaken, void elves, trolls and humans, different from the past.

- It is interesting to have Sylvanas to have more relevance in the WoW Lore (not sure if she is a better solution than Vol'jin though).

- It is interesting that Sylvanas was elected warchief because of Vol'jin's visions of the Loas.

- It is interesting to see so many sidequests about Lore characters like Tyrande, Vol'jin, Saurfang, etc

- It was heartbreaking to see the destruction of Teldrassil and the Undercity.



Ok. So all cool ideas. And how about lets connect them and glue them all together, and try to fit everything in the middle of the existing WoW Lore built in the past expansions, in the previous warcraft 1,2&3 games, and in the chronicles.




So what do we for this new big Lore in Battle for Azeroth? ... ... ... ... ... ... I see a big Frankenstein expansion, made with many interesting ideas, but when joined together, they seemed glued, sewed or hammered into each other, with very few logical and reasonable connections with each other.

- I haven't seen any reason until now that justifies the Loa convincing Vol'jin that it was the best idea to make Sylvanas warchief. In 8.1 it is now learnt that it wasn't the Loa after all...

- Considering everything that happened in all the history of WoW, the whole exaggerated and sanguinary faction war that we are witnessing has been totally out of place, especially Sylvanas erratic and bloodthirsty behaviour.

- why is the Horde so interested in Kul Tiras and the Alliance in Zandalar, especially after they have so many and better warfronts against the opposite faction in Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor? Blizzard's answers to this are called War Campaigns and Warfronts. But as a strategical tactic it doesn't make much sense to prioritize those locations instead of others. Why will Alliance raid Zuldazar, who haven't done anything against them since Mists of Pandaria, if they can go directly against Orgrimmar? After all, they were successful in destroying the Undercity after arriving there with their Stormwind fleet.

- Why aren't the factions falling appart faster than they should? It is only Saurfang and Zappyboi that have the guts to go against Sylvanas?

- Why didn't any other race help the night elves when the Forsaken attacked Teldrassil? At least the Worgen, the Draenei and the Lightforged Dranei could have reached there in time. And aren't there portals between the capital cities as well, that allow armies to pass instantly from on side to the other? After all the "heroes" of the Alliance and the Horde both managed to reach Darkshore in time and they waited a whole week between part 1 & 2 of the storyline to unfold.




I could go on, but there is so many things in today's WoW that are interesting on their own, but when joined together they don't make any sense.

Of course we can always try to make excuses or find new hypothetical reasons to justify everything. But really, why is it necessary all this mental gymnastics?

As a huge Warcraft fan since Warcraft 1, I am disappointed where the Lore of WoW is heading.

The fact that WoW has become too big, its storyline is starting to collapse on itself, because we see Blizzard doing retcons all the time and trying to find multiple justifications for the ongoing plot (aka Sylvanas deeds and consequences).




I still hope Blizzard will surprise us after 8.2. and make Lore stories more logical and more realistic connected to all the previous and existing stories.

And, if its not asking too much, i hope they give us a real LOGICAL reason for Sylvanas becoming warchief, besides making us all believe it was just a marketing decision of the company to give the leadership of the Horde to her.

If you're not up to speed with the story, don't make threads about it. Lot of people in here clearly have zero idea about any of the lore, past or present.

EVERYTHING is connected, the problem a lot of you are having is that you're only looking at what has happened since BFA launch and missing out on vital pieces of info that connect charcaters, their alignments, their history and why they behave as they do. You're missing so much, and whilst we haven't been told how the story is GOING to pan out, it's possible to make some guesses, as radical as they may seem.

Let's take a look at 2 very simple lines that were used during the BFA announcement and just after.

"facing off against Aszhara"

At no point did anyone ever say we will be killing her.

"BFA is about faction war"

At which point did they claim this is strictly Horde vs. Alliance?

It's not that the story is messy, it's a jigsaw and the pieces are starting to fall intom place. There IS a logical reason for Sylvanas being made warchief, everything is SUPPOSED to make you think, do you know the outcome of a book before you've finished reading it? A movie? No, never. Have you ever considered the story is SUPPOSED to be all over the place? Doesn't it make you feel it's a little chaotic, that feeling of the unknown? What entities do we know that love chaos? What is the school of magic that is most associated with chaos and who would really benefit from this global choas and war?

Once the pieces come full circle it'll be clearer, but I can guarantee this expansion won't go as you think it will, it won't end on a whimper, huge things are coming, and it won't be what you think.

I suggest you all go and brush up on your lore, the history of some characters and factions is important, as is the history of some characters none of you have even considered.

TL;DR;

Lots of people here know very little, and even less seem to want to take a step back and think for themselves about what everything means.

[Maljinwo]

I agree. The lore seems all oer the place, only contained in "episodes" that might contradict previous ones.


This however:

- Considering everything that happened in all the history of WoW, the whole exaggerated and sanguinary faction war that we are witnessing has been totally out of place, especially Sylvanas erratic and bloodthirsty behaviour.

It's regular Sylvanas behavior. Sure the whole "extinguish hope" is new. But she's been a cold vengeful character since warcraft 3. And became the Lich Queen in Cata.
And now that she became leader of the Horde for reasons, there's really no one telling her to stop it. At least for now

[Edlarel]

If you're not up to speed with the story, don't make threads about it. Lot of people in here clearly have zero idea about any of the lore, past or present.

EVERYTHING is connected, the problem a lot of you are having is that you're only looking at what has happened since BFA launch and missing out on vital pieces of info that connect charcaters, their alignments, their history and why they behave as they do. You're missing so much, and whilst we haven't been told how the story is GOING to pan out, it's possible to make some guesses, as radical as they may seem.

Let's take a look at 2 very simple lines that were used during the BFA announcement and just after.

"facing off against Aszhara"

At no point did anyone ever say we will be killing her.

"BFA is about faction war"

At which point did they claim this is strictly Horde vs. Alliance?

It's not that the story is messy, it's a jigsaw and the pieces are starting to fall intom place. There IS a logical reason for Sylvanas being made warchief, everything is SUPPOSED to make you think, do you know the outcome of a book before you've finished reading it? A movie? No, never. Have you ever considered the story is SUPPOSED to be all over the place? Doesn't it make you feel it's a little chaotic, that feeling of the unknown? What entities do we know that love chaos? What is the school of magic that is most associated with chaos and who would really benefit from this global choas and war?

Once the pieces come full circle it'll be clearer, but I can guarantee this expansion won't go as you think it will, it won't end on a whimper, huge things are coming, and it won't be what you think.

I suggest you all go and brush up on your lore, the history of some characters and factions is important, as is the history of some characters none of you have even considered.

TL;DR;

Lots of people here know very little, and even less seem to want to take a step back and think for themselves about what everything means.

quoted for truth and so people can read it twice since that sometimes seems to be what they need.

[tikcol]

The exact moment World of Warcraft lore died



Everything else after that is Frankenstein material. Including the new Lich King

[RangerDaz]

If you're not up to speed with the story, don't make threads about it. Lot of people in here clearly have zero idea about any of the lore, past or present.

You surely seem to have a high opinion of yourself, and think that all the other people who you don't agree with in this issue are dumber than you.

EVERYTHING is connected, the problem a lot of you are having is that you're only looking at what has happened since BFA launch and missing out on vital pieces of info that connect charcaters, their alignments, their history and why they behave as they do. You're missing so much, and whilst we haven't been told how the story is GOING to pan out, it's possible to make some guesses, as radical as they may seem.

Let's take a look at 2 very simple lines that were used during the BFA announcement and just after.

"facing off against Aszhara"

At no point did anyone ever say we will be killing her.

"BFA is about faction war"

At which point did they claim this is strictly Horde vs. Alliance?

I never mentioned the future Azshara plot in my post, which for me will surely be one of the most waited appearances in WoW History, nor did i wrote anything about BfA being only about faction war. What does this have to do with what i wrote?

It's not that the story is messy, it's a jigsaw and the pieces are starting to fall intom place. There IS a logical reason for Sylvanas being made warchief,

I really hope that there is a logical reason just like you believe, and that is wasn't thought in the last minute by Blizzard. It seems that afterall it wasn't the Loa who gave Vol'jin's his vision to make Sylvans warchief?

everything is SUPPOSED to make you think, do you know the outcome of a book before you've finished reading it? A movie? No, never. Have you ever considered the story is SUPPOSED to be all over the place? Doesn't it make you feel it's a little chaotic, that feeling of the unknown? What entities do we know that love chaos? What is the school of magic that is most associated with chaos and who would really benefit from this global choas and war?

Once the pieces come full circle it'll be clearer, but I can guarantee this expansion won't go as you think it will, it won't end on a whimper, huge things are coming, and it won't be what you think.

I have been playing warcraft since warcraft 1, so i know the story since then. WoW has had its ups and downs, but i have never felt that the pieces of the expansion don't match as much as in this xpac, compared to the past expansions. It seems i'm not the only one feeling so, considering all the past replies.

I suggest you all go and brush up on your lore, the history of some characters and factions is important, as is the history of some characters none of you have even considered.

TL;DR;

Lots of people here know very little, and even less seem to want to take a step back and think for themselves about what everything means.

Again, you surely seem to have a high opinion of yourself, and think that all the other people who you don't agree with in this issue are dumber than you. How nice of you.

[George Costanza]

I really don't know what to say about everything that is happening in Battle for Azeroth.



If we see every single element by itself, without thinking into the rest, it looks cool:

- All cinematics and stories by themselves are amazing.

.

Stopped reading after this line.

[Wildberry]

quoted for truth and so people can read it twice since that sometimes seems to be what they need.

Imagine quote posting a glorified shill post that says "nuhh uh actually the lore is really good."
@Hoochlol "Big things" came in Legion, too. It still ended up being completely ridiculous and was a bad story.

And lol at the point that "the lore is supposed to be all over the place because old gods are chaotic xD"