Morally Grey: Good Men Doing Nothing (Horde Narrative Theme)

[MrDragon]

The problem with MMO writing is the player. Having to write around the player so the player is the one doing things is what sucks the ability to act out of the numerous central NPCs.
Example: Horde side Uldir, Talanji sees Zul reborn, yells about stabbing him, doesn't do shit, cus players.
The only time characters do actual things is during some cutscenes and in the novels where the player is absent.

Then there's the patch cycle. Months go past of characters doing nothing before the next content patch drops and some select number of characters do something in the plot, but not too much or too many characters because screen-time is limited so as not to take the spotlight off the players.

This is why Wacraft III was a good story and WoW has never been.

[Zulkhan]

Nah, I see "morally grey" from Horde players, and "human potential" from Night Elves.

Yes and no. I mean, I kind of agree but for both I've seen a lot from the "other side" using the meme with a different motivation and this is especially true for the "morally grey", I've seen way more Alliance-leaning posters (or maybe I should say Sylvanas haters, who often happen to be Alliance but not always) promtly ready to use it everytime the Sylvanas-led Horde does something morally black (or even just apparently morally black).

[Arrashi]

The problem with MMO writing is the player. Having to write around the player so the player is the one doing things is what sucks the ability to act out of the numerous central NPCs.

But its blizzard who pushed idea of player being "lore character" as all sorts of champion, artifact bearer, azeroth babysitter and whatnot.

[Magnagarde]

Nice projection but no, the "morally grey" meme is mostly an Alliance meme, much like "human potential" it's mostly an Horde one. It comes from people mocking Blizzard for talking about "morally grey" and these players spam the meme everytime Sylvanas (or just the Horde in general) does something that looks simply "evil".

"Morally grey" is a meme a lot of Horde players use to show how annoyed they are with the course Blizzard made the Horde go through with, which includes mostly the prepatch. Human potential is either salty night elf fans or Horde players mocking the Alliance.

It is definitely used by both the groups we described, but the biggest fallout with the meme happened after Sylvanas' warbringer video and the shitstorm her fans unleashed on the internet in general. That's when the meme was actually created.

[Cafelol]

Except when Baine wants to do something about it everyone goes omg cuckuren traitor and whatnot.

No matter what he does people always complain about him

[Ferg]

the problem is they've made the PCs too powerful

a pre-WoW interview stated that in WoW the PCs would basically be old foot soldiers from the RTS games who sort of step up to be Hero units

but now we're literally more powerful than the gods that shaped the universe itself like wtf

i didnt sign up to be goku

[MrDragon]

But its blizzard who pushed idea of player being "lore character" as all sorts of champion, artifact bearer, azeroth babysitter and whatnot.

The alternative is the player being a non-entity so it's a lose-lose situation.

[Blizzard Moneybot]

Sylvanas had a plan for world peace, but Saurfang messed it up on purpose.

'kill everyone who I deem an enemy' isn't a plan for world peace because the Alliance is forbidden from even considering it at the dev level.

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Probably the Horde will be dismantled. This expansion proved that no one knows what the hell is keeping it together anymore.

Polar bonds.

[Feanoro]

Probably the Horde will be dismantled. This expansion proved that no one knows what the hell is keeping it together anymore.

Real world money.

[Zulkhan]

Probably the Horde will be dismantled. This expansion proved that no one knows what the hell is keeping it together anymore.

The MorallyGrayness, obviously.

[Deleted]

Her plan for world peace was to purge a continent of a sentient species that was willing to live and let live before the Horde started pushing (or, in the case of the pre-Shattering events, when a third faction used the Horde's pattern of shitty behavior to easily pin atrocities on the Horde, knowing Thrall was too milquetoast to do anything about it and later Garrosh would be too busy busting a nut to how much he looks like his daddy to do anything about it), and segregate the factions under the erroneous belief that separation would allow them the chill the hell out. Because it worked so well for Kul'Tiras, right? That thing where the Horde was an ocean away and bygones could be bygones? Right? Daelin totally didn't march in, annex his daughter's city-state, and declare open war on the Horde over their past atrocities like a flagrant, gaping dickhole, right?

On-topic: Good men standing by and thumping their chests over the Horde's more virtuous aspects while the Forsaken and goblins engage in wholesale ecological devastation, assassination, and break every 'rule' the Horde has has been the Horde's MO since the day Thrall brought Grom into the fold and sent valuable troops to save his stupid ass rather than let him die for zerging the dug-in Alliance forces back when the Horde first reached Kalimdor. That's what made Vol'jin a breath of fresh air, as well as Baine when the writers remember to utilize him properly.

Not to say the Alliance is squeaky-clean here, but we're talking a dirty shirt collar versus swan-diving into a mud pit.

Well, my player characters are not able to do anything different than following the railroad design by Blizzard. :/

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You're right. Now imagine the exact same scenario but with the Alliance attacking the Undercity first and the Horde attacking Teldrassil second in retalliation. All of a sudden BFA's plot is a lot less asinine, and actually starts making some sense. It boggles the mind that Blizzard did not understand that.

Also so much this!