Saurfang cinematics: waste of resources?

[Big Thanks]

Aww come ON! It was an amazing cinematic! WTF!

[korijenkins]

Yes it was a waste of resources and I said the same thing when the second one came out.

And I'm sure there are probably plebs on this thread arguing that "the people who work on cinematics don't work on gameplay"

Yes! That is true, however US dollars can go to more than one thing! It was a huge waste of money to make these cinematics when the game ain't fun. If the money had been spent on improving in-game systems, island expeditions, mythic dungeons, etc, perhaps they would have more subs.

[Dhomeli]

I really appreciated the cinematics throughout the expansion. Heck, I would've been happy if we even only got 1 at the end. I always thought it was a little strange how we got a sweet CGI cinematic to introduce the expansion, but not one to cap it off. Imagine if Fall of the Lich King had been in full CGI, or Sargeras stabbing Azeroth?

If the main argument is that the CGI cinematics could have better served different parts of the story, I can understand that. Personally I appreciated having a primarily character driven story shown through the cinematics. I think it would have been a little better if we had in-game events tied to unlocking and seeing all of them in game, where the majority of the cinematics were just YouTube releases advertised in the launcher. Granted the gameplay leading up to the 8.2.5 cinematic wasn't all that compelling either.

TL;DR - I hope they continue using these high fidelity cinematics for storytelling in the future, but that they tie them into the gameplay and questing better.

[Kohtra]

Yes it was a waste of resources and I said the same thing when the second one came out.

And I'm sure there are probably plebs on this thread arguing that "the people who work on cinematics don't work on gameplay"

Yes! That is true, however US dollars can go to more than one thing! It was a huge waste of money to make these cinematics when the game ain't fun. If the money had been spent on improving in-game systems, island expeditions, mythic dungeons, etc, perhaps they would have more subs.

It's not a money issue. It's the result of design decisions by the developers themselves. Hiring more developers isn't going to magically make WoW a better game. Deciding to create systems like Azerite armor and titanforging weren't the result of a lack of funding.

[Mirishka]

An unimaginable amount of development time would have gone into the suite of full blown Saurfang cinematics we've seen in the last year. And for what, a few quests and a quick 1 shot death?

I feel like these cinematics have been extremely disappointing and a complete waste of resources for a character that we barely even interacted with this expansion. That artistic talent would've been much better spent just about anywhere else. It's a real shame seeing talent like that wasted on such frivolous affairs.

It isn't your resources being 'wasted' - so how you feel about it is irrelevant.

[Moody Blue]

I liked them.

[Zeek Daniels]

An unimaginable amount of development time would have gone into the suite of full blown Saurfang cinematics we've seen in the last year. And for what, a few quests and a quick 1 shot death?

I feel like these cinematics have been extremely disappointing and a complete waste of resources for a character that we barely even interacted with this expansion. That artistic talent would've been much better spent just about anywhere else. It's a real shame seeing talent like that wasted on such frivolous affairs.

You do realize that they have an entire department that just does cinematics right? Like thats all they do. All year long. Is make cinematics. So either you dont like cinematics in games in general and want a whole department fired or you think that all those people also work on other areas of the game. Well they dont. So stop complaining about people whos job is not part of the actual game.

[SirCowdog]

The game is multi-media as much as anything. The cinematics team does what it does in support of story. No one has to like the story they are telling but that's Blizzard's choice and the pointless concerns about "resources used" is just that: pointless. If there is a suggestion here that the resources for cinematics could have been better used for a raid or something else my only reaction to that is 'give me a break.'

That's what that team does and they do it very well. It's always a pleasure to see what they come up with. This is thin stuff to be complaining about. "Oh, the cinematics team did their jobs. How terrible for everything else."

If the Saurfang story line is the pivot on which the faction war abates or even ends that's a lot more than a few quests.

I can't help but agree here.

I mean, lets think about this for a little bit. What would people rather have: The Saurfang/Sylvanas cinematic, or a cheesy in-game scene like when Sylv gets one-shot but a bullet from Godfrey at the end of Silverpine? Or more of the Wrathgate?

I think we should all recognize that while it's true that Blizzard isn't perfect at delivering story elements(too much is out of the game in books IMO), they've come a LONG way in delivering important moments throughout the expansion. Think about how MANY little snippets of story have been delivered with in-game and cinematic cutscenes this expansion!

I don't view this sort of thing as a waste of resources at all. If anything, I see it as a distinct improvement!

[Willias]

An unimaginable amount of development time would have gone into the suite of full blown Saurfang cinematics we've seen in the last year. And for what, a few quests and a quick 1 shot death?

I feel like these cinematics have been extremely disappointing and a complete waste of resources for a character that we barely even interacted with this expansion. That artistic talent would've been much better spent just about anywhere else. It's a real shame seeing talent like that wasted on such frivolous affairs.

That's not how that works.

Blizzard has a cinematics team. The cinematics team does not make game content, they make cinematics. What you would have gotten instead of this is likely another Overwatch character cinematic.

[Dellis0991]

Threads like this are a waste of resources...

[Sharby]

I agree they need to make more Anduin cinematics.

I too have never licked Saurfang. But I wouldn't turn down the chance to ;-)

He would taste like an old leather boot. Thrall would taste better.

[shaunika123]

I mean it was a fantastic cinematic, but it was unfortunately at the service of some rather poor writing.

[Teriz]

Nah, fuck you, troll. *takes ban*

Infracted: OK {MoanaLisa}

Not going to lie, that was pretty funny.

[Dhomeli]

Yes it was a waste of resources and I said the same thing when the second one came out.

And I'm sure there are probably plebs on this thread arguing that "the people who work on cinematics don't work on gameplay"

Yes! That is true, however US dollars can go to more than one thing! It was a huge waste of money to make these cinematics when the game ain't fun. If the money had been spent on improving in-game systems, island expeditions, mythic dungeons, etc, perhaps they would have more subs.

Not every problem can necessarily be solved by throwing money at it. Blizzard hired a ton of devs going into Warlords, and as I recall that wasn't a well received expansion and we didn't really see any benefit until Legion. Hiring more people to work on gameplay or throwing more money at the existing devs won't solve problems. Listening to feedback and making better decisions in the future will, and that has nothing to do with money.

The way I see it their cinematics team likely had extra time on their hands. They have a highly talented team that has gotten more and more skilled and efficient at what they do. Diablo 4 is probably still a ways off, there's no Starcraft 3 in development that we know of, Overwatch and Hearthstone have great cinematics, but they are not photorealistic and likely can be turned around a lot faster. Rather than letting that talent go to waste, they had them work on WoW cinematics to add value to the storytelling of BFA. These cinematics are in development for a significant amount of time, so much of the work we're seeing was likely started 6+ months ago.

[jpch]

Honestly he got way too many cinematic, and most of them were plain and not needed...They could have spent some resources on the Night Warrior Ascension in CGI instead we got an in game cut scene...not even a rendered one.

[clevin]

People. Consider the OP. Go look at their started threads. This person does nothing but whine about things in the game.

[GreenJesus]

Honestly he got way too many cinematic, and most of them were plain and not needed...They could have spent some resources on the Night Warrior Ascension in CGI instead we got an in game cut scene...not even a rendered one.

Yeh the money was completely wasted following Sadfang mope around the whole expansion. No one gives a shit. Money could have been spent better showing alliance and horde killing each other in a naval battle or Tyrande's ascension or something. "Yeh I play world of warcraft to watch a dude sit in his cell and mope all day and complain about how its not fair!"

[Velerios]

Waste of resources? Lol. They are the best part of the expansion. You think the 3d rendering/animator team is also the game dev team or something? Blizard must have some amazing employees if they are specialized in literally everything.

Exactly this: do people really think that things would be automatically good if you just throw enough money on something? Class design, Azerite Armor, Stormsong Valley, Drustvar: The first two were surely not the fault of lack of ressources, and the last one was maybe, but blizzard only cares about Horde since cata, so i doubt that with more time and ressources it would have become better. Heck, the last was so bad that they even overworked it from crapton of crap to a crapton of crap, but with an cherry on top.

So in the end: 3d rendering in blizzard team does not affect the development at all: also there is a cap of how many people can work on the same project: more is not always better: more often make more people more bugs and more issues and everything takes even more time.

And the Art-Department, from the 3d/cinematics one, who, if they would produce a movie, it would be guaranteed a hit to the music-department that always makes music that really always the best thing in this game. So no, giving them less money is by far not the soution. This is art.

[Syegfryed]

She could end up getting a nice scar out of it to remember him by. Have someone throw it at her when she's hopped up on void power and kicking everyone's asses about the time she was scarred bu an old soldider she saw as beneath him. I thought it was a nice touch, in a related note, that they gave Kil'jaeden a couple of scars over his eye when we saw him again in Legion. They never specified how he got them but I like to think we mere mortal fools gave them to him when we forced him to retreat the Sunwell back in BC.

yeah, i barely saw that little scratch, sure she is blizz favorite, but com on at least a cut, it could give some meaning for her something she would never forget, he would die anyway, they could have trowed a bone, that was a little unsatisfying.

[Brewhan]

Yeah it was terrible. Spend a year watching these cinematics for the dude to get 1 shot not even any cool epic super saiyan moment. There was a build up when he was getting his second wind talking about hope and scratched her eye but even then cmon man should have taken an arm at least or a flashback to his son and go super saiyan mode. I felt nothing watching it and actually was like da fuq at the end. Glad I quit playing 5 months ago but at least I can watch the youtube videos for free.