Love is in the Air 2020, Shadows Rising - Shadowlands Prequel Novel

[Fetus Rex]

Imagine being this daft you base someones writing ability completely on their looks and find some weird way to be threatened by it.

Ya need to grow up mate.

Projections from a garage held cinema.

Her work is of dim nature. Perfectly reflecting the author.

[LordVargK]

They put more story in-game than ever before.

They simply cannot FIT all of it, at which point these books become a way to dive deeper. They are for the kind of people who want that sort of thing, after all.

In the end, people won't have issues getting the main story of Shadowlands through simply playing and paying attention.

I mean, if the problem is "too much story to fit", then maybe they should prioritize what to put in the game and what not. For example if Calia plays a somewhat important role in the future, they HAVE to somehow explain what she is ingame. In no way must the answer to a question about an ingame storyline be "read the book, watch the cinematic, read the comic...". External media serves to support the ingame story line. Books may deepen an existing character. They may provide "nice to know" background information. Or explore other times, like the era of high elves. But if you split your main story between the game and other media, you will weaken both media.

Also, there are many other MMOs that pull off storytelling much better than WoW does. Both quantity and quality wise.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I mean, if the problem is "too much story to fit", then maybe they should prioritize what to put in the game and what not. For example if Calia plays a somewhat important role in the future, they HAVE to somehow explain what she is ingame. In no way must the answer to a question about an ingame storyline be "read the book, watch the cinematic, read the comic...". External media serves to support the ingame story line. Books may deepen an existing character. They may provide "nice to know" background information. Or explore other times, like the era of high elves. But if you split your main story between the game and other media, you will weaken both media.

Also, there are many other MMOs that pull off storytelling much better than WoW does. Both quantity and quality wise.

I'm sure they do prioritize. Us not having insight =/= they ain't thinking about the same things random nobodies can conjure up on a forum.

And if other MMOs do it better in quantity and quality, I'm not sure why one would stick around with WoW?

[LordVargK]

I'm sure they do prioritize. Us not having insight =/= they ain't thinking about the same things random nobodies can conjure up on a forum.

And if other MMOs do it better in quantity and quality, I'm not sure why one would stick around with WoW?

I mean, do they though? BfA (and WoD for that matter) made me reconsider my faith in Blizzard's ability to create logical, compelling and interesting stories. Sure, MoP and Legion showed us that they are ABLE to do so. But it seems like a hit or miss type of thing. They are not consistend enough to be considered on-par with thousands of (sometimes) thinking fans active on the forums. How many (ingame story) writers do they have? like 10, maybe? and they have to split up all storylines, major and minor. So I think they sometimes get lost in their own writing. And I just don't believe the claim, that they always think 2 expansions in advance, anymore. The expansions are WAY too self contained to warrant that statement.

And what kind of question is that? People stick with WoW, because story is only a part of the game. WoW may lack in this aspect, but in others it is superior to its competitors. Also literally hundreds of other reasons, but I believe with a little bit of thinking you can answer your question yourself.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I mean, do they though? BfA (and WoD for that matter) made me reconsider my faith in Blizzard's ability to create logical, compelling and interesting stories. Sure, MoP and Legion showed us that they are ABLE to do so. But it seems like a hit or miss type of thing. They are not consistend enough to be considered on-par with thousands of (sometimes) thinking fans active on the forums. How many writers do they have? like 10, maybe? and they have to split up all storylines, major and minor. So I think they sometimes get lost in their own writing. And I just don't believe the claim, that they always think 2 expansions in advance, anymore. The expansions are WAY too self contained to warrant that statement.

And what kind of stupid question is that? People stick with WoW, because story is only a part of the game. WoW may lack in this aspect, but in others it is superior to its competitors. Also literally hundreds of other reasons, but I believe with a little bit of thinking you can answer your question yourself.

Yes, I do believe so.I don't know what to tell ya, I've been on these forums for over a decade by now and I've never seen universal praise for the lore. With MoP and Legion under their belt, Shadowlands not out yet and 2 years worth of complaining in regards to BfA, I'd rather have hope in any case.

I already know the answer to my "stupid" question, it's that when people say "this game does it better", they forget that not everyone feels the same way they do about it, and people tend to care about the package more than 1 single aspect anyway.

Either way, I've said my piece on the matter. They can improve, but they've already taken steps to improve already on telling story in-game.

[LordVargK]

Yes, I do believe so.I don't know what to tell ya, I've been on these forums for over a decade by now and I've never seen universal praise for the lore. With MoP and Legion under their belt, Shadowlands not out yet and 2 years worth of complaining in regards to BfA, I'd rather have hope in any case.

I already know the answer to my "stupid" question, it's that when people say "this game does it better", they forget that not everyone feels the same way they do about it, and people tend to care about the package more than 1 single aspect anyway.

Either way, I've said my piece on the matter. They can improve, but they've already taken steps to improve already on telling story in-game.

Having hope is the right term here. There are many fantastic storylines in WoW and in BfA. Most of Drustvar for example. It's a crying shame that the drust was just... there. It had lore, a developing story, a dungeon. And then it was ignored. That is just an example. They HAVE writers that are capable of writing amazing stories. But those writers seem to be shelved to only write sidestories, while others are in charge of the main events. And those others are not necessarily the best writers on Blizzard's team. That is a management issue: It would oblige the managers to choose the best writers for the most important stories.

And that describes my problem with current WoW: It seems that the management is not up to the task. Or at least for some reason unable to do their work appropiatly. That seems true for many aspects of WoW. Blizz stated, that the team is the largest ever. Maybe they just can't manage that, considering that many experienced managers left Blizzard in the past few years.

[Razorice]

How many freaking times do we need to discover that???? holy crap, same thing everytime ever since MOP. We are the Horde!! What binds us is to conquer as much as we can or die trying!! Leave the kumbaja bullshit to the alliance!!

As an Alliance player all I can say is:
"Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya"

[Xisa]

I'm really glad we're getting another novel dedicated entirely the Heart and Soul of the Horde.

The two full expansions dedicated to it obviously weren't enough.

[Restors]

Nope. If that was the spirit of the Horde, and the Horde would have had the actual courage to state this openly, then the alliance would have dismantled it at the end of MoP. Because, you know, you *would* die trying.

(And I'm completely omitting the fact that one of the Horde's founding races, the Tauren, are a pretty peaceful folk unless threatened. Blood elves and Pandaren don't care for conquest either.)

Garrosh was right all along, only the strong should be part of the Horde. Pansy elves, been pathetic ever since third war. Always in need of someone to aid them. Only the Old Gods knows why the hell the Horde allowed Pandarens withing our ranks.

Cairne got jealous that Thrall gave Warchief mantle to someone who would succeed. His death will always be meaningless. Voljin was just as pathetic. If all horde leaders stood by Garrosh and accepted him as a Warchief, the Horde wouldve thrived. We took over ashenvale, stormpeek mountains, annihilated Theramore. But ofc, Horde and its god forsaken rebellion were the only reason Garrosh's plans went into ruins.

And the only reason Garrosh failed was the forced Horde rebellion.. both in MOP and in BFA... This "Death" you speak of, would never came true, if the Horde truelly were united under Garrosh.

[Justpassing]

I'm really glad we're getting another novel dedicated entirely the Heart and Soul of the Horde.

The two full expansions dedicated to it obviously weren't enough.

Two full expansions, yet.

[Loveliest]

Oof. Another 80% Horde book.

I never ever attributed faction to a book. It's like saying the 3 volumes of War of the Ancients are alliance cause they focus on Night Elf past. It's a Warcraft book and we should stop bringing "faction" into everything. This is one of the reasons some things are super stupid story-wise, because players ask for equality in everything. Alliance loses a leader? Then Horde has to lose one too...

[Lucetia]

They put more story in-game than ever before.

They simply cannot FIT all of it, at which point these books become a way to dive deeper. They are for the kind of people who want that sort of thing, after all.

In the end, people won't have issues getting the main story of Shadowlands through simply playing and paying attention.

Except the problem is without the books you are missing details that make the story more uniform and make sense in-game.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Reading the summary made me a little sick... now I have to wonder if Danuser makes himself a(death)god slayer. Not to mention some direly needed explanation of the political situation of the horde is once again bannished to glorified fan fiction.

One positive though, at least it's not the usual criminals who wrote it and Talanji was the only character in all of BfA who didn't have a comically bad character arc.

[Devilyaki]

Looks like she’d be selling potions in Zelda

[Ermelloth]

Zekhan & Talanji on one mission... Hmm, might as well lead to getting a heir to Zandalari royal dynasty xD

[eduwneso]

No, it's a tumblr look. Her works also include healthy dosage of feminism. It's clear as day with whom we are dealing here.

soooo I'm gonna miss Golden, war crimes is still one of my Favs.

[Eapoe]

They put more story in-game than ever before.

They simply cannot FIT all of it, at which point these books become a way to dive deeper. They are for the kind of people who want that sort of thing, after all.

In the end, people won't have issues getting the main story of Shadowlands through simply playing and paying attention.

While I agree they put a lot of story in game, I am on the side major plot points should still be there. Blizzard, while designing some of the games quests and story of an xpac, could easily fit in a quest here or there, or even just some text in an existing quest, that has major plot points to it. Things like Calia, or the Legion’s true motivations, should absolutely be included in the game and not just in a book. Books are great to flesh out and expand on stories revealed in game in ways that don’t have big impacts on in game dynamics, such as if they want to talk about Thrall’s early years while not having big reveals that impact the game, or Varian’s gladiator days.

- - - Updated - - -

Projections from a garage held cinema.

Her work is of dim nature. Perfectly reflecting the author.

Except her books get good reviews. I’m personally not a huge fan, but I’ve read some of her stuff and I wouldn’t consider it dim. Nice follow up after you insult someone’s writing ability based on appearance. I mean, if we all did that then Stephen King and his son Joe Hill would obviously have low brow writings based on low class southerners. H.R. Giger would paint food. Isaac Asimov would be pretentious works based on modern politics.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Buy it here so you know what's actually going on in the game, we get more money, and you can be disappointed for double the price!

[Stormwolf64]

Who wants to read this feminist drivel?

[Coldfrostzero]

I'm pretty sure they had another Troll in Zekhan's boots before Zappy Boi turned into a meme. They most likely just put Zappy Boi in that character boots instead

Based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever? If this were the case, they would have had to redo the cinematics to replace said character with Zekhan. That's a lot of effort to squeeze in a meme character and not cheap.

On topic, the Horde forming a council is the least Horde thing they could ever write. The Horde is officially no more and are now just the red Alliance. The story only gets worse and worse until they combine the factions completely and just do away with the two narratives since they can't be asked to make either side interesting or unique. Which would be the worst outcome for the game, but where it is clearly headed.