Where else is lore supposed to come from if not from Blizzard? Should they create expansions from fanfics? They may tread on butthurt lorejunkies here and there and everywhere, but that hasn't ever stopped them.
I only meant you can always read a summary of it on the internet.
As for the argument that lore shouldn't be exclusively represented in books - I can certainly understand that.
However, I can only think of a certain number of things to adress that problem.
1. Don't do novels at all
2. Implement the events of the novel into the game
3. Write novels that are irrelevant to what happens in the game
As for 1, obviously a bad idea. People want Warcraft novels. And there are certain stories best told in novels. In WoW you play your character, the story focuses on what YOU do, and even if there are certain important lore characters here and there, mainly you're interacting with all kinds of different characters throughout the whole world, and the appearance of major lore characters should be rare, so it still feels special. Novels focus heavily on certain lore characters. You get a better understanding of those characters through the novels.
2. That's probably what most people feel is appropriate, and I would have no problem with it. Except that it's hard to implement the story of certain novels, like the shattering, or tides of war, and it would take up an enormous time to do so. It would come at the expense of other content. The best we can get in that regard is scenarios like the theramore scenario.
3. Novels like the first three, or the war of the ancients trilogy. They all deal with things that happen way before WoW, so they don't need to be represented ingame. But Blizzard has shifted from doing those kinds of novels to focusing on major lore characters, Varian, Thrall, Arthas, Jaina, Malfurion, Vol'jin, for exactly the reason I mentioned above. WoW is our story. The story of our characters. That's why most city leaders did nothing for the first few years of WoW and still don't do very much. I want them to keep writing novels about those characters. They do a great job of connecting those characters in the novels to what happens in the game. And they do a good job of portraying those characters and writing compelling stories. Ideally I would like some stories that focus on past events like the war of the ancients every now and then. For example I think a novel about Shaohao would be great. Maybe once they've gone and dealt with most faction leaders we can see more of that.
As for the lore books in game, they really can't replace novels, they're like small summaries of what happened in the past that take like 1 minute to read.
Blizzard makes the games, ergo Blizzard makes the lore. If it's in the game, it's canon. Deal with it.
Or not. Just don't give yourself an ulcer over some pixels you're not satisfied with.
Yes, yes it is.
You do not decide what is 'arguable' in terms of game lore - Blizzard obviously decided that the Pandaren were a strong enough lore point to carry an expansion
There are multiple instances of Pandaren in the game world before MoP, you are being willfully ignorant to try and support your ridiculous argument
"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
Don't get me wrong i love MoP, but its very odd, it's almost like i'm playing a game similar to WoW, and not WoW itself. the end of Townlong Steppes and the whole of Dread Wastes - really did not feel like WoW to me, I have no idea why. I enjoyed the questing but it all seemed very... missing a certain something.
And just because Pandaren were in WC3, does not make them fit in anymore to MoP, I agree with the OP.
Then again, I've much prefer the Burning Legion story. Gief moar demons.
Last edited by willtron; 2012-10-06 at 06:18 PM.
1) Load the amount of weight I would deadlift onto the bench
2) Unrack
3) Crank out 15 reps
4) Be ashamed of constantly skipping leg day
The beginning of wisdom is the statement 'I do not know.' The person who cannot make that statement is one who will never learn anything. And I have prided myself on my ability to learn
Thrall
http://youtu.be/x3ejO7Nssj8 7:20+ "Alliance remaining super power", clearly blizz favor horde too much, that they made alliance the super power
"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
They're peaceful because, outside of Chen, they've had absolutely no part or relevance in any part of Warcraft lore whatsoever.
We just went from:
Orcs vs. Humans --> reason why orcs were enraged (burning legion) --> orcs settling down --> burning legion creating scourge --> invasion by burning legion --> rise of the scourge --> fighting the very essence of azeroth (old gods though I admit even this was a bit of a stretch)
All the stories up til now have fallen in these categories: orcs vs. humans, old gods, scourge, burning legion. None of this had the slightest mention of a random ass island that, up until now, has had no connection at all to the above. Unless the lifting of the mists provides us with another well of eternity I'm not going to see any relevance to this expansion to the greater part of warcraft lore.
Ok so there IS Y'sharrj to make a connection. It's just that Blizzard seems to be underplaying it extremely.
Last edited by Flaks; 2012-10-06 at 06:40 PM.
Originally Posted by High Overlord Saurfangi7-6700 @2.8GHz | Nvidia GTX 960M | 16GB DDR4-2400MHz | 1 TB Toshiba SSD| Dell XPS 15