You don't need to buy any books, just look it up online. Pretty sure the site is called WoWpedia or something like that now. As for showing lore in-game or not - they can do that much better now than they ever could before. However, people complain about having to read or having to listen to NPCs roleplay.
It's a slipper slope.
If you are not an Orc, you cannot fully support Garrosh. Your first allegiance lies with your faction leader, and the Horde as a whole comes second.
Country first, same as in real life.
You run into Anduin several times as Horde. The first time is in Jade Forest already when you discover at the end of the quest chain, that the young alliance soldier was him. Then again you find him in the Temple of the White Tiger. And there you get the explanation why we simply don't kill him....
Tauren have other values than the barbaric Orc's with their ruthless leader.
Last but not least, Anduin is a wonderful tool to showcase the discrepancies within the Horde itself.
Well. Yes and No, taking the realistic approach to it.. no matter how much the horde is trying to redeem themselves..(and it will always be a ongoing process) Garrosh = Horde, Garrosh razed Theramore which = All Horde must pay. Its common in Humanity to think this onesided, it sucks..but its fact. He speaks for his people being appointed as Warchief..regardless of what his people think about his actions, Ultimately..THEY will pay for them.
Theres lots of different ways to interpret the BG's place in the 'lore'
Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch are about resources. (As are Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest). Strand was about retrieving a titan relic for your faction... Alterac Valley and Gilneas (arguably) are the only BG's based on actual "war" or "territory"
---------- Post added 2012-11-05 at 04:19 PM ----------
I dunno... its not like Arthas was doing it in the name of the Alliance... Sure he came from an Alliance background but by the time he returned from Northrend and killed his king, he could hardly be considered an Alliance representative
Sylvanas, on the other hand...
WTF Rhonin dead? Seriously, I play this game for way too many hours a week and I never had a clue.
Because it's really clever marketing to put all the lore on a web-site for everyone to read, right?
It's effort. Effort done for free. You're not paying for the books, so to get the lore, you visit a free site, and you're annoyed because the free site is not a library of novels..?
Because, just like Krasus, Cairne and Magni (kind of), all these characters deaths happen in the novels because the game is incapable of giving any kind of sympathetic death to them in a meaningful way.
Though I think just showing that they have died ingame to let everyone know, since its stupid to only show such major characters dying in a book, I still rest my case, the game can't show any kind of decent way of presenting deep and developed lore.
The reason for that being the majority of players who can't be arsed to read the novels are the same people that ripped on any kind of character lore happening ingame (mostly because they want the game to revolve around them and not the lore characters)
#boycottchina
Why not ask where is our place fighting the LK or Deathwing? Both those fights and many more revolved around certain characters and yet we were there to help. Why could we not be the ones dropping bombs on the Grimtotem? Why couldn't we be a part of the strike team Varian leads into Ironforge? Or partake in driving out the Nightmare which as I recall involved an entire army of Azeroth's citizens. To say we had no place in that event is stupid.
Well I'm not suggesting we're there for every single conversation major characters have. That would be taking it too far. But we are often there for these lore important conversations as it is. In fact we did see Thrall traveling to Nagrand and training with Aggra. It was part of the elemental unrest event. Would that blizzard put the more exciting events in game too.
Personally I think that we do need more cutscenes and events like this. Things that make wow feel like an actual story instead of a bunch of grinds and kill quests. All video games tell a story, it's only in mmo's where the games are too scared to tell this story for fear that it'll scare off players. That's not how it should be and it doesn't need to be to keep players. I have a hard time believing that players are willing to grind for months to get the best gear, but would quit the game as soon as a cutscene comes up. WoW needs more cutscenes, more major lore events in game, more story.
Speaking for myself, after having played the in game theramore scenario and having read the Tides of War, I can say 100% that there's a lot missing that could have easily made it into the scenario, or at least into a scenario. The scenarios don't even mention the presence of Malygos or what happens prior to Theramore, let alone accurate to the book in the least. It's an oversimplified version that leaves much to be desired. In game, it's a small unit of players infiltrating the area. In the book, it's war.
I don't see the problem with it being in books. Sure it sucks for the people who hate reading, but for lore nerds, I think it's great. Other fantasy series have outside books that give you more insight into the series so it isn't just a WoW thing.
Personally, I think enticing people to read books is a good thing.
Ham fisting us into every event ruins the story - plain and simple. We can't literally be everywhere and there is no practically in us being certain place eg. Night Elves killed by Twilights Hammer, when Thrall gets chucked into another time line, Thrall confronting Alexstraza, Anduin being locked in Ironforge, the Druid meeting after the Night Elf attacks, Varian hurting Anduin etc etc etc. Our role is not to be in on every political meeting or slaughter at every point in Azeroth at every point in time. Books give us the opportunity to see everything without having to be a part of it.
So no ham fisting us in doesn't work. As I mentioned in my OP you're again listing the bolder parts of the story, the subtle parts cannot be done. We are not there to X leader's best buddy in the story.
Warcraft RTS worked because were were actually playing the the characters/armies in the story rather than a bystander. This is again another flaw with trying to tell and RTS story in a MMORPG.
Yet it was nothing like the books at all. Guess why? Because it was personal to Thrall and were were not personally involved at all.
SWTOR would like a word with you then. People began to hate the constant cutscenes even if they liked the story. As I mentioned before hand gaming is meant to be interactive, it isn't meant to consist of you sitting around watching some other bloke do something.
Last edited by Scummer; 2012-11-05 at 05:33 PM.
So i just read everything on Wowpedia about Anduin. Absolutely one of my new favorite characters in Lore. He is going to end up being extremely powerful in latter days.
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https://youtu.be/3uv1pLbpQM8
I hope they start doing that more and using scenarios to relay important plot points from the novels. Theramore was a failure in telling the high points of that novel and Blizzard got the resounding feedback for scenarios to tell more story.
For any interested in a little more of the lore from The Shattering, search YouTube for Fall of Cairne Bloodhoof. Someone did an excellent machinima surrounding Garrosh's appointment as warchief, the druid slaughter in Ashenvale, the mok'nathal challenge from Cairne to Garrosh, and the duel.