Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Vakir]

Has tonality or setting even really mattered as much over the last few years? We spent the end of 8.3 firing a giant laser via a necklace at a brain-ish mass of eyeballs, regardless of class or race. A Blood Elf Paladin did the exact same thing there as a Gnome Warlock. It's not like our characters won't do what is needed to get the job done.

As bad as it was, it still had internal logic by being an empowered Macguffin built up over the expansion. They can do that once (and please never again) but for the most part depicting action in a WoW cutscene for players would require a lot of class fantasy.

They do that now with things like breaking items with certain class ability animations in quests but it's another story with full fledged story beats.

However, if Blizz did opt to go in more of a 14 story direction in 10.0, I'm not sure that we couldn't have a moment like that (though certainly without the same narrative impact) by the end of that expansion.

One or two, maybe. But most story beats this expansion and last alone would rely heavily on the player character witnessing the events of someone else doing the job. If you put us in Tyrande's place, you couldn't, say, realistically have a player jettison out and grab Sylvanas by the throat during the Ardenweald invasion. Just about the only thing we have plot agency over is to bring the sigil to Torghast like a fucking moron.

Even 14 at its best leans a lot on the Scions because they have rigidly defined jobs they can animate around. They can't script a scene of us High Jumping Fandaniel's barrier so they give it to Estinien.

Hell, 14 was marketed around the Paladin and the CE Statue was the WoL using Passage of Arms. What happens when we get to Meteion? Gra'ha Tia uses it and we kinda stand there.

There's just inherent limitations to a long form game with that many customization variants.

[Catastrophy349]

Beware the eyes of green!

[Fahrad Wagner]

Says who. Fiction needs to be fictional. Entertainment needs to be entertaining. Everything else is up to the author.

Exactly, it's nonsense to think everything has to mirror real life, especially in entertainment. It can do that, or not, it's up to the author and that's it.

Unless its Anduin laying an egg for Wrathion, no thanks.

My main question is: will the egg glow?

Eternity's End OST now up on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/33js6...QU6PueCcr04qFA

Ah, excellent news! To the Fantasy playlist you goooooo!

[Kiivar86]

Amazon Prime is apparently partnering with Blizzard to do some bonus stuff for Prime members. Right now its just stuff for Overwatch and Hearthstone but they say there'll be offers for WoW and Starcraft Remastered.

Not sure if it'll be actual content for WoW or just some sort of deal/offer. If it is actual content, I wonder if it could be a mount and will we then end up obsessing over it indicating one thing or another?

[Fahrad Wagner]

We can easily reach 2000 pages by then

We must* for our reputation as shitposters depends entirely on it.

[micwini]

anything new in the last 30 pages? thread moves so fast man

[Fahrad Wagner]

I wonder what the new model for Anduin is for.

I expect some kind of penitent/pilgrim outfit for him. Something less regal and more down to earth, and I kind of like that. I think he would find himself again, living amongst his people and travelling Azeroth for a while. I used to find Anduin quite boring, but I must say his character has grown on me over the years. I'm sad Blizzard is putting him on the shelf, but it's ok because the character needs to breathe a little, and if it brings good development I am here for it!

anything new in the last 30 pages? thread moves so fast man

Nah nothing man, just ramblers rambling, shitposters shitposting, and a few of us wondering if Wrathion and Anduin's egg will glow or not, which reminds me: mostly we're discussing next expansion involving Lordaeron, Anduin not returning to lead the Alliance and leaving Turalyon on the throne (confirmed yesterday) and the implications of that.

[Nightmare Queen]

That's your own headcanon though - our characters *are* part of the stories and still considered leaders of our order hall to this day. Hell, we even appeared in the new Sylvanas novel.

'We' did? Any pictures of the section where it's mentioned in the book?

[Lady Atia]

'We' did? Any pictures of the section where it's mentioned in the book?

Basically the old quest about Allerias' necklace is mentioned - of course it won't go into detail who we are but the "adventurer" is there and giving her the necklace. I would like to not post a picture of a book that you can buy yourself though haha. Sorry.

[AngerFork]

One or two, maybe. But most story beats this expansion and last alone would rely heavily on the player character witnessing the events of someone else doing the job. If you put us in Tyrande's place, you couldn't, say, realistically have a player jettison out and grab Sylvanas by the throat during the Ardenweald invasion. Just about the only thing we have plot agency over is to bring the sigil to Torghast like a fucking moron.

Even 14 at its best leans a lot on the Scions because they have rigidly defined jobs they can animate around. They can't script a scene of us High Jumping Fandaniel's barrier so they give it to Estinien.

Hell, 14 was marketed around the Paladin and the CE Statue was the WoL using Passage of Arms. What happens when we get to Meteion? Gra'ha Tia uses it and we kinda stand there.

There's just inherent limitations to a long form game with that many customization variants.

We wouldn't be in Tyrande's place, but that likely wouldn't be the case in 14 either. To your point, the WoL is animated in where it makes sense in 14 with the Scions being a perfect fit for their inherent situations. Story-wise, we would not have made nearly as much sense in that role as Tyrande anyhow, so it wouldn't have been a good fit. That's not so much the limitation of customizations (though that is a factor) as much as it is how that particular plot arc was centered around Tyrande. That was her fight to have, not ours.

Where I see something like that cinematic working would be if the player character was given more specific issues related to them in the story rather than just being the interns for Thrall & Jaina. The cinematic you linked for instance was related to a massive story specifically linked to the main character. If we had more stories related specific to our character, it could still work. That's not due to class fantasy though IMO, so as long as the cinematics didn't require specific spell attacks it could work.

[manypillars]

Maybe King Anduin was a failure? and will become a green jesus in the next expansion
Shadowlands is a WOTLK parody
next expansion parody of Cataclysm

Eh, it makes sense to cool him off given what happened, and have him return more realistic and less idealistic so he seems like a more competent character who is actually able to lead the Alliance without having him eat up entire expansions to get that development. Otherwise we're back to damaged boy king who improbably holds the Alliance together despite making a series of poor choices when dealing with the Horde and miraculously isn't deposed by.. well, anyone.

But this is WoW, Blizzard is bad at storytelling and writing, and an MMO is not a great place to tell a story like that. So they'll villain bat a Horde leader to give us drama and maybe we'll get that raid Thunder Bluff Wrathion wanted. First boss is the elevator boss, so good luck guys!

[KayRule]

They sell novels precisely because the story isn't told in the game

Hrm, maybe that's an ongoing problem.

[Shadochi]

'We' did? Any pictures of the section where it's mentioned in the book?

I think its mostly referenced in Chronicles Vol 3 by saying heroes/champions of X faction or group

[Catastrophy349]

"But the truest victory, my son, is stirring the hearts of your people. I tell you this, for when my days have come to and end. You, shall be king."

[Fahrad Wagner]

"But the truest victory, my son, is stirring the hearts of your people. I tell you this, for when my days have come to and end. You, shall be king."

Yes, Terenas, and?

[Catastrophy349]

Yes, Terenas, and?

I prefer to remain, enigmatic.

[Sharby]

That's probably also why FFXIV has better looking cutscenes, it's more value to them putting in the effort whilst WoW is still experimenting with it. I'm sure if Blizzard sees the value of cutscenes in SL and decides to up the production value we'd see WoW in-game cinematics rapidly improving as well.

You say XIV has better cutscenes but a lot of them are still voiceless with recycled animations and stiff looking movement just to give useless exposition. Say what you will about WoW's cutscenes but at least they are brief and to the point, and every cutscene that's "important" has voice work done for it.


XIV has a nasty problem with cutscene bloat and struggles with moderating filler content big time. I would never want that for WoW. Even if it is a worse medium for storytelling (let's be real MMO's will never be good for this) I prefer WoW's brief moments here or there to give you context and then its time to move on.


And this is coming from someone who avidly enjoys XIV's story.

[Shadochi]

"But the truest victory, my son, is stirring the hearts of your people. I tell you this, for when my days have come to and end. You, shall be king."

Yes, Terenas, and?

He is a Blizz employee so this confirms Lordaeron Revamp

[Fahrad Wagner]

He is a Blizz employee so this confirms Lordaeron Revamp

He's not, he's pretending to be one after this whole thread latched at him for sounding "off" That being said, Lordaeron is my #1 bet now, like many others on this thread I suppose

[therumblings]

Though I'm pretty sure actual Blizzard employees lurk here and read these yearly hype threads