Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[draugril]

What is the academic difference between buttrock and cockrock? I need examples.

Overall competency. The former is on the lower end of the spectrum, the latter on the higher.

[Catastrophy349]

20 days! Hallelujah!

[Makorus]

WoW not being a story game does not mean the game doesn't have a story or it's not important.

Games like FFXIV, GW2 and ESO (I think?) are story games, because the focus is clearly placed on telling a story.

That is not the case in WoW. Endgame content is the where the focus lies.

I am not saying that FFXIV does not have endgame content, and I am not saying that WoW doesn't have story moments, but they are not the main focus of the individual games.

[Vakir]

What is the academic difference between buttrock and cockrock? I need examples.

Post-grunge nu-metal vs. hypermasculinity out of the 70s.

Most of the former sucks but 14 has a good composer and localization.

We're never getting the latter in WoW because, obviously, we're all about that non-toxic masculinity!

Overall competency. The former is on the lower end of the spectrum, the latter on the higher.

This is also valid and it pretty much depends on who you ask. It's all meaningless.

[Catastrophy349]

WoW not being a story game does not mean the game doesn't have a story or it's not important.

Games like FFXIV, GW2 and ESO (I think?) are story games, because the focus is clearly placed on telling a story.

That is not the case in WoW. Endgame content is the where the focus lies.

I am not saying that FFXIV does not have endgame content, and I am not saying that WoW doesn't have story moments, but they are not the main focus of the individual games.

WoW does NOT need to be like FFXIV in terms of super long dialogue, cutscenes galore, long and many cinematics, etc. However, WoW could learn from the way FFXIV tells its story: lots of exposition, rich storytelling, and most of all, a story that makes sense and people want to learn more about. I love that WoW focuses a lot more on endgame content through "some" systems, dungeons, raids, daily quests, etc. However, they can certainly improve their storytelling to meet the best of both worlds. I look at Shadowlands as an overall flop (not an indication of what is to come...many would disagree). We shall see.

[AngerFork]

I feel like you didn't read the post.

It's not about if it can be done technically. It's about whether it fits tonally with the setting and characters.

It's an amazing moment in EW. It's full blown nekketsu Shonen GAR accompanied by a medley with lyrics including early aughts buttrock. It encompasses some of the best and most gloriously silly aspects of FF14's story and the sheer confidence in itself. But it's not something that gels with Warcraft.

14 has more freedoms to depict combat this way. It's also a heavily dialogue driven story that edges toward being a "soft" Visual Novel. Warcraft doesn't do that.

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.

I don't fully disagree that it might feel out of place & would absolutely not land the same, though that has more to do with what we've had story-wise to this point. The laser thing felt a bit out of place as well. WoW's story has mostly been about characters like Thrall & Jaina with us being story mcguffins to keep the plot moving. We have the accolades, but we aren't nearly as central to the story as the player character is in 14. 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.

[Zers Editor]

I wonder what the new model for Anduin is for.

[Soulwind]

I wonder what the new model for Anduin is for.

How about the exact same outfit that Nathanos wore?

[therumblings]

20 days! Hallelujah!

We can easily reach 2000 pages by then

[Cherry123]

I wonder what the new model for Anduin is for.

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

[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.

[LemonDemonGirl]

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.