Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Myradin]

So like the Scourge invasions of SL and Wrath. My point still stands, the average Azerothian doesn't experience too many things unless they are really big like the scourge or the burning legion. Or Deathwing.

I'd strongly disagree.

Wrath had its scourge invasion as well as plague event.

Cata, the very next expansion, had deathwing and elementals

MoP had garrosh trying to conquer the world and splitting the horde. Maybe the average horde person experienced this more than the alliance.

WoD is a lucky hiatus (lol greatest threat ever promotions)

Legion had demon invasion

BFA was effectively a world war where capitols were raised, and an old god was on the loose corrupting various parts of the world. There was also the side effects of the sword and azerite.

SL had the scourge invasions again.

Since Wrath the only real peace time the average joe has had was in WoD.

[Gurahk]

Since Wrath the only real peace time the average joe has had was in WoD.

Except the poor bastards stationed in the blasted lands prior to the portal reopening.

[Makabreska]

What's missing from Alpha currently beside DHs? All dungeons & professions are in? I see they already test max level world content, so Beta can't be far off. Maybe even PTR, SL PTR was 2 months before pre-patch - and it was intended, cause pre-patch release wasn't affected by delay.

DH talents, two dungeons: Halls of Infusion with Taz'algeth Academy and a raid, of the top of my head.

[Dracullus]

DH talents, two dungeons: Halls of Infusion with Taz'algeth Academy and a raid, of the top of my head.

So maybe 2 dungeons and DH this week to conclude Alpha. I expect raid and M+ testing in Beta anyway.

[Nyel]

Blizzard's history makes this very worrying, we used to say this and go without any changes for full expansions, that's not acceptable.

I mean his excuse is being told each and every expansion, just in different variations. "It's just alpha, it's just beta, the expansion has barely started..." bla.

It's concerning how much official feedback a few select classes (Hunter *wink wink*) get while other classes are completely ignored. It looks really bad for their communication, too, because they have to realize how negative of a picture it paints when their Hunter devs are constantly talking about changes on a weekly basis (or even more often) and other devs have not lost one word about a specific class. It's communication mismanagement. Either have something to tell about every class or nothing. At least you should not have weekly update posts for one single class because it makes all the other devs look lazy or all the other classes like being neglected / ignored.

It would be way better if they just had weekly update posts for every class. Some could be longer than others, but every class should get a weekly update.

[Myradin]

Except the poor bastards stationed in the blasted lands prior to the portal reopening.

Well yes. But one zone thats entirely a military based in the middle of a barren wasteland being destroyed isnt something the average populace would experience.

The Alliance running out of forces and needing to bring in conscripts in BFA is.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

you could make the same argument for Metzen. He's ptobably a good game director and narrative lead but his novel writing skills aren't so much. It's not a question of how long you've contributed that should define if you can write novels for the franchise

Golden and metzen aren’t in the same league metzen was a world builder who knew novels weren’t his thing so he and golden worked Rise/lords which were good novels and set the foundations for a lot of wow.

You could argue that Mabye she’s gotten worse without Metzen to work with but she’s absolutely qualified to write wow novels.

[Skildar]

I know in D&D novels, many game devs who had no writing credits outside D&D rule and campaign books have written multiple novels. Some of them are imo hopeless as writers (Ed Greenwood, creator of Forgotten Realms; he can write an amazing book on world building but give him a story to follow in a novel and the result could be used to put manic people to sleep). When you are in a company that has the capacity to publish and you are sufficiently high ranking, getting a book does not seem that unlikely and for many people seeing their name on a published book is a lifelong dream so they will push for it to happen.

Warcraft did not really do that. Maybe Metzen got something out but I think that's it. Danuser so far just has short stories.

I mention D&D intentionally because both Knaak and Golden were noticed by Blizzard from their work in D&D franchise books (Knaak wrote some mediocre Dragonlance books, Golden some decent Ravenloft books). Golden is decently prolific but almost entirely writing within settings set by others; Knaak has some of his own work. I'd say of the writers we've seen in Warcraft Roux is the one who has extensively written in her own worlds instead of being a paid writer to just get a story a company needs published written (at the same time I think she is not a good fit at all with Warcraft).

Personally I disilike the concept at large. I've read my share of companion novels meant to tell the story of a game, be it a video game, a game into movie adaptation into novel or even a TCG (Magic the Gathering comes with scores of horrible novels that I have inflicted upon myself). Your chances of finding a decent book in that pile are about the same as winning a lottery. They are just ready stories handed to professional writers who need a paycheck (likely cause they cannot get their own work to sell well enough or cannot get it published). Some of these writers are even good (again I don't consider Golden or Roux a poor writer; Knaak I do). But the entire concept is a cash grab for super fans of different franchises and nothing more than that.

That said, I am not saying the job should be done completely in game. I absolutely agree that it's better to have a wedding in a short story (it could be done in game and be hilarious though but WoW is more likely to do toilet humor than proper camp). If they need to provide additional details on something, a short story is better. If something CAN be content, it should be in game though. Garrosh' trial could have been a scenario (we could have been sent to check on Anduin, fight some mobs like Left and Right then go upstairs and help fight the faction leader AU counterparts, getting to see Zaela rescuing Garrosh in the end; all the assets for this were available; it could even have been a mini raid!). The meeting at Arathi could have been a questline were we could get to know the families about to be reunited with Alliance seeing Calia rez'd while the Horde being pulled in Sylvanas' inner circle and seeding the loyalist/rebel questline right there. Again all assets were available. And Stormrage plus the Me'dan comic could have been an entire expansion (Emerald Nightmare raid, Ahn'qiraj raid were Cho'gall escapes? Pacify Goldshire dungeon???)

At least your post was a good read. Even if I'm in the opposite boat concerning knaak. I've liked shadow rising even if the whole alliance story was slow and uninteresting for the most part. I would be very happy to see more short stories published that could explore a bit more some current expansion side stories that won't get explored more in the game like you've described with the wedding.

Let's see where it goes

[Nymrohd]

Golden and metzen aren’t in the same league metzen was a world builder who knew novels weren’t his thing so he and golden worked Rise/lords which were good novels and set the foundations for a lot of wow.

You could argue that Mabye she’s gotten worse without Metzen to work with but she’s absolutely qualified to write wow novels.

People should really check Golden's bibliography. She has been trusted to write for a large number of franchises. She is very much a professional.

[Raetary]

True, but there's also a thing as being too safe ya know?

For example, I think the Ysera stuff is a bit...safe lol

Yes, i know, i was not defending them in that post.

[Makabreska]

Big mage changes announced, one of the more harsher received class on ptr:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/upcomin...nflight-328465

[Darkarath]

People should really check Golden's bibliography. She has been trusted to write for a large number of franchises. She is very much a professional.

I have to say that I have enjoyed Golden's Warcraft books, cannot comment on the rest of her work, as I have not read a single thing. Knaak was plainly bad IMO, others like William King, Stackpole and Roux were okay.

What worries me is that Golden has been working with Danuser for some years now (2017 I believe), and since that moment BfA and Shadowlands happened. The worst expansions story and narrative wise by far, especially Shadowlands, which is an atrocity against Warcraft's lore.

So far DF seems interesting but I really hope that they do a good job story-wise, another mess and they will have to be fired immediately IMO.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

People should really check Golden's bibliography. She has been trusted to write for a large number of franchises. She is very much a professional.

It’s likely a side effect of people not actually reading the novels but hearing people talk about them instead.

Lord of the clans and rise of the horde are rarely brought up (let another non wow novels) on forums and the like so people just think of things like before the storm or war crimes which have some flaws but which are largely over blown and then of course people will also falsely attribute things to her.

[Nymrohd]

I have to say that I have enjoyed Golden's Warcraft books, cannot comment on the rest of her work, as I have not read a single thing. Knaak was plainly bad IMO, others like William King, Stackpole and Roux were okay.

What worries me is that Golden has been working with Danuser for some years now (2017 I believe), and since that moment BfA and Shadowlands happened. The worst expansions story and narrative wise by far, especially Shadowlands, which is an atrocity against Warcraft's lore.

So far DF seems interesting but I really hope that they do a good job story-wise, another mess and they will have to be fired immediately IMO.

Honestly I found Golden's reaction to 9.2 interesting. I'll be frank, given that Blizzard was trying to prove they value women, I thought it would have been a great opportunity to give Golden Afrasiabi's position instead of Danuser.

[Darkarath]

Honestly I found Golden's reaction to 9.2 interesting. I'll be frank, given that Blizzard was trying to prove they value women, I thought it would have been a great opportunity to give Golden Afrasiabi's position instead of Danuser.

What reaction? I did miss that. And I agree, definitively Danuser is not doing a good job for the moment.

[Revamp Man]

The rogue dev being responsible for DH is interesting. Rogues seem to be getting a lot of attention on Discord, so that does make me wonder why the DH tree is so late. Guess they might not have enough "stuff" to really make a proper tree yet.

They just plan class releases with each alpha build and use that time to work further on the other classes and take feedback into account when designing the trees

For example the monk trees have fewer X% stat increases and no 3 rank nodes which is the result of past feedback

[draugril]

What worries me is that Golden has been working with Danuser for some years now (2017 I believe), and since that moment BfA and Shadowlands happened. The worst expansions story and narrative wise by far, especially Shadowlands, which is an atrocity against Warcraft's lore.

There’s a difference between trying to be clever and actually being clever. Writing in Shadowlands was a fantastic illustration of that difference.

[Skildar]

I don't enjoy Golden's writing because everytime it's making feel like if I were reading a poorly written fanfiction including romances that bring nothing of interest (sometimes the romance telling is the interesting thing to tell but with Golden that is never the case). Comparing A Good War and Elegy, you just do not understand how both could be released when the one written by Golden is so weak compared to Brooks' work. War Crime was pure fanfiction nonsense, hey what if baine was a lawyer and what if we could have a trial with only leaders of the horde and the alliance as jury and prosecutor? oh and let's not forget to make a mention on how it's difficult for jaina and kalec to find love as one of them has a dragon penis... sure thing Golden...

And some people praise her over Knaak? I'd rather have crazy spells that could extinguish the world cast left and right in Knaak's depiction than suffer Golden's anduin fetish or dragon penis issues

[Nymrohd]

What reaction? I did miss that. And I agree, definitively Danuser is not doing a good job for the moment.

When the Sylvanas cinematics leaked, she tweeted she had no idea.

- - - Updated - - -

And some people praise her over Knaak? I'd rather have crazy spells that could extinguish the world cast left and right in Knaak's depiction than suffer Golden's anduin fetish or dragon penis issues

Hey dragon dicks are serious business. That's how we got Drachtyr!

I get what you are saying I just think the reason Golden's writing is a problem is the narrative direction of warcraft being character-centric instead of world-centric. She does a decent job with world building without creating issues for the world at large. Meanwhile Knaak just reminds me of greenhorn "epic" GMs who think the way to do a campaign is to have every encounter be world ending.

[Skildar]

Hey dragon dicks are serious business. That's how we got Drachtyr!

haha very true! I should be a bit more careful before criticising