The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Murlocos]

Sure sounds like a BfA plot to me. That entire expansion could be summed up as: "Oops. Those narrative consequences are far too heavy for our cool setup"

That sums it up well. The entire war in-universe is just a setup for the Shadowlands story, but they needed to sell you on the expansion that actually existed on the time, so they went with the angle of a genocidal struggle for existence that gave us highlights like a focus on night elves burning alive and mothers being speared to walls in front of their children. Hell, this is the toned down version from beta/PTR builds that had death camps set up for night elf civilians and Alliance vulpera massacre squads. And this portrayal of the most brutal war in the series doesn't have any conclusion: Saurfang gets a conclusion to his story, but Saurfang is not the main character and this is not a story solely about individuals.

The implied attitude seemed to be that we can brush off the war because it was just a setup for Shadowlands, but that doesn't work if you're trying to take the story seriously as something that actually happened, that characters should react to and not just exist as a series of events that vanished from history as soon as Shadowlands released. It failed as a plot in and of itself and it failed on a thematic level. For as much deserved focus that Shadowlands gets for the damage it did to the overall setting and cosmology of Warcraft, BfA is its ugly older brother that casts a looming shadow over the ongoing plot as an unresolved moral nightmare that the writers are still running the hell away from.

[Makorus]

Outland hasn't been relevant after TBC. Northrend hasn't been relevant after Wrath. The Cata zones of Hyjal/Uldum/Vashjr/Twilight Highlands haven't been relevant after Cata. Pandaria hasn't been relevant after MoP. AU Draenor hasn't been relevant after WoD. The list goes on. The Dragon Isles won't be relevant after DF.

Yeah, exactly. Those zones weren't relevant because nothing that happens in those zones is anything that has a lasting effect on the world. It's always self-contained.

Dragon Isles would be relevant after the expansion if something like the new tree was placed and Night Elves did move there.

[Resheph]

Yeah, exactly. Those zones weren't relevant because nothing that happens in those zones is anything that has a lasting effect on the world. It's always self-contained.

Dragon Isles would be relevant after the expansion if something like the new tree was placed and Night Elves did move there.

I guess you missed the GIANT BLOODY SWORD sticking out of the world? To say expansions have noeffect on the worldoutside of their own release period is just not true. Many other examples.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I guess you missed the GIANT BLOODY SWORD sticking out of the world? To say expansions have noeffect on the worldoutside of their own release period is just not true. Many other examples.

Which to be fair hasn't been dealt with...............................yet so I can kinda see the point.


P.S. BLIZZ DO SOMETHING /poke

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Yeah, exactly. Those zones weren't relevant because nothing that happens in those zones is anything that has a lasting effect on the world. It's always self-contained.

Dragon Isles would be relevant after the expansion if something like the new tree was placed and Night Elves did move there.

We already had a race move to a new capital with Sen’jin village in wrath/cata, blizzard then never used it other then for the troll starting zone and a boat to Zandalar most players don’t know exist.

There’s no reason to think blizzard will keep the dragon isle relevant if they move there night elfs, thwre whole track record actually paints the opposite picture.

[Nathanyel]

I guess you missed the GIANT BLOODY SWORD sticking out of the world? To say expansions have noeffect on the worldoutside of their own release period is just not true. Many other examples.

You're right, but the argument was that having the new NElf capital (or "main settlement") in the Dragon Isles would make for a good reason to return there in later expansions.

[AngerFork]

We already had a race move to a new capital with Sen’jin village in wrath/cata, blizzard then never used it other then for the troll starting zone and a boat to Zandalar most players don’t know exist.

There’s no reason to think blizzard will keep the dragon isle relevant if they move there night elfs, thwre whole track record actually paints the opposite picture.

Wait...there's a boat between Sen'jin & Zandalar?!? I learned something new today, thank you!

Aside from that, I tend to agree with you that moving Night Elves to the Dragon Isles doesn't mean they'll stay relevant. WoW has had too much of a history of expansion content largely ignoring the rest of the world to believe it'll be anything other than a corner of Night Elf vendors and a portal to Stormwind.

[Cheezits]

We already had a race move to a new capital with Sen’jin village in wrath/cata, blizzard then never used it other then for the troll starting zone and a boat to Zandalar most players don’t know exist.

There’s no reason to think blizzard will keep the dragon isle relevant if they move there night elfs, thwre whole track record actually paints the opposite picture.

Blizz has done a lot of things differently in DF.

[Nathanyel]

There’s no reason to think blizzard will keep the dragon isle relevant if they move there night elfs, thwre whole track record actually paints the opposite picture.

Not aimed at you, but this gave me a thought, (the vocal part of) the playerbase is often so shizophrenic: game is bad because old zones are forgotten, game is bad because old zones get reused, story was always bad, story is bad now because of new writing team.
Some of these may be right, objectively, but not all of them can.
Not saying this about anyone here, but I would bet actual money that 90% of those who complain on Twitter/Wowhead/Youtube about current things have made opposite or contradicting complaints in earlier years.

[Nymrohd]

Not aimed at you, but this gave me a thought, (the vocal part of) the playerbase is often so shizophrenic: game is bad because old zones are forgotten, game is bad because old zones get reused, story was always bad, story is bad now because of new writing team.
Some of these may be right, objectively, but not all of them can.
Not saying this about anyone here, but I would bet actual money that 90% of those who complain on Twitter/Wowhead/Youtube about current things have made opposite or contradicting complaints in earlier years.

It's a playerbase, it doesn't speak with one voice. Different people like different things.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Blizz has done a lot of things differently in DF.

And one of the things they haven’t done is make old zones relevant for future content even though they have a huge amount of dragon centaur or elf related places they could be sending us to regularly for one reason or another.

It’s nothing more then wishful thinking.

[Nathanyel]

And what would make Blizzard suddenly change their methods? Only doing new stuff is more marketable.

Only if you're only targetting people who played every expansion.
New players couldn't tell whether this zone in the trailer is old or new, and returning to 'forgotten' lands can bring back lapsed subscribers who liked that expansion.

[Makorus]

I guess you missed the GIANT BLOODY SWORD sticking out of the world? To say expansions have noeffect on the worldoutside of their own release period is just not true. Many other examples.

Yeah? And that's what the game needs more of?

Even then, that was just making Kalimdor and EK relevant, which is not what we need.

The new Tree being exactly where Teldrassil was and just resetting the status quo instead of doing something interesting like planting it on the Dragon Isles and opening up more development is just so typical WoW players it's insane.

You guys bitch about boring writing yet every suggestion is just the same old story retold with the same old faces and it feels like you just want a re-telling of Vanilla -> Wrath in a loop.

[Nathanyel]

It's a playerbase, it doesn't speak with one voice. Different people like different things.

I guess my main point is that there are so many voices who are just wrong.

People's opinions that they don't like something are perfectly valid, but they also come up with harebrained reasons why they're objectively right not to like something.

[huth]

And one of the things they haven’t done is make old zones relevant for future content even though they have a huge amount of dragon centaur or elf related places they could be sending us to regularly for one reason or another.

It’s nothing more then wishful thinking.

Eh, i'd rather not constantly have to go to some old out of the way place. It may sound cool, but it'd be rather a chore in practice.

[Nymrohd]

Eh, i'd rather not constantly have to go to some old out of the way place. It may sound cool, but it'd be rather a chore in practice.

Plus it would spread the playerbase too thin. Imo if they ever wanted to make more of the world useful, they need to copy what ESO does. In ESO you almost always have an event up that increases your chance of getting collectibles in this or that zone which moves much of the population of the game to those zones for a couple of weeks.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Plus it would spread the playerbase too thin. Imo if they ever wanted to make more of the world useful, they need to copy what ESO does. In ESO you almost always have an event up that increases your chance of getting collectibles in this or that zone which moves much of the population of the game to those zones for a couple of weeks.

Events for Gold sounds nice but I have no idea what you're referencing in ESO as I never got to level cap.

[Worldshaper]

So what are we thinking about the magical portal on top of the new World Tree?

It seems possible they could be hiding an actual city inside of there, or at least something like the Druid order hall.

[Foolicious]

So what are we thinking about the magical portal on top of the new World Tree?

It seems possible they could be hiding an actual city inside of there, or at least something like the Druid order hall.

My guess is either the megadungeon or a portal to a place the nightelfs can live. I don't think there will be a full fledged city yet, but after seeing the tree my hopes of a city build in the tree are gone.
Probably some place in ardenweald.

[Cheezits]

My guess is either the megadungeon or a portal to a place the nightelfs can live. I don't think there will be a full fledged city yet, but after seeing the tree my hopes of a city build in the tree are gone.
Probably some place in ardenweald.

It'll be in the Dream if anything.