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

[doledippers]

once 10.2.6 launches we'll kick into warp drive with content.

10.2.6
season 4 shortly after
alpha
10.2.7 PTR

[Ersula]

i do think this could be a learning opportunity for them, though. The idea of untested patches are fine, but the lack of news was/is definitely felt. Maybe they could compromise and do an untested patch but have some stream of news about it, rather than keeping it entirely secret. either that or plan to have some other news to supplement the lack of usual patch info

You'd think they would have learned that from delaying the Dragonflight reveal 8 months. I'm betting it was based on the Season of Discovery being a hit: If that hadn't been popular they would be covering 10.2.6 incrementally throughout february.

once 10.2.6 launches we'll kick into warp drive with content.

10.2.6
season 4 shortly after
alpha
10.2.7 PTR

According to the Roadmap its 10.2.6, then TWW alpha, then season 4, then 10.2.7. This implies the alpha will likely be early April rather than later.

[Pheraz]

This wouldn’t even be a villain thing the goblins were the ones who attacked the dark irons on arrival trying to boil them in there mole machines and the DI just responded in kind.

Yeah I wasn't reall invested in starting a discussion about it was just thinking about it. I loved the quest.
I think we should generally not take everything so seriously in this game, then it is more fun, IMO

[doledippers]

You'd think they would have learned that from delaying the Dragonflight reveal 8 months. I'm betting it was based on the Season of Discovery being a hit: If that hadn't been popular they would be covering 10.2.6 incrementally throughout february.

yeah i think it does definitely have some inspiration from SoD, i think they said as much. we'll see tho if this ends up being worth it. im willing to give them a chance

According to the Roadmap its 10.2.6, then TWW alpha, then season 4, then 10.2.7. This implies the alpha will likely be early April rather than later.

yeah realized i put these out of order, youre right

[Reive]

after 2 months of absolute secrecy, after a really bad patch (10.2.5) and after the complete lack of focus for retail they've shown recently they better deliver something good

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I would prefer some kind of island similar to timeless isle than island expeditions 2.0 if it will be fully about pirates.

[allegrian]

Blizzard has been setting up Anduin as the main character at least since Legion (remember that story where we see him as an old king?). TWW will be all about him and his team (Alleria, Thrall). The problem is that half the playerbase still serd him as alliance content (aka, enemy faction content) and part of the other half seed him as a the king that didnt't want more war against their enemy faction.

So the main problem is still the faction divide, but this time is just in the playerbase head.

Blizzard needs and wants to get to the point where all players see all content as wow content, instead of Alliance/Horde content. That's why gilneas, belameth, and Baine quests are for everyone.

[Super Dickmann]

Blizzard needs and wants to get to the point where all players see all content as wow content, instead of Alliance/Horde content. That's why gilneas, belameth, and Baine quests are for everyone.

Everyone is well aware of what they're trying to do, it's that it sucks that's the sticking point. You can say that Thrall was world content in Cataclysm, but the Alliance playerbase were still rightly assmad that they had to follow the Horde Warchief, the Horde playerbase is no more interested in learning about how Anduin is the best thing invented since sliced bread and sex. WoW, unlike other games and even other MMOs, owes its success to the variance of fantasies it caters to. Your night elf hunter is not your orc warrior, your human paladin not your Forsaken warlock. There's a reason that the most reviled expansion story, notwithstanding whether it's in abject turns the worst one, is Shadowlands, the most faction agnostic one, where we followed Anduin's surrogate family on their way to rescue him.

[Makabreska]

Blizzard has been setting up Anduin as the main character at least since Legion (remember that story where we see him as an old king?).

I keep wondering if Blizz regrets allowing this wild glimpse into the future and plans to "forget" about it.

[allegrian]

Everyone is well aware of what they're trying to do, it's that it sucks that's the sticking point. You can say that Thrall was world content in Cataclysm, but the Alliance playerbase were still rightly assmad that they had to follow the Horde Warchief, the Horde playerbase is no more interested in learning about how Anduin is the best thing invented since sliced bread and sex. WoW, unlike other games and even other MMOs, owes its success to the variance of fantasies it caters to. Your night elf hunter is not your orc warrior, your human paladin not your Forsaken warlock. There's a reason that the most reviled expansion story, notwithstanding whether it's in abject turns the worst one, is Shadowlands, the most faction agnostic one, where we followed Anduin's surrogate family on their way to rescue him.

Horde players should care about Anduin's story as it's warcraft story. The same way that everyone got to play through the Arthas, NE, Thrall and Blood Elf stories in W3. The problem with the playerbase, specially since BFA, is that the faction pride stuff got into their heads and see the other side as a different game they don't care about and them getting content translates as bad or irrelevant content for the other faction.

- - - Updated - - -

I keep wondering if Blizz regrets allowing this wild glimpse into the future and plans to "forget" about it.

You mean the current blizzard? The one that retcons stuff set up in the very previous patch? Of course, and they'll surely retcon it as much as they can. But it showed that blizzard saw anduin as one of the most importanr characters back then, just after becoming king.

[Super Dickmann]

Horde players should care about Anduin's story as it's warcraft story. The same way that everyone got to play through the Arthas, NE, Thrall and Blood Elf stories in W3. The problem with the playerbase, specially since BFA, is that the faction pride stuff got into their heads and see the other side as a different game they don't care about and them getting content translates as bad or irrelevant content for the other faction.

It's not the fault of the audience that the developers have failed to produce investment in a product sold on an entirely different basis. Blizzard meant for you to be incredibly invested in Sylvanas's Bald Man-induced psychodrama and how she wouldn't serve. Would you say you were? Were you engrossed in the story they were telling as the Bland Gang stepped into the crucible of creation itself where the Progenitor Beings drew up the schematics for concepts of form and emotion and their first lines were "Gawsh, I wonder what's happening to Anduin "?

[Makabreska]

You mean the current blizzard? The one that retcons stuff set up in the very previous patch? Of course, and they'll surely retcon it as much as they can. But it showed that blizzard saw anduin as one of the most importanr characters back then, just after becoming king.

Retcon previous patch? Kay.

I'm perfectly fine with retconing dumb shit. What was the reason in the first place for revealing Anduin so far in the future, showing he survived, became a pivotal person of the Light and that the war against Void still goes on? Kinda kills all the suspense regarding his character. It all seems like a one big brain fart.

They kinda "forgot" Med'an, I hope they will "forget" this piece.

[Jastall]

Goblins are part of the tapestry of WoW. They have a very specific theme that is reasonably unique to WoW compared to thatsteampunk and cyberpunk gnomes are far older than WoW, my reference goes to Dragonlance and they are probably older than that. If I was giving a visual description of WoW I'd probably include goblins and I would DEFINITELY include them if I was describing the Horde with Gazlowe probably being one of the founders of the Horde to me right after Thrall, Vol'jin, Cairne.
Meanwhile Void Elves . . . meh, there is nothing particularly unique to them. They don't even have a cool visual, they should have given them a proper emo look or something (or since you are going for grey blue skinned shadow elves, just full on copy Shadar-Kai and make them goth).

I'd have given them Void mutations personally, and not just 2 tentacles in their hair options. Third (maybe even fourth) eyes, extra arms, big fanged mouths, moar tentacles coming from places as part of their racials, stuff like that. You mess with the Void, you should get worse than differently colored skin.

But that would require to make them a visually distinct and more interesting race, rather than an excuse to give the Alliance Blood Elves.

[allegrian]

It's not the fault of the audience that the developers have failed to produce investment in a product sold on an entirely different basis. Blizzard meant for you to be incredibly invested in Sylvanas's Bald Man-induced psychodrama and how she wouldn't serve. Would you say you were? Were you engrossed in the story they were telling as the Bland Gang stepped into the crucible of creation itself where the Progenitor Beings drew up the schematics for concepts of form and emotion and their first lines were "Gawsh, I wonder what's happening to Anduin "?

Blizzard's writting being shit is another topic. I was just talking about people who doesn't like the story focusing on characters from the other faction because they are so invested in theirs that end up ignoring half the game, which is like playing W3 and just playing the campaign from one race.

[Super Dickmann]

Blizzard's writting being shit is another topic. I was just talking about people who doesn't like the story focusing on characters from the other faction because they are so invested in theirs that end up ignoring half the game, which is like playing W3 and just playing the campaign from one race.

No, that is a symptom of the writing being shit. Again, were you invested in Sylvanas's story? She is a world character, the story was made for you, regardless of race, faction and class to be incredibly interested in how Sylvanas overcame her hitherto unknown conflict with the Bald Man and became a hero for the whole world and ultimately went on to repent. If you weren't, much like much anyone Horde-side didn't care for our entire faction becoming a useless appendix to Anduin's hero narrative, then the fault is on the developers who failed to catch your investment, not on an audience who never signed up for this concept and who said writers failed to get invested when they decided to rotate the story around it.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I keep wondering if Blizz regrets allowing this wild glimpse into the future and plans to "forget" about it.

You mean the current blizzard? The one that retcons stuff set up in the very previous patch? Of course, and they'll surely retcon it as much as they can. But it showed that blizzard saw anduin as one of the most importanr characters back then, just after becoming king.

Blizzard said all the way back in legion that it was just a possible future that Velan saw and isn’t destined to happen.

Fans just either forgot or missed that part so it’s really not on blizzard when it doesn’t come true.

[Murlocos]

Blizzard's writting being shit is another topic. I was just talking about people who doesn't like the story focusing on characters from the other faction because they are so invested in theirs that end up ignoring half the game, which is like playing W3 and just playing the campaign from one race.

WC3 also evokes very different fantasies from faction to faction and the characters that comprise them. Arthas, Uther, and Jaina do not have the same dynamic as Thrall, Grom, and Cairne. It doesn't feel like you're playing the Alliance of Lordaeron 4 times over.

It's not just that WoW currently lacks that, it's that those distinctions are hitting all time lows. The sense of individuality in the cast right now is abysmal; almost every character feels like a chess piece with the same amount of personality you'd expect from a piece of wood that follows whatever it's told without question. We're at the point where characters don't even speak in complete sentences anymore, they all team up to speak parts of one whole complete sentence like they're part of a hivemind.

It's not just that the attempt at character-centric writing is bad, it's that the excuse is that they need to erode the depth and diversity of the world in service of it so every character can be on the exact same wavelength and have zero distinct screen presence, and it's still bad. The RTS roots of the franchise helped distinguish WoW, trying to make it more of a generic western fantasy D&D story is a regression.

Writing like this is how you get conflicts like "they put Titan fluoride in the dragon eggs 20,000 years ago" or them not actually figuring out what Sylvanas's motivation even was until after the expansion ended.

[allegrian]

WC3 also evokes very different fantasies from faction to faction and the characters that comprise them. Arthas, Uther, and Jaina do not have the same dynamic as Thrall, Grom, and Cairne. It doesn't feel like you're playing the Alliance of Lordaeron 4 times over.

It's not just that WoW currently lacks that, it's that those distinctions are hitting all time lows. The sense of individuality in the cast right now is abysmal; almost every character feels like a chess piece with the same amount of personality you'd expect from a piece of wood that follows whatever it's told without question. We're at the point where characters don't even speak in complete sentences anymore, they all team up to speak parts of one whole complete sentence like they're part of a hivemind.

It's not just that the attempt at character-centric writing is bad, it's that the excuse is that they need to erode the depth and diversity of the world in service of it so every character can be on the exact same wavelength and have zero distinct screen presence, and it's still bad. The RTS roots of the franchise helped distinguish WoW, trying to make it more of a generic western fantasy D&D story is a regression.

Writing like this is how you get conflicts like "they put Titan fluoride in the dragon eggs 20,000 years ago" or them not actually figuring out what Sylvanas's motivation even was until after the expansion ended.

What are you saying is true, but it doesn't contradict my take that we should care about the story of the game as whole and not only story related to our faction. They can still male Anduin the main character while writing the characters from other races properly.

We'll see in The War Within, starring Anduin, Alleria and Thrall as well as having lots of Dwarf and Human stuff in it, if they can fix this problem. It's the first expansion marketed with an increased focus on the story (with the whole metzen and world soul saga), so if they fail here, I'd say it's joever.

[Varodoc]

Horde players should care about Anduin's story as it's warcraft story. The same way that everyone got to play through the Arthas, NE, Thrall and Blood Elf stories in W3. The problem with the playerbase, specially since BFA, is that the faction pride stuff got into their heads and see the other side as a different game they don't care about and them getting content translates as bad or irrelevant content for the other faction.

- - - Updated - - -



You mean the current blizzard? The one that retcons stuff set up in the very previous patch? Of course, and they'll surely retcon it as much as they can. But it showed that blizzard saw anduin as one of the most importanr characters back then, just after becoming king.

WC3 is not WoW.

In WC3, you were forced to care about Arthas, NE, Thrall, and Blood Elves, because you either played as them, or didn't play the Campaign at all.

In WoW, you are not forced to play the other faction. In Cataclysm, I did not give a single fuck about Thrall and Aggra. They are not Alliance, why would I care? Not a single Alliance quest in Cata gave you a reason to care about Thrall and Aggra. Yet now, in DF, I have to care about Thrall's feelings.

Blizzard is in full cutting costs mode, so they no longer want to make Faction-specific storylines, because it's cheaper to make one storyline instead of two.

So, if you're a Horde/Forsaken fan, have fun being Anduin's therapist!

[allegrian]

WC3 is not WoW.

In WC3, you were forced to care about Arthas, NE, Thrall, and Blood Elves, because you either played as them, or didn't play the Campaign at all.

In WoW, you are not forced to play the other faction. In Cataclysm, I did not give a single fuck about Thrall and Aggra. They are not Alliance, why would I care? Not a single Alliance quest in Cata gave you a reason to care about Thrall and Aggra. Yet now, in DF, I have to care about Thrall's feelings.

Blizzard is in full cutting costs mode, so they no longer want to make Faction-specific storylines, because it's cheaper to make one storyline instead of two.

So, if you're a Horde/Forsaken fan, have fun being Anduin's therapist!

If you didnt care about Thrall in cata, then you didn't care about cata lol, he was the main character and the one who finished deathwing, and you followed him around in many quests. It's like saying you played W3 but didn't care about Arthas because you play orcs as if you can ignore his story.