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

[Woggmer]

I don't see why people are invested with this author. I've tried reading many of her books but they're just not good, some fanfictions are better written and with less unnecessary romance.

War crimes was an absolute traversty of anything that warcraft should be (hey let's play lawyers and attorneys with horde and alliance leaders... yeah but we should make sure to expose clearly at some point that it's complicated for Jaina and Kalec to have sexe... wat? ).

BtS is a boring experience that fortunately ends, I know this is a cheap criticism but I don't even know what to point out except that it's a whole novel with a single event worth mentioning in it...

I think that it becomes very clear how her writing talent are medium at best is that when blizzard writes a couple of stories before the start of BfA then we get one by Golden and one by Brooks, and the latter is miles ahead the former in quality of writing.

I'm looking forward having some different talents involved in this franchise. I just hope that one day we will get back to having side stories such as "The last Guardian" or "Day of the Dragon", that could involve characters that don't share the spotlight of the current expansion.

I'm not gonna defend Golden's work, but I'm very hesitant about entrusting other writers to do stories for WoW... especially those who aren't familiar with the material or lore. At least with Golden, she's been working on WoW stuff since as far back as 2001 with Lord of the Clans.. so to have someone else do the writing and not know much about a specific subject is playing with fire.

(i.e. Taking Talanji who looks like she's in her late 20s to 30s.. and in the novel, she's actually 18 years. Making her the youngest Horde leader in WoW to date.)

[Skildar]

I'm not gonna defend Golden's work, but I'm very hesitant about entrusting other writers to do stories for WoW... especially those who aren't familiar with the material or lore. At least with Golden, she's been working on WoW stuff since as far back as 2001 with Lord of the Clans.. so to have someone else do the writing and not know much about a specific subject is playing with fire.

(i.e. Taking Talanji who looks like she's in her late 20s to 30s.. and in the novel, she's actually 18 years. Making her the youngest Horde leader in WoW to date.)

They are supposed to have teams of lore experts that guide their writers. I would trust them to take on that responsibility

[Woggmer]

They are supposed to have teams of lore experts that guide their writers. I would trust them to take on that responsibility

Again, I'm still hesitant about it. And knowing the "lore experts" doesn't exactly give me much confidence in the matter.

[Nathanyel]

Taking Talanji who looks like she's in her late 20s to 30s.. and in the novel, she's actually 18 years. Making her the youngest Horde leader in WoW to date.

I'm ok with the occasional "teenager" being portrayed with the same model as adults, even unique models like Talanji's. Make them smaller like Durak, beardless like Dagran etc.
Having actual adolescent models/faces would feel... iffy. That's Anime's domain, where every woman under 50 looks like she's 15.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I need to check if blizzard is hiring, i would just write in new orc similar to garrosh from cata questline and then quit.

He would just scream war crys, swing his axe crushing bodies and pretty much loudly insulting his enemies but not alliance this time.

Son of Garrosh, but in the end with overall better mindset for the horde.

[Enrif]

I need to check if blizzard is hiring, i would just write in new orc similar to garrosh from cata questline and then quit.

He would just scream war crys, swing his axe crushing bodies and pretty much loudly insulting his enemies but not alliance this time.

Son of Garrosh, but in the end with overall better mindset for the horde.

So, like Nazgrim? Nazgrim and Taylor were some of the best developed side characters that came out of Cata/MoP. To bad they had such bad ends to their story. At least Nazgrim lives on as a DK i guess.

[Pyrophax]

So, like Nazgrim? Nazgrim and Taylor were some of the best developed side characters that came out of Cata/MoP. To bad they had such bad ends to their story. At least Nazgrim lives on as a DK i guess.

Taylor still mines in my garrison, even after death. Really don't like that character.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

So, like Nazgrim? Nazgrim and Taylor were some of the best developed side characters that came out of Cata/MoP. To bad they had such bad ends to their story. At least Nazgrim lives on as a DK i guess.

Yeah nazgrim-garrosh combo orc character.
Nazgrim lives as DK but to be honest i don't see him involved a lot storywise in the future, at least when it comes to the horde.

I guess we still have eitrigg, it's one of the OG's that i think deserves his own model like shandris, but he is pretty old and pretty much chilling besides helping us from time to time.

It would be fun to have some young orc again that will get your adrenaline pumpin in battles or cutscenes.

[Nathanyel]

So, like Nazgrim? Nazgrim and Taylor were some of the best developed side characters that came out of Cata/MoP. To bad they had such bad ends to their story. At least Nazgrim lives on as a DK i guess.

Sady, being a member of the Horsemen kinda saps their individuality as characters.
But yes, Nazgrim was/is a fantastic character. His death and resurrection remind me of Trusty John from Fables (the comic that The Wolf Among Us is based on) as his oath ultimately forced him to turn on his former companions. His death dissolved this oath, so after resurrection, he was able to serve a better cause freely (well, within the constraints of undeath)

So, it has come to this. Together, we have learned and grown over the years, and now we find ourselves face to face on the battlefield. Do not think I will go easy on you, nor do I expect any quarter. What we do now, we do for the Horde, both of us.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

They are supposed to have teams of lore experts that guide their writers. I would trust them to take on that responsibility

If Blizzard knew their own lore then the Red Shirt guy would not exist.

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Just read the whole Creator Summit interview posted on Wowhead, there was a definite tease of Player Housing.

Long overdue. Will have to see how it's executed. I wonder if there are going to try to clear out spaces in Kalimdor/EK to add phased neighborhoods, or if player housing will take place in a completely seperate instance that you can customize like a Nagrand or Bastion floating island or some random Pandaria looking mountaintop, or inside a big air bubble at the bottom of the sea, etc.

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Also, I couldn't help but notice that after SL and Xbox new leadership and Metzen return there is large laid off to story devs. Golden and Danuser (most of fun hated ones) was fired, other unknown I think too. Will we get some serious business with lore after that? Wheels keep turning, drama unfolding?
Like come on, new devs - new characters - new story.
Dalaran annihilation, Magni come from stoneform, Khadgar MIA, Alleria corruption. All much more darken stories then SL-DF was. And much more beleivable to me.
And more and more - "we hear your feedback, we care". Like a charm. Something changed and that change is good one. If they put less woke stuff ingame - we will eat good.

AFAIK the only thing she wrote for the actual game was the Legion epilogue cutscenes for Horde/Alliance. We know that the Blizzard devs decide what future expansion stories are, not the writers. If she wasn't writing quest text then you have to wonder what she was actually doing. If she only writes books and short stories then Blizzard might have wanted to go back to contracting her whenever they want to put out a new book or short story rather than having her on payroll doing little.

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Just another reminder that corporations and workplaces aren't your family. You're needed and appreciated until you're not.

Depends. George Lucas tried not to lay people off. He stopped making stuff at a loss like 3DCGI Clone Wars and Redtails so he wouldn't have to. Ofcourse, he wound up cashong out and selling the company and the Disney laid lots of people off.

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Perhaps the TWW cinematic was the last straw of Microsoft patience. This is a big budget cinematic that flopped due to a bad script. And the handwriting was clearly Christie Golden, Anduin and Orc talk about their feelings for a long time and without action. Chris Metzen took responsibility for this cinematic so that people don't write hate posts for Christie Golden like they did with Before the Storm.

Blizzard fired her for wasting money on unpopular things

Not sure I believe that Golden would have submitted a manuscript for that TWW cinematic and persuaded Blizzard to spend millions of dollars to produce it and show it as the big anticipated WoW cinematic at the annual Blizzcon.

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you know metzen personally wrote that cinematic himself, right?

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literal conspiracy theory, lol. metzen wrote that cinematic

Blizzard works two expansions ahead. Blizzard would have begun planning TWW during Shadowlands. We also know frim the many cinematics panels at Blizzcon over the years that it takes Blizzard at least 9 months to a year to produce a cinematic. Metzen didn't rejoin Blizzard until late into 2023, by then the cinematic would have enetered production long before he came back let alone the actual expansion. More than likely it was hearing about the Worldsoul Saga that enticed Metzen to come back (that and money and flexing his creatuve muscles again after having had a rest).

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That being said, Blizzard could have planned TWW and then offhandedly asked Metzen for some ideas on the cinematic and he could have spent an hour writing a few pages abd sent them to Blizzard, before he was formally hired back. Seems odd to use this as the announce cinematic, I'd think even Metzen knows you need something exciting to stir up the audience.

[Lolites]

At least Nazgrim lives on as a DK i guess.

as horde and DK im still not sure if i felt worse killing him or raising him into undeath...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I think it is clear how huge the writing direction change was between BTS and Sylvanas. The rewrites probably meant that Golden just did not go hard enough the first time or even the second time for what they were trying to do. I don't know how much I'd blame her given that.

Regardless, I knew Golden before I knew Warcraft from the Ravenloft books and she was better than average for a D&D writer (which isn't saying much, the bar is low). I think her work in Warcraft was mostly good (again the bar is low). Sad that she had to go through a family tragedy and unemployment at the same time but I am sure she has the credentials to bounce back as a writer. I don't really think she had much creative control in WoW anyway; she definitely contributed and had an opinion but I doubt she had the final say for events, just for how characters were depicted in her work. I think WoW is going forward with a new character roster anyway.

Golden should definitely be able to find permanent employment again if she wants. Say what you will about her writing, but she is an experienced author having actually released many books. She has more experience than most writers at video gane companies. Maybe not write for videogames. She could do TV or movies.

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some folks are in for a world of hurt when the game's narrative ends up being tonally the same three expansions from now

Yup. Nothing has changed. The story is still going to be told through paragraphs of quest text that are unegaging to read. You're still going to do quests where you watch little NPCs walk around talking while the camera is zoomed out too far away to read any emotion on the character's faces. You're still going to zone into a dungeon while a disembodied head in a dialogue box talks to you from nowhere flapping their big mouths around. You're still going to get cutscenes where the characters... over... enunciate... ever... line... with... dramaric... pauses, and forgettable Hans Zimmer esque Hollywood movie music playing. It doesn't matter who does the writing, the way the player experiences the story will still suck.

[Dracullus]

Metzen didn't rejoin Blizzard until late into 2023, by then the cinematic would have enetered production long before he came back let alone the actual expansion.

https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com...-from-warcraft

It's from 2022. Metzen returning was sold as news 2 or 3 times since then.

[Enrif]

It would be fun to have some young orc again that will get your adrenaline pumpin in battles or cutscenes.

The only young orcs in the current story that got any kind of development would be Durak and Rehze. All other remaining notable orcs are on the older side now.
If we include the Mag'har though.. Geya'rah has not done... anything i think? Even looking at her wiki page, she didn't actually do anything yet. Perhaps they could put her into the limelight as a "big sis" for Durak and Rehze that is very different to their parents.

[Alanar]

Dwarves are short. They descended from the Earthen, that were essentially Titanforged peons.

They have the same animations and everything. Only their corpse is differnt. Its the animations specifically.

From the back (mostly what you see) they will look like dwarves... with transmog on, its not gonna matter much. I also dont see the differnce with the other dwarves. Unless the headpiece is off. They should really do more with other idle animations or differrnt run animations. Just to slightly alter them.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

If we include the Mag'har though.. Geya'rah has not done... anything i think? Even looking at her wiki page, she didn't actually do anything yet. Perhaps they could put her into the limelight as a "big sis" for Durak and Rehze that is very different to their parents.

Personally i find geya'rah very annoying since her introduction, but maybe it's because of the VA.

As mainly mag'har orc player i will be fine if she will never get any bigger spotlight. ;p

[Cherry123]

Blizzard works two expansions ahead. Blizzard would have begun planning TWW during Shadowlands. We also know frim the many cinematics panels at Blizzcon over the years that it takes Blizzard at least 9 months to a year to produce a cinematic. Metzen didn't rejoin Blizzard until late into 2023, by then the cinematic would have enetered production long before he came back let alone the actual expansion. More than likely it was hearing about the Worldsoul Saga that enticed Metzen to come back (that and money and flexing his creatuve muscles again after having had a rest).

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That being said, Blizzard could have planned TWW and then offhandedly asked Metzen for some ideas on the cinematic and he could have spent an hour writing a few pages abd sent them to Blizzard, before he was formally hired back. Seems odd to use this as the announce cinematic, I'd think even Metzen knows you need something exciting to stir up the audience.

We will have a second CGI cinematic before the expansion release. And this cinematic was most likely supervised by Metzen himself, we will see the difference. But the budget for such a video will be less than the main one.

[Alanar]

I don't get the enthusiasm for Harronir. They have little to no customisation and look as bland as Djaradins...

Ye they feel like the Djaradins of Tww.

I dont care for them either..

[Enrif]

Personally i find geya'rah very annoying since her introduction, but maybe it's because of the VA.

As mainly mag'har orc player i will be fine if she will never get any bigger spotlight. ;p

then, your pickings for young orc that could be build up are very slim.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

then, your pickings for young orc that could be build up are very slim.

I mean not really, the thing with adding intense orcs to the story is that you don't need a crazy long buildup.

You can have again another hellscream come to the story but this time garrosh son or some other orc that will do something heroic while screaming to enemies ears(With a good VA and not Geya'rah that sounds like a old harpy), especially during these times when a lot of things will be alliance hero centric and Anduin being the golden child of everything in wow story.

Maybe Thrall son when they make his unique model and actual VA that sounds like an orc, but i doubt any new development of new horde characters will happen(we will never get another garrosh buildup), especially when even main ones don't get a lot of screentime, council of the horde is basically "sit" idle group.