World of Warcraft’s story supply has been the topic of intense criticism through the years; a few of it’s in unhealthy religion, however quite a lot of it isn’t.
I do not wish to faux that story writing is straightforward; I actually could not do it. The finest I can muster is poorly-penned weblog posts on this tiny nook of the web. Layer stay ops, ongoing recreation improvement on prime, nailing timelines, overlapping disciplines, and the remainder of it — I might argue MMORPG storytelling is one other stage of arduous.
The Horde is more than just a silly video game faction to me, and many others
The Alliance and Horde comprise the two main factions in World of Warcraft. Like many games, factions serve as a bedrock for storytelling. Particularly in a universe that revolves around conflict, the very visible, very different player factions in World of Warcraft took on something of a life of their own.
It felt so seamless and “right” going from Warcraft 3 into World of Warcraft: the events of the original games very neatly and tidily coalesced around eight original nations, four on the Alliance and four on the Horde, representing different races, cultures, mythologies, backstories, and decades of lore building.
Worldbuilding has long been Warcraft’s biggest strength. There are four main games, dozens of books, reference materials, and tens of thousands of hours worth of quest text in World of Warcraft. Of course, it’s difficult to be fully perfect and consistent with all of that material, but few other collaborative multi-modal mega-projects have ever really reached this level this side of Warhammer itself.
For World of Warcraft, Blizzard actively fostered players to become engaged and immersed within their roleplaying experience. This was supposed to be an MMORPG after all. The original game gave each race their own starting zone, complete with lore building, story crafting, and mountains of flavor that simply no longer exist in the modern game. Every time we get a sliver of flavor in the modern retail World of Warcraft, it’s celebrated so heavily — the community is actively telling Blizzard it wants more of this, but Blizzard repeatedly says no with its actions.
Indeed, nowadays, new players get one starting zone experience. You choose your race and faction, then you’re dropped into a single-track storyline that does nothing to emphasize the backstory of your faction or nation. Increasingly, I feel like this is by design.
Blizzard has moved rapidly away from faction or nation-exclusive storytelling in recent years, and I can only presume it’s to do with short-sighted cost-cutting.
Nothing sold the World of Warcraft experience more to me than the game’s unique and divergent factions and races. I feel like leaning more into this would actually boost WoW’s adoption, rather than hurt it. But for whatever reason, Blizzard is speed-running through decades of very bloody conflict to make player factions and nations super-friendly-happy-friends. If this is some kind of misguided attempt to make the game seem more friendly and appealing — it will fail.
World of Warcraft won on the basis of fantasy representation. Where people from all sorts of cultures, backgrounds, and socioeconomic situations could find some form of “safe” fantasy-inspired representation within the game’s world. I liken it to sports fandom a bit, but speaking purely for myself and others who feel similarly — it was more than that.
As someone who grew up in what was recently literally called the “most deprived region” of the United Kingdom in the backyard of Black Sabbath’s home city, I found myself drawn to the Forsaken. A playable zombie? I can’t think of anything more awesome. I found myself drawn to the orcs; beastly-looking, bearded aliens that were particularly unpretty, you know, like me.
The dark, undead faction spawned during the closing chapters of Warcraft 3, out of the ruins of a blighted kingdom. My town, a former industrial-manufacturing center, is quite literally crumbling. The Forsaken climbing out of the blighted sludge and building a nation for themselves was inspiring to me, and their heavy-metal leanings seemed clearly intentional, given that the famous Warcraft Ozzy Osbourne commercials represented the global icon as a Forsaken too.
Today, it feels like Blizzard finds the “less pretty” races to be unmarketable. Indeed, the Forsaken, orcs, and other Horde core races have been almost completely left out of the narrative as a faction, save for a couple of token appearances here and there. And even those appearances smooth off all of the faction’s rough edges, making them feel painfully bland in the process.
The Forsaken allied with the Orcs, Tauren, and Trolls right into a faction of comfort, often known as the Horde. Each of those races have been outcasted and ostracized ultimately. Underdogs. It’s in all probability tremendous lame and immature of me, however my internal baby discovered the Horde story to be genuinely therapeutic. The honorable orcs, noble tauren, crafty trolls, and twisted Forsaken; they solid collectively, regardless of all the percentages, and have become sturdy. The entirety of Midnight’s Season 1 is concerning the Horde Blood Elves, but they don’t seem to be the Blood Elves I keep in mind and have a good time … they’re softly-gently-cozycore elves armed with apologies, begging former enemies for assist — the Blood Elves used to actually eat the god-like Naaru. That was badass. Now their iconic Sunwell font of energy has been became a neutered swimming pool for … some cause, I can solely surmise is in some way ideological in intent.
What little “Horde” nonetheless exists is barely even current within the narrative. And, when they’re, for positive, none of that survivor spirit stays. None of that defiance, tough edges cynically smoothened off, disadvantaged of vigor and energy. There’s no taste, no immersion, and no illustration. I wish to be a darker character. And I’m positive many Alliance gamers wish to really feel like they’ve an actual enemy, too.
It’s all a disgrace both means, and actually makes me really feel much less invested within the recreation general.
Times change, and perhaps I’m lame
The Horde and the Alliance have been through a lot. They’ve fought cosmos-ending threats time and time again. It makes sense that their terrestrial disagreements would seem increasingly petty in the face of galactic-scale threats.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting the Horde and Alliance go back to full-blown open warfare, and that has never been needed to achieve representation for the factions here. The voice of the player is nowhere to be found in the story. The representation is all but gone, and the sense of “RPG” in the “MMORPG” is waning quickly.
Midnight additionally has some nice, small storytelling moments, usually hidden off the overwhelmed path, the place shimmers of that taste I discover myself lacking stay. Astalor in Midnight has been a very superior little bit of old-school, darker Horde edginess, though I would not be shocked if Blizzard has us killing him off sooner or later, like lots of the different cooler Horde characters through the years. And I am unable to reward Blizzard sufficient for what it pulled off at WoW: Midnight’s Race to World First occasion.
It’s in all probability lame to search out myself genuinely emotionally hooked up to a online game faction. But World of Warcraft has all the time felt like greater than a mere “game” to me. I’ve met lifelong mates because of this recreation. I discovered my companion of 13 years collaterally because of writing music about this recreation. I’ve spent 15,000+ hours immersed on the earth, from age 18. It was there for me in the perfect and darkest occasions in my life, emphasis on darkest. So, I would not be shocked if a few of you’re studying this, getting ready a mocking remark, and that is wonderful and possibly deserved. 🥲
I can solely converse to my fact and keenness, and I do know I’m not alone in a few of these sentiments. And I’m positive Alliance gamers have loads of grievances too.
Even if you happen to’re not significantly invested within the recreation’s factions, I believe purely from a chilly, advertising and marketing perspective, normal taste and immersion is a robust instrument video video games must make individuals give it some thought even offline. There are books to learn, speculative story discussions available, Horde and Alliance bumper stickers to be wielded, YouTube lore movies to be watched … with out funding on the earth, “World” of Warcraft loses a ton of its uniqueness and energy.
And I’m on no account suggesting gamers are any much less invested. I’m sure that I’m a minority in my pondering right here. Most individuals in all probability do not even learn the search textual content, and there is nothing incorrect with that. I simply assume Blizzard may work a little bit more durable to keep up the narrative route it desires — it is their recreation in any case — with out glossing over elements of the sport many long-time, most passionate gamers loved WoW for within the first place. I believe the sport can be stronger for it. I believe the sport would even be extra marketable to extra kinds of individuals for it, too. Maybe I’m incorrect.
End of the day, I’m only a bizarre dude with a keyboard. I do not know why Blizzard is doing this. It feels intentional. I’m positive there are good causes and intentions behind it, but it surely feels unhealthy. Maybe that is lame, however WoW used to let me indulge and even have a good time my lameness vicariously by being an outcast online game zombie man.
It simply seems like, after beforehand celebrating outcasts with the Horde, Blizzard itself has now successfully forged out my outcast. I lament that.
I do know it is foolish. But I would like my Horde again.
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