tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58036025069252870612024-03-05T07:23:30.023-08:00The Children of WrathThe Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-8797945643131947202012-05-19T10:00:00.000-07:002012-05-19T02:29:00.254-07:00The Terror of Entitlement<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/525510_425995957420022_100000288648299_1582642_1302692461_n.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/525510_425995957420022_100000288648299_1582642_1302692461_n.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 325px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 551px;" /></a><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">As many of you know, Blizzard launched Diablo III last Tuesday, bringing to an end an almost twelve year wait. As possibly even more of you noticed, Blizzard failed spectacularly, at one point they even crashed World of Warcraft's login server. That's right, Blizzard managed to screw up the Diablo launch so supremely, that it crashed games that launched almost a decade ago. The servers pretty much melted, and the glowing, slightly radioactive remnants congealed in the bottom of the crater, spelling out "Error 37". </span><br />
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As with many major failures on the part of Blizzard and other major game development companies, the consumer backlash was vicious and omnipresent. Blizzard failed to anticipate just how many people would try to play Diablo III, and were caught embarrassingly unprepared, leaving the game unplayable for the majority of launch day. Throughout the day, error 37, the error code that indicated that Blizzard's servers were not up to the task, trended globally on Twitter, even when Diablo III itself did not. That's the equivalent of having more people knowing about error 404 than the internet. </div>
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This was mostly because of the DRM package that Blizzard decided to apply to their series that traditionally had a single player component to it. When Blizzard announced this style of "always-on" DRM, consumers questioned the necessity of it, and also pointed out its flaws, namely that a break in the connection, on either end, would render the game useless until it was repaired. While it would be annoying to not be able to play because the internet went down on the consumer's end, at least the consumer could do something about it. The bigger fear was that Blizzard's end of the system would do down, or that further down the line, Blizzard would turn off the servers, and leave consumers with nothing but eight gigs of useless data. Lo and behold, day one, and the exact scenario that consumers warned against takes place in probably the most visible failed launch since <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVeFkakURXM">Vanguard TV3</a>. </div>
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In response, the consumers responded in more ways than merely Twitter. Blogs lit up, the forums caught fire, reddit upvoted "error 37", and perhaps most damaging, unhappy consumers crushed Diablo III's user score on Metacritic, driving it down to a 4/10 as of Friday night. A lot of the gaming news sites seized upon this, painting the unhappy consumers as "whiney-snot-nosed-brats" in some of the most <a href="http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2012/05/diablo-iii-3510-gamer-entitlement.html">sardonic</a>, <a href="http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/16/diablo-3-you-cant-log-in-and-you-shouldnt-care/">virulent</a>, and <a href="http://www.egmnow.com/8bitenvy/diablo-iii-metacritic-user-score-people-dumb/">condescending</a> editorials I've ever seen.</div>
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<a href="http://noble-press.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MASS_eFFECT_3_DLC_OUTRAGE.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://noble-press.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MASS_eFFECT_3_DLC_OUTRAGE.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 600px;" /></a>This has been a landmark year in terms of consumer anger in the video game industry, and Blizzard hasn't been the only target. The problems that are causing these reactions are endemic throughout the industry. Capcom got busted selling "downloadable content" that was already coded to the disc for Street Fighter vs Tekken. Bioware got busted for the same thing with Mass Effect's "From Ashes" DLC, and also caught flak for launching not one, but two incomplete RPGs in the past six months. EA got busted attaching hidden expiration dates to the "Online Passes" that enabled multiplayer on several of their games, essentially tacking on a hidden subscription to games like Need For Speed. That, along with EA's forcing consumers seeking to download games online to go through their Origin program, which was revealed to be chock full of spyware, got EA rated the <a href="http://consumerist.com/2012/04/congratulations-ea-you-are-the-worst-company-in-america-for-2012.html" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Worst Company in America</a> this year. </div>
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In each of these scenarios, the <a href="http://guyism.com/tech/bioware-finally-gives-in-to-the-legions-of-whiny-entitled-mass-effect-3-dorks.html">gaming</a> <a href="http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/street_fighter_x_tekken/news/street_fighter_x_tekken_has_on-disc_dlc_capcom_responds.html">media</a> <a href="http://games.on.net/article/15626/The_Culture_of_Gamer_Entitlement">rose</a> <a href="http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-11-amy-hennig/">up</a> <a href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339608/features/mass-effect-3s-ending-why-the-backlash-is-idiotic-but-inevitable/">and</a> <a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/mass-effect-3-ending-why-it-vital-future-health-games-bioware-do-not-change-it/">defended</a> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/04/07/pachter-believes-ea-worst-company-award-is-silly-calls-vocal-minority-of-mass-effect-3-fans-upset-with-ending-whiners/">the</a> developers and publishers, castigating those who complained as over entitled whiners who were never satisfied. They fall back upon the same pedantic arguments as if it were religious dogma: Stop whining, It's just a game, there are more important things out there, the developers need to do this, and they need to make a profit. It's as if they have this carved on a damn tablet that they keep over their desk as they write these arguments. </div>
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Either they don't understand what's going on, or they're being apologists. This past year, and the trends that it has brought up stem from unacceptable levels of greed that would not be tolerated in any other industry. It's evolved far from its original roots, and the consumers will not stand for it. Each 0/10 vote for Diablo on Metacritic, or 1/5 review on Amazon, isn't an indictment of the game itself, it's a vote in protest of the policies that surround the game, and the company that produced it. The mighty have begun to become corrupt. I once said that Blizzard lost their right to say "Soon™" when they shoved an unfinished Cataclysm expansion out to release in order to beat the Christmas rush. Since then, they've released two absolutely garbage raiding tiers that had less content<a href="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww98/jsn013006/hqdefault.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww98/jsn013006/hqdefault.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 360px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 480px;" /></a> combined than T6 had on its own, they shoved Diablo III out the door without PvP or AH functionality, the two things that they explained made the draconian DRM package necessary, and upon D3's launch, they completely failed to prepare for the rush. This from the company that once scrapped Starcraft: Ghost entirely because it failed to measure up to their standards. Bioware has become even worse, having fallen from a company that produced Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect, to the company that shoved The Old Republic out literally missing half of the endgame raiding tier, launched Mass Effect 3 with a heavily plagiarized ending that only made sense if you understood the context that it was plagiarized from. Not only that, but they locked portions of the game as it came on disc, until you paid extra for the privilege of unlocking the content you already had on your computer, the same questionable practice that got Capcom's rating with the Better Business Bureau knocked down to below that of Bank of America. In no world should these failures be considered acceptable. </div>
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What I find most interesting is the lines of division that have formed. The gaming media, aside from good ole <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/2012/05/17">Tycho</a>, continue to cling to the infallibility of the game developer in these business models. The people, aside from the consumers, who point out time and again that these policies are bullshit? <a href="http://techland.time.com/2012/05/18/diablo-iii-and-always-online-gaming-bad-for-us-and-here-to-stay/">Time Magazine</a>, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/17/diablo-iii-fans-should-stay-angry-about-always-online-drm/">Forbes</a> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/16/upset-fans-take-diablo-3-down-a-notch-on-metacritic-are-they-entitled-gamers/">Magazine</a>, the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/340353/20120512/mass-effect-3-ending-dlc-ashes.htm">International Business Times</a>, <a href="http://consumerist.com/2012/04/congratulations-ea-you-are-the-worst-company-in-america-for-2012.html">The Consumerist</a>, <a href="http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2012/04/13/better-business-bureau-claims-ea-lied-about-mass-effect-3/">The Better</a> <a href="http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2012/04/13/capcom-also-targeted-by-better-business-bureau/">Business Bureau</a>. I think that's very telling. </div>
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Developers have enjoyed a long detente with the consumers, one that they had admittedly earned through producing excellent products in an emergent field. However, they have not maintained their standards in recent releases, and there seem to be no signs of a spontaneous return to form. As such, it is up to the us, the consumers, to make our displeasure known through the tools at our disposal, until such time as they understand that just because Video Games are a relatively new industry, that does not give them license to financially abuse us. We wouldn't take this from any other industry. Why should we tolerate this sort of disregard here?<span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-2517169511120078312012-04-16T00:01:00.000-07:002012-04-16T02:00:16.859-07:00Heavy Lies the Crown: Observing the Unfortunate Implications of the Warchief and His Expectations<span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>When I made </span></span><a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2012/03/siege-addendum-mistakes-of-futures-past.html" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">my post</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span> lamenting the decision to restore the mantle of Warchief to Thrall, I got some very interesting feedback; feedback which has been echoed across the multiple forums that host the debates that send people to this site.</span></span><br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Thrall is the only orcish leader who wasn't a despot, or one corrupted by power, because the orcs are a race that becomes corrupted easily if given to much of it. Thrall is the only one who can survive that because he thinks outside the normal orcish way of thinking...<br /><br />Also, I vote for him as returning warchief. Vol'jin is NOT AN ORC. Saurfang is TO[sic] OLD TO LEAD. THERE ARE NO OTHER ORCS CAPABLE OF TAKING THE MANTLE.</span></blockquote><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Inevitably, most of the people who think that Thrall should return as Warchief claim that either there are no other suitable candidates, either because of oddball age and race restrictions, or because Thrall's just got that certain je ne sais quoi that lets him succeed where all others are doomed to failure. This is an extremely narrow minded viewpoint, and one that's constricting the narrative, preventing it from exploring it's potential. I've already talked about what this kind of mindset says about Thrall, but let's flip it around: let's take a look at what this viewpoint says about the Horde. </span></span><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>Whenever you're constructing a story, and you've got two major elements of your narrative interacting, you've got to look at the relationship from both sides to ensure that in your attempt to elevate one element in the interaction, the other element isn't denigrated in ways that you didn't intend. These problematic inferences occur on two levels, in universe, and out of universe. </span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>In universe, these situations are destructive to future narratives, unless monitored and properly accounted for. A good example in WoW is Varian Wrynn's slavery at the hands of the Horde. What was intended to give proper motivation to Wrynn's hatred of the Horde also had the side effect of completely undermining the idea of the Horde as an entity that respects individual rights, and more directly made Thrall look like a tool whenever he raged about his own past enslavement.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>Out of universe, it's not as dangerous to the story, but it's potentially hazardous to the author. These occur when the creator draws too heavily on stereotypes in their </span>characterization<span>, and then place those stereotypical characters in situations that run a little too close to comfort to modern hot button issues. Blizzard's one "pound of flesh" comment from their race of former slaves with huge noses and an insatiable avarice away from a visit from the Anti-Defamation League.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>While this scenario has the potential for both, let's look closely at the in universe implications, because if they offend someone in real life, then it's a completely different problem, and one that I may or may not cover in a </span>separate<span> post at the time that it becomes and issue.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Let's look first at the comments that only Thrall can lead the Horde, and any other candidate would succumb to their baser impulses and threaten both the Horde and their neighbors with ruination, as Garrosh's regime has done. What does that say about the Horde, and orcs in particular, when the only orc that can lead the orcs successfully is the only orc that was raised by Humans? Are the orcs so inept at basic social conduct that even Adelas Blackmoore, generally considered one of the worst human beings to set foot on Azeroth, is a superior parent to every orc in existence? If Durotar and Draka had had their shot, would Go'el be just another bloodthirsty orc who wars with everything that comes within reach of his axe? </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70aXcYi_JkNHswqkyh1oLxEXUM4lFra1FuinRxvUwa2EmGk7ri7cUF78vpVo6r194h_4ja9B5ZHHbJStAfGYRi4WfOA6NlMqPl6ATBZ1gUcFcz7JBRcWtBgxERL_uMRV0vpg7X0nyBbAU/s1600/Warcraft1-black-hand-leader.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70aXcYi_JkNHswqkyh1oLxEXUM4lFra1FuinRxvUwa2EmGk7ri7cUF78vpVo6r194h_4ja9B5ZHHbJStAfGYRi4WfOA6NlMqPl6ATBZ1gUcFcz7JBRcWtBgxERL_uMRV0vpg7X0nyBbAU/s320/Warcraft1-black-hand-leader.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731918889752477138" /></a><span>So far, there have been eight orcs that have claimed the title of Warchief to one degree of legitimacy or another, not counting the ancient warchiefs that predate the Draenei Genocide. Blackhand the Destroyer, Orgrim Doomhammer, Ner'zhul, Thrall, Garrosh, Kargath Bladefist, Rend Blackhand, and Mor'ghor. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Blackhand">Blackhand the Destroyer</a> was the first Warchief of the Horde in the Warcraft era. He ruled the Horde from just before the opening of the Dark Portal, until his assassination at the hands of his subordinate, Orgrim Doomhammer. Some of the highlights of his command: The consumption of Mannoroth's blood, the use of fel magics to steal the youth from orcish children in order to grant the Horde more soldiers, the invasion of Azeroth, and the Corruption of Draenor. He consumed the blood of Mannoroth, and was, in general, not a great person. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZP0uU9Pseyx45bORhpFKb7L_87QbmL00vP8u2Rc95bwKrFGk0z4RsxdDYioFVGLTprQLOJ3d1OtHX9joFUw8EsC96RlbPH5K9k2ysA2zyaVeGXuKK7CR-08n-FevzCWgTVQ124DT3z1y7/s1600/Doomhammer.jpg"><span><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 218px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZP0uU9Pseyx45bORhpFKb7L_87QbmL00vP8u2Rc95bwKrFGk0z4RsxdDYioFVGLTprQLOJ3d1OtHX9joFUw8EsC96RlbPH5K9k2ysA2zyaVeGXuKK7CR-08n-FevzCWgTVQ124DT3z1y7/s320/Doomhammer.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731918995086570370" /></span></a><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Orgrim_Doomhammer">Orgrim Doomhammer</a> succeeded Blackhand, via assassination. He ruled the Horde from the Siege of Stormwind until the Battle of Blackrock Mountain at the end of the Second War, where he was defeated and captured by Turalyon. Some of the key points of his reign: Torture and murder in the sacking of Stormwind, the use of necromancy to create Orcish Death Knights such as Teron Gorefiend, the use of fel magic to corrupt the runestones of Quel'Thelas to warp his Ogres into Ogre-Magi, the Burning of the forests of Quel'Thelas, and depending on which source you consider cannon, the cowardly ambush of Anduin Lothar under the auspices of parley. It was under Orgrim's command that the Horde became so corrupt and decadent that Eittrig fled in shame. Orgrim did not partake in Mannoroth's Blood, so his decisions fall upon his own head. Thus far, Orcish Warchiefs are 0-2.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>After the capture of Doomhammer, a large contingent of the Horde fled back to Draenor, where <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Ner%27zhul">Ner'zhul</a> assumed the mantle of Warchief. Leaving the atrocities the Horde committed under his command prior to the official formation of the Horde, and the atrocities he committed as the Lich King after his capture by Kil'jaeden, Ner'zhul's reign was not a peaceful one. Ner'zhul promptly turned to a visitor to Draenor for an alliance, Deathwing, the Mad Aspect of Earth. Under Ner'zhul's command, the Horde raided Azeroth once more. They destroyed Alliance outposts in Alterac, stole the Book of Medivh from the Stormwind Library. They </span><span>raided Dalaran and murdered Sathera, a close friend of Archmage Antonidas, taking the Eye of Dalaran in an eerie forshadowing of the attack on Dalaran that Ner'zhul would command in his future capacity as the Lich King, which would take Antonidas' life. These items, along with the Jeweled Scepter of Sargeras, granted Ner'zhul great power. When the Alliance Expeditionary Force laid siege to <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj815iJM9GMf8u7KmOvyQy9Y9c8JW9DnSZJ5bd7TLJB-mcXFNbmJwV9QGpw6OBgNXQLSoRM53PPFi8rhJzi5NhLTwFgRsZN3u0hMqCqJGcEinNws1v5D6JExx4NxEoqhT8VVO9hQYdFNSnJ/s1600/NerzhulWoW.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj815iJM9GMf8u7KmOvyQy9Y9c8JW9DnSZJ5bd7TLJB-mcXFNbmJwV9QGpw6OBgNXQLSoRM53PPFi8rhJzi5NhLTwFgRsZN3u0hMqCqJGcEinNws1v5D6JExx4NxEoqhT8VVO9hQYdFNSnJ/s320/NerzhulWoW.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731919866525627026" /></a>Ner'zhul's bastion of power in Shadowmoon Valley, Ner'zhul panicked, and attempted to flee the world to escape his fate. The magnitude of power he unleashed tore Draenor apart, and cast him into the Twisting Nether, where he came into the cruel embrace of Kil'jaeden. Ner'zhul never drank Mannoroth's Blood, and puts orcish warchiefs at a dismal 0-3. </span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>Following the shattering of Draenor, the Horde bifurcated into two entities, with two Warchiefs. On Draenor, Magtheridon rallied the remaining orcish clans to his banner, empowering </span><a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Kargath_Bladefist">Kargath Bladefist</a><span> as the Warchief of the Horde of Draenor, commonly known as the </span><a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Fel_Horde">Fel Horde</a><span>. Kargath was an easily manipulated orc, far closer to Blackhand the Destroyer, than either of the two more independent rulers who directly preceded him. Kargath served Magtheridon, and warred constantly with the Sons of Lothar, who held the line at Honor Hold, in the very shadow of Hellfire Citadel. When the Illidari enslaved Magtheridon, Kargath's loyalties turned to the new ruler of Outlands, Illidan Stormrage. Kargath led the<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOM5PEwmM-Hi0I1X2Q0hCGLj1Vy_sxmFj_gsXmXlIUL7GGZc-vhnRZPIhyphenhyphenZMCClyZfhy-4IGZ6vkEkBJGEY0nS9r5xqWEvlekyjvl7ELncbe6A_2lPBZ9B-uc9NkCBe1K3-4gJVpSWzQ82/s1600/Kargath_Bladefist.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOM5PEwmM-Hi0I1X2Q0hCGLj1Vy_sxmFj_gsXmXlIUL7GGZc-vhnRZPIhyphenhyphenZMCClyZfhy-4IGZ6vkEkBJGEY0nS9r5xqWEvlekyjvl7ELncbe6A_2lPBZ9B-uc9NkCBe1K3-4gJVpSWzQ82/s320/Kargath_Bladefist.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731920090166944226" /></a> Fel Horde until the rebellion of the Ashtongue Deathsworn led to the downfall of Illidan, and without Illidari support, and with the forces of Honor Hold bolstered by reinforcements from the reopened Dark Portal, Kargath was eventually hunted down and slain within the Shattered Halls of Hellfire Citadel. Not only did Kargath drink Mannoroth's blood, but he also drank Magtheridon's blood, to the point where he turned red. Corruption ran deeper within Kargath than any other Warchief in the bloody history of the orcs. 0-4.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Meanwhile, back on Azeroth, the overwhelming majority of the orcs languished in internment camps. One Orc had a dream. A dream to reunite the disparate souls trapped under the lock and key of the Alliance. So he raided the internment camps, freeing those orcs that he could, and reached out to a downtrodden tribe of trolls to aid him in rebuilding a Horde where orcs could live free of the humans who defeated them so long ago. That orc's name was... <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Rend_Blackhand">Rend</a>. Personally, I find Rend Blackhand to be one of the most damning, and compelling indictments of the orcs. Rend IS Thrall. A young orc was the son of a prominent clan leader who was assassinated by a fellow orc. His youth was stolen from him. Upon seeing and escaping the ruin of his race through sheer luck, he took it upon himself to free his brethren and to fight to create a place for the orcs in a world that was not their own. Personally, I'm very disappointed that Blizzard didn't take the time to explore the relation between Thrall and Rend. Rend escaped the final battle at Blackrock Mountain because his clan, the Black Tooth Grin, was tasked with reigning in Gul'dan's renegade Stormreaver Clan. After the Horde was routed, Rend and his brother, Maim, served as the rear guard for the Horde's flight back to Draenor. At the foot of the Dark Portal, the brothers fought against Turalyon himself, barely escaping with their lives as they fled into the wilderness. Thereafter, Rend declared himself Warchief of the <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Dark_Horde">True Horde</a>, and freed the warriors of the Blackrock Clan and Dragonmaw Clan from the internment camps, leading them to an ancient city carved into Blackrock Spire. There, they became caught up the internal struggles of the denizens of Blackrock Mountain. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46vtD2c-lPbB9vMl2uJ4m20uOCWkHh78hyeqlhEn5e9oesMfLKjLygPn3MOilhlkj4KNYCqdWAO-AQEEmDdxbB3Q8cma3R-593xTlaqzLH45ADowl3IF-dQ-auafNmO6HwM6KzSZwuhjK/s1600/For_the_Horde.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46vtD2c-lPbB9vMl2uJ4m20uOCWkHh78hyeqlhEn5e9oesMfLKjLygPn3MOilhlkj4KNYCqdWAO-AQEEmDdxbB3Q8cma3R-593xTlaqzLH45ADowl3IF-dQ-auafNmO6HwM6KzSZwuhjK/s320/For_the_Horde.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731920265800837570" /></a>The depths of the mountain was ruled by the Elemental Lord of Fire, Ragnaros, who dominated the Dark Iron Dwarves who inhabited the Shadowforge City, and sent them to purge the new alien presence within the mountain. These attacks quickly began to overwhelm the nacent Horde, and took the life of Maim. Rend's Horde was only saved from annihalation by a timely alliance with the rulers of the peak of Blackrock Mountain, Nefarian and the Black Dragonflight. Ironically, Nefarian's backing gave Rend a strong enough position that he could turn away envoys from Ner'zhul's Horde seeking the aid of the Dragonmaw who served Rend. This forced Ner'zhul to obtain his airpower from another source, an alliance with Nefarian's father, Deathwing. Rend conducted several incursions into Alliance territory, most notably in Redridge. Rend's reign finally came to an end at the hands of adventurers who slew Rend during their assault on the way to Nefarian's lair in the peak of Blackrock Mountain. He drank the blood of Mannoroth, much like the other mediocre warchiefs, and leaves the orcish warchiefs at 0-5.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Both Rend's Horde and Kargath's Horde had one common element, both included portions of the Dragonmaw Clan, which was split upon the collapse of the Dark Portal. One portion escaped to Draenor under the auspice of the Clan's chieftain, Zuluhed the Whacked. The remainder of the clan was trapped on Azeroth, and were led by Nekros Skullcrusher, Alextrasza's jailor. Zuluhed's portion of the clan pledged alliegence to the Fel Horde of Draenor, and Nekros' portion pledged themselves to Rend's Dark Horde. Both leaders were killed shortly before their Warchief's own deaths, and the Dragonmaw clan found itself split, isolated and alone. Zuluhed's second in command, <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Overlord_Mor%27ghor">Overlord Mor'Ghor</a>, took advantage of the reopened portal, and traveled to Azeroth, where he seized control of the Azerothean Dragonmaw, and named himself Warchief of the Dragonmaw, and presumably the successor to Rend's Horde. Mor'ghor was by far the most impotent warchief that any orc ever had. When confronted by Garrosh Hellscream, he found himself deposed in a bloody manner in very short order. He drank the blood of both Mannoroth and Magtheridon. 0-6. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>We can safely assume that Garrosh will do something even more atrocious than usual that will condemn him to be the 7th failed orcish warchief, nearly half of those failed leaders having been free of any corruption on the part of the blood of either Mannoroth or Magtheridon. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>This leaves us with Thrall, the only somewhat functional leader the orcs have ever had. Like Garrosh, Orgrim, and Ner'zhul, he never partook in the blood of a Pit Lord. Like Garrosh, he was spared the horrors of the First and Second Wars. Like all the Warchiefs, he never suffered within the internment camps. Like Ner'zhul, Thrall is a powerful shaman. The only thing that separates Thrall from the multitude of failed despots that his race has produced is his upbringing among humans. What does that say about orcs? Is that really the message that Blizzard wants to send? The only time that the orcs weren't a terrible menace to everything around them is when they were kept human supervision, and barring that, the only time that they were ever within spitting distance of civility was when they were being reigned in by the most human orc in history. Great message to put out there, Blizz.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Putting Thrall back on the Throne just reinforces this ugly truth. The moment he takes a breath from the laborious job of holding back the orcish bloodlust, everything falls apart. So he must return to the throne, and resume his role as the warden who holds back the base nature that damns the orcish people. Garrosh might have asked Sylvanas what difference there was between her and the Lich King, but this plot begs the question: what difference is there between the orcs and the Scourge? The same mocking answer applies: isn't it obvious, they serve the Horde.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>However, truth in fiction is malleable. The future is unwritten, and with skillful craftsmanship, anything is possible. If Blizzard wants to raise the orcs above their current depiction of the base savage, then all they need to do is find a way to write it in that fits with the narrative. Give the orcs a leader. Not someone like Thrall, who's a few broken tusks and a skin dye job away from being human, but a leader of the orcs, from the orcs, and for the orcs. Give them a leader who can coexist with their neighbors better than Thrall could, which honestly, looking at the constant skirmishing in Ashenvale dating back to prior to Thrall's formation of the Horde, shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. It could be an older orc, to show that an orc can rise above their past. It could be a younger orc, one born in the aftermath of the Second War. An orc born just after the Battle of Blackrock Mountain would be in their mid twenties now, a young charismatic leader, perfect for deposing a despot like Garrosh. Che Guevara was 28 during the Cuban Revolution. Mustafa Ataturk was in his thirties during the Turkish War of independence. Give the Horde an icon like that, someone with that kind of charisma and magnetism, without all the baggage that Thrall has unfortunately accumulated. A young revolutionary who challenges the orcish mindset that has existed for decades, and wins. That's the leader that the orcs need. That's the leader that this story deserves. And no, that doesn't mean Med'an. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Blizzard spent two expansions building up Garrosh to take the mantle of Warchief. The overall leader of the Horde should be a well developed character. Someone that's been seen before. As many people have mentioned, there really isn't an orc that's had the degree of exposure that Garrosh got during BC and Wrath outside of Thrall and Saurfang. Thrall is a terrible choice, which leaves Saurfang, whom many write off as too old, and I tend to agree with them on that point. I do think that they could make a salvageable go at things with Saurfang in charge, I really like the idea of infusing some young blood into the orcs. With both the available candidates being sub-optimal, a question presents itself. Why does the Warchief have to be an orc?</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Several reasons have been presented in arguments. The Warchief must be an orc because the warchief has always been an orc. Fat lot of good that's gotten the Horde thus far, eight Orcish leaders have managed to get the orcish population decimated, corrupted, and took them from holding nearly an entire world, to holding some deserts and blighted lands on an alien world. Some traditions aren't worth clutching to.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>The Warchief must be an orc because the orcs are the core of the Horde. This one has a degree of merit. As long as the orcs are the majority in the Horde, both in terms of population and military power, then the other races are second class citizens, and their voice is of minimal importance. But as I said earlier, the future is unwritten and the status quo is not god. Just because the orcs are the core of the Horde now, does not mean they have to stay that way. There's going to be open war in Orgrimmar. Garrosh is going to die. The Warchief is going to die. Do you think the core constituency of the orcs will just roll over and let it happen? Do you think he won't have supporters who will fight with him, who will die with him? No. Like any civil war, casualties on both sides will bleed the whole. I expect the Kor'kron, the Warchief's elite bodyguards, to die to a man to protect their Warchief, to protect their honor. Think about that for a minute. The finest warriors the orcs have to offer, making their final stand. How many of the rebels will they kill before they fall? We're going to watch the core of orcish military strength eat itself alive. Once that's happened, can the orcs still make the claim that they're the heart of the Horde? If the tables have turned on the orcs, and they're but a shadow of their former selves within the Horde, then what's preventing the Trolls, Tauren, or even the Forsaken for making a push for the Throne?</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span>It was the plan all along for Thrall to c</span><span>ome back. This is probably the dumbest defense out there. Plans can change. Bad plans should change.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Ultimately, I've become more and more convinced that not only should Thrall neither return as the Warchief, but that the orcish leader who replaces Garrosh should not also succeed him as Warchief. Sylvanas, Vol'jin, and Baine are all more established than any of the current crop of orcs, and any of them could produce more compelling stories than we would get with Thrall back at the helm. However, it would be difficult to justify a cease fire between the factions with Sylvanas running the show, which really only leaves Vol'jin and Baine as viable candidates. Vol'jin is a pretty stable character, his leadership credentials are well established, and he's already established a degree of cooperation with the Alliance. While it would be more difficult to create internal storylines with Vol'jin in charge, it would do wonders to stabilize the situation and allow Blizzard to put the focus back on external threats. Baine is a much less proven leader, and as such, it opens up a lot of potential openings in terms of internal Horde storylines with regards to his struggle to find his leadership identity, and weather he can be firm enough to reign in the disparate factions that make up the Horde. He's also the easiest to shore up the relationship with the Alliance, as he already has a friendship with Anduin and Jaina, which might help take the edge off Jaina's purported bloodlust, and Anduin is the easiest route to soften Varian. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgRr7HDIaEUjdkiP6Tye08y0B7oAHvJOJkmkgAOtoNwsCdGJEGOjy_3LuVO5leGu-SBwNMA4cvVqlg1OwqEm444rDLhbg4VwhO4TuWNcOSV0HZGXgl_O_Wwt8sHSI3gln85IvoVyTKFL7/s1600/200px-Magatha_Comic.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgRr7HDIaEUjdkiP6Tye08y0B7oAHvJOJkmkgAOtoNwsCdGJEGOjy_3LuVO5leGu-SBwNMA4cvVqlg1OwqEm444rDLhbg4VwhO4TuWNcOSV0HZGXgl_O_Wwt8sHSI3gln85IvoVyTKFL7/s400/200px-Magatha_Comic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731920450576427154" /></a>For the crazy, out of nowhere, no chance in hell candidate... Magatha Grimtotem. The Grimtotems had already allied with the Alliance in Stonetalon, and she has all the reason in the world to want Garrosh to go down. If she were to take advantage of a poor turn in the war to return to Thunder Bluff and finish her coup, she could then withdraw Tauren forces from the conflict, holding them in reserve as the orcs and trolls take the brunt of the punishment from the Alliance forces. Once the Battle of Orgrimmar concludes, Magatha seizes the throne and uses the Grimtotems recent assistance to the Alliance to leverage Varian to withdraw his forces and treat with her diplomatically rather than risk an occupation of a hostile populace. This can create far more internal storylines than any other option. Vol'jin will likely distrust Magatha, the new orcish leader might fall on either side, Sylvanas' approval will depend on entirely how much Magatha tries to leverage control over the Forsaken, and odds are Lor'themar will fall in line behind Sylvanas. On the Alliance side of things, Varian might trust Magatha, but Jaina and Anduin, who befriended Baine, will likely be </span>suspicious<span> of her. I think Magatha would build quite a compelling story upon Baine's corpse. But as I said, there's no chance in hell that Blizzard would pull the trigger on that. </span></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span>As for the orcish leader, there are a number of character who have had about as much development as Garrosh got in BC. I've got a couple that I think might have potential. Warlord Zaela is one of the best candidates. She's a young orc with limited ties to the Horde. She's essentially an unknown quantity to the majority of the Horde. She developed nicely in Twilight Highlands, but unfortunately, she hasn't been seen in the MoP beta yet. A more likely candidate would be Nazgrim, who went from a lowly sergeant in Grizzly Hills, to a </span>Legionnaire<span> in Vas'jir, to a full fledged general in Mists of Pandaria. He seems level headed, and his combat experience would make a strong case for an Ataturk or Von Stauffenberg style revolutionary. A military leader who sees the route that an increasingly erratic leader is dragging the country in, and he takes it upon himself to try and overthrown the tyrant. Ultimately, I think that Zaela is the best choice to take over the orcs, but I think that given Nazgrim's implementation into Mists already, he'd be the easiest choice to implement that wouldn't be terrible.</span></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span>Forcing the orcs to step back from their primacy is the best way to allow the orcs to evolve as characters, and it's also the best way to advance the Horde's narrative. Stories need to move forward, and the return of Thrall to the Horde would force stagnation onto the World of Warcraft's story.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-27114656607298772382012-04-14T05:51:00.003-07:002012-04-14T05:51:00.047-07:00They Cut the Legs Out From Under Him! Errr... Wings... Tentacles... Whatever<a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/12/580madness.jpg"><img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 580px; height: 322px;" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/12/580madness.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><i>I started this post about a month ago, but some other issues cropped up, and I've just now gotten around to finishing it, my apologies if some of it's out of date. Also, looking back over it, there's spoilers for a lot of things beyond WoW here. Be warned.</i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><br /></div><span><span><span>A big complaint about Cataclysm was that Deathwing wasn't a very compelling villain, especially in comparison to the titular Lich King of the previous expansion. There's a lot of reasons for this, but I think the most prominent is one that WoW shared with another major video game storytelling failure, Mass Effect 3. Both Blizzard and Bioware made the mistake of undercutting their primary antagonist. </span></span><br /><br /><span><span>The undercutting of a villain occurs for several reasons. Sometimes it occurs because the writer wants to foreshadow a future plot arc, and takes it too far. Other times the writer tries to add additional complexity to the plot, and fumbles it. </span></span></span><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>WoW runs multiple antagonist storylines, and as such, it gets a little difficult to track which one is active at any given time. You've got the Burning Legion under Kil'Jaeden, Sargeras and his portion of the Burning Legion, which might be at odds with Kil'Jaeden's crew, the Old Gods trying to corrupt everything, the Titans playing a game so large and vast that the entire world might get crushed with all the concern that an wrecking crew has for the roaches in a condemned building, The Scourge, many of whom are now independent, the war between the factions, The Black Dragonflight and their insane patriarch, the Troll Empires, and many more lesser foes that I'm leaving out. Each of these groups vie for the right to be the current target of the player's ire. Mass Effect on the other hand, really only has one enemy, the Reapers. Sure, there are batarian slavers, krogan warmongers, and douchebag turians to deal with, but hey, when the Reapers liquidate the human race, they all seem like small potatoes.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Both the Old Gods of WoW and the Reapers of Mass Effect share the same common root for their origins. Both of them are HP Lovecraft ripoffs. Blizzard's incarnations are blatantly and unashamedly so, while Bioware tries to mitigate it by stealing heavily from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armageddon_Inheritance"><i>The Armageddon Inheritance</i></a>, very heavily. </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>HP Lovecraft is a popular starting point for a lot of fiction, not because of his writing style, which was so chock full of gilded passages that Hemmingway would have cried if he read it. What makes his work compelling is that he took the dark, dismal world of victorian era authors like Poe and Melville and cranked it to the extreme. He created a world of monstrosities that aren't evil, they're simply so far beyond humanity that our entire race might be wiped out by Azathoth's burp. It's not a mater of black and white morality stories, it's mauve and cyan morality, and the decisions to be made will drive men mad. </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>What makes this fertile fields for the more action oriented stories that you find in WoW, Mass Effect, or works like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atrocity_Archives"><i>The Atrocity Archive</i></a>, is because it makes creating a hero extremely simple. He just has to not go insane. By simply being able to stand against the monstrosities out there, he's already a better man than most heroes. </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span>A work that draws upon Lovecraftian principles tends to have several key elements that get drawn together. The disbelief of the larger populace, if they confront this threat, they have to </span>acknowledge<span> its existence, and their pitiful <a href="http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/046/2/0/Ah_yes__Reapers_by_soccerdemon.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/046/2/0/Ah_yes__Reapers_by_soccerdemon.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>minds lack the fortitude to do so. This plays out in both WoW and Mass Effect. The Dragonflights refused to acknowledge the threats posed by C'thun's forces in Silithus until the Qiraj almost kicked down the doors to Norzdormu's house, leaving it to Fandral Staghelm to hold the line as best as he could with his followers. The citadel council repeatedly ignores all evidence of the Reapers, up to and including a Reaper attacking the Citadel, leaving it to Commander Shepard to hold the line as best as he could with his followers. </span></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span>Another key aspect is the Elder Things themselves, a creature vast an incomprehensible, that's liable to drive you insane if it doesn't kill you outright. The Old Gods and Reapers fill this role in their respective universes. Tentacles are often used to represent the alien nature of the Elder Things, a common feature of every Old God and Reaper seen. </span></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span>Another common element is the Deep One hybrid from </span><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth">The Shadow Over Insmouth</a></i><span> that was created to serve Dagon. Wow is rife with Faceless Ones, Elemental Acendents, and the Quiraj and Nerubians, all of whom were once other races, but were twisted to serve the needs of the Old Gods. Mass Effect also jumps in with both feet here, with the implications of the </span>possibility<span> that many of the races that the Reapers wiped out were twisted, the Protheans being turned into the Collectors was made explicit, and it's likely that the Keepers in the Citadel were another one of the races the Reapers wiped out. In a plot line that I thought was masterful, but was ultimately discarded in order to keep the story aligned to that of <i>The Armageddon Inheritance</i>, was the implication at the end of Mass Effect 2 that the Reapers themselves were hybrids. Techno-organic hybrids that required compatible sentient races to reproduce themselves. The notion that your whole race amounts to sperm for this alien behemoth, and wiping out your civilization was just <i>foreplay</i> for them drives home the notion of just how small you are compared to them. I thought that that was an incredible idea, and it was one that explained the whole notion of the cycle, one of the biggest questions in the Mass Effect universe.</span></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Now that I've shown you where these two stories were coming from, let's examine what went wrong.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>In Mass Effect 3, things are going swimmingly until the very end. It was quite possibly the most disappointing ending to a game I've ever seen. After you raise an army to come back to Earth and build a superweapon called the crucible that gives you a chance to take out the Reapers, pretty much everyone gives up everything in order to give Shepard the chance to take out the reapers. He activates the Crucible, and this is where things go wrong. Shepard is confronted by an AI represented by a five year old kid who explains that he controls the Reapers, and if you can convince him to back off, he'll take his pet techno-eldritch abominations and go home. This happened in Mass Effect, because it happened in <i>The Armageddon Inheritance</i>. That story ends with the ancient army that wipes out all sentient life every 50,000 years as being directed by an AI, which explains a lot of the issues set up in earlier segments, such as the Achuultani's inconsistent technology levels with regards to Gravitonics. It sets the stage for the reveal that the human's Superweapon, was in fact an AI that through 50,000 years of maintenance free existence it had transcended its core programming and decided to fight for humanity. Mass Effect had no such reveal planned, and had no prior set up to justify it. It just suddenly went from the Reapers are the ultimate threat in the universe, to the Reapers are the toys of a petulant child. It completely undercut their credibility, and cheapened everything the player had accomplished in three games. If they had simply carried on with the amazing story they had assembled up until that point, it would have been a slam dunk, but slavish adherence to source material without understanding the underlying mechanics creates problems.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Cataclysm, on the other hand, set up the Old Gods all through Cataclysm. The Old Gods were explicit throughout the the raiding tiers. They were behind Cho'gall, and two of the major end of raid bosses were Elemental Lords, Ragnaros and Al'Akir, who were explicitly powerful servants of the Old Gods. There were giant gaping maws in Twilight Highlands, the capstone zone for the expansion, and there were two Faceless Ones as bosses in the final raid of the tier. They made it explicitly clear that Deathwing was serving the Old Gods. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>However, Cataclysm was supposed to be Deathwing's expansion. Instead, they sold out the entire expansion trying to set up future story arcs. Southshore, which was originally going to be destroyed by Deathwing's Cataclysm, was instead wiped out by the Horde, as part of the poorly thought out campaign to ramp up faction tensions in MoP. Go through the zones released for Cataclysm, and it's the same thing through and through. Vas'jir is all about the Old Gods and the Naga. Hyjal has a token visit from Deathwing, who is promptly never mentioned again, and then it's all Ragnaros all the time. Uldum has the Black Dragonflight's influence at times, but it gets drowned in Nazi comic relief quests. In the Twilight Highlands, aside from a few side quests, it's mostly about the Horde's invasion, and Cho'gall and his cult serving the Old Gods. Deepholme is the only zone that's focused on the events that the expansion is built around, and even that's only tangential. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>In raid content it's even more palpable. Tot4W is about Al'Akir. Bastion of Twilight is about Cho'gall, while Sinestra might be the final boss, and one of the best of the few sections of the expansion actually dedicated to Deathwing, the overwhelming majority of raiders downed Cho'gall, and never even saw Sinestra. BWD was a magnificent raid, but didn't have the slightest connection to the outside world. Firelands didn't have a single mention of Deathwing, and even in Dragon Soul, Deathwing's apex raid, there's two bosses devoted to the reminding the players that the Old Gods are really in charge. That's like having two Burning Legion bosses in ICC. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Contrast that to Wrath of the Lich King, where the Lich King and his Scourge was a palpable pressence in every zone. Even in the lighthearted Sholozar Basin, they made sure the Scourge showed up in a manner designed to create the most emotional impact possible. The Lich King was a palpable presence in every raid tier. Naxxramas was his advance guard, ToC was the preparations for the assault, and ICC was his fortress. Even in Ulduar, the final encounter provided keen insights into the story of the expansion. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>That's not to say that you can't foreshadow future plans, that was something else that they did well in Wrath. The Nexus War introduced the Aspects into the game a full expansion before their time in the spotlight, and the fights with Sartharion, Malygos, and Halion showed the plots brewing for Deathwing well in advance of Cataclysm. Hell, the Yogg-Saron encounter didn't just give us great insight into the path of the Lich King, it also showed us glimpses of Deathwing's decent into madness for Cataclysm, and the roots of the conflict between Orcs and Humans in Mists of Pandaria. But the story of the Lich King was always front and center. There was never any doubt or ambiguity about that. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The fundamental problem with Deathwing's Cataclysm is that Blizzard spent so much time foreshadowing their future stories, they forgot to actually tell Deathwing's story. They should have definitively linked Deathing to Nefarian's return. They should have explored Deathwing's origins, his actions, and his relations with his "siblings" much closer than they did. When your story is nothing but foreshadowing for the next story, then it's not a story, it's a prologue, and no one gives a damn about the villain in the prologue. </span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-20215414436275860502012-04-13T11:45:00.005-07:002012-04-13T14:00:50.636-07:00Ji Firepaw: Use the Right Tool For the Job, In This Case, Two Razors<a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/jifirepaw-1334249764.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 163px;" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/jifirepaw-1334249764.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Once again, there's a bit of a kerfluffle on the internet regarding WoW. As usual, people are </span>attaching<span style="font-size: 100%;"> a lot of excessive </span>connotations<span style="font-size: 100%;"> to something that's not a social issue, but a storytelling issue. There's been a huge outcry over the Horde's panda escort character, Ji Firepaw, who was given a lecherous personality, in order to attempt to draw comparisons to other "mentor" stereotypes from anime/manga culture, which seems to be where Blizz is drawing a lot of their ideas from. Happosai from Ranma 1/2, Master Roshi from Dragon Ball, and Jiraiya from Naruto are all the sort of creeper mentors that are used as a stereotype now days. Blizzard tried to replicate this with Ji, giving him flirtatious and borderline obsessive lines to greet the players who come to him. He greeted female characters with:<i>"Wow you are some kind of gorgeous aren't you? I can tell we are going to be good friends!" </i>Male characters are greeted with: <i>"You've got a strong look to you! I bet you're all the rage with the ladies!"</i>. The character was clearly designed to have sex on the mind, at all times. That whole vibe is reinforced with other lines in some of the other quests. </span></span><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">The blogosphere, Tweetosphere, and beta forums have exploded with all sorts of drama. People accusing Blizzard of misogyny and people accusing the people making the accusations of being kill joys have begun drawing lines. It's drawn some pretty hilarious reactions, my personal favorite being the two <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/why-is-blizzard-still-ok-with-gender-inequality-in-world-of-warc/">WoW</a> <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/12/ji-firepaws-beta-dialog-gets-a-rewrite/">Insider</a> colums that saw the first getting its comments locked, and when the second topic came up, a few commenters were speculating as to how long it would take for this topic to be locked. Adam Holisky, the editor in chief of WoW insider showed up, explaining that the previous lock was do to technical problems with the new commenting system, certainly not due to the site's taking the easy route out of moderating the discussion. Ten minutes later, and exasperated Holisky locked the topic. That's why you can't have nice things, kids.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Anyhow, eventually, Blizzard opted to change the female dialogue, without changing any of the other dialogue. Which makes the character seem a little lopsided. Suddenly, people started raging about Blizzard caving to pressure, which they did, and claiming that the dialogue was crucial to the character, which it wasn't. </span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">So let me make this clear. You're both wrong. Blizzard wasn't being misogynistic when they created the character. However, the lines needed to change, honestly, more dialogue needs to be changed.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">First let me explain why the dialogue wasn't written with misogynistic intent. We do not live in a perfect world. No one's perfect. You can't create a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41239">perfect character</a> and put them in an imperfect world, people won't identify with them. It's the literary </span>equivalent<span style="font-size: 100%;"> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uncanny_Valley">uncanny valley</a>. Characters need to be fleshed out. They need legitimate flaws. Making a character who's lecherous, or even outright misogynistic, might be vital for driving the plot. While there are works out there that are written with misogynistic intent, simply having a misogynistic character in the work doesn't necessarily equate to misogynistic intent on the part of the creator. Stanley Kowalski is one of the most misogynistic characters ever written, but it doesn't mean that <i>A Streetcar Named Desire</i> was written to push a misogynistic agenda, Stanley was simply the engine that pushed the story to a Pulitzer. In order to push an agenda within a narrative, you really need to associate the agenda with beneficial outcomes. If the story was constantly about women following their baser emotions to <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=10181">destructive ends</a>, or constantly <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=4968">acting</a> <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=48737">submissive</a> to a dominant <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=48738">male</a> <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=17852">character</a>... Ok, that one kind of got away from me. But that's not the case with Ji, I promise, he didn't save the island by ogling female characters.</span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Some writers, either thinking they're being slick and people won't notice it, or amatuerish writers who are<a href="http://hogansheroes.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/9/0/1590348/9653307.jpg?330x246"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 330px; height: 247px;" src="http://hogansheroes.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/9/0/1590348/9653307.jpg?330x246" border="0" alt="" /></a> grasping at some flaw to add to a character, might tack on misogyny to a character who's otherwise lacking a flaw. Those who do it intentionally are trying to associate those negative tendencies with an overwhelmingly positive character. It's kind of the opposite of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_hitlerum" style="font-size: 100%; ">Reductio Ad Hitlerum</a><span style="font-size: 100%;">. Only instead of "Hitler had a dog, therefore dogs are evil!" it's more along the lines of "Jesus beat his wife, therefore wife beating is good." These are typified by presenting the trait one wants to associate with Hitler/Jesus in a </span>vacuum<span style="font-size: 100%;">. They don't examine the consequences at all, they just rely on the association to make the case. Blizzard has made this mistake before, Thrall being a major offender, albeit for other things, like slavery and the fantastic white man's burden. But that wasn't the intent here. Ji isn't an admirable character, by any stretch of the imagination, even without the whole pervert aspect. He's short sighted, aggressive, prone to rash action, and doesn't care much about the consequences of his actions. His time spent in the starter zone shows a display of bumbling incompetence that puts him a Hugo Boss suit and a Swastika away from being Colonel Klink. He's an utterly two dimensional character who's redeeming features are roughly limited to "He's </span>consistent<span style="font-size: 100%;">" and "Well, he doesn't eat babies."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">However, the whole Pervy Mentor idea needs to go. I mentioned that Ji is an extremely two dimensional character, and that's ok. Main characters need to be well rounded. The reader, player, or viewer spends a lot of time with that character, and inconsistencies will be noticed. The farther away from the main character you get, the more two dimensional the characters are. This is important, because if you learned everything there is to know about every ancillary character in a work, <i>Jack and Jill</i> would be a 400 page novel, and <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> would require the deforestation of the Amazon to print one copy. A character like Ji Firepaw, who shows up on the Wandering Isle for two purposes, to provide conflict, and to usher Horde Pandas to Orgrimmar, is so far on to the ancillary side of the spectrum of characters, that he's a bad fall away from being Captain Placeholder, who was replaced by a boat. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Ji Firepaw is a literary tool, not only in the sense of the character being a bumbling fool, but he exists in the story with a specific purpose, and doesn't exist beyond that role. In order to properly analyse and evaluate this tool, we have to use a couple tools of our own, Hanlon's Razor, and Occam's Razor. Hanlon's Razor is used in the analysis, and Occam's Razor is used to </span>elucidate<span style="font-size: 100%;"> the solution.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Hanlon's Razor states: Do not attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity. We're talking about Dave Kosak, here. He's not siting in a high back swivel chair stroking his </span>Persian<span style="font-size: 100%;"> cat commenting on how his master plan is 3/53 complete. I'd be shocked if his thought process on that quest series went anything beyond "Ji's a perv."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">To observe how to correct the situation, we turn to Occam's Razor: Do not multiply entities beyond necessity. It's better known in literary circles as Chekov's Gun, named after Anton Chekov, who once wrote: One must not put a rifle on the stage if no one is thinking about firing it. Blizzard should either take that aspect of Ji and do something with it, or they should excise it in its entirety. If they continued his story, and showed the consequences of his actions, then it would be a legitimate use. If the next time you see him is during the Pandaria Campaign, and he chats up Zaela and spends the rest of the campaign fleeing in terror from her, or he flirted with Sassy Hardwrench and didn't read the fine print, and winds up </span>penniless<span style="font-size: 100%;"> after the first date, or he hits on Angry Jaina at the Siege of Orgrimmar and catches a pyroblast in face. Blizzard could use it to set up a further plot development down the road, but they're unlikely to do so. As it stands, Ji takes his place alongside Nobundo as starting zone characters who might show up again, on the other side of the Maelstrom, with no speaking lines, and as long as that's Blizzard's intention, then trying to add extraneous characterization to him is just piling on to the detriment of the narrative.</span></span></span></span></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-68480110050462938702012-03-29T10:06:00.003-07:002012-03-29T12:25:26.041-07:00[Non-WoW] The Invisible Enemy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfEzCZvFKYIn2j5ETGeswt_Jj2L5qifMoa7hde4Q9ZurbOTLerRSASmnZvQ3LEz91itFjq3MFy4RmWICmS73B2zKp6alfqtFf3BBJAU_LzP1JLTjybw2h3YNw6-gsZRsK1pL_B-0EmoFv/s1600/3591115157_e40ba2d023.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcfEzCZvFKYIn2j5ETGeswt_Jj2L5qifMoa7hde4Q9ZurbOTLerRSASmnZvQ3LEz91itFjq3MFy4RmWICmS73B2zKp6alfqtFf3BBJAU_LzP1JLTjybw2h3YNw6-gsZRsK1pL_B-0EmoFv/s320/3591115157_e40ba2d023.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725402178118627954" /></a>This isn't a WoW post. This is something that I feel needs to be said, and this is the largest audience that I can reach at this time.<br /><br />I knew Abel Gutierrez. He was a good man, and a good soldier. We called him "Guty". He never complained about what was going on, no matter how stupid the brass was getting. He never caused any confrontations; he was always polite. He was a good athlete, a good shot, and possessed both a sound tactical mind and a strong work ethic. Whenever some lousy detail cropped up, he was the first to volunteer to take care of it, without complaint, regardless of the fact that his rank would allow him to slide that work onto the newer soldiers. He always pulled more than his share of the load. Every unit he served in was a better place while Guty was there. He was not the first friend that I lost, not in a warzone, but to the stresses of returning to life at home. It is my most profound fear that he might not be the last.<br /><br />I know this is a cliche, but unlike the rest of the world, that is how I will remember him. For all my cynicism and arrogance, I can't let whatever darkness claimed his final hours to obscure the years of great service that he gave this country, and my unit. I couldn't live with my self if I was the kind of person who could.<br /><br />Being an infantryman in wartime is the most difficult job in the world. The country asks these men to bear a burden that no one should have to shoulder. We do it because someone has to, but we should never do it alone. The Army, and the nation at large, owes it to these soldiers to do everything within its power to help them deal with the inevitable wounds that wartime service inflicts, both the physical trauma that a soldier suffers when his limbs are torn away by the enemy's bombs, and the mental trauma that comes from coping with such a drastic change from the mundane existence of a citizen in a first world nation. We all struggle with our demons; we all fight that invisible enemy; there is no shame in that struggle.<br /><br />However, something is amiss. Before Guty came to my unit, he served with the 2nd Infantry Division on Fort Lewis. As I'm sure anyone who watched the news can attest, that's the same posting as SSG Robert Bales, the man accused of the recent massacre of Afghani civilians. For those with a sharper memory, the troubles pile up. The Afghanistan "kill team" a few years back were also soldiers on Fort Lewis. A Mount Rainier Park Ranger was killed by a Ft. Lewis Soldier a couple months ago. A recently discharged Ft. Lewis veteran shot and killed a police officer in Utah. There's a string of suicides, murders, and abuses that have taken place on Ft. Lewis.<br /><br />While there has been an increase in suicides and crime rates on bases across the country, rightfully attributed to the increased stress of a wartime operating tempo and the relaxed standards of entry allowing soldiers who would have otherwise never made it through MEPS into the military, not only does Fort Lewis stand out among its fellow Active Duty postings, but when you begin to factor in events involving the Washington, Oregon, and Idaho National Guard, it begins to seem like the Pacific Northwest has become the epicenter of post deployment tragedies.<br /><br />These events have involved soldiers from nearly every unit in the region, from 2ID, to 2nd Ranger Battalion, to the 41st Brigade Combat Team in Oregon. They're too disparate to pin the blame on unit leadership. There is, however, one common denominator linking each of these tragic acts.<br /><br />Every soldier in the region routes through Madigan Army Medical Center for their health evaluation to determine what level of treatment they require, and weather or not they're capable of continued service, and if not, what level of disability they're accorded. They are the front line for America's responsibility to the troops, and they are failing, inexcusably so.<br /><br />There's something rotten at Madigan. William Keppler, the Chief of the Department of Mental Health at Madigan has been quoted as advising his subordinates to "be good stewards of the public's money" and informed them that a diagnosis of PTSD would cost the government $1.5 million dollars in treatment and disability over the course of the service member's life. The mental health team at Madigan overturned 285 confirmed diagnoses of PTSD. Soldiers with 100% disability, who were living in inpatient programs to attempt to control their wounds were turned out with the stroke of a pen, and then couldn't even secure a face to face appointment with the physician who denies them the treatment that they need, that they deserve, that they are owed. Lives have been destroyed by this, not just soldiers, but the lives of their families, and even those of people who had nothing to do with this situation. Park rangers, and police officers, and children. But hey, at least they saved 427.5 million dollars! I've never been ashamed of my service, of what the uniform I wear represents, but this disgusts me.<br /><br />To my fellow infantrymen, you beautiful sons of bitches, know this: You are not alone. No matter how dark things feel, no matter how bad things seem, you are never alone. Your enemies mass against you. The guilt that gnaws at the back of your mind. The anger that drives you against your will. The despair that seems like it will swallow you whole. Your courage will stand with you. Hope will illuminate the darkest nights. Your pride will push you to victory. Although, be mindful of that last one. Use your pride to keep you beholden to a higher standard. Do not allow it to drive away those that would help you. You need everyone weapon you can get in this fight, but pride has two edges.<br /><br />The Army has taught us to attack the enemy with overwhelming force, both with superior firepower, and superior numbers. This fight is no different. Your friends will stand with you. Your family is there for you. Your brothers in arms will watch over you. Don't turn them away.<br /><br />The fight is long. That invisible enemy is patient. He will strike when you are feeling at your weakest. But you will always have resources. If you're feeling particularly low, <a href="http://www.va.gov/">the VA</a> will help you. <a href="http://www.vetcenter.va.gov/">The Vet Center</a> will help you. There are councilors waiting <a href="http://suicidehotlines.com/">24/7 </a>in every state to help you through your crisis. Win this fight.The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-59689649159799214762012-03-22T17:01:00.002-07:002012-03-22T17:12:44.121-07:00Siege Addendum: Mistakes of Futures Past<span style="font-style: normal; "><br /><a href="http://thecaptainsblogdotme.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/150.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 235px; height: 307px;" src="http://thecaptainsblogdotme.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/150.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a></span><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Sometimes, they just don't learn. Some things are like watching a cheap horror movie where everyone repeats the exact same mistakes that got everyone else killed in the previous movie. No, you can't keep your loved one around now that s/he's a zombie, they'll just break loose and eat everybody. No, the bathroom is not the safest place to run from a slasher killer, there's only one way in or out, you'll die in that bathtub. But do they learn? No. They seem like they learn, but they have the memory span of a goldfish, and they constantly repeat the same hackneyed plot scripts with a fresh coat of paint on them.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>WoW's story telling is quickly devolving to that level. In the wake of the NDA on the MoP press release, and a shockingly quick turnaround to Beta, there's been a lot of information getting put out. I already spoke about the <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2012/03/siege-of-orgrimmar-roadmap-for-failure.html">Siege of Orgrimmar</a>, what it represents, what its flaws are, and what Blizzard should avoid to really fuck things up.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><blockquote style="font-style: normal; "><span>If the raid devolves into "Help Thrall defeat Garrosh!" for Alliance players, then it would be, as I said earlier, the death knell for the Alliance as a interesting faction, they'd be nothing more than foils to help propel Green Jesus to greater glory. It's an incredibly demoralizing prospect.</span></blockquote><span>This was something that Blizzard seemed to have picked up upon during the massive discontent at the direction of the story during patch 4.2. Dave Kosak wrote a <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3992143" style="font-style: normal; ">blog post</a> attempting to address the discontent, writing most of it off as a byproduct of good storytelling <i>*snicker*</i> There was one thing that made me thing that they had at least an inkling of the actual root of the problem.<br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: normal; "><span>If you’re a die-hard Alliance player, I can understand if you feel left out of Thrall’s story arc. Thrall feels like “their guy,” and Thrall’s journey over the last couple of years may not feel like “your” story, even if his mistakes are about to send the whole world into a potential death spiral. Fair enough. Stick with Thrall as he fulfills his destiny at the end of Cataclysm, and I promise we’ll catch up with other characters -- from both factions -- as we pick up the pieces in the aftermath.</span></blockquote></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>So, just tough it out until the end of Cata, and then the focus will be off of Thrall, and onto other characters. Ok, you're asking for a mulligan. Make use of it.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>Back to this week, and the flood of information showing that Garrosh was being deposed, and rampant speculation as to who would take the reigns of the Horde. The usual cries for a basic campfire were thrown around, and a lot of people thought that Vol'jin would be a good choice given the foreshadowing from the Troll starting zones where Vol'jin swore that the last thing Garrosh would feel would be Vol'jin's arrow piercing his heart. Others mentioned Overlord Saurfang, Garrosh's mentor in Northrend, who swore to kill Garrosh himself if he began to lead the Horde back down the dark paths that led to their downfall on Draenor. That speculation ended very quickly when Machinima Realm released a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PaM1T884Dw">video</a> of an interview with J. Allen Brack, WoW producer, who explicitly stated that players are fighting to restore Thrall as the Warchief. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span>There's another, someone less high profile source that has also been putting out information. At Blizzcon 2010, someone caught Alex Afrasiabi and Chris Metzen in a continuity error on the lore panel for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. This led to an alteration on the Beta, and ultimately live servers, an that person became a wow celebrity, with his own avatar in game. He's known as the Red Shirt Guy, after the shirt he wore when he caught Blizzard at their own convention. Among the perks he received was a personal interview with Chris Metzen on the path of lore in the upcoming expansion. Now that the Beta has opened up, he's been open about some of the things Metzen told him about. He asked about who gets to <a href="http://www.scrollsoflore.com/forums/showthread.php?p=451537#post451537">kill Garrosh</a> in Mists, and Metzen's quote was "Garrosh's been a bad boy, and Thrall's gonna have to give him a spanking."</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><i>*Sigh*</i> Really? This whole expansion, this whole story arc that's been brewing since Burning Crusade is going to culminate in Thrall, again. People didn't like it in Cataclysm, when he was ostensibly, neutral. How bad are you going to have to warp the story to make the Alliance feed into the idea of replacing Garrosh with Thrall and being ok with it? Everything involving the Horde or Alliance directly in the past two expansions is being thrown away for the greater glory of Go'el, just like <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/12/problem-with-thrall.html" style="font-style: normal; ">Staghelm's narrative</a> was chucked aside to puff that orc up a bit more. Cairne's death, Vol'jin's animosity, Saurfang's guilt, Ashenvale, Turajo, King Wrynn's return and rehabilitation, the destruction of Theramore, the Siege of Orgrimmar, the entire war between the Horde and Alliance, none of it matters as anything more than a plot device to allow Thrall to be painted as the messianic bringer of peace in addition to the World Shaman, Aspect of Earth, and the Once and Future Warchief. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>Enough is enough. Most of the core of the story is already locked in. WoW is on rails that they can't leave at this point. But the Siege of Orgrimmar is still the final content patch of the expansion, it's at least 18 months away, and there's still time to fix the crescendo of this flawed song. Here's how:</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>There's several arcs that need to be wrapped up. I mentioned several of them. In order to establish the final raid, both factions have to have a reason for participating. Contrary to Blizzard's thinking, the Alliance actually doesn't need any more motivation to invade, they just need to do so. The content patches leading up to the Siege should feature the Alliance turning the tide and beginning the march towards Orgrimmar. Do not have them just show up overnight. Scenarios will be a powerful tool here, because they will allow the developers to play create additional content in certain zones that they would otherwise no longer attempt to overhaul again. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>There needs to be at least three points on the road to Orgrimmar. First is the turning point. The Alliance needs to decisively defeat the Horde, and get them on the run. This could take place on Pandaria. Once the tide has been turned, the pursuit needs to be shown. With the destruction of Theramore, the Alliance two real roads to Orgrimmar, either from the North through Ashenvale, or from the South from Feralas. I prefer the second option, Feralas is closer to Pandaria, and Shandris Feathermoon's sentinel army has been begging for a real use. Show the might of the Alliance on the march, traveling across Feralas, towards thousand needles, where they will cross into the barrens. Horde resistance in this scenario should be guerrilla, tricking the Ogres of Dire Maul into attacking the Alliance flanks, blowing up the roads, and setting up traps. Once the army is established to be on the move, then the next stop is Orgrimmar, pretty easy.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>Getting the Horde players to be willing to depose Garrosh is more difficult, especially trying to do so in a manner that doesn't just cut off the hanging plot lines. There needs to be something that Garrosh does that makes Horde players hate him. The answer, in my opinion, lies with his relationship with Varok Saurfang. After taking time to properly mourn the death of his son, Varok returns from Northrend to witness the destruction of Theramore, and as with the lion's share of the Horde military, he travels to fight over Pandaria. As he serves, and sees what Garrosh has created. After the Alliance routes them on Pandaria, Saurfang realizes how close Garrosh has become to the orcs like Orgrim, Blackhand, and Grom, who led the orcs to the brink of extinction, and decides to live up to the promise he made to both Garrosh and himself. He confronts Garrosh, who challenges him to Mak'gora. This mirrors the challenge laid down to Garrosh from Cairne during the Shattering. Garrosh defeats Saurfang, the student surpassing his master, and kills him, much to the outrage of the soldiers present. Saurfang was an old soldier who had served the Horde faithfully his whole life. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>Seeing another dedicated elder of the Horde struck down by Garrosh in a duel resonates with Vol'jin and Baine Bloodhoof, who had watched Cairne die in the same manner, fighting for a last chance to keep the Horde away from the monstrosity that it has become. As the full fury of the Alliance reaches the walls of the Horde's capitol, Baine and Vol'jin decide that the time has come for their words to become actions, rather than merely speaking their discontent in shadowed halls, they rise up against the Warchief. In Orgrimmar, the heart of Garrosh's power, Baine and Vol'jin's rebellion is savagely persecuted, and with their backs against the wall, facing both the relentless shelling of the Alliance and the implacable blades of the Kor'kron, they resort to desperate measures. Baine throws open the main gates of Orgrimmar, allowing wrath of the Alliance to flood into the city, creating chaos. Garrosh and his Kor'Kron loyalists find themselves suddenly fighting street to street against two enemies, and the end of his reign is suddenly far closer than he could have ever imagined. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>That's how I would like to see it done. It empowers the Alliance, and allows the Horde to reclaim a piece of what it once was while still evolving, rather than devolving into the complacent entity that it was under Thrall. I could flesh this scenario out for days, involving every race in both factions, but I just wanted to get the bare bones out there.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>I mentioned that it wasn't too late to change the ending here. Here's how. Blizzard reads the forums. They know when you're angry about something. You lit the forums on fire when you were unhappy, and they responded. You didn't like Garrosh, so they're letting you kill him. Express your displeasure. There's already <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4247125311?page=1">a thread</a> on the official forums where people are expressing their irritation at this development, and Daxxari is actively asking people if they would rather see someone else as Warchief. Go post in that thread, make other threads discussing potential alterations that you'd like to see made. When those threads cap out, make new ones. Don't let it rest. Keep the fire alive. </span></div><br /><a href="http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/5/53/Fireplace.png" style="font-style: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/5/53/Fireplace.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-2454462810516664252012-03-20T15:07:00.004-07:002012-03-20T16:10:56.747-07:00The Siege of Orgrimmar: A Roadmap for Failure<a href="http://img8.mmo.mmo4arab.com/news/2012/03/20/wow/garrosh_hellscream.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 250px;" src="http://img8.mmo.mmo4arab.com/news/2012/03/20/wow/garrosh_hellscream.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span ><span>On March 19th, Blizzard lifted the NDA on the Mists of Pandaria press tour. It was already known that Blizzard intended to focus on factional conflict in the upcoming expansion, even more so than they did in prior expansions. Blizzard is continuing to paint themselves into a corner here, and one of the keystones of their presentation was the unveiling of the final raid of the expansion, The Siege of Orgrimmar. Apparently the final boss of the expansion that they weren't willing to reveal earlier in the process is going to be Garrosh Hellscream. We know a few things about the intended raid and its storyline, both factions will be involved, with King Wrynn leading the raid for Alliance players, and the end result will be the restoration of Thrall to the throne of the Horde. Some bloggers and many forum goers and commenters have mentioned their fears of this being a </span>signal<span> of Alliance favoritism. <a href="http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/wow-never-underestimate-the-power-of-bloodthirst/">Spinks</a> has a good post on her fears, you should read it. There are others who fear that it signals yet another expansion of Horde favoritism and Alliance marginalization. Both these groups have valid fears, there aren't many ways Blizzard can take this, a lot of people are going to be unhappy no matter what they do, and there's some major concerns that will need to be addressed to minimize the impact of this poor choice of plot arc on the overall narrative. I'm going to go over their fears, and lay out a blueprint for Blizzard to try and minimize the damage, as they are clearly too far into development to completely abort the story line. </span></span><div><span><span ><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><span>It seems like the story is going to progress through Mists of Pandaria that Garrosh is going to come increasingly under the influence of a mysterious entity called the Sha. These creatures gain strength from negative emotions, such as doubt, and use that strength to corrupt those around them. Eventually, Garrosh is going to cross a threshhold, possibly the destruction of Theramore, possibly something hitting closer to home, such as the murder of Varok Saurfang, that will convince Thrall that it is time to remove Garrosh from the throne. That's the Horde side of the raid, the Alliance side is pretty much that they finally figure out that they're at war. I have a lot of issues with that set up, but I'll save those for when we have more information, or I'm particularly bored. </span><span>The biggest fears at the moment are with regards to how the event itself will be handled and how the aftermath will go down. </span></span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >Alliance players are afraid that this is going to be a rehash of the second half of Cataclysm, where it's nothing but "Save Thrall from his own angst!" and "Help Thrall become the Earth Warder!" and Alliance players are wondering why they're helping their sworn enemy. If the raid devolves into "Help Thrall defeat Garrosh!" for Alliance players, then it would be, as I said earlier, the death knell for the Alliance as a interesting faction, they'd be nothing more than foils to help propel Green Jesus to greater glory. It's an incredibly demoralizing prospect.</span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >At the same time, Horde players are understandably upset at the prospect of an Alliance army, led by King Wrynn, smashing down the gates of their capitol city and butchering their leader. If an opponent can take your capitol and decapitate your leadership, then your nation is a step away from the dustbin of history. Spinks was worried that it could herald the annexation of the Horde into the Alliance in order to facilitate cross faction grouping in the expansion afterwards. While I find that notion unlikely, the fear of losing their unique perspective within the game is a very primal one. </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >Blizzard is walking the razor's edge here, and they don't even have a good reason for it. But I have some advice for them as to how they can avoid catastrophic alienation of either factions. </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >The first step, and admitedly, the most unlikely, is to scratch Thrall from the story. Either just put him on the first bus to Nagrand so he can raise his oddly colored children in peace, or, my personal favorite, have Garrosh kill him as the catalyst for the Horde players to rise up against him. Whatever you do, don't just put him back as Warchief and then carry on as if nothing happened. Doing that exposes Garrosh as nothing more than a cheap plot device to create the war that allows Thrall to come back as the messianic peacekeeper. The Horde then gets to deflect all the blame onto Garrosh, completely undermining any analysis of the foundation that the Horde is built upon. At its core, this path is tantamount to retconning away everything the Horde has done in Cataclysm. Nothing that happened would matter because it was "Garrosh's Horde". </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >Regardless of weather they keep with the decision to use Thrall as Garrosh's successor, or someone else, there's another thing that they need to keep in mind, faction segregation. Do not have the Alliance following the Horde leader around again. Do not have Horde players following King Wrynn around. You can have them meet up in an ICC gunship or ToC faction champs fight, but don't make them feel subordinate to the opposing faction. That's a recipe for discontent. Both factions need their own reasons for pushing after Garrosh, and their reasons have to be driving force within their instance. </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >One final tip. Do not make the impetus for Horde action be that Jaina went and cried to Thrall after the Horde smashes Theramore. That'll just piss everyone off. </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >As far as to how the Alliance is going to be convinced not to simply crush the Horde under its boot after they storm the streets of Orgrimmar, you're on your own there Blizz. I warned you this would be coming, and you really don't have a way out that doesn't involve some ridiculously hack writing. </span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-17964732148724389992012-03-16T14:39:00.005-07:002012-03-16T17:18:12.928-07:00Between Narration and Demonstration Lies the Flaws<a href="http://images.wikia.com/wow/no/images/d/d0/TirionEitrigg.gif" style="font-size: 100%; "><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 358px;" src="http://images.wikia.com/wow/no/images/d/d0/TirionEitrigg.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span>I'm going to revisit the concept of neutral factions here. With the emphasis on Horde vs <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city> hostilities that began in Wrath, blossomed in Cataclysm, and has been promised to be even more prevalent in Mists of Pandaria, neutral factions wind up in an awkward position. Lines are being drawn, and tensions are rising, and while this marginalizes the importance of neutral factions, it also places a spotlight on how they react to the evolution of the world around them.<br /><br />Neutral factions do not live in a vacuum. They exist in a tenuous position that is defined by the actions of the superpowers of their time, in this case, the Horde and the <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city>. Some neutral parties may try to straddle the line between the two, and maintain their neutrality, other parties may cast their lots in with one side or another, but everyone is going to be strained by it.<br /><br />During WWII, both <st1:country-region st="on">Switzerland</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sweden</st1:place></st1:country-region> declared themselves neutral, but they felt the strain of the war raging around them. <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region> gave economic concessions to the Nazis, allowed Jews to seek refuge within their borders, were forced to turn away many more as the numbers grew to large. They also shot down several nazi aircraft that violated their airspace, and forced many more to land and kept their crew prisoner until the cessation of hostilities. <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region> paradoxically had to fight to maintain its neutrality. <st1:country-region st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region> acted similarly, trading iron ore with the Nazis, but allowing 8,000 swedes to fight for <st1:country-region st="on">Finland</st1:country-region> when <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region> invaded. Many more nations, such as the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, initially began the conflict as a neutral party, but as the war expanded in scope, were eventually forced to take a side in the conflict. Such is the way of neutrality, neutrality is maintained through action and reaction to the evolution of the situation around you.<br /><br />Ultimately, in a fictional world, characters are expressed through two methods, narration and demonstration. Narration is being told what attributes a character has. Demonstration is being shown those attributes in action. In the majority of cases, to create a believable character, the two attributes must match. A character who is stated to be dangerously unhinged needs to do unhinged things. A character who cowers in the face of danger can't be built up as a brave man.<br /><br />This is where Blizzard has failed spectacularly with regards to neutral factions thus far. Nearly every neutral faction has more or less acted in a vacuum. Despite a host of previously introduced factions being updated and brought into the current timeline, every neutral entity acts as if they existed within a bubble, completely oblivious to anything that happens outside of their demesnes. It doesn't matter if you murdered their god, murdered members of their organization, or are engaging in actions so foul to their beliefs that they were previously willing to travel across the world to hunt someone like you down, the neutral factions don't even so much as express their displeasure with a strongly worded letter.<br /><br />Particularly egregious are the failures of the <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Cenarion Circle</st1:address></st1:street> and the Argent Crusade in Cataclysm. Despite their previous actions, and vows, they completely ignore the developments in the storyline with regards to the factional conflict. The <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Cenarion Circle</st1:address></st1:street> can kind of skate by with the whole "Hyjal is burning" schtick, but it still comes off as stilted. The Argent Crusade, on the other hand, has the Forsaken commiting atrocities across the street, and the Orcs murdering their agents in Kalimdor, and they're more concerned with clearing out gnolls, spiders, and one necromancer, all while admiring the brand new statue of Tirion they erected in Hearthglen. After Tirion promised that evil will never hide behind the shroud of politics on his watch, and he traveled across the world to strike at the heart of the Scourge, this new apathy doesn't suit him. The complacency of the Argent Crusade in this matter makes absolutely no sense.<br /><br />There were a couple neutral organization that I thought was handled well in the Cataclysm story, the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Zandalari Tribe.</span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Knights of the Ebon Blade had one purpose, to bring ruin to the Lich King by whatever means necessary. Come Cataclysm, the Scourge has been by and large neutralized, and the death knights of Acherus find themselves without a purpose. When previously in this situation, Blizzard would leave them to rot in their expansion,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>*cough*Shattered Sun Offensive*cough*</i><span>, but this time, Blizzard decided to come back to them. Rather than taking a side in the conflict, the Ebon Blade tore itself apart, with individual death knights taking sides in the conflict, as shown with Thassarian and Koltira in the conflict at Andorhal. There they brought the characters full circle when their previous associations began to color their actions in the battle, leading to Sylvanas taking Koltira down, and Thassarian, rather than stay in Andorhal to try and rally the Alliance forces, deserts the battlefield in an attempt to find his friend.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Zandalari Tribe was introduced in Vanilla as a group of Trolls who sought to prevent the summoning of Hakkar the Soulflayer by the Gurubashi Trolls in Zul'Gurub. Once Hakkar was banished, they lay fallow for the next two expansions, until their return in patch 4.1. Seeing the threat that the increased</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span>belligerence</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span>of larger factions would devour the troll tribes</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span>piecemeal, the Zandalari sought to unite the troll tribes and establish a new troll empire that could stand against groups like the Horde, </span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city><span>, and Scourge. Rather than remain blithely neutral, or pick a side, they opted to make a play for power on their own, going from a neutral faction to an enemy to both factions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Both those factions were incorporated into the fabric of the storyline, they saw opportunity, or lost purpose, and shifted their actions accordingly. Other factions, however, were not so lucky. As a paladin main, I find the treatment the Argent Crusade got to be particularly egregious. Rather than reacting to new threats, they just sit in their town and ignore everything going on. While I truly enjoyed the role that the Argent Crusade and their offshoot, the Brotherhood of Light had in Eastern Plaguelands, in Western Plaguelands, where the story is defined by the battle at Andorhal, the Argent Crusade is overshadowed by the Ebon Blade and the Forsaken. After pushing through Andorhal, the segment of quests in Hearthglen seem less like an actual part of the story, and more like a cameo that hung around too long. All the T9 gear floating around, and the huge statue of Tirion, with no real substance just comes off as going "Hey! Remember ToC? Wasn't that awesome?" Did being frozen in a block of ice at Icecrown give Tirion such a brain freeze that he doesn't notice that his neighborhood is being engulfed in a necromantic war that threatens to undo all the work that Tirion has put into reclaiming the Plaguelands from the plague and blight that afflicts it?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Complacency has its place in the arsenal of characterization, but only when given justification. It would have been better if they had left Tirion in Northrend. Inaction due to non inclusion in the story is irritating, but it doesn't savage the flow of the narrative like inaction against character type does. Tirion has been built up as a man of action, both in the narrative, and through demonstration. His inactivity in this situation makes absolutely no sense.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>If I were writing the script, I would have thrown out the Argent Crusade questing as it stood, it's not necessarily a bad questing area, but it serves no purpose within the larger narrative, and that fact makes it stand out like a white quarter panel on a red car. I would questing line along factional lines at this point. The Alliance players go to Hearthglen to demand an explanation from the Argent Crusade as to why they permit Val'kyr to run wild so close to their seat of power. There they meet with the Brotherhood of Light, one of the more reactionary subsets of the Argent Crusade.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Horde players would travel to Hearthglen for a different reason. Garrosh, knowing that there was going to be a confrontation between the Horde and the Alliance at Andorhal, and knowing that the Argent Crusade's might could turn the tide of battle if they discovered the questionable methods being employed by the Forsaken in the area, Garrosh took steps to keep Highlord Fordring's men off the table. To accomplish this end, he commands Eitrigg, a close friend of Highlord Fordring, to keep the crusade from deploying in opposition of the Horde.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span>Alliance</span></st1:place></st1:city><span> players would liaison with Eligor Dawnbringer as they seek to provide proof of the Horde's duplicity in the situation, while Horde players follow commands from Garrosh to conceal the evidence, while Eitrigg struggles with his dual loyalties which will soon come into conflict with each other.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>This sort of storyline could end several different ways, and hinges on the development of several characters. Depending on the wording of the orders, Eitrigg may or may not be aware of the extent of the crimes the Forsaken are committing, and what initially seemed like an innocuous request to keep Crusade forces clear of a conflict that did not concern them might come to shock Eitrigg. Or he might view the unity of the Horde as paramount to their survival, and place those concerns above all others. The Horde players might be successful in concealing their actions from Fordring, or the </span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city><span> might convince him to mobilize in securing WPL. If Eitrigg places the Horde above the Argent Crusade, then it could create a schism that splits the Argent Crusade in two, just as the Ebon Blade fell apart. If Highlord Fordring does decide to throw the Forsaken out of the Plaguelands, does he actually side with the </span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city><span>, or does he expand Hearthglen's influence as a neutral city-state? There's so many ways to take that storyline, and it's much more compelling than scaring away some spiders.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 13.5pt; "> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 100%; "><o:p> </o:p></p></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-13338270407258877082012-02-26T23:00:00.002-08:002012-02-26T23:04:58.054-08:00Blackwing Descent: Missed Opportunities<a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/images/e/e6/Blackwing_Descent_loading_screen.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1024px; height: 768px;" src="http://www.wowpedia.org/images/e/e6/Blackwing_Descent_loading_screen.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">A few months ago, MMO Melting Pot held the </span></span><a href="http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/01/the-piggie-award-winners-part-1-game-elements/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Piggies,</a><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> an awards post for MMOs for the past year. The first award given out was for the best raid instance of 2011, which Blackwing Descent rightfully crushed the opposition to bring home. I've spoken before about how much I enjoyed T11 raiding, and BWD was the core of T11 content. It is without a doubt the finest raid instance of the Tom Chilton era. </span></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">While it's not as visually stunning as Ulduar, Karazahn, or Sunwell, it's well drawn together thematically. The various dragons hung from the ceiling set the tone of the hidden lair where atrocities have been </span>committed<span style="font-size: 100%;">. The instance lacks sweeping vistas, but that works for an instance where the setting is the interior of a volcano. It's not a larg</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">e instance, but it works, as it has supplemental raids to bolster the quantity of content. The stonework architecture recalls the dwarven origins of the other instances in Blackrock Mountain, and the rubble and lava flows elucidate the notion that this was not a place that Nefarian built, it was a place he found. The </span></span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">trash pulls echo the old Blackwing Lair instance. The mini Chromagguses and Broodlords, and the reincarnations of the BWL drakes create the sensation that here Nefarian has perfected those experiments that he had been working on when we raiders had last confronted him. </span><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">In my opinion, much better than the visuals of the instance is something that many raiders wind up missing out on entirely, the sounds of the instance. I highly recommend running a full clear of BWD on heroic with the sound turned on. Nefarian is a constant presence throughout the instance, interacting in all the fights, from throwing wrenches in the raider's plans to to turn the powers of the Omnotron Defense System against itself, to </span>chastising<span style="font-size: 100%;"> Chimaeron when its heads fight each other rather than the raid, to pointing out to Atramedes where players are, his lines are well acted and well written. Raiding B</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">WD feels like breaking into th</span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">e magic division of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and it's truly a far cry from the mediocre voice acting that we had to suffer through during the back half of Wrath.</span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Mechanically, BWD shines. Each encounter is different, and every skill a raid needs to succeed will be tested during the run. A very underrated aspect of BWD is its trash. The trash is sparse, yet engaging. A raid can cut through it quickly, but unlike its successor, Firelands, you won't be slugging through fields of trash for hours with the raid's DPS in various states of AFK.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">There is, however, one major flaw in the design of BWD. There is no why. No one really know what we're doing in BWD, aside from euthanizing pitiable </span>experiments<span style="font-size: 100%;"> for fun and loot. Honestly, I almost felt like my entry into BWD went something like this...</span></span></div><div><br /><div><b>Dämmerung:</b> "So, anyways guys, this was where I fought Nefarian. He spawned soooooo many constructs from this hole in the wall, I wonder what's in there."</div><div><span><b>Lord Victor Nefarius:</b> "YOU!"</span></div><div><span><b>Dämmerung:</b> "Victor? What are you doing here? I thought you were still hanging around Stormwind."</span></div><div><span><b>Lord Victor Nefarius</b></span><b>:</b> "Well, this is awkward..."</div><div><span><b>Dämmerung:</b> "Let the games begin?"</span></div><div><span><b>Lord Victor Nefarius:</b> "Well, I suppose we have to, don't we?"</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>I mean, seriously, pretty much every other raid instance in the history of WoW had a fairly significant connection to the greater World of Warcraft. From Molten Core to ICC, every raid instance had a reason for players to be in there stemming from lower tier content, be it questlines, daily zones, or group dungeons, there was always some degree of breadcrumb trail giving players a reason to go raid. Hell, Throne of the Four Winds got half of Uldum, and two five man instances to set it up. Two entire dungeons to set up an instance </span>that only had two bosses in it, and they weren't even really good bosses either. Meanwhile, BWD is just left there, with the final encounter showcasing the return from the dead of not one, but two of the preeminent bosses of Vanilla WoW, and no real explanation as to what's going on. Even in Blackrock Caverns, the new five man added to the already expansive Blackrock Mountain complex, almost all the clues trend towards Bastion of Twilight, rather than BWD. Ogres, Twilight's Hammer Cultists, and Elemental Acendents are the bailiwick of Cho'Gall, not Nefarian. The only thing linking BRC to BWD is the presence of Finkle Einhorn, and the BRC questline gives no notice that you'll be seeing that inquisitive little gnome again. Blizzard could have done better. Blizzard should have done better.</div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Blizzard tried to do better. Like many other things that got obliterated in the crunch to get Cataclysm out the door, there are ghosts. Echoes of the old design plan are visible within the structure of the narrative and the points of focus within the game itself. The answers to some of the questions begged by the instance can be teased out.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>How are Nefarian and Onyxia back? This is really the crux of the issue. If you establish</span></div><img src="http://www.retributionguild.net/img/29092005/doubleheads.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 481px; height: 270px; " /><div><span> that Nefarian is back, then there's pretty much a de facto reason to go kill him again. After all, not very many good guys are named Nefarian, or Nefarius, or whatever play on nefarious the favored son of Deathwing decides to go with this time. Kael'thas' return was justified by the fact that you didn't actually make sure he was dead in Tempest Keep, a fact that you rectify when you meet him in Magister's Terrace by decapitating him. But you definitely took the heads of both Onyxia and Nefarian. You hung them from the gates of Stormwind for all to see. So how'd they get them back?</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>One of the key focal points of the expansion was Deathwing's visit to Stormwind. People see it every time they log in, and it was the climax of the introductory cinematic. The towers are still molten, and the stature of poor Danath Trollbane is still being hauled back up from the lake. Those same towers that we hung the heads of Deathwing's favorite children from, and soon thereafter, said children return to prominence, if a little worse for wear. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">That explains the how they came back. </span></div><img src="http://www.wowpedia.org/images/thumb/4/45/Deathwing,_the_Destroyer_TCG.jpg/250px-Deathwing,_the_Destroyer_TCG.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 194px; " /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">The next question is more of a meta question: How was Blizzard going to tie them back into the game to motivate the player to go to BWD?</span><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></div><div><span>This leads across a couple of items that I have touched upon before. The tie in book, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects</i><span>, and the aborted Alliance Twilight Highlands intro. A lot has been vested into the Twilight Dragonflight in the last couple years. We've fought Goriana, Ultraxion, Theralion, Valiona, Halion, Shadron, Tenebron, and Vesperon, twilight dragons all. We've also fought Sinestra and Sartharion, both of whom served as guardians to twilight hatcheries. However, the Twilight Dragonflight is not the Black Dragonflight's first effort at co-opting the power of the other Dragonflights. During Vanilla, Nefarian conducted experiments on his father's behalf, resulting in the spawning of Chromatic Dragons. While the chromatic experiments only produced two spawns that were successful by any measure, the Chromatic Drake Gyth, gifted to Rend Blackhand for use as a mount, and the dragonspawn Chromaggus, before adventurers decapitated Nefarian at his throne in BWL, during the novel, a return to Nefarian's old experiments creates the most successful monstrosity that Deathwing formed since the Demon Soul, a five headed, fully grown chromatic dragon named Chromatus. Chromatus wielded the power of the five dragonflights, and was capable of fighting off all four of the dragon aspects at once. He was coaxed into life, not by Nefarian, but by the Twilight Father, a shadowy figure revealed to be Archbishop Benedictus. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>I've mentioned before how the Bendictus arc was aborted from the release content, and instead handed over to Thrall as the intro to the 4.3 raid, Dragon Soul. In the Hour of Twilight dungeon, just before the fight with the Archbishop, Bendictus reveals that the Deathwing's attack on Stormwind was the catalyst that turned him to despair. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>With these points, it's easy to see the arc that begins to form. Deathwing needed his son's expertise to finish Chromatus, so he attacked Stormwind in order to retrieve his son's head. With Nefarian's head came Nefarian's knowledge, which was used to create the chromatic behemoth. Working alongside Nefarian to bring Deathwing's plan to fruition was Benedictus, in his guise as the Twilight Father. When Benedictus' treason is discovered, his collusion with the lord of Blackrock is unveiled as well. This is somewhat problematic for getting the Horde players in BWD, but they lost their traitor arc as well. Magister Rommath could have been aiding the chromatice program as well, giving our less hygienic cousins a purpose to go after their purples as well. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>While this flaw doesn't diminish BWD as an instance, an isolated dungeon through which my friends and I spent hours working together, it does damage Blackwing Descent's place in Azeroth, and the greater narrative of the World of Warcraft. The dissonance of having such a great instance suffer the ignominious fate of being the only raid instance so neglected is painful. I mean, even Ruby Sanctum got a breadcrumb quest... </span></div></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-11781965668853227512012-02-23T23:46:00.000-08:002012-02-23T23:46:00.478-08:00Quoth the Crab: The Choice Doesn't Matter<blockquote style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span >One of the important philosophies of game design is that interesting choices are fun. The word 'interesting' is key. Choosing between a talent that grants 10% damage and one that grants 5% damage, all else being equal, isn't interesting.</span></blockquote><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span >This is a quote from Ghostcrawler on the merits of the new talent tree in Mist of Pandaria. However, I'm not here to talk about talents, or Mists of Pandaria, or even anything Ghostcrawler works on. I'm here to talk about the Power of the Aspects buff in Dragon Soul, which will soon be ratcheted up to 10%. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span ><br />With the impending increase, it's uncorked a mass of discussion on the matter, and once again, WoW Insider draws the lines, on both sides. Dan Desmond wrote an <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/should-blizzard-leave-heroic-encounter-difficulty-alone/">editorial</a> on the effects that these sort of nerfs have on the raiders in the instance. </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span ><span><blockquote>Well, it seems I was wrong, for in the very next tier of content Blizzard released, we saw progressive nerfs to these difficult fights. Personally, I prefer to keep these encounters the way they are, at least until a new tier is released. Something just feels wrong to see the hardest fights available made easier through a series of hotfixes. Even with respect to my own guild's progression, having sweeping nerfs hit Firelands just as my guild was putting in some really good attempts on Ragnaros felt like Blizzard moved the finish line, taking what would have been a very gratifying kill and turning it into an accidental one-shot that contained none of the catharsis we had felt during previous boss kills.</blockquote></span>In response, Adam Holisky wrote an <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/23/why-dragon-soul-nerfs-are-good-for-everyone-especially-hardcore/4#c35441052">editorial</a> on the merits of the nerf for all guilds, and in the end, he fell back on that same flawed defense that so many others have leaned upon.<br /></span><blockquote><span >Because there's an easy answer if everything I said in this editorial rings false to you.<br /><br />Just turn the nerf off.</span></blockquote></div><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Now, there's a lot of flawed thinking in Adam's editorial, and I'll get around to those flaws in other posts. What I want to talk about now is the supposed "Choice" that raiders have to turn off the Power of the Aspects. Ghostcrawler said that a choice that had one option that was obviously more beneficial than the other isn't interesting, it isn't compelling, and ultimately, it isn't a choice at all. This is the situation that the non raiders who fall back on this line don't understand, there is no choice to turn off the debuff. Any guild that has already cleared all the content has no reason to do so, and any guild that hasn't cleared the content gains no benefit from doing do. Raiding guilds live on three things, interesting content, recruiting, and consensus within the group. While the nerfs may or may not undermine how interesting the content is for your raid group, it can only have a negative impact on the other two aspects. </span><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span ><br /></span></div><div><span ><b>Consensus:</b> One of the primary arguments that people make against these kind of nerfs is that they wanted to see what the content's really like, not to be given their kill as charity by the developers who take pity on them. The dissenters claim that they can simply turn off the nerf, and everything will be the same as it was before. This is not true. Raiding is a team activity. You need nine or twenty-four other players to go along with you in order to raid with any serious degree of success. While you might get enough satisfaction to justify turning off the debuff, you need consensus within the group. The odds of everyone in the group agreeing with you is slim, and even one person in the group who would rather raid with the debuff will put the group in a very awkward position. You're asking them to sacrifice their personal progression, not for an achievement, not for loot, not for a mount, but for something even more trivial, for your pride. If they give in, then they feel resentful at your imposition, and if you give in, then you feel disappointed with the instance. Ultimately, the very fact that a choice had to be made alters the dynamic of the raiding experience, even if you choose to turn off the buff.</span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span ><b>Recruiting:</b> Just as dangerous as the volatility of forcing the issue into a group dynamic is the impact that the buff has on recruiting. If you're in a raiding guild, your guild is recruiting. There's an almost constant rate of attrition that takes its toll on a raid's roster. Kids, school, work, burnout, and new games are all among the factors that might drive a player to set aside raiding. If the group wants to continue raiding, they need to replace those people. One of the primary things that players look for in a guild that they choose to raid with is progression within the current instance. All else being equal, a prospective raider will tend to sign on with a guild that's further progressed. With no way to differentiate themselves from guilds that do use the debuff, a guild that decides to pursue raiding without the buff deliberately hamstrings themselves on the recruiting front. To make matters worse, any guild can claim to have gotten their kills without the debuff, because there's no way to prove it one way or another. </span></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div><span >There is no choice here, it's akin to being given the choice between a raisin bagel or a kick in the crotch. These nerfs aren't about tuning, they're about longevity. Just like ICC with the Strength of Wrynn, we're going to be stuck in Dragon Soul for another six months. There is no tier of gear after this to help the flagging guilds. So they give us the Power of the Aspects, and jokingly tell us that we have a choice, while they cite the exact opposite logic to justify their decisions in other aspects of the game. If Blizzard had made it an actual choice, they would have given an incentive to raid without the Power of the Aspects. A title, or a mount, or even just a simple achievement for clearing Dragon Soul without using the Power of the Aspects would make it an actual choice, not this mockery that we're faced with at the moment.</span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-86353349250299943702012-02-22T20:40:00.000-08:002012-02-22T20:35:58.902-08:00Cataclysm Final Grades: The State of the Protection Paladin<div><span>Tzufit at Tree Heals Go Woosh has asked for people to compile their opinions on the state of their favorite specs now that the dust is settling on Cataclysm. So let's take a look at how the changes in Cataclysm have impacted my play on Dämmerung.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Do you feel that your class is better (in that it is more fun to play, more effective, etc.) now than it was at the end of Wrath? Do you feel that your class is better now than it was at the beginning of Cataclysm?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>I feel that playing a protection paladin has been made more complex, and in large part, more effective at single target tanking than they were at the end of Wrath. While they have taken a bit of a step back from their preeminence at the beginning of Cataclysm, due to the weak scaling on Paladin's mastery, and several nerfs to outlying abilities such as Divine Guardian. Does this translate to more fun? I don't believe so. The most engaging portion of playing any class is the buttons you push, and with the added complexity of the protection paladin priority system came a direct injection of clunk. While many found the old 969 rotation to be boring, I find empty GCDs and off kilter CDs to be irritating and boring.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>One place where I feel Blizzard really dropped the ball was on Paladin AoE tanking. During BC, paladins were the defacto AoE tank, and throughout Wrath, despite lacking in snap AoE threat, no tank could match a Paladin's sustained AoE output, with Hammer of the Righteous proccing Seal of Truth across multiple mobs, perma consecrate, Holy Wrath with undead everywhere, and Holy Shield procs. In Cataclysm, I get the distinct feeling that Blizzard gave one aspect of our AoE rotation to a different intern, told them to break it, and then shoved it back together without regard for how destroying each of the individual components would cripple the whole. Holy Shield completely lost its damage component. Consecration was put on a 30 second CD, had the mana cost hiked through the ceiling, and did less damage per tick at 85 than it did at level 80. Holy Wrath had its scaling with AoE removed entirely, and now functions as a gimped version of shockwave. Hammer of the Righteous was rebuild entirely, it no longer procs seals on multiple mobs, and somehow, someone at Blizzard thought it would be a good idea to base the AoE off a single roll. What this means is that if HoR misses its primary target, it misses everything. If you've ever had a paladin tank completely miss the pickup on a trash pull, it's probably because of that move, which Zarhym defended as "Flavor". This left Paladins as the only tank without the ability to spread DoTs across multiple mobs, the only tank who's primary AoE has a facing requirement, and the only tank whose AoE can't chain off bosses with large hitboxes. Can't cleave on Rag, or Magmaw, or Conclave, or Al'akir, or Zon'ozz... Nice job breaking it Blizz.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>How much have you enjoyed or found uses for your class’ level 81, 83, and 85 abilities? Given the chance, what would you have changed about them?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Inquisition added some interesting complexity to the single target rotation, although it becomes lackluster when you take into account its position as the only AoE HP finisher available.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Holy Radiance was helpful prior to its overhaul giving it a cast time. On some fights, every bit of healing mattered, and being able to shore up the raid a couple K in the feuds on Chimaeron felt helpful.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Guardian of Ancient Kings... While it was kinda cool for ret and holy, it was honestly kind of insulting to Prot paladins. 50% damage reduction, it's great. But we already had Divine Protection giving us 50% DR in Wrath, and during that odd phase where we were using Cata talents and spells at level 80, it left Paladins as the only tank without a 50% damage reduction when they nerfed DP.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Did you switch mains during Cataclysm? If so, why did you make that choice?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>I did not, I did however raid significantly on my Warrior with another guild, because they asked me to help them.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>What were your class’/spec’s strengths throughout Cataclysm? What were its weaknesses?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Paladins were a solid middle of the road tank in Cata. We weren't as strong against physical damage as Druids were with their increased armor or warrior with their mastery that scaled much better than our own. Nor were we better against magical damage when compared to DKs with the ridiculously OP AMS, or Druids with their 22% passive magic damage reduction. I guess "I Am Third" would best sum up paladin tanks in cataclysm. Whatever the task was, there were better tanks, but we weren't the worst, which actually gave paladins a strong position in persistent groups that couldn't afford to swap tanks around.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The biggest weakness was the aforementioned abomination that our AoE output became. But then again, when your biggest weakness is trash, I can live with that.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Did you enjoy the addition of the mastery stat? What did you like about it, or, what would you change?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Mastery didn't really change anything. The change to block, converting it from a flat value, generally something like 2.5k, to 30% of the physical hit made block something that became sought after. While other specs got cool tricks like extra lightning bolts and empowered demons, Blizzard followed in the tradition of Guardian of Ancient Kings and our T13 4pc bonus for paladins, and took block away from us, renamed it mastery, and gave it back.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>How, if at all, did Cataclysm’s revamp of the talent trees affect your class? Did you feel that these were changes for the better or for worse?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The addition of specializations made Protection the number one tanking spec from level 10 onwards. They gave new tanks the majority of the tools they needed to at least be functional as a tank right off the bat, which was a stark contrast to leveling in Wrath, where all the lowbie tanks in the know were specced ret.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Did your class experience any significant changes or additions to its lore during this expansion? If so, how did you feel about those changes?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Tirion apparently can't be bothered to look from his giant tower to see Scourge 2.0 forming up a block from his house? All sarcasm aside, this was the Shaman/Druid expansion, just like Wrath was the Pally/DK/Mage expansion. I'm ok with that. Taurens got Sunwalkers, which was cool, although my god, there's nothing uglier than a Tauren wearing Paladin tier helmets. I felt like the Horde paladin orders, the Sunwalkers and the Blood Knights could have had their lore fleshed out more with the Azeroth revamp, and as always, the Draenei got heinously neglected. I will say that Eastern Plaguelands was in my opinion the best zone in the revamped world. It showed development, while still maintaining the feel of the previous zone, and the friendly rivalry between Gidwin and Tarenar balanced a fine line between levity and weight.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Is your class easier or harder for a fresh 85 to learn now than it was at the end of Wrath? Is this a good or a bad thing?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>There are more buttons, and the rotation is more complex, but at the same time, there weren't any encounters in Cataclysm that taxed the tank in the same way that phase three Yogg and Firefighter pushed me. along with the massive threat boost and taunts and interrupts no longer missing, a lot of the things that all tanks face have been simplified. I would say that the spec has gotten harder, but the role has become easier, so it's kind of a push in that regards.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>What aspects of your class’ gameplay do you think the designers really got right in this expansion? What aspects were clear misses?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Once again, the AoE component was a complete failure. The implementation of Holy Power was pretty muddled, and the more the tweaked, the more irritating it was, but I wouldn't write it off as a complete failure. Aside from that, not a whole lot changed.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><i>Overall, do you enjoy the playstyle of your class more now, at the end of Cataclysm, than you did prior to patch 4.0 at the end of Wrath? Why or why not?</i></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>I definitely enjoyed Tanking on a paladin in the back half of Wrath more than I did during Cataclysm. However, with that said, prior to patch 3.2, paladin tanks were unambiguously weaker than the other classes, by a margin far wider than anything any of the tank classes have seen in Cataclysm. I have to give credit to the class balance team for bringing the tanks closer to complete parity than ever before. I never felt like my playing a paladin was holding the raid back the way I did when I was tanking OS3D and Ulduar HMs. Which is a huge achievement.</span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-56589990075023164872012-02-20T14:56:00.000-08:002012-02-20T16:12:33.793-08:00What Cataclysm Got Right.<span ><span style="font-size: 100%;">With Cataclysm roughly six months away from its exit, it's a good time to take a look in retrospect at what was probably Blizzard's most ambitious attempt at an expansion. While I have, and will continue to be critical of a lot of the failures in the design and story of Cataclysm, I have found some aspects of the expansion to be a great move in the right direction. So lets look back at the things that Cataclysm did well. A little while ago, I read a <a href="http://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-five-favourite-things-about.html">post</a> by Shintar, ennumerating the five things she enjoyed most about Cataclysm. </span></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>1: T11 raiding.</b> I hadn't had as much fun raiding since Ulduar. Twelve bosses, a full array of heroic modes, and eight months of constant challenges. In eight months of raiding T11, we never hit a brick wall boss. We never ran out of content to work on. We got progression kills on Heroic Double Dragons the night before the release of Firelands. Once they fixed a few of the obviously broken encounters, Magmaw and Double Dragons heroic 10 were beyond </span>ridiculous<span style="font-size: 100%;"> in terms of their demands. Maloriak 10H's broken adds were offset by the equally broken lack of an enrage timer. However, once those encounters were corrected, T11 was a great raiding experience. Encounters ranged the full gambit of skill levels, and were never subject to the asinine blanket nerfs to current content that gutted the later tiers. The afterglow of T11 is one of the last things that keep me still raiding in Cataclysm.</span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>2: Reforging.</b> Myriad were the times in prior expansions where I would look at a piece of equipment and think </span><i style="font-size: 100%; ">If only I could get rid of this damn hit rating</i><span style="font-size: 100%;">. Thanks to this fantastic tool, I can get rid of that damn hit rating, well, most of it, anyways. Balancing hit caps and expertise caps on my DPS characters, and the rolling CTC caps on my tanks was made </span>immeasurably<span style="font-size: 100%;"> easier thanks to this feature, which also acts as a gold sink to limit inflation in the WoW economy. </span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>3: Specializations.</b> Prior to specializations, you would find some really </span>counter intuitive<span style="font-size: 100%;"> moments in the leveling process that encouraged idiotic behavior at the level cap. Until roughly level 30, Retribution was the best tanking spec for paladins, because prot paladins were heinously mana starved until they got BoSanc, and had little to do outside of auto attacks and judgement. Retribution wasn't just viable for tanking, it was optimal. It was better at tanking than the actual tanking tree. It was even worse for druids who were incapable of tanking until they got thick hide to make up for the fact that they were otherwise as squishy as a rogue. Specializations changed all that. Prot paladins were the better than ret paladins at tanking right out of the gate, as they should be. </span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>4: Profession Dailies.</b> I hate cooking in WoW. I also hate fishing in WoW. First Aid I find pointless, but I do enjoy the howls of the tailors when they find out exactly how much cloth I've come across in my time tanking across Azeroth, and just how much of it was converted into bandages that subsequently got vendored. While the cooking dailies and fishing dailies in Dalaran were a decent source of income, they sometimes required me to go </span>gallivanting<span style="font-size: 100%;"> across the countryside to find Rhinos to murder, or to fish of some obscure rock, </span>millimeters<span style="font-size: 100%;"> away from the hazards of fatigue water. You turn it in and get a token, or a bag of vendor trash, and a pittance of gold. Wooo... All that changed in Cataclysm. Well, not all of it, but the bad parts became less bad, and the instead of meaningless baubles, they gave me what I craved, skill points. From the comfort of the Alliance's glorious fortress of Stormwind, I can level a character's cooking or fishing from zero to max, without having to spend any time away from the friendly confines. I can, in effect, level cooking without cooking. That way, when I hit level 85, and someone asks who can drop a fish feast, I don't have to </span>discreetly<span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span>maneuver<span style="font-size: 100%;"> my character into the darkest corner possible to hide from their </span>judgmental<span style="font-size: 100%;"> glares. </span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>5: Rated Battlegrounds.</b> Arena is a joke. A couple people lock themselves in a room and wail on each other for some points. That's not to say that they don't have their place in the game, just as comedy has its place in the pantheon of entertainment. But if comedy was the only acceptable art form, and the Oscars were distributed based on who got the most laughs out of people, well, it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there. Likewise, I found it laughable that the only form of PvP that really mattered for the better part of two expansions was arena, a dystopic world of flavor of the month comps and win trading. As a veteran, I've always found BGs to be more compelling pvp, because there's objectives beyond simply "murder the Horde". It prompts new strategies, more complex strategies, and a plethora of new roles. While the rating system is pretty well flawed, giving players an avenue to progress in PvP beyond the trumped up dueling that is arena, was a great move on Blizzard's part.</span></span></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-34027285692444681352012-02-07T14:32:00.000-08:002012-02-07T16:11:26.601-08:00Embrace the Treadmill<a href="http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/wow-480x360.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 480px; height: 360px;" src="http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/wow-480x360.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />So, there's been a refreshed wave of complaints and praise about the concept of <i>Mists of Pandaria</i>. Some people don't like the theme, which I guess is a valid opinion to hold, albeit one that I find a little odd that in a game that sends you fully grown and domesticated dragons in the mail (<i>What's the shipping cost on that? I can't imagine the hazard pay the Azerothian Postal Service Earns.</i>), people are drawing the line at anthropomorphic pandas. Other people take umbrage with the new features, such as the minipet battles. I for one look forward to sending Stevie the Squire to bleed for my honor in the Ring of Death. <div><br /></div><div>There's another wave of complaints. People whine about the game being a perceived pixilated hamster wheel. Level up another five levels, grind through the heroics again, and get back into raiding/PvP shape. Wooooooo...</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an MMO. If you wanted a defined end state, well, Diablo III and Mass Effect 3 will both come out soon to sate your hunger for single player games with multiplayer tacked on. And threes, lots of threes this year. MMOs, particularly subscription based MMOs, are a treadmill. The entire plan is to make it so that you can't "beat" the game, and then shelve it until the sequel comes out. </div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings us back to the people complaining about the expansion. I think they're right. Why should we pay $50 for a box that lets us keep running on the treadmill we're already on? What's the point of another five levels that endgame players are going to blitz through blindly in less than a week, and tacking on another five levels for a new player to wander through? The barrier to entry gets taller and taller, and as a result, the leveling content prior to the current expansion get stretched thinner and thinner, to the point where current players can go from Winterspring, to Hellfire, to the Borean Tundra, to Hyjal without spending more than a few hours in other zones. Level 58-80, and new players miss 90% of the content that exists in those regions. </div><div><br /></div><div>The current leveling model is an annoyance to established players, and an increasingly insurmountable barrier to new players, whom Blizzard must court to feed Azeroth the bodies it needs to sustain its grim rate of attrition. Why? What's the point? What's the purpose of leveling in the modern World of Warcraft?</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it to teach players how to play in endgame content? That was one of the old ideas behind it, and one that Blizzard attempted to return to in Cataclysm, introducing quests that simulate raid mechanics such as LoSing casters and dodging void zones, but the penalties were so light that the majority of player bulldozed their way through the quests without learning the intended lessons. This idea is further undermined by Blizzard's tendency to give players abilities right before they hit the endgame, that completely and fundamentally alters the manner in which the player plays their character, which pretty much obliterates most of what they learned prior to the acquisition of that keystone ability. </div><div><br /></div><div>Is it to increase the power of the characters? They slapped differing scalars on ratings at different levels, leading to the rather humorous reality of a level 80 tank dinging level 81 and losing 60% of his avoidance, or fire mages just now crawling back the levels of crit that they had in Naxx. It's not like you're getting a talent point every level now, either. Come MoP, you'll only be getting six points total, and they're stretched out in a doldrum of 15 level gaps.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it a vehicle for new content? It is, but it's not the sole vehicle, and while leveling is failing at all its primary functions, those other vectors, raiding, dungeons, and daily hubs, not only do just as good a job of delivering new lore and content, but they also serve their primary purposes of providing gear, gold, and incentives to come back. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I'm not advocating the death of leveling content. I believe that it should be returned to its roots. Leveling content should be difficult. It should introduce players to mechanics that are seen consistently throughout the endgame. Void zones, LoS, Interrupts, DPS and Heal checks, 3D maneuvering, and kiting should be introduced to players, and reiterated throughout the leveling experience. It should have real consequences, too. If you stand in that void zone when it blows, you should die, and the game should tell you why you died, and let you try again.</div><div><br /></div><div>What I do want Blizzard to kill off are these little leveling breaks between raid tiers for each expansion. I'm here for the treadmill, not for cross training. You don't run for a half hour, stop and stretch, then run for another half hour, and stop to stretch again, repeating ad nauseum. You stretch to prepare yourself for your run, and then you run until you're finished. </div><div><br /></div><div>Questing is not the sole province of leveling content. Questing can work as an excellent means for moving the story along. The 4.1 ZG/ZA questline was an excellent example of moving the storyline along through quests that were available only at the level cap. </div><div><br /></div><div>So what I'm proposing is that Blizzard embrace the treadmill nature of the endgame of WoW. They need to acknowledge that they create two games, the leveling game, which is largely a solo game, and the endgame, which is both a single player and multiplayer game. They need to create a leveling game that serves their purposes, and then allow that to stand on its own. Once players complete the leveling game, the basic training of WoW, they should be at least competent at the class they leveled. That's when they hit the endgame. They've finished their stretches, and they step onto the treadmill. Content updates should come every six to eight months, and should introduce multiple levels of content. There should be a set of daily quests for solo play, along with quests introducing the new multiplayer content. There should be about ten to twelve new five man bosses, in two to three new dungeons, and a new tier of raids with ten to twelve bosses. What there shouldn't be is thirty hours of solo content acting as a barrier to entry to the new content. They can realign the talents when needed, and introduce new zones, new abilities, and new BGs as needed. You don't need a new expansion to do that. You just need a patch. </div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-17950862253898276862012-02-02T16:20:00.000-08:002012-02-02T23:42:49.083-08:00Numbers 2.0: Insight Into the Design Theory of Cataclysm, Casual Raiders Are Not the Majority, Churn and Attrition Are Two Different Things.So, my last numbers post got me thinking about some more numbers. Go figure. <div><br /></div><div>One of the metrics people were using for analyzing the difficulty of T13 content was that by Christmas, only 175k characters had downed Madness of Deathwing on normal difficulty, which is only 4% of the total level 85 population. What I found interesting about that particular metric, was it gave me something that I didn't feel like putting in the effort to find on my own. The total number of level capped characters in World of Warcraft. There's a hair under 4.4 million level capped characters. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is interesting. We all know that there's 10 million active accounts in World of Warcraft right now. It's something that they slap onto every single advertisement for the game. That means, that if we make the patently false assumptions that no one has a level capped alt, and that no one with a level 85 character has let their subscription lapse, then we wind up with the figure that 56% of paying players have not hit level 85 yet, and that's the absolute lowest percentage it can be. Even by the most conservative estimates, if you've hit level 85 in World of Warcraft, you're in the minority. In reality, the percentages are more skewed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two and a half million net players have quit since the release of T9. Two million alone in the last year of Cataclysm content. Some of those were players who made it to level 85 and quit playing. Those players were listed in the 96% of players who hadn't downed DW, and as such, are listed in the 4.4 million. This means that the percentage of endgame accounts is actually smaller than the 44% posited in the most conservative estimate. </div><div><br /></div><div>Further complicating the issue is the matter of alts. How many people do you know who have another character at level 85? Or two? I have five, there's another player in my guild who has ten, and I know a couple people on the server who have 15+. Of my five level 85 characters, I only raid seriously on two of them. Those other three get lumped in as casual players incapable of raiding without help from papa Blizz. If you assume that half of the players who make it to level 85 also have one alt at level 85, then suddenly the percentage of players in endgame content plummets to 29%. That's lower than the President's approval rating. Over 70% of the players who pay for this game never make it to level cap. Now, because my brain makes jumps like Bob Beamon at times, I was reminded of somewhere else I saw 70% in relation to WoW demographics. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the 2009 4th Quarter shareholder's conference call Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard, cited that their internal numbers showed that 70% of new players to WoW quit before they reach level ten. Any guild master will tell you that retention's a bitch. Hell, Bioware could tell you that after they lost 15% of SWTOR's playerbase after the first month. By taking all the numbers we've seen here, we can see the force of attrition at work here. For every player that quits the game, Blizzard's gotta sort through 2.3 new players to replace them. For every level capped player that quits, the number of new bodies that have to be hewn through is probably closer to 5.3. </div><div><br /></div><div>Attracting new players to replace those lost to attrition becomes increasingly difficult as the game ages. Not only are there new competitors out there which have the advantage of having learned from the mistakes made during WoW, but the barrier to entry becomes higher and higher. At Cataclysm release, it was over a $100 investment in boxes alone to break into the game from the start and make it to level 85, not including subscription fees. That's a lot of money to sink into a game, and keep in mind that for every dungeon buddy, arena partner, or raider, that has quit your guild in the past year, Blizzard needs five people to replace them. That $100 becomes a pretty steep price. </div><div><br /></div><div>This explains the idea behind investing the bulk of the expansion into revisiting the leveling content. In the back half of Wrath, the retention rate on players dropped low enough that the attrition rate caught up, and they went through 18 months of no real growth. Looking at this, they decided that rather than attacking the attrition rate of established clients, they would try to increase the recruitment rate of new players by making the early leveling content more attractive. The more cynical side of me thinks that they were hoping to keep people interested in the game long enough to build enough baggage in the game that they'd not quit when they hit the dearth of endgame content. The more optimistic side of me thinks the cynical side of me is a jerk. </div><div><br /></div><div>This idea, to mortgage the endgame in favor of the leveling game, was a rather spectacular failure. WoW lost 1/6th of its player base in less than a year, after six years of nearly uninterrupted growth. </div><div><br /></div><div>So the question is "why?" When you don't put resources into the endgame, the game ends. It sounds like a tautology, but it's not. By creating content for the endgame that is properly farmable, interesting, and challenging enough to hold a player for an extended period, then it's easier to retain a max level player, rather than telling them to just roll an alt and start over. By revamping older content, especially to the degree they did in Cataclysm, they're wasting resources, for several reasons.</div><div><br /></div><div>1: There's already content there. They're replacing content that they already spent resources on creating, and gained nothing in terms of additions to the game. The players spend the same amount of time in Northshire as they did before. The fact that the Orcs are burning our vineyard down doesn't really make a big difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>2: New players don't know any better. If anything, revamping the old world just makes the newer content less engaging when you reach it. I know it's a pain leveling alts through some of that stuff, and the new content was a godsend for those of us who couldn't stomach the idea of having to choose between Winterspring or Silithus again. But when I was leveling Dämmer, Eastern Plaguelands was the shit. I murdered Scourge with gusto. Then I got to Hellfire Peninsula, I flew through the Dark Portal, and witnessed Fel Reapers striding the wastes, shaking the ground with their steps, and casually crushing curious players who wandered too close. Then I got to Northrend, and I surfed a harpoon across a gaping canyon after gunning down a plethora of super vikings riding primordial dragons. The bar was constantly being raised, and kept me engaged the entire time. Granted, when I went back to Azeroth to level my warrior, I had a new perspective, and found it painful to level, but that's what heirlooms are for. The revamp screwed up the perspective of new players. </div><div><br /></div><div>3: It's too much to put on one plate. I'm a firm proponent of getting it done right, rather than rushing it out the door. However, with Blizzard's glacial working pace, there comes the side effect of leaving players in the same raid instance for a year, or whole projects simply sublimating into vapor. So there's a caveat that needs to be attached to it: Don't promise what you can't realistically deliver. Cataclysm was a very ambitious idea for an expansion, one that Tom Chilton's crew did not do justice to, at all. On the EK/Kalimdor revamp, there's a ton a places where they simply repeated the exact same thing that happened in the zone before hand. Elywnn forest is just tragic. I'm still trying to hook Romeo and Juliet up? Didn't I fix that years ago? Other things that I harped on in previous posts, like the horrible treatment the Worgen get when they leave Gilneas, speak to unfinished content that was rushed out the door to meet a deadline. Even worse, the endgame content, the stuff that the expansion is built around, also felt the sting of over extension. When Wrath launched, Ulduar was already deep in development. When Cataclysm launched, they had nothing set on T12 content beyond the broadest ideas. Hence why Ulduar was a 14 boss masterpiece, and T12 was a 7 boss abortion that had an entire second instance, The Abyssal Maw, cut from development, leaving half an instance with an over-bloated loot table created due to trying to squeeze 14 bosses worth of loot into a 7 boss bag. Because of the crunch applied to T12, T13 suffered, becoming the Deja Vu Tier, where you're pretty sure you've killed every boss in the instance before, because they're all recolors of previous bosses, not even reskins, with the sole exception being the tendons on Spine, and Deathwing's head and limbs on Madness.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lesson to take from Cataclysm is this: Don't waste resources "revamping" old content. As much as it pains the lore geek in me to say this, don't ever revamp any non level cap content again. No Outland revamp, no Northrend revamp, nothing. Sure, you can add zones for level capped content to the continents, sure. But don't try to make the new player experience amazing, because new players won't know the difference, and the players who will notice the difference, the current players, will notice that the revamp is coming at the expense of new content for them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Chalk Cataclysm up as a learning mistake. You screwed up, lost two million subscribers that probably won't come back. As far as mistakes go, it's a big one, but not a lethal one. The time you spend trying to reduce the churn in the lower echelons of the player base is time wasted, and it allows attrition to take its toll.</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-16086788344910133532012-01-31T23:36:00.000-08:002012-01-31T23:42:02.181-08:00Cross Realm Raiding is a Go!Saz, of <a href="http://serenitysaz.blogspot.com/2012/01/twitterland-cross-realm-raiding.html?showComment=1328081726282#c1345698856962660722">World of Saz</a>, has been kind enough to set up an enjin site for all the twitteratti and Bloggers who want to take advantage of the new cross realm raiding feature introduced in the recent patch. <div><br /></div><div>You can find it <a href="http://twitterland.enjin.com/home">here</a>. I'm going to try and squeeze in a few raids if at all possible, and I'd love to see it flourish. </div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-53670807992744612092012-01-31T18:03:00.000-08:002012-01-31T19:14:37.775-08:00Fail of DeathwingYeah, my guild hates Madness of Deathwing. I've never seen so much vitriol reserved for an encounter we downed in five attempts the first time we tried it. For an encounter on normal mode, this amount of hate is truly unprecedented. Personally, I'm kind of ambivalent towards it, but the fact that I've had to drag raiders kicking and screaming to finish the encounter has prompted me to take a hard look at what exactly creates such antipathy towards this particular encounter. <div><br /></div><div>1: "It's a trash fight!"</div><div>Personally, I don't subscribe to this idea, that just because you're not crossing swords with your foe directly makes the encounter dull. I firmly believe that the finest end of tier boss this game has produced was Yogg-Saron, a fight which consisted of me doing nothing but tanking minions and tentacles. At the same time, having a static boss that can't change position does severely limit the perception of freedom in an encounter, and I can understand that idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>2: "It's so looooooooong..."</div><div>Yeah, fifteen minute fights can be a pain in the ass. They can also be amazingly epic. Kil'jaeden, Yogg-Saron, Lich King, Nefarian in both incarnations, were all amazing encounters that took a long time to kill, even when they were on farm. It sucks when you wipe late in an attempt and you have to start all over, and it's a bit of a kick in the crotch when you look at the clock and realize that despite whipping your raid for quick turnover between wipes, you've spent an hour and only gotten four attempts in. I don't think that this is something that makes a fight bad in and of itself, but it really exacerbates other factors, such as...</div><div><br /></div><div>3: "Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, wipe"</div><div>I understand what Blizzard was trying to accomplish here. They wanted to make a dynamic encounter that evoked shades of Yogg-Saron with the four godlike beings assisting you at varying levels. This is what they wound up with: a fight where nothing matters until ten minutes into the fight. The encounter is completely trivial until the final platform. A lot of the mechanics are solid, CD coordination checks, positioning checks, AoE strength checks, and single target coordination checks. They're all good, but for most of the fight, they're completely trivial. It amounts to the Kael'thas or Tirion RP before the fights in BC and Wrath, it's cool the first time, but God it gets old fast, and I can't even go get a drink during this stuff. </div><div><br /></div><div>4: "Thrall Hates Me."</div><div>This is the one that really irks me. Blizzard dropped the ball on the coding for the wind tunnels on this encounter, and often enough to be a noticeable problem, Thrall will just drop players while making the transition to Kalecgos' platform, which also tends to be the one that groups go to last. While it's bad when this happens to a DPS, when it happens to a healer or tank, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a wipe. You can't battle rez them, you can't prevent it, you can only lament the ten minutes of your life you'll never get back. It's happened to me with two different guilds, and at least seven different players. <a href="http://fromdraenor.com/?p=233">I'm not the only one who's seen this problem</a>. Honestly, Blizz, what were you thinking here? Besides, Green Jesus is supposed to be the Aspect of Earth. Just have him make a goddamn bridge. A nice solid bridge of stone that if a player falls off, its their own damn fault. On an entertaining side note, if you open a ticket citing this glitch as an example of Horde Favoritism, a GM will answer it in three minutes flat. </div><div><br /></div><div>While Spine of Deathwing doesn't have near as much hate as Madness on normal mode, it still suffers from the same flaw of repetition. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, how would I have fixed this problem, making Deathwing into a fight worthy of the end of an expansion?</div><div><br /></div><div>1: Combine both encounters into a single fight.</div><div>No break to loot in between Spine and Madness. You pry the armor plate loose, Thrall takes his shot, everyone lands at the Maelstrom, DW erupts out, and you go right back to carving him up. Recovery time is for wimps, tempo is everything. This also sows the seeds for a badass RP moment. The finest RP moments in raids are always the mid fight ones, not the ones that get handed to you just for pulling. I think part of it is because when they occur midfight, they have a built in tempo that prevents them from taking too long, and I think that having them occur mid fight keeps you from focusing too hard on them. It's like a Monet painting. It looks beautiful from a distance, but the closer you examine it, the more it looks like just a few colored blobs. For me, the coolest moment in the game is the phase two transition on Yogg-Saron, where Sara goes into a brief monologue, her voice warps into Yogg's, and Yogg emerges from the ooze laughing maniacally. Kil'Jaeden's eruption from the Sunwell is up there too. I think Deathwing clawing his way out of the Maelstrom could rival that if they didn't give us the nonchalant period of bitching over which trinket dropped before hand. </div><div><br /></div><div>2: Scale back the repetition, scale up the individual mechanics. </div><div>Instead of three plates on Spine and four islands on Madness, I'd go one plate on the spine, leading into one island on Madness, which automatically breaks into phase two when you've cleared the Limb Tentacle. Increase the health on the Burning Tendon, so you force the group to pop two amalgams to proceed to the next phase, and once the tendons goes, Thrall blasts Deathwing, and you leap off right before he hits the Maelstrom. Token "Nothing could survive that..." from Green Jesus right before Deathwing rears up out of the Maelstrom and strikes down all four aspects, forcing the team to break his grip upon the island, and the Aspects. Increase the health on the Tentacle to force most groups to go through 3-4 impales, rather than 1-2, and it would make the tank swaps more interesting, as the tentacle will probable still be up when the Bloods come out. Extend the duration on Cataclysm by 50% to compensate for the decreased uptime and the lack of the spellweave buff when dropping blistering tendrils. Phase two remains pretty much unchanged, aside from the fact that it's now actually phase three.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think that these changes would aleviate a lot of the major complaints about Deathwing. It would shorten the duration of the fight, although not dramatically. It would decrease the repetition, and it would completely remove the RNG Aspect of Derp deaths that infuriate people.</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-11852835724956152822012-01-24T14:07:00.000-08:002012-01-24T14:59:28.842-08:00Lets Talk Numbers: Raid Kills, Difficulty, and Proper Interpretation.Ok, this has been something that I've been noticing in the recent storm of blog posts and comments about the Dragon Soul nerfs. It's been mostly happening in comments, but some of the more prominent <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/19/ol-grumpy-and-the-dragon-soul-nerf/">bloggers</a> have fallen into this trap as well. They don't know how to look at the raw data we've been given by sites like Wowprogress and <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2614-Dragon-Soul-and-Firelands-Statistics-Blue-Posts-Poll">MMO-champion</a>, and turn that data into a usable analysis. From Matt Rossi: <span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236); "><blockquote>Even if you just consider the 800,000 players who finished Firelands, only a quarter of them are done with normal Dragon Soul. This means when players make comments like "Dragon Soul is easier than Firelands," they're not at all supported by the statistics. As many people had completed Firelands pre-nerf as have now completed Dragon Soul. Pre-nerf Firelands was, statistically speaking, on par with and not harder than Dragon Soul is right now.</blockquote></span><div>That's not only incorrect from an analytic perspective, it's also factually incorrect. Wowprogress shows us that there were 19,500 Deathwing normal kills by January 19th, the date that the article was published. That was 52 days after the instance was opened up on November 29th. On August 18th, 52 days after Firelands was released, there had still only been 9,500 Ragnaros kills. 10,000 more guilds have killed Deathwing than killed Ragnaros in the same time span, a 105% increase. This is an indication of Dragon Soul being significantly easier than Firelands was, not "on par", as Mr. Rossi claims. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've spoken before about how raid groups will settle onto their appropriate place on the curve of raid kills. There's essentially three factors that decide if you're going to down a boss. There's skill, gear, and commitment. Skill is the combined ability of the members of your raid to know how to play their class and role, and their ability to learn and adapt to the mechanics of the encounter. Gear is just that, the quality of the gear that your raid has. This provides a buffer, stronger tanks are less likely to die, bigger healing throughput keeps the raid up, and more damage output shortens encounters. More gear means an easier encounter, which means less skill is required. Then there is commitment. All other things being equal, a guild that raids five days a week will progress further than a guild that raids five hours a week like Legacy. Skill x Gear x Commitment = the timeline upon which a group can expect to down bosses, assuming the difficulty is equivalent. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many people measure the objective difficulty of encounters via commitment required to down the boss, either in number of pulls, or number of weeks spent learning a particular encounter. The reason for this is that within a raid group, skill and gear tend to be equivalent at equivalent points of progression in different tiers. A guild in 346 gear working on Halfus will take about the same amount of time as a guild in 359 gear working on Shannox. It's a rare occasion where Mr. McEatstheFloor suddenly becomes an amazing player. These things rarely change.</div><div><br /></div><div>A guild that requires three months of farming gear in order to raise their SkillxGearxCommitment quotient high enough to down the final boss in the instance does not magically become skilled enough to clear the next instance on the first day, or in the first week, or in the first month. If you were not in the first 10K Ragnaros kills in T12, then you shouldn't expect to be done with normal mode Dragon Soul yet. However, 10k players beyond reasonable expectation have already cleared the instance. We can use this to establish just how much easier Dragon Soul is than Firelands, and through that assessment, we can build reasonable expectations for when a raid group that cleared Firelands should expect to be able to down Deathwing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 19,500th Ragnaros kill didn't occur until September 26th, 91 days after release. There's a 39 day disparity between hitting that benchmark in Dragon Soul, and hitting it in Firelands. You can either make the assumption that the lack of difficulty simply frontloaded guilds, that the guilds that downed Rag in the first month downed him the first week, and then things settled. You can also look at it as a compressed schedule, where every day spent in Firelands is equal to 60% of a day in Dragon Soul. It's more likely a combination of the two. However, this shows that it's reasonable to expect your group to reach a milestone in DS about three to five weeks earlier than it took them to hit that level in Firelands. It is not reasonable to expect kills to be rolling in three to five months sooner. </div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-46777056055670999232012-01-19T10:30:00.000-08:002012-01-19T11:53:01.822-08:00Nerfs Again: Blizzard Recognizes the Dangers of the Skill Gap.I've talked <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/09/difficulty-skill-gap-blanket-nerfs-and.html">before</a> about how dangerous having a profound skill gap in between bosses is harmful to the game. Blizzard has taken note of this, and has decied to implement a stacking debuff that reduces the health and damage of everything in Dragon Soul by 5% per stack, akin to the Strength of Wrynn buff in Icecrown Citadel. This debuff, called "<a href="http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/109257/power-of-the-aspects/">Power of the Aspects</a>", will apparently scale beyond the 30% that the ICC buff capped out at. When asked about the reasoning as to why they're nerfing normal and heroic modes, Bashiok spoke up:<br /><blockquote><p>Believe it or not there are actually guilds and raiding groups that are attempting to progress through Normal and Heroic raids, but are hitting a wall, and have been hitting a wall. We have actually statistical date we base our changes on, we know exactly how many people are clearing these raids each week, we know exactly how many people are able to down just a few bosses, and how many were only able to down a few bosses every week for weeks on end and then stopped raiding altogether.<br /><br />The issue we're constantly trying to combat is the one where people feel like they're just out of options. One way this is an issue is the content is too easy, they blasted through it, have everything they could possibly want, and have nothing else to do. Ideally that's a small subset of very hardcore players. For everyone else it's a feeling of just being stuck with no possible way to progress. Very few players are willing to suit up, buff up, do all the necessary requirements to raid, jump in, and then do no better than they did last week for hours and hours, only to return next week and do the same.</p></blockquote>This is the skill gap that I warned of. This is dangerous, especially in the year long wait that we're going to have to endure in this short tier. Running out of options this early is fatal. It's good to see Blizzard recognize this. However, in his later comments, and in the actions that Blizzard has decided to take in combating this problem, show that they don't really understand the problem and how it relates to the player base.<br /><br /><b>The first issue is the timing.</b> From Bashiok:<br /><blockquote>We feel the content has been out for quite a while now, that most people who have progressed and downed Deathwing on Heroic have done so, they've had sufficient time to celebrate in their accomplishments, and these very small progressive alterations will only help guilds that are already doing well in the raid get over some hurdles they may be facing.</blockquote>Bashiok, let's make this clear: The content will have barely been out for two months when you roll this nerf out. That's 1/3 of the normal six month life span of a raiding tier. Not only that, but one of those months was December. For those guilds that aren't commited enough to raid through Christmas and New Years, the content has only effectively been out for six weeks. Six weeks is not "quite a while".<br /><br />Furthermore: "Most people who have progressed and downed Deathwing on Heroic have done so", huh? Most people with blonde hair have blonde hair. Obvious statement is obvious. This isn't about the Paragons and Vodkas of the world. This is about the other guilds. The guilds that would progress if given more than six weeks to down all current content that Blizzard also inexplicably expects to last us another eight months. Six weeks is not enough time for any guild with a reasonable amount of skill and who raid on a reasonable schedule to be hitting their limits. The insinuation here is that if you aren't in the 67 guilds that have cleared all content in the first two months of raiding, then you're toiling hopelessly and Blizzard needs to save you from your own incompetence. Not only is this insulting to the guilds who choose not to raid five+ days a week, it's also irreparably damaging. All kills from February onward will be tainted.<br /><br /><b>The second issue is the implementation. </b>This is not the proper way to go about correcting the skill gap in content. Skill gaps exist because the content was not properly tuned. Each raiding tier should have equivilent difficulty when attempted at the appropriate level and gear. In properly tuned tiers, guilds will see similar progression on a similar timeline. A guild that cleared all heroic content in the first month should be able to clear all heroic content in the first month. A guild that takes six months to clear half the heroics should expect to clear half the heroics in about six months. A guild that struggles to clear normal mode in that six months should expect to take close to six months to clear all the normal content.<div><br /></div><div>There should be a smooth distribution of difficulty across all the encounters. A guild that can clear one encounter should not find the next encounter hopelessly out of reach. Likewise, a guild that finds the previous encounter trivial should be able to clear the next encounter. The skill gap is created when there's significant jumps in difficulty. This is more likely to occur in stunted tiers like the seven boss Firelands and the eight boss Dragon Soul because fewer divisions means greater stratification between encounters if the end state remains the same as better developed tiers such as the 13 boss T11, 12 boss T10, and the 14 boss T8.</div><div><br /></div><div>By implementing blanket nerfs, the gaps remain. All you've done is artificially lowered the end state. You've done nothing to remove the gap itself, which is the problem. You address the symptoms, but you allow the underlying cause to continue to fester, and that introduces new problems down the road. This is the equivalent of giving a person with an infected wound a shot of morphine and sending him home. He might feel better, but it's going to wear off, and he'll be in even more pain, and possibly have long term damage because of the short sighted approach to repair. </div><div><br /></div><div>Blizzard, if you want to avoid running into these situations every tier, you have to bite the bullet, and actually balance the instance. Don't just throw some derpy blanket cut on the instance and call it good. Heroic Spine of Deathwing is an extremely poorly designed encounter. Forcing players to rely on short term burst on the only target that is beneficial to damage renders multiple classes completely useless. The solution to fixing Heroic Spine of Deathwing is not to nerf normal Ultraxion, it's to fix Heroic Spine of Deathwing. All that's happening with these blanket nerfs is that Blizzard is trading the long term health of the game in exchange for a little pain relief right now.</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-29464883810618467792011-12-29T16:55:00.001-08:002011-12-29T17:14:00.639-08:00Everything I Need to Know About Playing My Shaman, I Learned From Thrall.<a href="http://www.icy-veins.com/images/hour-of-twilight-arcurion-ice-tomb.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 375px;" src="http://www.icy-veins.com/images/hour-of-twilight-arcurion-ice-tomb.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Stand in all the Ice Tombs!<div><br /></div><div>Pop Bloodlust 55 seconds into a one minute encounter.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mounts are for chumps, real Shaman use Ghost Wolf.</div><div><br /></div><div>AFK until the tank notices you.</div><div><br /></div><div>One handed strength mace? Ele weapon!</div><div><br /></div><div>Wear all the cloth!</div><div><br /></div><div>"Lok'tar, Friend!" is orcish for LEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOYYYY!</div><div><br /></div><div>Drop only one totem, any more and you're just being elitist.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pull all the trash! Seriously, all of it, including that pack that's way across the room. I might drop my totem in there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Melee attacks are <b>crucial</b> for elemental DPS.</div><div><br /></div><div>When you drop your raid cooldown, it's important that you yourself do not stand in it. This might make you seem selfish. So stand away from your bubble, even if it means you get hit by the giant boss AoE and can't help in the second half of the fight.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wind Shear is a brutal DPS loss. No matter how many mobs are casting, never wind shear, it's time that could be better spent meleeing.</div><div><br /></div><div>See that hunter that just disengaged out of the tank's AoE? Full single target burn. The tank must want it dead, because he let it get out of the group.</div><div><br /></div><div>Drop the melee DPS enhancing totem on the healer, otherwise how will they heal the melee?</div><div><br /></div><div>AoE pull? Lava Burst! Single target pull? Chain Lightning!</div><div><br /></div><div>The group only gets one bloodlust per instance.</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-10292217400624492372011-12-28T01:45:00.000-08:002011-12-28T01:47:37.746-08:00The Flaw of NeutralityAt least one of you read that in Sindragosa's voice, you have my condolences.<div><br /></div><div>In a <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/12/problem-with-thrall.html">previous post</a>, I mentioned that one of the reasons why there was such backlash against the idea of Thrall as a world character was the treatment of "Neutrality" in general in WoW, and the way that they altered it for Thrall in this particular instance. </div><div><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CeKTtkH_8Tc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /></div><div>There are two types of neutral characters in this game. There are characters who are born neutral, which is to say that they were designed from their inception in the game to be neutral, and there are characters who are naturalized into neutrality, which is to say that they existed as faction exclusive characters in game, but as the story line progressed, they moved into a position where they have to interact with both factions. A good example of the former would be Tirion Fordring, who's first appearance in game was as a neutral NPC in Eastern Plaguelands, who then proceeded to become the primary NPC for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The latter includes characters such as Malfurion, Thrall, Khagdar, and Bolvar Fordragon, all of whom made their first appearances in game tied to a faction, but have since found themselves turned neutral for various reasons. </div><div><br /></div><div>A character who was born neutral might have affiliations with a faction in his back story, as Tirion had with Lordaeron in the short story <i>Of Blood and Honor, </i>but that's back story, it serves to set the table for the actions in the game's story arc. Well, at least for pre-Wrath stories. Tirion never raises arms against either faction, and it's believable because of the weight of experience that he had in his back story. He spent the Second War fighting against the Orcs, and then spent ten years exiled from Lordaeron, including the Third War, where he watched humanity tear itself to shreds in the throes of the Scourge. He's seen the worst both factions have to offer, and because of that, he is beholden to nothing beyond his own sense of justice. He holds no allegiance to the Alliance, because they abandoned him, and he holds no allegiance to the Horde because of their propensity for conquest. His neutrality made sense because that's how his character was designed.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, there are the multitudes of Night Elf associated characters in Hyjal who went neutral. The two standouts were Cenarius and Malfurion, who began as characters in WCIII. Both were staunch defenders of the Night Elves. Malfurion's first words in game: <blockquote>The horn has sounded, and I have come as promised. I smell the stench of decay and corruption in our land. That angers me greatly.</blockquote>Malfurion felt the desecration of Ashenvale even in the depths of the Emerald Dream. <blockquote>I felt our land being corrupted, just as if it were my own body. You were right to awaken me.</blockquote>He feels the destruction visited upon ashenvale as if it were commited upon his own body. This is extremely strong language to use. Strong reactions mean strong emotions, and strong emotions mean lasting emotions. You can see similar reactions from Cenarius' in game text. <blockquote>Who dares defile this ancient land? Who dares the wrath of Cenarius and the Night Elves?</blockquote> Cenarius identifies with both Ashenvale and the Night Elves as a people. He was willing to fight for them, he was willing to die for them, and die he did. Both of these prominent heroes turn up in Mount Hyjal, where they distribute quests and aid heroes from both the Alliance and the Horde without a second glance.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other end of the spectrum is Thrall's turn to yellow text. He supposedly went neutral before the Cataclysm, and since his shift to neutrality, he flew under a Horde flag, slaughtered helpless Alliance sailors, inducted a new race into the Horde, and threatened to split the Throne of Stormwind in two. These are clearly not the actions of someone who's neutral in the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. This is something that I think Blizzard did right. Thrall is the Horde, and even though he ostensibly needs the assistance of the Alliance to handle a greater problem, he shouldn't just instantly forget about those affiliations, it would be unnatural. Alliance players should feel some apprehension when it comes to working with Thrall. When you're going through the elemental bonds questline, an Alliance player should question weather by helping Thrall here you're simply trading one form of extinction for a slightly later form. They're making a choice between two enemies, and it should be a difficult choice, one that you dread making. The impact of this was compromised by Blizzard's incessant undermining of Deathwing as a truly credible villain, but the intent was there.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, Blizzard completely failed at this in Mount Hyjal. Everyone was so happy go lucky in that zone that I secretly wondered if all the prominent lore characters had been given a prefrontal lobotomy. Horde characters resurrected a powerful Demigod that wanted to wipe them out the last time they met, for sins far less severe than they hard recently committed in the same place that they fought him at. They needed to surrender themselves back to the demonic corruption of the Burning Legion in order to even wound Cenarius. Bringing him back should be a terrifying prospect for Horde players, and one they only be considering because the situation is that dire. It should be the same with Malfurion, the most powerful druid in existence, who feels the wounds of the Night Elf homeland as his own, and the Horde just completely gutted Azshara and are working to do the same in Ashenvale. the Horde aren't their buddies, they're mortal enemies with whom their enmity should only be set aside because of the looming presence of the Firelord and the Destroyer. When a Horde player opens up that portal to bring Cenarius back, they should honestly be unsure as to weather he'll listen to them, or split their skull open on the spot. None of this happened, and that's a failure on Blizzard's part. Instead, Malfurion and Cenarius simply treated everyone equally. This undermines the story and it undermines the characters. It paints them as uncaring and impersonal at best, especially when put alongside the story of Leyara. </div><div><br /></div><div>The transition of a character from faction specific to faction neutral is a treacherous road to walk, I think they got it right with Thrall, and they got it wrong with most everyone in Hyjal. Ultimately, they wind up with a cognitive dissonance between the way characters are described, and the way they are portrayed, and if you can't properly aknowledge and account for that gap, you're going to wind up gutting potentially interesting characters like they did with Malfurion and Cenarius.</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-35817725098985215752011-12-24T16:06:00.000-08:002011-12-24T16:56:57.940-08:00Furtive Father Winter: How Karegina Got Her Groove Back<a href="http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2634/ffwlogo.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 251px;" src="http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2634/ffwlogo.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>Redcow, at <a href="http://redcowrise.blogspot.com/">Red Cow Rise</a>, has done a fantastic job of orchestrating a complex series of post exchanges in the annual <a href="http://blogazeroth.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3087">Furtive Father Winter</a>. Thirty blogs participated this year, and I decided that as part of my renewed efforts in writing, it would be a good exercise for me to do so as well. On December 16th, I received my assignment, Gladly and Manners from <a href="http://thereadycheck.com/">The Ready Check</a>, a blog that I had not read before, but I delved into post haste to make up for lost time. I recently sent them my guest post, and I pray they find it to their liking. It's a great blog, and you should check it out. <div><br /></div><div>This morning, I received an early Christmas present. In my inbox was a guest post of my very own, delivered with perfect timing from Karegina, of <a href="http://reluctantraider.blogspot.com/">The Reluctant Raider</a>, whose blog I had actually begun reading recently. It certainly put an interesting perspective on her <a href="http://reluctantraider.blogspot.com/2011/12/happy-generic-winter-holiday.html">recent post</a> about writing this guest post. I think she did a great job.</div><div>---</div><div><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>I was not around for the very first Winter Veil Festival. It happened shortly after game launch in 2004 so I can't say what it was like. However, I distinctly remember the 2<sup>nd</sup> one. I logged in one day and BOOM, Father Winter and all his helpers. I did the quests, I gathered the Preserved Holly (I actually still have like 40+ pieces on my bank toon) and lo, when Christmas came, I ran to the tree on each of my toons and got my presents.</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>I was playing Alliance in 2005, so the only toons that did it that year were them. I don't remember any of my characters getting any of the special pets, except my night elf druid, Annanda. She got the mini reindeer. I loved that thing. I always had snowballs so I could pull it out at any time.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><a name="0.1_graphic03"></a><span>I didn't do any of the quests, as I had no max level characters. Well, I did the milk and cookies one, but really, does that even count? </span> <span><img src="https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment?name=d33be9805ff33117.jpg&attid=0.1&disp=vahi&view=att&th=13470cce4f19f749" height="1" width="1" alt="Your browser may not support display of this image." /></span></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>As the years went by, I always looked forward to Winter's Veil. I love getting surprises and Father Winter always gave me something awesome on at least one of my many alts. </span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>When I moved to the Horde full time back in 2007, I had max level toons so I did all the quests and helped my friends with the quests as well. Leaving my toons back on the Alliance side with my reindeer and my Winter's Helpers and all that, was hard. There wasn't any Faction Change service available back then and if you wanted a druid Horde side, you had to level up a whole new one. (I love the Faction Change service, even if I have never used it!)</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>However, something happened which soured me on the WoW Holidays. I can't remember exactly what it was but I I ended up so upset that I refused to participate in any of the planned WoW Events. My husband begged and pleaded but I was stubborn.</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>I managed to go a year or two without running any of the special holiday bosses, or doing any of the daily quests. But then Blizzard added Achievements and my husband went insane. People became fanatics about doing Achievements and the first day of any holiday was filled with Achievement spam. This soured me on it even more and honestly, watching my husband DO ALL THE THINGS was annoying as hell. And hearing him harp on me to do X Achievement with him made me want to put a pen through his eye.</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>Yes, I was the human (tauren?) version of the Greench.</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>However, Blizzard put something in the game that I couldn't resist. A fast flying mount that is pinkish-purple. (I do not believe it's violet like the tooltip says!) So, I sucked it up and started doing the Achievements, much to my husband's delight.</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>I got my proto-drake in June of 2010, during the Flamekeepers MidSummer event. I had started working on the Achievements in 2009. (I really wanted the Elder title for my druid, so I did that one the first time around. The rest I picked up the 2<sup>nd</sup> time they came around.) </span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>This year's revamp is pretty awesome. I like the changes they've made to the Greench. (And since that's the only part I've done so far, I like it!) I know many people are annoyed at having to go all the way to Alterac Mountains/Hillsbrad Foothills to do it, and that's it's not a queue-able boss, but I love it. I love having to fly out there and work as a team with others. I've tanked it, I've healed it, I've bounced it around as dps when there was no tank. It's good times. And it doesn't make my anxiety flare to go do it. I'm in IN a 5 man group or a raid, I'm on my own. Doing my own dps or my tanking or healing whoever happens to be in the line of sight of the Greench. I have died but who cares? No one is counting or relying on me to do anything. I love it!</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>And somewhere in the middle of all of this, my Holiday spirit has returned. I don't know what happened but I'm enjoying the festivities, I'm doing things with people and my heart has grown 3 sizes! </span><br /></p><p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: medium; "><span>So, Happy Winter's Veil RenaissanceMan! I hope Father Winter brings you all sorts of goodies and many Horde to kill! (Even if I am Horde. But I don't PVP, unless a holiday requires me to. Or my priest gets bloodthirsty!)</span> </p></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-78505605540490281812011-12-20T16:25:00.000-08:002011-12-20T17:51:39.420-08:00Blizzard Writing Competition Entry 2011: The Last Letter of Captain Emmy MalinWell, like so many others, I placed entered into the Blizzard Global Writing Competition for 2011, and was found wanting. <i>C'est la vie</i>. The story pretty much consisted of me going "Deadline? Oh, shit!" and slamming in the story four hours before the submission deadline. I didn't get a chance to review it, and as a result, it's somewhat repetitive, and the dialogue gets a little hammy in places. I shotgunned the plot by drawing from the expansion I knew best, Wrath of the Lich King. <div><br /></div><div>In Dragonblight, Alliance characters see a continuation of the nexus war quest line extending from Borean Tundra. One of those <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/quest=12065">quests</a> involves killing a high ranking <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=26762">mage hunter</a> for the ring that controls the ley line foci that are feeding power to the Azure Dragonshrine. The NPC you kill has a name, as many do, and of course, the player cuts her down without a second thought, all because a magic hologram tells them to do so. When searching through the pockets of the victim, as players often do, they come across a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=36756">letter</a>. This in itself isn't unusual. The player always finds missives between villains and communications between overlords and their underlings. What was unusual was the contents of the letter. It was an apology to her <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=2708">father</a>, another NPC back in Stormwind, explaining how she was working against her will, and in secret, trying to sabotage the efforts of the Blue Dragonflight. Way to go, hero.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those quests served as a rare moment that humanized the nameless NPCs that you'd been slaughtering for over seventy levels at that point. I seized the opportunity to flesh out the circumstances that led to this tragedy.<br /><div><br /></div><div>So, following in the footsteps of <a href="http://serenitysaz.blogspot.com/2011/12/2011-blizzard-global-writing-contest.html">Saz</a> and <a href="http://www.orcisharmyknife.com/2011/12/blizzard-2011-fiction-entry-heart-of.html">Rades</a>, I give you: <i>The Last Letter of Captain Emmy Malin</i></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>---</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">A cold wind blew across the waters of <st1:placename st="on">Lordamere</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Lake</st1:placetype>, past the abandoned keep on Fenris Isle, and south into the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Alterac</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Mountains</st1:placetype></st1:place>. In the lull between gusts, the sizzle of arcane energy being harnessed could be heard for a second, as though echoing across a great distance. As the sound faded, an image appeared in the air. A city became visible, with tall towers cut from quarried stone, and a great many people visible, going about the daily routines of their life. A man in dark red robes moved to the forefront of the image. The image shimmered and sparked as the man stepped through the planes, covering the distance between Stormwind and Alterac in a single stride. Once he was fully in Alterac, the portal collapsed behind him, leaving no evidence that the rend in space had ever been there.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Archmage Malin, the last of Stormwind’s secretive conjurors, took a deep breath, inhaling the cold mountain air. He adjusted a few cinches on his robes to better keep him warm, and upon feeling the wind pick up again, considered returning to Stormwind briefly to retrieve his hat. But as he looked up, the sight ahead reminded him of why he came all this way. He briskly began walking down the trail leading to Dalaran.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The slim white spires of the city of magic rose up underneath a shield of violet energy sustained by a dozen members of the Kirin Tor. Unlike the towers of Stormwind, which were constructed by the master masons of the southern regions, Dalaran was brought back from its devastation at the hands of the Eredar lord Archimonde through almost entirely magical means. The buildings were formed from seamless alabaster stone. They rose up in ways impossible to be replicated by scaffolding, brick, and mortar. Although it had taken several years, the renewed Dalaran was a perfect replica of the ideal city that existed in the mind of its architect. The constant glow of the arcane energy that lit the street, sheltered the city, and bent to the will of every mage within the city lent Dalaran an otherworldly glow unlike any other city on Azeroth, save the Draenei’s home in the wreckage of the Exodar.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">As he neared the border of the protective dome, a pair of guards called him to a halt. As they approached him, their captain emerged from the guard post. She looked him over for a second, before an ear to ear grin appeared on her face.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“DADDY!” The guards looked quite surprised as their normally stern captain shrieked like a schoolgirl and hurled herself into the comforting embrace of her father, whom she hadn’t seen since she accepted her posting with the Kirin Tor Arcane Guard, over a year ago. Even through his thick robes, Emmy Malin could feel the scars that covered her father’s back, the legacy of an encounter with an orc warlock in the final, desperate hours of the fall of Stormwind in the First War. The fight that left her father wounded, and her mother dead; even now, years later, the memories of that day brought tears to Emmy’s eyes.</p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">“You’ve missed me, I see.” The archmage said, with a bit of a chuckle. Emmy never changed, ever since they fled Stormwind for Dalaran, there was only one thing she loved more than her <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">new city</st1:place></st1:city>, and that was him, the only family she had left. He kissed her on the forehead, and the ever dutiful guards decided that they had more pressing concerns in matters that didn’t impinge upon their captain’s privacy.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Dalaran was exactly as Archmage Malin remembered it, in a manner of speaking. It was nothing like the pile of rubble he had left behind during the third war, but every facet of the city had been restored to the glory of the height of the Kirin Tor’s power. Whereas the Archmage had returned to his homeland of Elwynn to aid in the reconstruction of Stormwind, Emmy, who by then had become a full fledged member of the Kirin Tor, had stayed behind with her order. For the past several years, the Malin family worked hard to rebuild and secure both of their cities. The only things that they couldn’t bring back were the people lost to the wars that had defined the past decades. Misery, however, has no place at the table for a reunion such as this.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The two talked well into the night, dining on fine wine, bread, and sharp Dalaran cheddar cheese. They regaled each other with tales of their divergent lives. Emmy told her father about the guard who served in the first shift after her promotion to captain that, on a dare, drank a potion he found in the sewers underneath the city, and found himself transformed into an insect. It took 4 hours, and the intervention of Archmage Modera herself to unravel the effects that the arcane concoction had wrought upon the guard’s body. Archmage Malin countered with a story about a hero in service of Stormwind who was assigned to deliver a message to Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore. The Archmage had been tasked with sending the hero to Theramore, which he did, repeatedly. Every time he did, the hero returned with a new excuse for why he hadn’t delivered the message yet. The Firelord had erupted in <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Blackrock</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Mountain</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the Black Dragonflight had infiltrated the House of Nobles, and once he started selling the Archmage tales of a race of insect men living in the sands of Kalimdor, Malin decided that his free teleport service needed to come to an end.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">But as the sun set, and the moon climbed across the sky, the time came for them to sleep. The quarters of a captain of the Arcane Guard are not cramped, but as Emmy had not had a guest stay in quite a while, the house wasn’t well appointed for overnight visitors. It took some doing, but Emmy managed to convince her father to take her room, while she would sleep in the second bedroom that she had converted into her office. After a cursory inspection to ensure that the room was presentable, she ushered her father in and began to show him where the lights and facilities were. She gave the dimmer switch a little flick to demonstrate how it worked, but nothing happened, the room remained brightly lit by the flares of arcane energy. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Oh no, the conduit’s jammed again. It took almost three days to get the maintenance crew to fix it last time. I’m sorry; I’ll get my sleeping mask for you.” Emmy began to rummage through her drawers trying to find the black piece of cloth. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Are they still using enchanted thorium to run power to the lights directly from the ley line?” The Archmage inquired, rubbing his grey beard as he considered the situation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I think so,”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Then I think I can fix this little problem without having to bother the good folks at maintenance.” He began tapping at the walls as if he was looking for a stud. Once he had found the position he was looking for, he placed his hand on the wall and focused. The room got colder as he poured a small amount of frost energy into the wall, and as the frost grew, the lights dimmed. “This is an old trick I was taught by Nielas Aran. If you channel frost directly into an arcane flow, you can suppress the flow of energy.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“How come you never taught me that?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I have to keep some tricks a secret, otherwise how could I impress you?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“You always impress me, daddy.”</p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">“It warms my heart to hear that, Em. But it’s late, and I’m old and need my rest. Sleep well, and I’ll see you in the morning.” The Archmage gently prompted Emmy out, and as he climbed into bed, Emmy started to clean up her office to give her enough space to lay her cot out.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy burst from slumber as the lights in her office came on. She sat up upon her cot, pushed her long brown hair out of her eyes, and looked for the source of the intrusion. An elf woman with blond hair cascading down her face, framing her blue eyes as she frantically searched Emmy’s office for something. “Telestra?” Emmy asked groggily. “What are you doing in my home?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The head of the Sorcerer’s League looked up, startled. “Sleeping in your office? How very gauche of you, captain.” Telestra giggled, “Still, this isn’t an altogether unpleasant revelation. I have need of you. Malygos has awoken, and he is not pleased with the current state of affairs.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“The Mad Aspect of Magic? Why do you need me for, I thought liaising with the blue dragonflight was strictly done at council level?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The elf cocked her head, “Normally yes, but the Sorcerer’s League has found some disturbing information. Malygos has determined that the unchecked use of magic by the mortal races has endangered Azeroth to an unacceptable degree. Dalaran has been singled out as a particularly egregious offender, one that is to be made example of, immediately.” She sighed, and caught Emmy’s level gaze. “They seek to take advantage of a flaw in the protections of the Violet Hold, and turn the prisoners held there loose in the city. You of all people should know how devastating that will be; after all, you put most of those prisoners in there.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Goosebumps ran up and down Emmy’s body. The Violet Hold was a magical prison designed to host the worst magical offenders that the Kirin Tor had arrested. Many of the most dangerous beings to come through the Dark Portal were secured there. Opportunists and scavengers that sought to use the chaos of the wars against the Horde to plunder the treasures and people of Azeroth for profit or pleasure. Any one of those prisoners could wreak havoc within the city; the thought of facing all of them terrified her. “Why not bring this to The Six? Surely they have the power to remedy this situation more effectively than I can.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Normally I would agree with you. But you surely remember Lord Krasus. His true name is Korialstraz. He is the prime consort of the Dragonqueen Alexstraza, and his influence upon the remaining members of The Six cannot be underestimated. Who knows how much of the information that goes to Rhonin and his lackeys winds up in Krasus’ hands, and through him, the aspects?” Telestra’s sapphire eyes narrowed. “We can not trust anyone with this information.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Breaking into my office helps this situation how?” Emmy asked, pointedly. “It’s not like I keep the security layouts on any old shelf in here.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The briefest of frowns flickered across Telestra’s face. “You are correct of course. Perhaps I did not think this through, but as I said before, your unlikely choice of lodgings can work to our advantage.” She walked around the desk and kneeled down before Emmy’s cot. “We need to review the plans and find the flaw before the dragons decide to strike.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Still somewhat resentful of being abruptly and rudely woken by the elf, Emmy stood up brushing Telestra aside and strode to her desk. The old oak desk was a gift given to her by the commander of the Arcane Guard when she was promoted to captain. Every captain had a similar desk in their office. Reaching under the first drawer, Emmy found a series of runes. Invoking a series of basic spells, she activated each rune in a specific order. Once she had completed the sequence, a compartment in the first drawer popped open, giving her access to all of the sensitive documents she had stored there. She reached in and withdrew the Violet Hold security plans, closing the compartment back up as soon as she could. She rolled the parchment out onto the desktop. It showed a layout of the Violet Hold, noting the location of the emergency containment crystals, which prisoners were the most dangerous, and what steps had been taken to secure them. It was a truly formidable prison, but like any other, it was not impregnable. Kael’thas had escaped from the Hold during the chaos after the third war, although the gaps in security that the naga had exploited had been closed and rigorously tested once the escape had ended.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Telestra slid in next to Emmy and began to review the document that lay before her. “You’ve caught an Ethereal? The Nexus Princes can’t be too happy about that.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy grimaced at the memory of the mission to capture the Ethereal, Xevozz. He had been attempting to harvest the ley lines around Dalaran in order to siphon the power back to the Ethereal’s projects in Outland. When they had confronted him, he tapped directly into that source of magical energy and used it to amplify his natural abilities for arcane manipulation. He attacked the mages with spells of such power and speed that no one in the Arcane Guard could match his ferocity. The power he had tapped coalesced into searing bright orbs that floated near him as he funneled their power into raw bolts of arcane force that tore through anything they impacted. It took the sacrifice of several courageous members of the Kirin Tor to lure him far enough away from the ley line that his access to its power was diminished enough to make a direct confrontation possible. The last man to give his life to make the capture possible was Emmy’s predecessor as captain. Even so, Xevozz’s last bolt had blistered Emmy’s skin, right through the frost energy that she had focused as a protective measure. Emmy used that same frost to entomb Zevozz in ice for long enough for him to be secured in the cells of the violet hold. As recognition for the bravery and aptitude for magical combat, she was promoted into the vacant captaincy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Xevozz’s cell was designed specifically for his abilities; just as every other cell was tailored with its occupant in mind. It was double lined, course stone insulated him from a layer of arcanite laid down to divert any bursts of arcane energy, depriving him of any access to the confluence of ley lines that powered so much of the city, and the prison in which he was bound. As a further means of containment, Archmage Aethas Sunreaver carved confounding runes into the stones of the cell. Anyone who observed the dull glow of the seals would be unable to construct anything beyond the simplest thoughts. Spells of any sort were out of the picture, and the punishment held a special tone for an Ethereal, whose race always delighted in the intellectual aspects of their business. As long as he was within the cell, he wouldn’t even be able to understand that he was angry, much less give form to his rage. If he were to be broken out, however, he would have full command of his faculties, and unrestricted access to the ambient energy of the city of mages. The damage would be immense, and he was but one of the many beings of unfathomable power secured within the cells of the Violet Hold.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I could care less what the Nexus Princes have to say about that. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them, the blue dragonflight, or anyone else break out my prisoners.” Emmy growled. She immediately went back to inspecting the layout, searching for any flaw that could be used to break into the prison. Every enchantment in every cell, every ward, rune, and sigil, every arcane field was inspected, checked, and rechecked. Emmy and Telestra were two of the rising stars of the Kirin Tor, both had seen the worst magic could bring out of people when the Archlich Kel’Thuzad made Dalaran a warzone during the Third War. He summoned Archimonde through the twisting nether and the Kirin Tor was still picking up the pieces from the sympathetic magic the warlock used to level the city. Telestra’s Sorcerer’s League had born the brunt of the invasion, and the elf had seen first hand how an attacker would seek to undermine the Kirin Tor’s strength. Between the two of them, no mage outside of the Council of the Six could hope to do a better job in isolating a potential weakness. The sun began to break over the mountains of the Hinterlands to the east when they found what they were looking for.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy spotted the flaw first. A subtle error; which would normally have gone unnoticed during standard inspections, it was a position within the dome of the Hold where the conduits that carried the energy for the field which prevented teleportation and the emergency purge system came within an inch of each other. Under normal conditions, this would be a perfectly acceptable arrangement, however, if a strong enough mage were to attempt to open a portal to just outside the dome the resultant warp would push the conduits closer together, and the feedback in the purge system would detonate. This detonation would not only crack open the dome, but allow the blue dragonflight to send agents directly into the hold. While the anti teleportation field would still function well enough to prevent an invasion en masse, it would allow a few people at a time to infiltrate into the prison. There were only a handful of mages in the world who had the power to open a portal large enough to cause such a distortion. The majority of them, unfortunately, were members of the blue dragonflight.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“If they’re going to get in, that’s their only chance. If we can fix that hole, then there’s no way anyone can get into the Hold without walking in through the front door.” Emmy said. “We’d have to shut down the purge system until the threat has passed, but that system’s a bit of overkill anyways. It’s really only useful if that damn water elemental ever got lose. As long as we can keep the dragonflight from breaking the prisoners out, the odds of needing the purge system is slim.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Excellent, now we just need to bring this information to my compatriots, and we can begin planning.” Telestra looked exceedingly pleased with herself. She had as big a smile on her face as Emmy had ever seen, but as it always does, Telestra’s smile had a hint of arrogant bemusement; it was as if there was a joke that only she was privy to the punch line. It unsettled Emmy. “Well, Captain, shall we go?” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I can just have the guards shut down the purge system.” Emmy suggested.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“They’ll want to know why you’re giving the order. They’ll be curious, and you know what they say about curiosity.” Telestra said trenchantly. “Regardless of weather or not you indulge them in their inquisitiveness, sending such an order through standard channels will attract the attention of people in whom we cannot afford to trust with this information. Which is where my compatriots come in, they will determine when the attack will come, and ensure that everything is prepared.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Let’s make this quick. I have company over.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Your father knows his way around the city. I’m sure he doesn’t need you to make sure that he gets a hearty breakfast.” Telestra said caustically. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I’ll just leave him a note letting him know that I’m out,” Emmy grabbed a quill and a piece of stationary from her desk.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">The elf took hold of Emmy’s shoulder, and uttered an incantation. A string of arcane energy anchoring the stone in Telestra’s possession tightened, slinging both women through the ether to the fixed point that the stone was attuned to. It was common enough magic, and it did have a tendency to turn the stomach if subjected to without warning. Emmy’s disorientation distracted her from the pair’s new surroundings for a few precious seconds. Reality set in shortly there after, and sent Emmy reeling in shock.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> They stood in what appeared to be an ancient caldera. It was cold, a cold that cut right through the robes Emmy wore. The snow piled high upon the ground. They couldn’t still be in near Dalaran; the skies were still dark in this strange place. Telestra held her arm up and sent a flare up, signaling their location to her allies. In the flickering light cast by the flare, Emmy could see another elf approaching them from the darkness. The first thing Emmy could make out clearly was her eyes. Unlike Telestra, who came to the Kirin Tor before the fall of Quel’Thelas, the stranger had the unmistakable green eyes of a blood elf. Emmy’s mind reeled. Had Telestra sought aid from the Horde? Had she taken them to Kalimdor? The stranger walked further into the light of the flare. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Do you have the information we need?” The stranger asked. Telestra nodded, and pulled the diagram of the Violet Hold out of her robes. She opened it and showed it to the blood elf.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“There’s a structural weakness in the dome’s security systems. They haven’t shut it down yet.” Telestra pointed out the flaws that Emmy had found.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Telestra, who exactly are you working with?” Emmy demanded, unsure of where the elf’s allegiances lay.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Who exactly is this little mortal? Why have you brought her here?” The blood elf inquired. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“This is Emmy Malin, a captain in the Arcane Guard. She’ll be a valuable asset to our cause.” Telestra declared. She turned to Emmy. “Emmy, this is your new employer.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Telestra, who are you working for?” Emmy said, gritting her teeth. She was now feeling very out of her depth. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Telestra began to speak up, but the blood elf cut her off. “I am Cyanigosa, daughter of Malygos, leader of the Mage Hunters.” She grinned, and her smile was colder than the icy winds that buffeted them.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“You’re what? Telestra, what have you done? How could you do this?” Emmy panicked. Telestra was in league with the blue dragonflight, and had tricked Emmy into helping her sell out the Kirin Tor. Telestra grabbed her by the shoulders.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Be thankful I needed your help! The blue dragonflight is going to purge all magic users who don’t help them here. The only way you can stay alive is to help them here. Think about yourself. Think about your father! He’ll die if you don’t help us. I’m giving you a chance to save the only family you have left.” Emmy calmed down at the thought of her father. The Kirin Tor could defend themselves. Her father’s injuries would be the death of him if he were to ever attract the ire of the blues. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy’s shoulders slumped. Her head hung low. “What do you need from me?” she asked the dragon. </p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">“You’ve made a wise decision. Come with me.” Cyanigosa turned and strode off into the dark. Telestra promptly followed, but Emmy lingered for a second, a last moment of doubt. She indulged in her uncertainty, but only for a moment. She followed, already thinking about what her next move should be. What her responsibilities as a captain of the Kirin Tor, and as her father’s daughter, demanded of her. It was a difficult burden, and one that she had to carry alone, in this strange land.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy stood in the Nexus, the base of operations for the blue dragonflight, located in the Borean Tundra of the frozen continent of Northrend. Like Dalaran, the Nexus sits on a confluence of ley lines. The Nexus is built from ornately carved blocks of ice, harvested from the glaciers of Northrend. Each segment is covered in runes and inscriptions, holding them aloft in defiance of gravity. Unlike Dalaran, which was clearly built as a human city, the Nexus is designed with dragons in mind. Many of the platforms have no connections to their fellows, despite being suspended hundreds of meters in the air. Those that lacked the ability to fly would find it very difficult to move freely through the complex. This was a place where the arcane forces that boiled underneath the skin of the world were not merely harnessed, but allowed to erupt freely. It streamed upwards in a font of power that the dragons drank from with regularity, but to Emmy found the harsh glare to be distracting, and in some parts of the Nexus, downright painful to look at. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy wasn’t quite sure how long she had been here. A month at the minimum, but without contact from the outside world it was difficult to gauge the passage of time. She spent most of her time helping empower constructs on the exterior of the nexus. It was tedious work, but relatively simple. It did leave her with little time to herself; she was constantly monitored by dragonkin and other mage hunters. She spent what little time she had to herself planning, trying to figure out what she could do to stymie the dragons’ efforts without compromising herself or her family. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Her chance came when she was summoned to meet with Telestra within the walls of the Nexus proper. Both women had given up the purple robes of Kirin Tor magi for the azure robes of the Mage Hunters, but Telestra reveled in the change. Her self aggrandizement had reached a whole new level since her defection. Now she presented herself as “Grand Magus” Telestra, after her meteoric rise through the ranks of the Mage Hunters. Telestra beckoned Emmy to enter the room. As Emmy entered the room, she noticed the runes shimmering along the walls of the great space. This was one of the renowned libraries that the blue dragonflight compiled, archiving the vast majority of the magical knowledge on Azeroth. This library was only rivaled by the Central Repository in the Violet Citadel and the Guardian’s Archives in Karazhan. The information contained in this room could make any mortal mage much more powerful. As much as Emmy wanted to take the time to read the books here, to draw upon their knowledge, she feared how much knowledge Telestra had gained here, and how much it had empowered the treasonous elf. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Emmy, we’ve been watching you. You’ve done well in preparing the centrifuge constructs for their deployment. Now we have a task that’s more suitable to your specific talents.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“How may I be of service, Grand Magus?” Emmy almost choked on the words. Telestra, however, smiled that mocking smile of hers, and held out her hand. A ring sat upon her palm, it was made from thick silver construction, and blue inscriptions ran along the outside of the ring. It was the language of the dragons, one that Emmy couldn’t decipher, but a language of great age and great power.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“This is a ley line focus control. We’re using them to reroute the ley lines across Northrend to places of power for the Spellweaver. You’re to take it, and travel to the Dragonblight. Once in the Dragonblight, you’ll take command of our forces at the Glittering Strand. Use this ring to monitor and adjust the ley line. We need to route it directly to the Azure Dragonshrine, so that our forces attacking the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Wyrmrest</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> can use the energy in the upcoming assault.” </p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">“As Malygos wills,” Emmy quipped. She took the ring from Telestra’s hand, and departed the library. This was her opportunity.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">While the Nexus stood isolated from the horrors that had engulfed Northrend over the years, the Dragonblight had not. The freezing winds carried a cloying odor. The stench of decay was present throughout the continent. Even before the Scourge had taken over the continent, this was the place where every dragon came to die. Their bones still littered the snowy plains in unimaginable quantities. This continent was a place of death. No one would mistake it for anything else.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In the time that Emmy had been away from the mainland, war had come to Northrend, and the Dragonblight was at the heart of the conflicts. The <st1:city st="on">Alliance</st1:city> and the Horde had struck out against the Scourge, and the other dragonflights had assembled in the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Wyrmrest</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> in an attempt to sanction the rogue aspect Malygos. Even the Kirin Tor had marshaled for war. In spectacular fashion, the mages utilized the same spells that the blue dragonflight used to float portions of the Nexus to lift the entire city of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Dalaran</st1:place></st1:city> and bring it to Northrend. The Scarlet Crusade had established several enclaves nearby, and while the Horde and <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alliance</st1:place></st1:city> were preparing to break their way into Icecrown, the Scourge summoned the nerubian swarms of Azjol’Nerub and recalled the necropolis Naxxramas from its assault on Lordaeron. In the midst of all this chaos was Captain Emmy Malin.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">She stood upon the gritty sands of the beach, inspecting the route the ley line was traveling. The salty sea air kept the stench down, making it a little more bearable for Emmy to breathe. The ley line focus was a scaled up version of the ring that Emmy had received from Telestra. They were attuned with each other, allowing a mage who was skilled at focusing arcane energy through the ring on their finger to duplicate those manipulations on the ley line that seethed with power through the focus. The ruins of an ancient night elf city were built upon an intersection of ley lines. The blue dragonflight used a monolithic device known as a surge needle to split the intersection, and channel it through these foci to empower the Azure Dragonshrine, their base of operations in the area. Emmy’s post on the beach at the Glittering Strand was the first in a series of three foci that supercharged the power before it was harnessed at by the dragons themselves.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">This was wreaking havoc on the land around the ley line. Arcane energy ripped through the ground, corrupting and mutating the flora and fauna in the area that wasn’t already infected by the plagues that the Scourge had unleashed upon the land. The second focus, which had been placed in the middle of a Tuskarr village, had disastrous consequences. Anyone not killed by the energies was rendered mad. The length to which Malygos was willing to go to erase the threat posed by mortal mages was staggering. Here was her opportunity to sabotage their plans. With control of this focus, she could deny the Azure Dragonshrine access to their power. By the time they could attune a new control to the focus, the combined forces of the dragonflights and the Kirin Tor would drive them out of the Dragonblight. All she needed was something to distract the other mages who were patrolling the area.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Emmy wish was granted as chaos erupted amongst the patrols. The shouted about an unseen enemy attacking them, and began working in tandem to neutralize the threat. As they scrambled to defend themselves and the focus, Emmy turned her attention to the focus. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“Keep them away from the focus!” She yelled to the intruder. She focused frost energy into the focus control ring, shunting that power directly into the flow of the ley line. Pouring more and more power into the spell, she felt the energy beginning to play out around her. The water vapor from the sea spray began to freeze, creating a veritable blizzard around her. The arcane power flowing through the ley line began to constrict, waning away as the icy infusion dragged the energy to a crawl. The familiar chill of frost magic played across her hands as beheld the effects of her meddling. A little more time and the damage would be catastrophic to the offensive on the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Wyrmrest</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">Emmy felt cold, colder than she had ever felt in Alterac. Colder than the depths of Icecrown Glacier. The assailant pulled his daggers from her back, and all the strength in her fled. Her spell diffused away into nothingness as the ley line roared back towards the Azure Dragonshrine. All her work was undone in a moment. Her legs could no longer support her, and she fell to her knees as her life’s blood hemorrhaged onto the cold sand. Struggling for breath, her voice had been stolen by her wounds. Her assassin began searching her for anything of value. The night elf’s amber eyes focused on the ring. With the last of her strength, Emmy reached into her robe, and withdrew a letter that she had written shortly after coming to Northrend. The elf looked at her curiously, saw the desperation in her eyes, and nodded. Despite millennia of immortality, it only took a few years of living in death’s shadow to impress upon him the significance of a dying wish, even when it remained unspoken. He took the ring and the letter from Emmy’s still hands, and then vanished into the snow and shadows.</p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Archmage Malin stood his usual post in the Mage Quarter of Stormwind. Ever since his daughter had vanished two months ago, he had been distracted. Everyone who worked with him could sense it. He was often lost in his thoughts and concerns. This time was no different. He didn’t notice as the portal opened in front of him. It wasn’t until a cold blast of Northrend air poured through the portal as a mage, dressed in the resplendent violet of the Arcane Guard stepped through onto Stormwind soil. The Archmage recognized the visitor, he was one of the guards who served under his daughter when he last visited Dalaran. The guard, once stern and steadfast, seemed diminished. He offered the Archmage an envelope, stained with blood and warped by water damage.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“A hero fighting in the Nexus War found this. It’s addressed to you, sir. It’s the Captain’s… your daughter’s last letter.” The Archmage opened the letter with trembling hands, his breath caught in his throat as he read it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">Father, <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">I'm sorry for disappearing on you. If you're reading this letter, then I'm dead. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">I've been forced to work for </span>Malygos’</i><i><span lang="EN"> armies under threat that our family would be killed if I didn't. I feel so ashamed. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">If there's anything that you can do to fight them, don't worry about me. I have them fooled and I'm sabotaging them from the inside. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">I love you, Daddy! <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p><i><span lang="EN">Em<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p><i><span lang="EN"><br /></span></i></p><p><i><span lang="EN"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> </p></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-27655842769585312602011-12-19T03:01:00.000-08:002011-12-19T15:16:15.368-08:0015 Days Through My Interface: Day 9This whole 15 days thing was the brainchild of Saz over at <a href="http://serenitysaz.blogspot.com/">World of Saz</a>, and it was the catalyst for my return to blogging. This stop, in particular, caught my imagination. <div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>What's you character's hometown? </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>It's a simple enough question, but it really got the wheels turning in my head. Things have to fit together in a story, and carving out a home for a character isn't as easy as taking a screenshot of a pretty building and hanging your hat there. No, we're peeking into the origins of our characters. We're not just looking at a house, we're looking at the memories that are etched within its walls. We aren't just looking at where they live, we're looking at why they live, where they came from, and what they've overcome to reach this point. We've already seen where <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/09/15-days-through-my-interface-day-2.html">Dämmerung lives</a>. What I'm going to tell you here is how he got there.</div><div><br /></div><div>I generally have a feel for characters when I create them. I have their race, gender, class, and spec mapped out from the beginning. There's a certain feel for each one, and the name I select usually isn't your standard Azerothian fare. This presents a problem for creating a viable origin story. What kind of mother names their child Dämmerung? But ultimately, what is a name? An identifier. A title. So that's how I've come to look at the names I've chosen for my characters. They're an abstraction of the essence of the character. They might not be the name their parents gave them, but they are titles that they earned before they ever set out from their starting areas.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the story of a Boy. A Boy who was born at the cusp of extraordinary times, and whose childhood was defined by the events that enveloped the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>He was born in the Summer of the Year of King Llane, 589, to the captain of the palace guard of Stormwind. Those were fearful times. The Boy can't remember a time before the invasion of the Orcish Horde. A climate of dread slowly grew as it became apparent that what had originally been believed to be a series of bandit raids was something much more dreadful. As the alien creatures marched upon Stormwind, The Boy saw firsthand the strain that the mere presence of the Horde placed upon the citizens of Stormwind. Rationing became tight. The luxuries and pleasures of the more peaceful age had been stripped away. While The Boy's family, being responsible for the security of the Royal Person, never lacked for anything essential, others were not so fortunate. </div><div><br /></div><div>Things became worse when the siege began. The armies of Stormwind, pushed back to the very bastions that they were sworn to hold, fought tenaciously. War takes its toll, however, and when the war is on your doorstep, you pay the price in blood. For several months, the orcs, with their ogre allies, assaulted the walls each day, although never in the same place twice. Each night, the Horde turned their siege engines loose, lobbing rocks, plagued corpses, and strange boulders over the city walls, smashing into the shops and homes of the people. The boulders were the worst. They glowed with a strange green fire that no one had ever seen before. The first person to touch it was a woman who lived in a house not a hundred yards from the Boy's home. It smashed the walls to rubble, and collapsed the structure. The woman crawled out over the smoldering projectile, desperate for clean air. She died three days later, in agony. No one understood what foul magic permeated those missiles, but after watching the woman's hair fall out, and the way that she hemorrhaged, despite no apparent wounds, no one would go near them. So it was that every night The Boy would cower in the cellar of their home with his mother telling him that everything would be alright.</div><div><br /></div><div>King Llane held the city together, almost through sheer force of will. Every day, when the sun had rose, and the relentless shelling had ceased, the King would walk among the streets of the city. His presence unified the people, it empowered them, and it gave them hope. When the city burned, the King and his son were out in the streets, fetching water from the canals to fight the blazes alongside every common man, woman, and child whose homes and livelihoods were caught in the conflagration. When dead citizens were pulled from the wreckage, or dead soldiers brought down from the battlements, the King mourned with his people. They were hard times, and the people feared where they would be if not for the strength of Wrynn.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then the King was taken from them, felled by the dagger of <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Garona">an orc</a> the King had trusted, had held up as an example that even among the throngs of monsters howling outside their walls, there was still the hope for decency. The people were shocked, and the Horde, sensing victory's proximity, launched the largest assault yet, overrunning the defenses. As the King fell, so did Stormwind. </div><div><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6520195389/" title="WoWScrnShot_102611_225119 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7143/6520195389_e31e1e9bc8_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_102611_225119" /></a><br /></div><div>That day holds the most vivid memories for The Boy. His mother dragged him by the hand through the streets of the city. The smell of burning timber and scorched stone was just beginning to reach their noses, heralding the fire that had been set which would consume the city. The Boy's father had told them to make for the harbor should the city be breached. There a ship awaited them. The remnants of the Royal Guard stood guard at the dock, shuttling refugees onto the vessel, and prepared to hold back the rampaging orcs for as long as was needed for the ship to cast off safely. Those orcs were hot on The Boy's heels as he ran for the ship, the air burning in his lungs. The disciplined guards opened a minute gap in their line to allow the pair to slip through to safety, before swiftly reforming and greeting the orcs with the strength of their shield wall. Events were blurry for The Boy. The sounds of the battle were deafening. The crack of a blade shivering, the clang of the plate armor of the warriors, and the meaty thock, followed by cries of pain, that signaled a blade finding its mark, hacking into unarmored flesh.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Anduin_Lothar">A powerfully built man</a>, the white of his armor matching the color of his beard, dragged the last defender onto the ship as it pulled away from the harbor. Lothar knelt down, and cradled the man who he had pulled onto the boat. It was The Boy's father. He had stopped to cut the last line free that was tying the vessel to the dock, and an orcish grunt had used the opportunity to sink an axe into the man's stomach, leaving him desperately trying to keep his innards in place as blood flowed from between his trembling hands. His mother wailed, and rushed to his side. His father whispered something to Lothar, who nodded to him, and then beckoned his son to come to his side. As The Boy approached, he looked at his feet, trying to hide the tears in his eyes. His father's hands ceased their shaking for a few moments as he lifted his son's chin up to look him in the eyes. He brushed a few strands of The Boy's hair back, and spoke his last words to his son. </div><div>"Thank the Light, you're safe. Take care of your mother."</div><div>With that, Lothar led The Boy below decks, before returning to ensure that The Boy's mother could mourn in what came as close to privacy as was possible on the overloaded vessel. Below decks, The Boy sobbed, echoing the cries of his inconsolable mother above. Another <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Varian_Wrynn">young man</a>, who was a few years older than The Boy, sought to comfort him. They both shared the pain of losing their fathers that day, and while in later meetings, King Varian Wrynn did not recognize The Boy, he always respected his king for those moments of solace on that fateful day.</div><div><br /></div><div>The boat traveled north, towards the remaining human kingdoms. It made landfall in the town of Southshore, in the kingdom of Lordaeron. For a couple years, The Boy and his mother had an opportunity to attempt to rebuild something of their lives. But peace is ever elusive. Shortly after The Boy turned 10, it was announced that the Horde was marching through the dwarven territories, and would set upon Lordaeron soon. In response to this, a Grand Alliance was being formed between the human kingdoms, and an army would be raised to stop the Horde before they could reach the heart of Lordaeron.</div><div><br /></div><div>An army on the march is a different beast than an army on the defensive. It is a beast of burden. For every soldier who fights, there are five people supporting him, from the workers who craft his armor, to the squires who care for and carry his equipment in the field. When the Horde marched to Southshore, rather than fleeing with his mother, a refugee once more, The Boy volunteered to join the army, led by Anduin Lothar. The Boy served as a squire for one of <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Sir_Zeliek">the warriors</a> in Turalyon's division, usually removed from the actual line of battle. He spent most of the war in the camp, washing the blood off his master's armor, and leading his packmule by the bridle on long marches. </div><div><br /></div><div>The army fought the Hillsbrad, dislodging them from their initial beachhead, and pursued them into the Hinterlands. It was there where Lothar realized the Horde's intentions, to use their superior numbers to split their attack on both Stromgarde and the elven kingdom of Quel'thelas. The generals met in Turalyon's tent, and The Boy discretely listened to Lothar's planning from the entrance. Some of the generals argued passionately for the Army to dedicate itself wholly to the defense of Stromgarde, a human kingdom, and to leave the elves, who had regarded the Horde as a strictly human concern, to their own devices. </div><div><br /></div><div>Lothar disagreed, and decided to bifurcate the army, dispatching Turalyon to defend Quel'thelas, along with the small detatchement of rangers who had joined the army with Alleria Windrunner, despite orders to the contrary from the ruling council of Silvermoon City. As the generals departed, Lothar found The Boy, despite his best efforts to conceal himself. Fulfilling the last promise he made to a dying man, Lothar led The Boy to the main encampment, where he gave The Boy the shield that had belonged to The Boy's father, as per the man's dying wish. It was battered and scratched, and the leather straps that weren't rotted or torn were stained with blood, it was not fit for battle, but none of that mattered to The Boy, it was a cherished memento. That meeting would be the last time that he saw Anduin Lothar alive. </div><div><br /></div><div>They marched across Lordaeron, into the forests of Quel'thelas. The Boy had been told by a few of the elves who marched with them that Quel'thelas was a magnificent sight, elegant, lush, verdant, and aglow in the glorious powers afforded them by the Sunwell. When they marched past Stratholme and entered through the mountain pass that kept the Elves separated from the humans, the sight of Quel'thelas gave the entire army pause. The forests were aglow, not with the power of the arcane, but from the fires that had been set by the orcs and the trolls that they had allied themselves with. The Boy has never seen Quel'thelas in the glory that the ranger had described it. No one has since the Horde left their indelible mark on the forests.</div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6520196819/" title="WoWScrnShot_111511_144234 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6520196819_1d9f69eda2_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_111511_144234" /></a></div><div>It wasn't until the orcs brought the war to the very gates of Silvermoon that the elven government realize the threat that the orcs represented to not only humans, but all life on Azeroth. Without Lothar's foresight, the orcs would have razed Silvermoon City, and taken possession of the Sunwell. After a few days spent camped outside the elven capitol, the army turned its focus back towards the south. Turalyon now marched with the full force of Quel'thelas at his back, and The Boy marched with him.</div><div><br /></div><div>They marched through Alterac. The human kingdom had been completely destroyed in the fighting. Their King, Aiden Perenolde, had offered the Horde free passage through Alterac in exchange for being left alone. When a division of Lothar's army, under the command of Danath Trollbane, sealed the gap in the mountains, the battle that Perenolde had expected to be fought in the fields of Lordaeron, were instead fought in the heart of Alterac, and the fires of war consumed that kingdom, just as it had Stormwind.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the help of the elven armada, the arrival of Turalyon's forces broke the back of the Horde's siege on the capitol of Lordaeron. Turalyon's division knew only victory, driving the Horde south, out of Lordaeron, liberating the Bronzebeard Dwarves who were under siege in Ironforge, shattering the Horde at Blackrock mountain, and finally driving most of the remnants back out of the Dark Portal. While it would take years to pick up the pieces, the war was, for all intents and purposes, over.</div><div><br /></div><div>King Wrynn returned to Stormwind to attempt to rebuild the ruins of his kingdom, but King Menethil, the King of Lordaeron, offered a place in Lordaeron for any who served in the war. The Boy, reunited with his mother, took advantage of the offer, and they settled in small town not too far from the capital, called Andorhal. </div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6520195571/" title="WoWScrnShot_111511_140204 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6520195571_0e6cfa86de_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_111511_140204" /></a></div><div>Those were peaceful times, and The Boy grew into a man, devout in the ways of the light, and hard working. Over the course of fifteen years, he learned the secrets of smithing and metallurgy from the town's workers. He worked to restore his father's shield, not to be used again, for he had seen the terrors wreaked by war, but as a way to honor his father's sacrifice. He earned a living for himself and his mother through those skills, initially making farm implements and other tools, but he eventually branched out into the more precious metals, becoming an accomplished jeweler as well. There was no more rationing, no more dark nights spent in the celler, fearing that the next crash would be the cursed stone that would take his life, and no more days spent in the camp, away from home. Andorhal served as the breadbasket for Lordaeron, they shipped food to every corner of the kingdom, and there was always plenty on the table.</div><div><br /></div><div>A ragged old man changed all that. Some of the more learned in the village claimed to recognize him as a mage from Dalaran who had visited Southshore years ago, but he looked more like a corpse than a distinguished mage. Strange events happened in those days, rumors of the dead rising from their graves, and clandestine meetings of black robed strangers. It wasn't until the <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Arthas_Menethil">Prince of Lordaeron</a> arrived to investigate, finding the cult leader tampering with the grain shipments. A <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Jaina_Proudmoore">representative from Dalaran</a> recognized him as <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Kel%27Thuzad">Kel'thuzad</a>, a former leader of the Kirin Tor. They burned down the grain silos, and struck down Kel'thuzad and his cultists. </div><div><br /></div><div>Word came back later that the tainted grain had led to the destruction of the city of Stratholme, to the northeast. Fearing more cultist action, Prince Arthas raised an army to go to Northrend to finish the cult leaders once and for all. The Boy, now a man, declined to join, he had seen his fill of violence. But a few months later, Prince Arthas returned from Northrend, triumphant, or so it would seem. The Prince slew his father, and marched once again, this time at the head of an army of the same undead monstrosities that he had sworn to vanquish. They marched on Andorhal, where a group of paladins, led by Uther the Lightbringer, had retreated, carrying with them the ashes of their fallen king. Again, home was under attack for The Boy. </div><div><br /></div><div>But Andorhal is not Stormwind. There are no strong stone walls that must be surmounted. The Scourge surrounded the town, and swiftly overran it. The only way to escape the onslaught was by water. The Boy, his mother, and a few others from the town boarded a small boat, and cast off, hoping to make their way south, towards a rebuilding Stormwind. </div><div><br /></div><div>They didn't make it very far. As they passed the island that the old castle of Caer Darrow was built upon, great chains lashed themselves to the boat. From the lake emerged an <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Patchwerk">abomination of startling size</a> that set itself upon their craft, tearing planks away and threatening to drag them to a watery grave. Knowing that everyone on the boat were moments away from death, so long as the abomination stayed attached to the boat, The Boy picked up the one possession he had allowed himself to bring, his father's shield. Working his arm into the leather grips that he had reworked countless times in the intervening years, he said a prayer to the light, recalling his father's last words to him. He felt the Light empowering him as he smashed his father's shield into the abomination's skull, jarring the monstrosity loose as both he and it tumbled from the crippled craft. </div><div><br /></div><div>He washed up, alone, on the banks of the Thondoril River. The patchwork creature was no where to be found, nor was his father's shield. He was beaten, bloodied, and damn near dead from his tangle with the behemoth. His memories are hazy here. Maybe it was the way that he nearly drowned, maybe it was the concussion he got from the abomination, but even to this day, all he can remember are bits and pieces. </div><div><br /></div><div>He lay half submerged, hung up on the roots of a tree that protruded from the river bank. He watched the undead armies shamble across the bridge over the river, walking the same path he had walked fifteen years ago. The path to Quel'thelas. He wasn't the only one watching the horrors moving through. After the Scourge passed, <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Tirion_Fordring">an old man</a>, wearing old brown leather clothes concealing his plate armor, crept down to the river bank, and dragged the wounded man North.</div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6520196175/" title="WoWScrnShot_111511_140521 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7172/6520196175_e1c6d7d0e9_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_111511_140521" /></a></div><div>At the old man's shack, it took The Boy a week before he could speak again. The old man had some experience in the ways of the Light, and as he nursed The Boy back to health, he felt the empowerment that had allowed The Boy to survive the confrontation. That blessing was the only thing keeping him alive. The old man, unable to accertain The Boy's name until the swelling went down, he took to calling him Dämmerung. In the old Arathi tongue, it meant the Fading Light of Day. It was a bit grim, but Dämmerung didn't know what it meant at the time. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was months before Dämmerung was well enough to set out on his own. During his convalescence, the old man taught him a few things about the use of the Light. He taught him how to heal the righteous, how to judge the unfaithful, and to unleash his wrath against the undead and the demonic. He replaced Dämmer's ragged and torn clothing, still stained with mud and ichor from his flight from Andorhal, and gave him a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=2361">wooden hammer</a> with which to defend himself. Dämmerung was anxious to find out what had happened to his town, to his friends, and to his mother. They would both be different men when they next met, years from now. </div><div><br /></div><div>Lordaeron had changed in the months of Dämmerung's recovery. Wearing nothing but the clothes of a civilian, and arming with a mere wooden hammer, he cautiously worked his way south. Everywhere the undead horde had walked had been blighted. There were still patches of greenery here and there, but they were rapidly being encrouched upon by the sickly brown grasses of the neighboring spoiled earth. Ghouls were out in force, scouring the land for anything left alive in these plaguelands. Every once in a while, one of those abominations trundled down the road, the ground shaking at their every step. They were often flanked by bizzare spider-like monstrosities that Dämmerung had never seen before.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dämmerung traveled carefully. The dark forces animating the Scourge forces made them odious to the Light, and through that distaste, he knew when one approached. Even without the light, the smell and constant groaning would give them away from a quarter mile. The patrols were thick enough that it took him fully three days to hike down the Thorandil River until he reached its mouth, where it fed into Darrowmere Lake, with Caer Darrow's decrepit ruins sticking up out of the water, a monument to the horrors of the present, realized through the neglect of the past. He hid himself underneath the bridge at the mouth of the river, and for a time, he stayed there, like some common troll. He scryed the surface of the water, scrutinizing it closely for any sign of any hidden attackers the like of which he met when he last braved these waters. Another one of the abominations patrolled over the bridge, coming from the west. As it stomped over the bridge, the stonework shook, freeing dust that had been trapped in the masonry for the long decades since the bridge had been built, during the reign of Terenas the First. Dämmerung feared that the bridge might collapse under the strain, and thought about making a run for it. Then something even more frightening occurred. </div><div><br /></div><div>The abomination stopped, right over his head. It sniffed the air, trying to recapture that whiff of a scent that had called its attention. Dämmerung listened to the bridge creak and groan as the abomination leaned over the side to see if anything was hiding next to the bridge. Foul gore spilled from the behemoth's open chest cavity, splashing into the mud next to the terrified man. Dämmerung clamped a hand over his mouth, trying not to gag as the stench of undeath became overpowering. He pressed himself deeper into the soft mud of the river bank, letting the cold water flow over him, and hopefully conceal his scent from the monster's senses. Seconds stretched into years, the whole of the man's life hinged upon his complete anonymity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suspicious but unwilling to dawdle any longer, the abomination strode off the bridge, and east, towards Darrowshire. Dämmerung waited until it was out of sight, and then, without hesitation, dove into the icy waters of Darrowmere. He made for Caer Darrow, hoping to take a moment's respite there, before continuing his swim south. Looking to the west, he saw the smoke rising from the smoldering ruins of Andorhal, grain houses burned for a long time, and Andorhal had all the grain for the entire eastern half of the kingdom stored there. It must be like a charnel house there. The ashes of their King lay there, and the hope for his kingdom had burned down upon them. Hardening his heart against the horror of watching his adopted home in ashes, he hiked to the southern end of the island. There he found one horror more.</div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6520196467/" title="WoWScrnShot_111511_142141 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6520196467_ed9046fcd0_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_111511_142141" /></a></div><div>The craft lay on its side on the beach, water lapping up against it, rocking it gently as it dug itself deeper and deeper into the soft silt. The aft bulkhead had been ripped free, and the gunnels had savage pieces torn from them. It was clearly no longer seaworthy. A quick inspection confirmed his fears. The inscription carved into the bowsprit identified the wreck as the boat that he had tried so desperately to save. A deeper inspection, however, offered a glimmer of hope. The life preservers were missing, and the boat had clearly been deposited on the island by the currents, rather than beached by her crew. Perhaps they had survived, and made it to Southshore. Hope; hope still lived, even if it was only a glimmer. Dämmerung held onto that fading light as he once again braved the cold waters of Darrowmere Lake, leaving the unsettling ruins behind him.</div><div><br /></div><div>When he reached the point where Darrowmere Lake channeled itself back into a river, he noticed a wondrous thing, well, it was wondrous in hindsight. As he dragged himself back upon the banks of the river, he heard a growl. He had pulled himself onto the green grass, directly between a mother mountain lion and her cubs. As the lion hurled itself at him in defense of her offspring, Dämmerung gave a desperate prayer to the Light. The Light answered, deflecting the angry beast as Dämmerung launched himself back into the river, letting the current drag him away from his sudden brush with life, after days of hiding from death. </div><div><br /></div><div>He pulled himself back out of the river near Southshore, after ensuring that there were only horses and turtles nearby, nothing that could harm him in his exhausted state. The Light helps those who help themselves, and he doubted that it would answer him again so soon after his last request. </div><div><br /></div><div>He trudged to Southshore, looking not too unlike one of the ghouls that ran rampant through the northern portion of Lordaeron. He stepped into the inn, and requested a room. The innkeeper made him walk back to the river and clean his clothes before he would let him touch a bed in the inn. Upon his return, looking just as haggard, although somewhat less filthy, he saw two brothers drinking at the table in the lobby. Recognition flashed in their eyes when they saw him, and they called out to him using his old name. They were from Andorhal, and had served as oarsmen on the boat that bloody night. They kicked out the chair next to them, and invited him to sit with them. They bought him a meal, and a drink, and paid for his room. He had saved their lives, and they intended to honor that debt as best they could. </div><div><br /></div><div>Dämmerung couldn't remember a meal that tasted as good as that one did. Then again, the cook at the Cathedral in Stormwind isn't exactly the finest chef in town, and most of the time when he's not in Stormwind, he's eating field rations, or those bland mage cakes that taste like nothing, and always left him feeling hungry again fifteen minutes later. Perhaps he hasn't had a meal that tasted as good since. However, as enjoyable as the food was, as famished as he was, all those pleasures were secondary to his need for information. </div><div><br /></div><div>When broached with the question of the disposition of the others on the boat, the brothers uneasily cast their gazes towards the stone floor. After Dämmerung had driven the patchwork beast back into the depths of the lake, the ship had sustained too much damage to remain afloat. The life preservers were given out, and the passengers began to jump into the water, making a desperate swim for the river bank to the south. The brothers had been among those who landed on the west bank, and Dämmerung's mother had been in those who landed on the east bank. Fearful that the abomination would return, the two groups hurried south. The group on the east bank were slowed down, several men were needed to restrain the panicked woman, in order to prevent her from diving back into the lake to search for her son. The group on the west bank rushed to Southshore, and raised the alarm. The eastern group wasn't seen for several days, and they began trickling in one by one, telling tales of splitting up to avoid the southernmost Scourge patrols. One brother cautiously offered that many of those who fled with them had continued south, making for the newly reinforced Northshire Abbey. The other brother mentioned a <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/Thaddius">grimmer possibility</a> that he had overheard from the necromancers during Andorhal's fall. </div><div><br /></div><div>Once again, Dämmerung clung to the glimmer of hope, still glowing in the black sea of despair that threatened to consume him. He slept fitfully and sailed for Elywnn the next morning; his fare paid for by the brothers, who gathered the other survivors who decided to settle in the area together to see him off. He left Stormwind for Southshore after having lost his father, and now he retraced those steps, having lost his mother, but, the Light willing, she would be found. He looked back from the stern of the ship, at all the people waving gratefully to him. He had been able to protect all of them, surely he had protected her too. </div><div><br /></div><div>He arrived in Northshire three days later, shortly after noon. The grand structure had been rebuilt grandly in the aftermath of its sacking by the Horde, as had the remainder of Stormwind. Things were almost as he remembered them. Almost. The little details nagged at him. The stones had crisply cut corners, rather than the worn edges of blocks that had seen hundreds of years of weathering. There was a bridge before the walls now, with statues dedicated to the heroes that he had served fifteen years ago. The city was more secure than ever. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Abbey was no different, in addition to the rebuilding of the actual abbey, a huge wall had been built in front of the community, allowing it to be sealed off in the event of another attack, unlike in the First War, where the Twilight's Hammer clan had moved right in and set up shop. Rumors abounded that the masons who worked in Northshire demanded triple pay to clean up whatever it was that the Horde had left behind in there, and that the King had taken one look inside, and immediately agreed. The masons had outdone themselves here. </div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26890046@N08/6536491447/" title="WoWScrnShot_121711_002324 by dragonfirekai, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6536491447_c541d3ea90_z.jpg" width="640" height="360" alt="WoWScrnShot_121711_002324" /></a></div><div>Dämmerung didn't find any of the survivors here. Any that had passed through these walls had long since dispersed themselves to the outlying communities, Goldshire, Redridge, Westfall, and Duskwood. Dämmerung prepared to travel once again. The Horde had taken his father, the Scourge had taken <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=40400">his shield</a>, and possibly his mother too, the Light knows what it would do to them. He intended to find out, to keep holding on to that fading light for as long as he could.</div><div><br /></div><div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script></div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-47410070637359310662011-12-15T09:24:00.000-08:002011-12-15T12:51:21.605-08:00The Problem With Thrall<a href="http://images.wikia.com/wow/nl/images/c/cc/Magazine3CoverArtworkBack.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 262px;" src="http://images.wikia.com/wow/nl/images/c/cc/Magazine3CoverArtworkBack.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>One problem that Blizz has somewhat on their radar is the irritation due to the overdose on Thrall in the current Cataclysm storyline. The Lead Quest Designer, Dave Kosak, posted a somewhat misguided <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3992143/Dev_Watercooler_-_Faction_Favoritism_-11_25_2011">developer blog</a>, in which he touched upon the rising sentiments against the once and future Warchief of the Horde.<div><br /></div><div>Blizzard feels that they made a mistake in assuming that Alliance players would enjoy the newly "neutral" Thrall, because he isn't a Horde character, he's a world character. That's part of the issue, although he doesn't understand the root cause of that particular sentiment, which stems from the treatment of other major lore figures who ostensibly went neutral, and how they compare to what happened with Thrall. That, however, is an issue that deserves its own post to lay out.</div><div><br /></div><div>The majority of the backlash against Thrall in the recent expansion is, quite simply, because Thrall has been an incredibly poorly written character since the end of WCIII, and putting him in the brightest spotlight any previously defined lore character has ever stepped into put all those flaws on display. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some of these flaws are incidental to concessions made by the story for gameplay purposes. One of the most dissonant experiences I had while exploring the Horde side of the game was taking my first Horde character, an undead warlock, over to Ogrimmar to get the quests for RFC. I embarked on a series of quest lines featuring Thrall trying to root out the warlocks from the midst of the city, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was employing one of those warlocks to do so. Despite the fact that from a lore perspective, Warlocks had nearly wiped out the orcish race, and condemned them to an existence of suffering, and as such were rightly banned from the Horde, people wanted to play as them, so in they went. These flaws are jarring, but they're ultimately a minor flaw, the pimple on the narrative that can be hidden with some discrete concealer, because the player character is but a single person in the narrative of the game, and not even a really important one anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>The flaws become much harder to conceal when they become part of major lore events. Thrall is not presented as a complex character. He's your standard feel good messiah stand in. He's wise, strong, capable, charismatic, fair, self sacrificing, and compassionate. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. Not every character in a leading role has to be a morally ambigious Machiavellian schemer. It's OK to have the occasional character who's just a good guy. The problem is when you have the aforementioned good guy does something out of character, and no one calls him on his bullshit. At this point, you're not only undermining the character, you're undermining the characters who don't react, and the entirety of the story. If Aslan had given up Edmund in <i>The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe</i>, and none of the Pevensies spoke out against it, then C.S. Lewis probably wouldn't hold his revered place in the pantheon of storytellers. The story worked because Aslan is the Jesus Allegory Lion, and he did what Jesus Allegory Lions do. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is where Thrall falls short. He's the Jesus Allegory Orc, savior of his people, able to walk on water, and return from the dead. But he doesn't act the way his backstory and characterization have set him up. The driving influence in Thrall's backstory was his time spent as a slave and gladiator in Durnholde. So, when he fufills his destiny and forges a reborn Horde, does he outlaw slavery, as a just ruler would do? Nope, because one of the driving forces in King Wrynn's backstory is that he was captured and held as a slave by Rehgar Earthfury, and forced to fight in the gladiator pits in Dire Maul. Blackmoore was an uncharacteristic human, operating far from the oversight of authority, and was a drunk and morose man who plotted against his fellows and no one in the Alliance speaks well of. Perhaps, King Wrynn ran into a similar situation? Perhaps Thrall did take steps to stamp out slavery in the Horde, but its insidious nature persisted in the dark corners far from his steely gaze? This would be a bit of a stretch, but it's one that could have worked. But is it what happens? No. In the comic, Jaina convinces Varian to attend a peace summit at Theramore to attempt to build a peaceful relationship with Thrall and the Horde. Varian brings Valeera, a Blood Elf who escaped slavery with Varian, and his son Anduin. Thrall brings Garrosh, who from a chronological perspective, made the first of his asshat moments, and Reghar Earthfury, the orc who kept two of the members of the Alliance delegation as slaves against their will. Not only does he tolerate slavery within the Horde, he thinks it's a good idea to make the slavemaster a trusted adviser on the peace process. No one brought up how immensely hypocritical and bone headed this is, and yet people wonder why Varian doesn't like Thrall. It's completely out of character for someone coming from the backstory Thrall has, and it's completely out of character for everyone around him to not notice. Have the races of Azeroth simply not discovered the most basic of social prudence? </div><div><br /></div><div>This leads into what becomes Thrall's most damning problem. He's a storyline singularity. A black hole that warps those around him such that even the most basic literary laws simply don't hold anymore. </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/f/f8/FandralComic2.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 401px; height: 355px; " /><div>The most egregious flaw in Cataclysm was the 4.2 quest chain which unveiled Fandral Staghelm as a traitor, and set the stage for the Aggra/Thrall love story that culminated with the probability of little green/brown babies in upcoming expansions. Staghelm was one of the best characterized and well written characters introduced in World of Warcraft. He's a seething mass of complexes and hatred and old wounds that refuse to heal. He was one of Malfurion's finest students of druidism, and after Malfurion went to travel the Emerald Dream, it was Staghelm who led the night elf forces against the Qiraji in the War of the Shifting Sands. The forces of the Old God C'thun poured out of Silithus, and the Night Elves alone stood against them. Fandral led the army in a brutal war in the deserts of Silithus and Tanaris. This conflict is the event that more than any other <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=43675">defines Staghelm</a>. His only son, Valstaan, served with him in that harsh conflict. Staghelm recognized the threat that the Qiraji posed, not only to Night Elves, but to Azeroth itself, and he beseeched the dragonflights to aid him in his efforts to keep the Qiraji in check. The dragons deferred their entry into the conflict until the Qiraji had pushed all the way to the Caverns of Time. In one battle in the months before the entry of the dragons into the war, Valstaan was captured by a mighty Qiraji general. In front of Fandral's eyes, his only son, his pride and joy, was ripped in half, and left to die on the scorching sands of the desert.</div><div>One of the <a href="http://www.wowpedia.org/War_of_the_Shifting_Sands">first short stories</a>, and in my opinion, one of the best, that Blizzard made was in preperation for the AQ40 raid, and the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj. It showed the true measure of the toll that the war had exacted on Fandral. <blockquote>Fandral looked down, his face twisting in contempt. "I want nothing to do with Silithus, the Qiraji and least of all, any damned dragons!" With that Fandral swung the enchanted object into the magical gates — where it splintered in a shower of fragments — and walked away. </blockquote><blockquote>"Would you shatter our bond for the sake of pride?" the dragon asked. </blockquote><blockquote>Fandral turned. "My son's soul will find no comfort in this hollow victory, dragon. I will have him back. Though it takes millennia, I will have my son back!" Fandral then strode past Shiromar... </blockquote><blockquote>... who could see him in her mind even now, as if it were only yesterday and not a thousand years past.</blockquote></div><div>Clearly, this is a man who has lost much, and harbors much resentment over that loss. </div><div><br /></div><div>The time preceding the games themselves, Fandral spent clashing with Tyrande over the path that the Night Elves should take. It was Fandral who pushed for the creation of Teldrassil , and who eschewed the blessings from the dragons which had empowered its predecessor. He was arrogant. After all, he had fought the War alone. He knew what a threat the Qiraji were, even before the Bronze Dragonflight could scry it from myriad visions of the future. There were those who would take advantage of his wounds, and his pride. </div><div><br /></div><div>Xavius, the first Satyr, condemned to live as a tree by Malfurion for 10,000 years after the Sundering of the World, saw Staghelm's flaws as a means by which he could exact his revenge upon Malfurion. He used his magic to plant the notion into Staghelm's mind that through certain actions, he could bring his son Valstaan back to him. This involved using large quantities of Morrowgrain to poison Malfurion, trapping him in the corruption of the Emerald Nightmare, where Xavius could torment him at his leisure. It also involved grafting the tree that Xavius had become onto Teldrassil, exposing the Night Elves home to the corruption of one of Sargeras' oldest servants on Azeroth. </div><div><br /></div><div>During the events of the novel <i>Stormrage</i>, Malfurion broke free, and confronted Staghelm at the demonic graft on Teldrassil, which Staghelm had come to believe was his son reincarnated. In order to stem the corruption of the tree, Malfurion was forced to destroy Xavius, and the graft. Staghelm, however, was forced to relive the death of his only son. Watching Malfurion kill Valstaan broke Staghelm, and he was sent away to the caves in which Illidan had been imprisoned for thousands of years. </div><div><br /></div><div>From there, during Ragnaros' assault on Hyjal, Staghelm was intended to be moved to a more secure area in Moonglade. The green dragon Alysra was charged with moving him. She instead defected to Ragnaros, who offered Staghelm a chance to strike back against those that wronged him. Against the dragons, who refused to aid him until his son had died. Against Nordrassil, which had succeeded where his project, Teldrassil, had failed. Against Malfurion, who took his son from him a second time. It's a compelling tale about how the indifference of the forces of good can break a good man, and how a good man can be brought low, despite great physical power, through the exploitation of the weaknesses of the mind. It was one of the stories that I respected most in the Warcraft Mythos.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've talked a lot about Staghelm in a post that is ostensibly about Thrall, I promise there's a reason for this. Staghelm had a lot of lore behind him. More than most other characters that were introduced in WoW proper. More than even some of the characters brought over from previous games. He was well written, and well developed. The player knows what he's been through, who he hates, and who he serves. It all led up to his becoming Ragnaros' Majordomo, and a raid boss in Firelands, and most importantly, it did so in a manner that made sense, in as much as a story with dragons and giant ant people fighting elves can make sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings us to the quest Elemental Bonds. One of the centerpieces of the 4.2 patch, Rage of the Firelands, this quest served as Staghelm's coming out party as an actual villain. Malfurion and the four Dragon Aspects unite to attempt to restore the World Tree. Five of Staghelm's most hated enemies, and Staghelm's hatred has brewed for millennia. Malfurion would go on to lead an assault into the heart of the Firelands, and eventually permanently destroys Ragnaros, Staghelm's new master. Not only does Staghelm hate Malfurion, but Malfurion is also a present threat to Staghelm's new employer. It's a two for one deal for vengeance, always a good move. So, with Staghelm's history, circumstance, and new found power, he crashes the ritual. His five most hated enemies, caught distracted and vulnerable. So what does he do? He attacks Thrall.</div><div><br /></div><div>What?</div><div><br /></div><div>A story that Blizzard has been brewing for seven years in real life, and spanning thousands of years in game, and they wreck the ending just to show how awesome Thrall is. That's how destructive Thrall has become to the fabric of the narrative of the game. He's creeping into story arcs that don't involve him, and ruining the endings. Characters are taking complete 180s to bow to the amazing Go'el. </div><div><br /></div><div>There's a term for characters like this. They're called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_sue">Mary Sues</a>. They're generally reviled for being an extremely disruptive force in narratives. A lot of times, they serve as author inserts. A way for the writer to live out his story vicariously through the character. This isn't always the case, but they manifest as characters that lack depth. While this is OK for peripheral characters who don't impact the story greatly, when it's the main character, by dint of the amount of time the reader or player spends dealing with the character, they have to be believable. Familiarity breeds contempt. The more time you spend with a character the more the little flaws in the story irk you. It was fine back in Vanilla when Green Jesus could sit on his Throne in Ogrimmar and generally not bother anyone because the story at the time was about the player-character, and as such, it welded itself to the person playing that character quite well. It's the classic silent protagonist that worked so well for Link, Mario, and Crono in earlier games. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the expansions, Blizzard moved away from the notion of the story really being about the player-character. They had to, because it was a persistent world, and having Bolvar greet me as the one who unmasked Onyxia when I did no such thing in game would be a jarring flaw in the game. As such, the players went from the driving force of events in game, to a more abstract ideal. They're "the adventurers". They're always there, but they're never the reason why the big events happen, because if your character didn't do a particular quest, or dungeon, or raid, some else did, and to keep the game on a single narrative track requires that those loose ends be tied up somehow. Blizzard opted to make NPCs drive the story. Illidan was defeated by Maive and Akama, with an assist from "the adventurers", Kil'Jaeden was banished by Kalecgos and Anveena, with an assist from "the adventurers". It continued into Lich King with Tirion, and Blizzard, in an effort to create a cohesive narrative, went as far as to retcon the Vanilla raids. Varian killed Onyxia, and Darion Mograine stormed Naxx. The players have been relegated to extras in the story that used to be about them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This isn't a bad thing, per se. The problems have come to a head with Thrall in Cataclysm because Thrall is so poorly written. Thrall has been spoiled. The weight of the failures of the writers have ruined him as a character, and he is beyond redemption. He's been woven so tightly into the fabric of the game that a discrete retcon is impossible. Trying to continue Thrall's story will have ruinous consequences on the narrative, and trying to retcon the mess they've already published would be the most disruptive retcon in the history of the Warcraft Mythos. The time has come to give Thrall a good Wesley-ing. Well, the time came a while ago, but late is better than never. Retire him to Nagrand to raise his little green/brown kids. Kill him off. I don't care. But stop inflicting him on the story.</div><div><br /></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803602506925287061.post-12225341247655749832011-12-08T14:10:00.000-08:002011-12-08T16:18:01.733-08:00For $29.99, You Too Can Know Just What's Going On!Another massive complaint that's been coming out of the dissatisfaction on the forums is Blizzard's insistence on using out of game mediums to conduct the heavy lifting in this expansion. There's a large gap between what Blizzard allowed to be used in out of game mediums in BC, and what they began to allow in Wrath, and what they proliferated in Cataclysm.<div><br /></div><div>The earliest attempts at out of game mediums for Blizzard consisted mostly of backstory and sidestory. The War of the Ancients Trilogy talked about history of the Night Elf heroes. <i>Tides of Darkness</i> just rehashed the cannon plot of Warcraft II, likewise <i>Through the Dark Portal</i> did the same for the expansion. The Sunwell Trilogy just gave the specific minutia of the Magister's Terrace and Sunwell instances. <i>Arthas: Rise of the Lich King</i> rehashed a lot of plot lines from WCIII, and gave some insight into Jaina and Arthas, but it wasn't anything that wasn't also apparent in the questing in Icecrown or the ICC 5 mans. The Death Knight Manga told us the specifics of the backstory that was covered in quests in both the DK starting zone, and in Northrend.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an example of what out of game materials should be: supplemental, optional, an enhancement to the plot already in the game. They should cover stories that are already portrayed in game, or stories that don't have enough significance in the major narrative plots in the game to be done justice in game. The Death Knight Manga was a particularly good example in my opinion. Playing through the game, I knew that Thassarian was a cool character. I knew he became a DK when he shipped over to Northrend with Arthas' expeditionary forces. I knew he had a skeleton buddy named Lurid. I knew Falric and Marwyn were captains under Arthas' expedition. This is enough to know in game to propel the plot. It's still nice to know the little details, but that's what the Manga was for. It was in the Manga that you find out that Falric went searching for Arthas after they defeated Mal'ganis, and when Falric failed to return with the prince, Thassarian went looking for both missing men. He found Falric in a cave, already turned to the Scourge. Falric turned on his former charge, and slew him, raising him as a Death Knight. It's a good story about the fall of a good man, but Thassarian isn't as important to the plot to warrant having such small details handled in game, at the expense of moving other, more important story arcs along. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then came the WoW comic. A comic is a different animal than a book or omnibus manga. In order to produce a successful comic, it has to be something that people are willing to purchase every week. In order to get a fresh weekly comic off the ground, you need a killer story. So Blizzard took one of the biggest hanging threads from in game, and sold it out to the comic, The Missing Diplomat. The Missing Diplomat was an Alliance side quest chain that led the character in search of a diplomat who was kidnapped en route to a peace conference with the Horde. It served a pivotal function within the game, it was the primary means by which non night elf Alliance characters made the transition from Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor. It was also known for its abrupt ending. There were little things here and there that led people to believe that it would be picked up in the end game, most notably that the Missing Diplomat, who was actually the King of Stormwind, was rendered in game in the basement of a building on Alcaz Island. All of the opportunities to revisit that quest line were cast aside, and if players wanted to know what happened, they had to go buy the comic.</div><div><br /></div><div>This began a new era of Blizzard expanded universe media. This is a problem because story arcs that are begun in the game should be wrapped up in game. Jumping the story across multiple formats creates a jarring narrative that will be incomplete for the majority of the people who experience it. Blizzard then began doing this for every incomplete story line that they had in the game. Malfurion's been asleep since WCIII, and Fandral's curiously asking for more and more Morrowgrain while the Emerald Dream corrupts itself and Teldrasil is seeded with that corruption. Green Dragons are rampaging through the world, and Ysera is trapped in the Emerald Dream. That was the status quo through Wrath, and suddenly in Cataclysm, all those threads just disappeared. What happened? <i>Stormrage</i> happened. Cataclysm gets released, and major faction leaders have suddenly shifted, or died, or turned into a giant diamond. What the hell happened? <i>The Shattering</i> happened. The Horde and Alliance are suddenly back at war in Kalimdor? What happened? <i>Wolfheart</i> happened.</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout Cataclysm, Blizzard has been outsourcing their lore to books and comics. There are a couple possible explanations for this. They might simply feel like their story is too big to be constrained <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/10/misteps-in-cataclysm-misfired-story.html">within the confines of an MMO</a>, which has specific leashes on what you can try and accomplish. They might have made their story <a href="http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-your-reach-exceeds-your-grasp.html">too ambitious to implement in game on their budget</a>. A raid into the Emerald Nightmare to rescue Malfurion would have been amazing. Having the fight between Garrosh and Cairne play out like the Duel between Thrall and Garrosh before Wrath would have given some weight to the extremely weak pre Cataclysm event. Perhaps the most insidious possibility is that Blizzard looked at the <i>Arthas</i>, and the success that that novel had, and saw the opportunity to made money at a higher profit margin. It costs much less to produce and publish a novel than it does to do the same for an MMO the size of WoW. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ultimately, however, by outsourcing the story to these other mediums, it alienates a large portion of the playerbase who do not purchase them for whatever reason. Be it a lack of financial security (cue players calling out "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF4RGk4APmw">This game discriminates against the poor!</a>" in Commander Shepard's voice), a lack of interest in the other mediums (Books just aren't for everyone), or they're simply busy spending their reading time reading better books (I'd rather read <i>American Gods</i> for the 11th time than read <i>Wolfheart</i> again.).</div>The Renaissance Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15218269024132171600noreply@blogger.com3