Hope you had a wonderful weekend filled with stuff and things.
Welcome back to the digital world, and I hope you brought popcorn, ’cause 3.1 is officially here.
Here-ish.
So basically this is totally awesome.
Poor Ronin is such a nerd. Poor guy is surrounded by bloodthirsty jocks (Garrosh and Varian) and all he can do is yell “we have to work together!” and make shiny colors.
Dude, L2sheep. Nothing will put a savage orc or vengeful king in his place quicker than transforming into a disgustingly cute turtle for a a little while.
So it seems no one is getting along with anyone else. Naturally, the Horde and the Alliance continue to be utterly incapable of partnering up against anything, even if the imminent threat couldn’t be killed by the race that created the freaking dragons.
Have I mentioned before how deeply I am enjoying the way the lore is going this expansion?
The Horde and the Alliance were on the verge of a peace treaty. We were so close. We largely left each other in piece in Outland, even teaming up to take down the Legion in Quel’Danas.
And now basically all of that is completely buggered, and there’s even hostility within the factions themselves. Thrall has basically no command over Garrosh now, relations between Varian and Jaina are likely to be shaky at best, and Varian has essentially told the Kirin Tor to go #%@& themselves.
Not that I blame Varian, really. He got to watch the Horde kill his dad, slay all his childhood friends and burn down everything he’s ever known when he was just a wee lad.
He is well within his rights to seek vengeance, whatever the cost.
If you’re uncomfortable with this, it’s probably a good thing you play Alliance.
Which brings me in a roundabout way to player morality again.
For some players, their characters have morals and things. Codes of honour, things that they are willing to do and things they are not. Some players get uncomfortable torturing baby gorillas or killing mothers so we can kidnap their children in peace.
Most of us, however, are more than willing to do basically anything as long as we are paid to do it.
Heroes of the [insert faction here]? Feh, don’t believe it. Most of us are basically mercenaries, though extremely powerful ones.
And even then, many of us are perfectly willing to do stuff like pointlessly slaughter 15 turkeys for no reason whatsoever.
Ask yourself this. What hope does the world have when it’s mightiest heroes can be convinced to do anything with the promise of gold?
I LOVED this new movie,
and am completely excited to see
the inside of Ulduar!
To kill that which rules over death,
oh what an accomplishment that will be!
Going back to the video,
who always is the voice of reason?
In the midst of anger and mindless sword
slinging, mages intervene to set things straight.
Yes, thats right.
My mage’s epeen from a lore
standpoint just grew.
I cannot wait to see the visions of
Yogg-Saron.
I cannot wait to see the end of this game so
I can merely know what happens!
I’ve stated this games lore is like a good book,
but only now are people starting to realize it
due to the incorporation of it in daily game play.
These small scenes they release are so epic,
even for their small duration.
Imagine what they’d do if given a full length
movie to fill up with amazing story lines
and awesome magery?
Oh,
I await you,
Warcraft movie.
I await you.
“What hope does the world have when it’s mightiest heroes can be convinced to do anything with the promise of gold?”
Gief goblin merchant hero class!
There’s an ingame dialog between two NPC on the flightpoint in Wintergarde Keep – about the Lich King’s powerful armies, futility of the 7th Legion’s efforts to battle them, and the powerful heroes, blessed by A’dal himself, coming to help.
And there’s a very first Alliance quest in Borean Tundra, where you get to skip a long line of peasants and craftsmen, because you are a well known hero.
And there’s even a young Wolvar warrior that asked me to blood his blade, cause it’s their custom to have a blade bloodied by an experienced warrior – and he chose me before all the Wolvar warriors of his clan. Granted, it’s a daily quest and he asked me for the same thing about 20 times more, but still.
I smiled when I saw the events for the first time, and they still make me happy every time when I see them again.
Yes, I might act like a mercenary, but it’s just because my ‘Champion of the Naaru’ title won’t feed me or let me repair my gear for free. All these folks think of me (and countless others as well, but it does not matter) as the Hero of the Alliance, and I AM one.
So they call you a hero. They give you titles and privileges and honors, shower you with blessings and kind words, and speak your name with quiet reverence.
But are you a hero because of your character, your unwavering dedication to place the lives of others, of the whole world, before yourself? Or are you a hero for pushing back the “enemy”—real or perceived, it doesn’t matter—and bending over backwards to trudge through their collection quests and do their torturing-dirty-work?
Do you gank level 31s in Stranglethorn? Do you wipe out Tarren Mill or Southshore for kicks? Are you ready to answer a Trade chat request for a SM run, or distract (die repeatedly to) a better-geared enemy so a lowbie can scuttle away from his corpse camp?
When others call you a hero, what do they mean? What do they value? And when you claim the title, do you deserve it?
Don’t be too quick to answer.
I always find the people crying over the gorilla-poking quest – or the torturing quest in Borean – a bit odd.
How did you level? Oh, right. Murdering things. Thousands of them. People, animals, spirit-things, giant lizards, and, oddly enough, stuff that’s already been killed.
Neighbor annoying the nearby NPC? Kill him. Dude stealing your candles? Don’t try to settle it with words. Guy reject that young orc lass? Tear his guts out, that’ll show him. Or not, because he’s dead. But you get the idea.
The ‘torture’ quests show us the “reality” of our actions. Do I feel bad decimating an entire shoveltusk population in a couple of casts? Nah. But a guy internet-begging for mercy? I feel a little remorseful.
But I’ll do it anyway.
There are no true heroes. It’s all subjective.
And while I agree that Varian has a genuine beef, I don’t actually care. He should settle his own grudges – don’t get me into this shit. I like my Troll buddies. I’d think the GIANT GOD OF DEATH at our doorstep is more important than beating up some green guys with pointy teeth.
Cubicle warriors unite!
Actually, Varian has no right to seek “vengeance at any cost”. As a king, his duty is to seek the welfare of his kingdom and people. If vengeance is most important to him, he should surrender his crown to a more reasonable successor, pick up his sword, and go out and kill things.
To be fair, Thrall has just as many grievances against the Alliance. The fact that he has overcome those and integrated them into his identity (as seen by him keeping his slave-name) makes him, in many ways, a stronger character than Varian.
Killing things isn’t necessarily wrong. Unless you decide to mire yourself in endless moral relativism, there are definitely some Bad People out in the world. Murdering mobs for mats might be shakier territory. Wiping out Honor Hold could easily be seen as an unprovoked act of aggression and senseless violence.
I suppose it depends on which level you recognize that it’s a game. For me, that level is “NPC’s don’t have feelings, can’t have fun, and aren’t paying to play the game; PC’s do, can, and are.” Torturing pixels is fine. Corpse camping some lowbie in Stonetalon is just mean-spirited.
Honestly, I do see my ret Paladin as a mercenary. Since Paladins are supposed to be priest/warriors, I see ANY ret pally in this light as their main purpose is to do damage, not to save others from damage either from healing or accepting it onto themselves.
I’m one of those people that won’t kill Mr. Bigglesworth, a bunny or any other innocent Azerothian animal. It’s not that I don’t recognize this is a game so much as I don’t think of killing those things.
“What hope does the world have when it’s mightiest heroes can be convinced to do anything with the promise of gold?”
Gold? Pah – I’d do it for nothing but the experience, or perhaps a couple of cupcakes. Besides, them turkeys was totally askin’ for it.
But honestly:
“What hope does the world have when it’s mightiest heroes can be convinced to do anything with the promise of gold?”
Um… you really think the heroes of yore really did it for nothing in return? Maybe it was land or the most beautiful woman in the land or to be closer to the most powerful ruler, but they definitely did it for something.
[...] was supposed to be a comment on Critical QQ’s blog post, but as it was getting a bit large already, I’ve decided to make a whole post out of it. This [...]
I had a reply, but it was getting a bit too long for a comment. So the link above is that reply.
Also, as a hero of the Alliance and Champion of the Naaru, I demand this topic to become a Blog Azeroth’s Shared Topic. It deserves that.
So you’re a Hero of the Alliance. So what? You still have to pay, and get paid. Even the “Oh, go save X from the evil Y” quests still pay you. Wouldn’t a _true_ hero of a faction accept these quests for free? If you still want to consider yourself a hero, just take the lore standpoint and say “Gold is a game mechanic and without it the game wouldn’t work,” or say “We’re all mercenaries.” It all is a matter of opinion. I agree with Theawakening also. The lore is deep and adds a whole other layer to the gameplay, but people have just started to realize that. They should keep doing what they are doing. It’s nice.
“What hope does the world have when it’s mightiest heroes can be convinced to do anything with the promise of gold?”
Yeah, this is very much where the lore of WoW breaks down for me and ends up becoming just numbers and twitch abilities.
The new Argent Tournament daily to go and collect lumber from the freaking Crystalsong Forest brings that home.
If this were a pen and paper roleplaying game, the GM would be accuse of railroading. It’s not, so everyone accepts that they simply have no choice.
Better designers would have implemented choices, even if they were binary. (Yes, I know somebody is going to say you have the choice not to do the quest blah blah I’m-so-freakn-smart-smack-me-now etc. Well bullshit and piss off.)
They could offer a choice of quests, either go gather lumber, or perform a different quest with the same result. There’s a whole level of gaming in MMOs that so far lies untapped, player choice.
King Varian is focusing his hatred and vengeance too broadly. Putress and his Forsaken groupies launched their plague upon Alliance and Horde alike. The Horde itself was not after slaughtering Alliance at the gates.
Ah well, he wants a reason to continue hating on Thrall and the Horde. He’s prolly jealous that Jaina still eyes up Thrall.
If a member of another family killed one of your siblings, then a short while later, a DIFFERENT member of the same family killed one of your parents, would you be inclined to sit down with the parents for a cup of tea and a chat, since, after all, THEY never did anything to you, just the other members of their family?
Damn that was a long sentence…
King. Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
All these “would you sit down for peace talks” don’t apply because we aren’t leaders of a nation, not to mention arguably the most powerful leader of an alliance.
If a president of the US had members of his family killed by Irish pirates (don’t ask), would, you as a citizen of his country, feel it justified for him to declare war on Ireland while an amassed army of Canadians and New Zealanders threatened to wipe out both countries (again, don’t ask)?
Of course he’s justified in his personal hatreds. But to let that steer your country and its allies to a war they can’t afford (granted, from a pure lore standpoint, I think the Night Elves, Draenei, and Theramore/High Elves would flip him the bird if he tried) is mindnumblingly irresponsible.
–
To the topic at hand though: yeah… I try to do the “morally just” thing (I stopped questing in western Grizzly Hills when someone told me to go kill orcs and take their scalps), some of the rewards are just too much to pass up. Genocide in Sholozar ftw…
morality in WoW? really? I thought we were just there to waste time while “socially” networking with other computer geeks….
I dont believe that a MMORPG or any video game can ever come to a level like a table top or live action ROLE play game can …. video games are about MINDLESS escape … kill things, get treasure so you can kill things better, rinse, repeat …. (not to mean you dont have to use your brain, er…well make Euripedes use his brain anyhow….someone has to figure out all that math stuff it takes to figure out how much my FFB is going to KILL)
you want your character to have the high morals of a Paladin, go play D&D (not 4th edt …cuz 4th edt is WoW tabletop!) with real [i][b]live[/i][/b] friends …. you will find it much more rewarding than trying to role play morals with a bunch of WoWer’s who idea of ‘in character’ means they love to stomp Alliance toons because they play HORDE ! (by the way, FOR THE HORDE! …now where did i put those curb-stompin’ boots?)
“vengeance at any cost” – isn’t that what got us, or at least Arthas, into this mess in the first place?
Am I the only person who saw the video and thought, “If only my Arcane blast could do that!” ?
Because when I was new to wow I thought Arcane Blast was the new and improved ranged Arcane Explosion. But i found that ‘Blast’ has no AoE whatsoever and was sad. Imagine if blast hit all mobs near your target. Crazy stuff man.
@Endario:
“I try to do the “morally just” thing (I stopped questing in western Grizzly Hills when someone told me to go kill orcs and take their scalps)”
If so, go and finish that questline if you haven’t. You’ll be surprised.