Blizzard rewrites (contradicts) Warcraft history for the WoW Expansion

[Schadenfroh]

Text

According to in-game books here is the story of Sargeras and Eredars:

Sargeras was a Vanir Titan and their great champion, chosen by their Pantheon to defend the worlds they had created. He carried out these duties for countless millennia, seeking out and destroying the demons of the Twisting Nether wherever he could find them.

The Eredar, an insidious race of devilish sorcerers, used their warlock magic to invade and enslave a number of worlds. The indigenous races of those worlds were mutated by the Eredar's malevolent powers and turned into demons themselves. Though Sargeras' nearly limitless powers were more than enough to defeat the vile Eredar, he was greatly troubled by the creatures' corruption and all-consuming evil. Incapable of fathoming such depravity, the great Titan began to slip into a brooding depression.

As doubt and despair overwhelmed Sargeras' senses, he lost all faith not only in his mission, but also in the Titans' vision of an ordered universe. Eventually he came to believe that the concept of order itself was folly, and that chaos and depravity were the only absolutes within the dark, lonely universe. His fellow Titans tried to persuade him of his error and calm his raging emotions, but he disregarded their more optimistic beliefs as self-serving delusions. Storming from their ranks forever, Sargeras set out to find his own place in the universe. Although the Pantheon was sorrowful at his departure, the Titans could never have predicted just how far their lost brother would go.

Source:
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01345p

Now the Draenei new site says quite a different story:

Nearly twenty-five thousand years ago, the eredar race arose on the world of Argus. They were extremely intelligent and had a natural affinity for magic in all its myriad forms. Using their gifts, they developed a vast and wondrous society.
Unfortunately the eredar's accomplishments caught the attention of Sargeras, the Destroyer of Worlds. He had already begun his Burning Crusade to eradicate all life from the cosmos, and he believed that the brilliant eredar would be pivotal in leading the vast demonic army he was gathering. Thus, he contacted the eredar's three most prominent leaders: Kil'jaeden, Archimonde, and Velen. In exchange for the loyalty of the eredar race, Sargeras offered untold power and knowledge.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Text

EDIT: Damn, cKGunslinger beat me by less than a minute

GG. Use the search button, n00b!

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

GG. Use the search button, n00b!

It is not a post announcing the new alliance race anymore.

Thread Recycling for the win!

 

[pontifex]

1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

It is like the Lord of the Rings publisher rewriting the LoTR trilogy to where saruman kills Frodo and gets the ring (or something) and turns into a new dark lord so they can make a fourth movie.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

People that play the game. If the same thing happened in a series like 24, people would be upset.

And was the thread title misleading you into the thread? Why do you care what people think?

 

[zagood]

I think I played the original Warcraft when it first came out, don't know anything about the backstory, but that's pretty messed up. If I were a diehard WoW player I'd be pissed that the developers were rewriting the history of my "world."

Then again, rewriting history has been done for a lonnnng time...

-z

 

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

People that play the game. If the same thing happened in a series like 24, people would be upset.

And was the thread title misleading you into the thread? Why do you care what people think?

Some people play but don't care about the story.
I hear that EQ had a story. I was more interested in playing the game.
Guess I should clarify, stories are for single player games, well at least for me.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

GG. Use the search button, n00b!

It is not a post announcing the new alliance race anymore.

Thread Recycling for the win!

Dammit - now my comments make me look even more foolish.

 

[KillyKillall]

<nerd alarm goes off>

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

1 - So's Anandtech
2 - You're posting, so you obviously do

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: KillyKillall
<nerd alarm goes off>

Platinum Member

Yeah, because you really need to watch out for nerds...

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

Most people consider fiction an art. If you've ever played WoW for any amount of time, you'd see that there is a lot of creativity in the game that makes it what it is. The trick to the art is to make a fictious world seem believable and to draw the gamer into this world. Inconsistencies tend to break that illusion and ruin the immersion.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Looks like blizzard has started to delete threads on the subject, dont expect the one linked in the OP to last for long.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Looks like blizzard has started to delete threads on the subject, dont expect the one linked in the OP to last for long.

*Clap, clap*

Remember when Blizzard was a model for all other developers to aspire to?

 

[fierydemise]

This really shows which players Blizzard prizes, they couldn't care less about the roleplayers or people who enjoy a great backstory, all they care about are the Bnet kiddies.

 

[nageov3t]

eh. what if the in game books were wrong?

it would be a touch of realism I mean, history books are laden with factual errors,

 

[remagavon]

Blizzard sold out a long time ago. When Bill Roper left so did the soul of that company, IMO.

 

[Rangoric]

So um where is the contradiction?

All I see is 2 seperate viewpoints of the same story.

And nothing in either looks to contradict each other, except in the normal manner of PoV.

 

[NeoV]

these are the same people that bitch about 'special edition' star wars movies

 

[ubercaffeinated]

when i played the game i was like yay purples and orangesss. wuts a story?

 

[skace]

So we have 2 viewpoints.
1. That the Eredar race was evil and corrupted Sargeras
2. That the Eredar race was good until Sargeras corrupted them

Differing viewpoints based on differing scholars or lack of information. It would be pretty smart of Blizzard to juggle the viewpoints in a way such that people doing the quest lines in Burning Crusades do not know what the expected outcome will be.

Sure, I'm giving Blizzard the benefit of the doubt, but they are pretty smart when it comes to their own lore and writings.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Oakenfold

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex
1 - its a fictional world
2 - who the fvck cares?

People that play the game. If the same thing happened in a series like 24, people would be upset.

And was the thread title misleading you into the thread? Why do you care what people think?

Some people play but don't care about the story.
I hear that EQ had a story. I was more interested in playing the game.
Guess I should clarify, stories are for single player games, well at least for me.

 

[spunkz]

cuz they're real interested in devoting their time to the lore....

Article on Kharazan Design

Within a few minutes, Mr. Metzen determined that the history and culture of the tower's long-dead inhabitants decreed that the architectural animal motifs progress from horse heads at the tower's base to eagle heads a bit higher, culminating in lion heads at the grand opera house.

"But don't put these heads all over the place," Mr. Metzen told an artist. "Just sprinkling them in here and there will really sell the history to the players who are paying attention."

 

[Drakkon]

I dare anyone who has played the game for any length of time to actually stop playing because of this....cummon a double dog dare ya
yes its a travesty but if it provides an update to the game to make it more fun or interesting or expand it so the player has a new path and experience to go down then i say more power to Blizzard. They know how to make GREAT games, they have proven it with every single game they have come out with, so a minor change in a storyline i think is justified.

 

[fishbits]

I'm a big fan of what a good story can do for my gaming experience, but really never found a compelling or meaningful way into WoW's story while I was playing. Read some of the in-game books here and there, and they seemed events that took place in a vaccuum with no bearing on anything that would happen. This may be due to the nature of the game and its mechanics. "OK, what does Fizzlewig smiting Gargator who was betrayed by Melis 30,000 years ago have to do with ganking, grinding, raiding or 'fetch me 10 merfolk eyes' quests?"

Now some of the stories inside quests themselves were nice and gave them some much-needed depth. But then there's linkage between what you're seeing/doing and the story. A single player or group of them can't take advantage of the lore and change the flow of the game, because the encounters have to be the same for everyone else lined up to do the same quest. Non-MMO RPGs have much more leeway in this department.