My first reaction:
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| Picture found through Google |
I said that one side has to be the aggressor, and thus in the wrong in the modern view of war. In the War of Thorns, Blizzard has embraced this. The Horde is unequivocally the aggressor. Sylvannas is driven by the old vision of war as a strategic tool.
I think this is the only correct way to do faction warfare, but there are a number of Horde players who are deeply unhappy over this turn of events. Especially the Horde druids who don't want to attack Malfurion. (I, on the other hand, am looking forward to dispatching him.)
The other part is that the Horde players have their fingerprints all over this conflict. Unlike Theramore, their characters are involved from the very beginning. (And there isn't even a Kitten of the Horde to motivate them.) Blizzard finally put the major event into the game, rather than having it in a book.
I quite applaud Blizzard for taking these decisions. If you're going to do faction warfare, commit 100%.
The questline is quite good as well. It's about 45 min to 1 hour or so. Given that there's another questline on the Alliance side, I think that's a solid amount of content for a pre-expansion event.
There are also several World Quests in Darkshore after the quest finishes. Apparently Darkshore is hilarious if you have War Mode enabled, with lots of PvP going on. I haven't tried that yet, though.
I'm looking forward to seeing the resolution of the War of Thorns. I hope Blizzard sticks to their guns. Even up to having the player being the one who burns the World Tree. That would set the forums aflame.
Yeah, I think I just won't though? Just gonna...skip the whole event. /shrug
ReplyDeleteWell, if you have another Horde character, you can do the questline on that one. This unlocks an option to skip the quests for alts. So you can skip the actual quests for your main, and justify it as your character joining the war after it started.
DeleteI would like the Horde be that kind of Horde and not be "morally grey". I have a feeling, though, that Blizzard will tell the story such that a third party will be revealed as doing all the really bad stuff. They really don't want players to feel bad about their faction choice. Which is, of course, is at odds with a faction conflict. :/
ReplyDeleteA lot of people are predicting a third party. I'm hoping Blizzard doesn't. It's also not like this is permanent content either that you have to do to unlock future content. It's temporary content that's optional. I think that makes it a good place to make the players involved/responsible.
DeleteI was thinking more about the repercussions of this event will be permanent. Teldrassil is not coming back, nor is the Undercity. Unless Blizzard pulls a Deus Ex Machina and absolves the Horde, that faction will be responsible for the changes, regardless if the players have to do the event or not.
DeleteI prefer this version of why events are moving towards a Horde vs Alliance war. http://www.darklegacycomics.com/639
ReplyDeleteHeh, yeah that was amusing.
DeleteYour Google picture is exactly it. I read your older posts, and the insights are incredibly wise. I think you're correct about defensive wars now being the only "right" wars. However in any war the ones doing the fighting are not the ones who want to be the aggressors. They're doing what they're ordered to do. They think they are upholding the honor or way of life of their side. Those who start and run wars care nothing at all about what those in the fight want, think or need. In the game, we all just fought side by side with the Horde or the Alliance. As we're out doing World Quests, or fighting elite monsters, more often than not, we are side by side with players from "the other side" who are helping us, and we can't ever even say hello or thank you. Maybe most of us just want to get along. I think it's time.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that was better path. But Blizzard chose a different path, and I think they should commit to the path they chose. I think going wishy-washy is just going to annoy both the people who like faction warfare and the people who hate it.
DeleteI'm calling it as just a smoke screen to another sub storyline. Makes little sense after 6 years of working together against a larger foe. Stakes seem like they are just too small.
ReplyDeleteIt was 1 expansion ago where we took down nearly the entire horde. Seems a bit weird.
Well, two expansions. Both Warlords and Legion were in between.
DeleteI hope it isn't a smoke screen. I'm a little tired of third-party manipulations.