Alex Afrasiabi on Story - 'We Want to Make Sure You Feel Something' - World of Warcraft - MMORPG.com

SBFord · August 2018

Alex Afrasiabi on Story - 'We Want to Make Sure You Feel Something' - World of Warcraft - MMORPG.com

World of Warcraft News - In an interview at ScienceAlert.com, Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi answered several interesting questions about storytelling in World of Warcraft. The interview was conducted prior to the start of the Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion event, War of Thorns, that has, to put it mildly, kicked up a lot of emotions with players. In one forward looking statement, Afrasiabi clearly indicates that the team knew that emotions would be running high, but urges patience with the unfolding of the story.

Read the full story here

SBFord · August 2018

A good read. They knew that all this pre-event stuff would kick up a shitstorm.

If the goal was to get people to "feel something" -- on both sides of the faction fence -- it certainly worked!

Dhaenon · August 2018

I think that if Sylvanas had been a third party, this would have been amazing. As it stands, I still think it was an impactful decision and well done. However, the old Vanilla Horde is dead and gone, that is unfortunate. I preferred Thrall's Horde

MadFrenchie · August 2018

I'm feeling something, alright. I got hit with the quest wipe bug. GG Blizzard, now I have to go wander around trying to pick up all the quests I had in my log.

SBFord · August 2018

MadFrenchie said:

I'm feeling something, alright. I got hit with the quest wipe bug. GG Blizzard, now I have to go wander around trying to pick up all the quests I had in my log.

OMG -- *hands MadFrenchie a slightly burned Teldrassil Tangerine Tart* That's terrible.

I read about people that for one reason or another had kept "legacy quests" in their journals without ever turning them in and now they're out of the game. They can't ever get them back.

MadFrenchie · August 2018

SBFord said:

MadFrenchie said:

I'm feeling something, alright. I got hit with the quest wipe bug. GG Blizzard, now I have to go wander around trying to pick up all the quests I had in my log.

OMG -- *hands MadFrenchie a slightly burned Teldrassil Tangerine Tart* That's terrible.

I read about people that for one reason or another had kept "legacy quests" in their journals without ever turning them in and now they're out of the game. They can't ever get them back.

Thank goodness I don't have any of those. I just gotta cross-check and figure out which ones I need to pick back up reference getting Legion Flying. Figure since the expac would dwarf our current equip, getting flying would be the most productive use of my time until the expac as I have a few alts that will eventually need to quest through those zones.

SBFord · August 2018

MadFrenchie said:

SBFord said:

MadFrenchie said:

I'm feeling something, alright. I got hit with the quest wipe bug. GG Blizzard, now I have to go wander around trying to pick up all the quests I had in my log.

OMG -- *hands MadFrenchie a slightly burned Teldrassil Tangerine Tart* That's terrible.

I read about people that for one reason or another had kept "legacy quests" in their journals without ever turning them in and now they're out of the game. They can't ever get them back.

Thank goodness I don't have any of those. I just gotta cross-check and figure out which ones I need to pick back up reference getting Legion Flying. Figure since the expac would dwarf our current equip, getting flying would be the most productive use of my time until the expac as I have a few alts that will eventually need to quest through those zones.

You can check here and there's even a tool where if you input your character / realm will track your progress so you know exactly where you need to go.

https://www.wowhead.com/legion-pathfinder-class-mounts

Erinak1 · August 2018

He has said something similar before every expansion and most of the stories have been pretty forgettable in terms of details :P

heerobya · August 2018

My money is on Sylvannas getting a redemption arc.

We pretty much know BfA is going to morph into an Old Gods N'Zoth expansion, so it'd be too obvious to make her influenced by the Old God and get the Garrosh raid-boss treatment.

Instead I think she'll get a legit redemption arc, maybe even Anduin himself helps her reclaim her soul and non-undead life.

Leading to a return of Thrall as Warchief, and leaving Nathanos as new leader of the Forsaken.

Xingbairong · August 2018

I personally don't mind the horde being the bad guys, Sylvanas being mental etc... I don't see what's all the fuss. We all know that the horde is going to get redeemed by the end of the expansion and as for Sylvanas... I kinda feel like she might depart from this world for good this time around. I wouldn't be surprised if she is the final raid boss for the expansion. She genuinely looks mental even though they are showing that there's more than just pure anger in everything she does.
Honestly I've never been really disappointed with an expansion story. Even MoP was actually quite nice even though it came kinda out of the blue and didn't feel that connected, but I'm still waiting for Wrathion. I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up by the end of the expansion since he is among the few black dragons that isn't corrupted by the old gods.

Basically what I'm saying is people are jumping to conclusions about the story before the expansion has even launched. As that Blizz guy said it going to take time for us to learn the whole story.

Btw I know it's not that probable, but I have the slight feeling that the next expansion will either be utter chaos, Horde and Alliance picking 2 new faction sides and mixing OR I have this tingling feeling that somehow the Nexus story will get woven in and we will have to face the Nexus enemy of course there's always the possibility of Blizzard Universe game AKA WoW on steroids but with all the HotS heroes playable lol that's me dreaming right

Alomar · August 2018

Maybe I've just become spoiled and shallow, but I really struggle to find immersion and enjoy any type of story in game's with such old graphics such as WoW. Doubly, with tab target combat.

Xarko · August 2018

Seems to me the only people who feel something are confused Sylvanas fans. I sure dont see much reaction from Alliance about burning of an old ghost town nobody really cared about.

DiscipledOne · August 2018

Xarko said:

Seems to me the only people who feel something are confused Sylvanas fans. I sure dont see much reaction from Alliance about burning of an old ghost town nobody really cared about.

I’ve always played both horde and alliance, but the story arch in Legion making sylvanis wachief cause Vol Said so combined with this had me drop my horde characters. Dont mind being the “bad” guy, but I wouldn’t follow that psycho...

Scot · August 2018

"A game, especially WoW, it isn't like a book where you can just devour it and get the satisfaction of learning and understanding the whole of it, right?"

Actually books are not like that unless you are reading Postman Pat. They feature secrets, the unknowable, the delayed until next book in the series surprise.

In the interview he gives away what is wrong, WoW's story is being written by a committee and I am not sure there is one writer on the team. Well that's my surprise for the paragraph and the mystery is solved.

MadFrenchie · August 2018

Torval said:

SBFord said:

OMG -- *hands MadFrenchie a slightly burned Teldrassil Tangerine Tart*

You went there. Hahahaha. You rule!

She's like a sour patch kid- sweet, then sour.

Margrave · August 2018

It made me feel great that I didn't buy the expansion or play WoW anymore.

My horde is dead? My faction of choice is no more? So why would I want to play anymore?

This just makes sure there's nothing there anymore in that over a decade old title to warrant me spending any money on it anymore. Time to move on.

TTFN

Tintagil · August 2018

Great article, I just wish people would be patient as Afrasiabi asks. Sure get angry or whatever because something seems crazy in the story, but at least give it at chance to go somewhere. Think of it like a good wine, let it breath for a minute. Instead I see people raging and having meltdowns all over social media, and even in some places personally attacking the writers, which is just poor form.

Anyway, I for one am excited to see where the story goes for the Horde. There is a lot of interesting conflict within and obviously outside the Horde. With BfA right around the corner the denizens of Azeroth are certainly living in interesting times (interesting, of course can be either good or bad haha).

Utinni · August 2018

These sorts of reactions really make me realize how many people actually relate to their avatars in WoW. While enjoying the story here and there throughout the years I've never come close to actually caring about the overall lore outcomes.

Albatroes · August 2018

People are comparing this to a Garrosh act, but honestly its more in line with Illidan. She's too important to defeating the voidlords. Probably why I dont really get the whole "Sylvanas is evil thing." She's just thinking about self-preservation which no other race (other than death knights, which aren't considered a "race") have to think about. It goes back to Illidan losing himself to power trying to stop the thing he hated. I'd say this is a bit deeper if blizzard chooses to delve into the undead cause there's no "correct" way to keep them around. The horde (mainly orcs) think there's no honor is raising any dead and the alliance hates the idea as well. Where exactly does the undead belong? Overall, what I think is (in terms of long-game) is that thrall will come back as a different class to stop Sylvanas and realize that he has to be warchief again, Sylvanas will probably take a break to think things over and come back when Alleria inevitably loses herself to the void as a result of her son dying.

Aragoni · August 2018

Am I the only one who want the Horde to be evil in this game?

Albatroes · August 2018

Torval said:

Albatroes said:

People are comparing this to a Garrosh act, but honestly its more in line with Illidan. She's too important to defeating the voidlords. Probably why I dont really get the whole "Sylvanas is evil thing." She's just thinking about self-preservation which no other race (other than death knights, which aren't considered a "race") have to think about. It goes back to Illidan losing himself to power trying to stop the thing he hated. I'd say this is a bit deeper if blizzard chooses to delve into the undead cause there's no "correct" way to keep them around. The horde (mainly orcs) think there's no honor is raising any dead and the alliance hates the idea as well. Where exactly does the undead belong? Overall, what I think is (in terms of long-game) is that thrall will come back as a different class to stop Sylvanas and realize that he has to be warchief again, Sylvanas will probably take a break to think things over and come back when Alleria inevitably loses herself to the void as a result of her son dying.

Blizzard needed strong persona in this role. She is about the only person fitting for it at the moment. It's part of my gripe with how they bend characters and toy with consistency just to promote a plot or seasonal device. In this case it's for "war mode".

You're saying that they are bending Sylvanas' character when they never have. She killed alliance, that's about it. Sylvanas hasn't really been a typical "moral" character since she's undead and struggling with how to keep the undead around as I said before. That's always been her focus, even over how the horde perceives her. It goes all the way back to at least cata when she wanted to mass ressurect alliance soldiers and garrosh stopped her because of "honor" etc. Its not like night elves can't be resurrected as "undead" (death knights). I think people are focusing more on either how she reacted (snapping when the NE told her she was going to war with life) or never understood her character to begin with even though it was main painfully obvious over the years (even in legion) that she just cares about the undead's survival. Its not really a fantastic story if you take it at face value which I think is a big mistake on blizzard's part because people need to either do a lot of digging or find third party sources in order for this whole thing to make a lot more "sense" which a lot of people dont have, thus is why we have "omg another garrosh, so lame Blizz."

I mean all these "main" character turns (Illidan/Arthas/Garrosh) do have elements of reasoning behind them (Illidan wanting to do whatever it took because he felt the Legion was too great of a threat, Arthas pretty much being perceived as evil when he originally wanted to save his kingdom, Garrosh never wanting to be Warchief to begin with and still felt abandoned by thrall. The thing those all have in common is "humanity" if you think about it. It might seem "out of character" putting Sylvanas in the same "category" since she's "dead." Personally, I felt her losing her cool over seeing her old self in that night elf wasn't needed but it didn't really hurt her either. I do think they missed a perfect opportunity showing how long she's been struggling to keep the undead "alive" though. She could've said something like "The living will never know what it feels like to exist on the boarder between life and death yet still have the desire to exist by the rules of the living." I feel like that would sum her up best and would be easier to understand why she was attacking.

calibek · August 2018

Ok two things:

1. Why are people surprised that a walking corpse killed thousands of innocents. I like Sylvanas, and she is in fact one of my favorite characters next to Arthas but lets be real here, she was NEVER a moral character. Since she regained her free will she has always been and "either you are with me or against me" type. The difference between before and now is instead of a singular race she is leading an entire faction. She has always been for her and her people (more so for herself) and she would literally cut down anyone else (or burn them in this case).

2. For those who have an issue with this story God help those who try to get into the Warhammer universe. What Sylvanas did is a trip to Disney World compared to Warhammer where they massacre entire cities just for midday jollies.

claytondora · August 2018

It's sad that Blizzard had to come out and handhold the community through these 'troubling times'. It's fun when unexpected nasty stuff happens in stories. It's a large reason why game of thrones is so popular.

#NotMyHorde

lmao so ridiculous.

BizkitNL · August 2018

claytondora said:

It's sad that Blizzard had to come out and handhold the community through these 'troubling times'. It's fun when unexpected nasty stuff happens in stories. It's a large reason why game of thrones is so popular.

#NotMyHorde

lmao so ridiculous.

Well, reactions like that certainly fit this time and day. #Imalwaysoffended

Moyaba · August 2018

I think the story is allright and Sylvanas acts in line with her character. If WoW would be a Book or TV Show this would be a welcome surprise. I could just read on or wait for the next episode. But I have to actually play my fucking Horde Druid, with whom I identify myself to a certain degree, while my faction leader ( and remember this addon is all about your faction "it matters" ) burns down the World tree.
This just makes me, as a Horde player, less comfortable with being Horde and playing the game until the story progresses and hopefully makes me a proud Hordy again.

Wizardry · August 2018

I am not going to pretend that i know every single Wow player but i have NEVER witnessed a player that talks of "the story" in game or out of game.Personally i do enjoy a game's story ,if done well of course,i am just saying that i am in the minority for sure.
I have often mentioned that i feel FFX has the best story i have ever seen in a game,so i really do mean it but like i said,even in these forums people ONLY mention it in response to for example this article.
What i normally see from players is the same in all of these mmorpg's,they are simply running around like chickens with their heads cut off doing quests for xp or loading up dungeon finder for loot and that is 95% of players game.

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