The Story Of Vanilla WoW

The Story Of Vanilla WoW

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Welcome again to The Queue , 's daily Q&A column the place the group answers your questions in regards to the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host as we speak.
I initially wrote an entirely different Queue for as we speak, and then I got here throughout Tim's question:
The two expansions have fleshed out stories that I perceive to some extent, particularly WotLK. This has led me to ask myself, what is the story of vanilla WoW?
That is an incredible question, and has lead me down a path to a solution I did not count on. Whereas my answer took an excellent three hours to put in writing final night time, it was most likely the most enjoyable I've had writing in fairly some time. So thanks, Tim.
My full reply is after the break.
I am going to start off by saying that while I'm going to try and reply what the story of vanilla WoW is, it's actually a question greatest left to The Man himself, Chris Metzen. The truth is, I am going to try something: Chris, should you're studying this, we would all love to listen to your reply - drop me your e mail through the tip line and we'll get in contact. Maybe we can do an interview about this and publish it for everybody.
Okay, in all probability a snowball's probability in hell of him actually responding, but what sort of editor would I be if I didn't attempt?
I believe the story of vanilla WoW is three fold.
One - Passing the Torch to a New Technology
The heroes of yesteryear are passing the torch to a brand new technology, and symbolize a major part of the story in vanilla WoW. This new generation of heroes will not be represented by an NPC in the game, however by the players themselves. As a participant you develop your reputation from simple duties of clearing out wolves within the comparatively peaceful Elwynn Forest to taking down Ragnaros and defeating the previous god C'Thun. This sets the stage for future tales the place the heroes, the protagonists of the story, are extra developed - namely the overall story arcs of the Sunwell, Illidan, and Kil'jaeden from the ancient war in Burning Crusade, and the battle with Arthas in Wrath. I'll observe here that Arthas has a definitive presence in vanilla WoW even now out within the Plague Lands, and even more so previous to Naxx's elimination; however the true story with Arthas ends in patch three.three (we expect).
Two - The Nation-State Reconstruction
Another story of vanilla WoW is concerning the penalties of the reconstruction of Azeroth from the third warfare. Roughly four years have passed by since Arthas and his scourage forever changed the face of the planet. We have seen old allies fall into strained relationships, and have seen new associates spring up from probably the most conflicting of groups. These varying relationships have led to nation-state interaction that propels the heroes (the players) into epic battles between factions just like the Horde and the Alliance, and between the Darkish Iron Dwarves and Bronzebeard's forces.
And whereas the aftermath of the third warfare and the subsequent reconstruction gives an excellent bed upon which to weave epic tales, the actual reconstruction and the everlasting human spirit play a central function as well. Azeroth was devastated after Arthas. Land which was once inexperienced and fertile turned gray and lifeless; creatures of the world discovered themselves corrupted by the evil pressure of the Lich King, and full civilizations discovered themselves turned the wrong way up with an assault immediately on their capital (Lordaeron and Silvermoon).
On this way the compelling story of the successful but difficult reconstruction is one that is ready to join with WoW's audience directly of their sense of nationalism (belonging to a nation), and of coping with our world which was immediately modified after the terrorists attacks of 9-11. Irrespective of where you are from or what your explicit political and social philosophy is, the sept. 11 assaults in some way changed the way of life of your nation. For Americans particularly, and indeed for any peoples which had to undergo terrorism, there is a strong sense of getting to deal constructively with these difficult conditions. We should rebuild, we must be sure that this doesn't happen once more, we should never forget. Such are common slogans within the combat in opposition to evil. Azeroth should rebuild, enemy and ally alike. Azeroth must be certain that the Lich King isn't in a position to wrought his type of destruction again. Azeroth must not neglect what he did, lest the Lich King is able to snake his manner back into energy over the peoples of your entire world.
This story and the sentiments it presents reverberate deep within the main audience which plays WoW now - the 20 to 30 yr olds who were young adults when the assaults and subsequent international terroristic outbreaks entered into our world consciousness. In many ways Azeroth represents a return to normalcy and strength. Ideas that, whereas we would not identify immediately with it ourselves, we can a minimum of establish with it on a nationalistic stage.
And here too we reach the finality of such a reconstruction - the last word triumph of excellent over evil. The Third Conflict was evil. We outside the sport will conquer evil, simply as our characters do in the recreation. At a very basic degree this story is probably essentially the most compelling out of all stories from all expansions - and as detailed above, matches into the psyche of people so nicely right this moment that it's uncanny.
Three - New and Rising Threats
The Lich King, the Horde, the previous gods - all of these are previous threats. The traditional warfare handled the nice sundering and Queen Azshara, the first conflict handled initial battle between the Horde and the Alliance as the Horde entered through the Darkish Portal from Draenor. The second war saw continued battle between the Horde and the Alliance. And finally in the third battle we saw the Lich King assert his presence in the land. They're all very astounding tales of dramatic movement on both the person level and nationwide stage, nevertheless they all characterize relatively outdated threats.
In vanilla WoW, new threats emerge. Whereas many of these new threats are the reemergence of previous creatures like Ragnaros or C'Thun, they really feel like the fashionable time is the proper time for them to rise from the depths and grow to be victorious over the people of Azeroth.
"Too quickly, you could have woke up me too soon, Executus!"
Regardless that Ragnaros is planning on taking over Azeroth, starting with making life from stone in Blackrock Mountain, he is aware of he is not but made the necessary preparations. As new heroes of the land we've to go and cease this elemental lord of the age of the Titans, to stop this new menace from returning us to the evil that we saw during the Lich King.
This story can be repeated, roughly, for the occasions of AQ and ZG. Stop old gods (not the previous gods, properly, not at all times) from coming again into the evil-power-vacuum left by the Lich King.
Conclusion
The story of vanilla WoW isn't as clear lower as BC or WotLK. It does nonetheless still provide superb plots and adventures that hearken again to the very nature of an MMORPG; you face a world by which it's important to combat against evil, struggling to win a battle that may never be gained. The forces of the Lich King is perhaps banished to fester in the cold north, however in his place other denizens of the underworld creep up and attempt to take his place. In an MMORPG, you are left forever defending your freedom and lifestyle towards forces which attempt to end it.
In some ways vanilla WoW is essentially the most compelling story of all of the iterations of WoW, as a result of it's the story of Humanity's spirit and relentless will to stay.
I need to insist that each one comments are kept civil. The piece is right here to not debate the deserves of American hegemony or the democrats vs. republicans, however the story of vanilla WoW and its connections with all of us.
I'd be amiss if I did not observe that I debated adding a fourth main story arc - that of environmentalism. The night elves, tauren, and orcs have very strong and compelling story lines coping with protecting or in someway acting because the agent of the earth. And while this story line is a serious part of WoW for some, it isn't for all. For example Putress representing the undead for awhile seemed fairly hellbent on poisoning all the things, together with the land. And whereas the dwarves revere the land, additionally they wish to dig a ton of it up. And the gnomes are significantly unhealthy with their oil dropping out within the Borean Tundra. So whereas the story of environmentalism is there, it isn't a serious part of WoW yet, and it would not observe an overall path but both (these stories about being pro-earth and anti-earth aren't actually linked). An instance of a story having an environmentalism arc could be Lord of the Rings (the e book version, not the movies) or Dune; and WoW would not have it to that extent yet.
Have questions concerning the World of Warcraft? The crew is right here with The Queue , our daily Q&A column! Go away your questions in the feedback and we'll do our greatest to reply 'em!
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