Let’s talk about lore

This comment on WoW Insider got me thinking about Warcraft lore:

IMHO, the only way to do any more expansions is to make up lore (even moreso than they already do)

Yeah, and what’s the problem with that?

One of the most common complaints I read on forums, blog comments, etc, is that Blizzard is constantly “ruining their lore.” It ranges from “He’s not supposed to stand here!” to “Blizzard has no respect for lore and has ruined the Warcraft world beyond repair.” I seem to see more of the latter than the former.  Maybe (hopefully) it’s just the “vocal minority.”

Here’s a hint for all of you out there who feel that Blizzard has destroyed their own lore: IT IS THEIR OWN LORE THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO IT!

Who created the Warcraft universe and mythology? Blizzard, or a bunch of fanboys?  Warcraft is Blizzard’s creation, it’s their baby. It’s absurd to say Blizzard ruined the Warcraft mythology when they introduced the spaceship-like Exodar and alien-like Draenei.  It fits because Blizzard says it fits. The loremasters at Blizzard have every right to create new stories and make changes to existing Warcraft history. They were the ones who created it in the first place. If they feel that it is necessary to retcon something or add something new, so be it. If they want to expand on existing history, more power to them.

Blizzard has every right to add new content, new areas, new races, new mythology, new anything to the Warcraft universe. The commentor who got me thinking believes that the only way to make new expansions is for Blizzard to “make up lore” and he infers that this is a bad thing.  Let me get one thing straight here, if Blizzard wants to say that there’s a new portal to somewhere, or whatever they come up with, Blizzard can say that. The Warcraft universe doesn’t end with what is in WoW right now (or what was in WC3, for that matter). If Blizzard wants to “make something up” they have every right to do so. A series’ “lore” can change and evolve.

The world of Warcraft is huge, there is plenty of room for new stories and new adventures. But some people think that nothing should ever change, characters should stay how they’ve always been, no new story arcs are possible. Those people are wrong.

Basically, Blizzard can “make up” whatever they want and it is perfectly fine.  Fiction can change and evolve to suit new needs.  If Blizzard “makes up” something, that is what they are supposed to do.  How else do you think all the current lore came to be?  Warcraft’s lore didn’t just magically appear out of nowhere, it took people “making up” stories to flesh out the mythology that we have now.  You need to realize that fictional universes are “made up” and that this is not a bad thing.

EDIT:  I took out a few paragraphs that I realized took away from my main message.

Off Topic

I’ve tried not to post anything non-WoW related, because I have another blog for that, and if you’re interested you can read it.  But we’re all gamers here, so I think we can all agree:

Jack Thompson is a moron.

That is all.

It… can’t be…

I ran Steamvaults last night and it made me realize a horrible truth: I might not be able to main tank the level 70 five mans without being protection specced.

I don’t know if it was people in my group being jackasses or what, but I had a hell of a time holding aggro (on trash, I was fine on the bosses).  It didn’t help that most of the pulls in there have 4 mobs, warriors aren’t the greatest at holding onto multiple adds (especially when the fight is unorganized, but you’ve heard that rant).  Every once in a while, the mage would pull aggro, which I guess is kind of understandable if some kind of big crit goes off.  But there was also a shaman who was pulling aggro like crazy.  The shaman was fighting in melee range, so maybe it was a guy with the “hay doodz lookit my DPS SKILLZ!” mentality and wasn’t watching his aggro.  I tend to think it may have been.  But I also can’t get over the fact that I would have probably been able to hold aggro better had I been prot specced (duh, right?). 

This sucks, because what I want to do to enjoy the game and get the most out of my $15 a month is finish up the last three zones (I’m busting through Blade’s Edge right now).  And this is only enjoyable if I’m arms specced and dishing out nasty crits an damage.  I can’t even imagine how it would be while prot specced.

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  QQ more nub.  But when I have people in my guild telling me that I’ll need to spec to protection in order to tank and survive in some of the 70 instances, and then I start to actually see the truth to their warnings, it starts to worry me.  Have I ever mentioned that I hate this game?  =P

Not all was bad about the run though, because I managed to pick up Gauntlets of the Bold.  Pretty sweet.  Now to find some gems…

Oh, you know what else I hate.  I hate when people don’t loot a beast’s corpse.  Screw you, guy, that crocolisk had some fine hide I could skin.  But noooo, you didn’t feel like taking the broken crocolisk tooth off the corpse.  So there the crocolisk lies, taunting me.  Here’s a hint.  Pressing shift + right click loots everything off the corpse at once.  Try it out sometime.

The Importance of not Being a Jackass

And other general group etiquette.

Last night I was invited to go to Steamvaults as DPS.  The group was all 70s (hunter, paladin healer, mage, druid tank) and myself.  I thought “sweet, this group is gonna kick ass, this’ll be nice and smooth.”  I was wrong.

Our group wiped 5 minutes into the instance while we were fighting a Bog Overlord.  I don’t understand why.  Suddenly I noticed that the tank was dead, then the mage was dead, I grabbed aggro and my health went down very quickly (I wasn’t in my tanking gear, I popped a potion, and I’m not about to pop cooldowns on a trash mob when I know I’m gonna die, I’m sorry).  I realized it was because the pally just decided to stop healing, or atleast thats how it seems.  He was just standing there, not doing anything.

So we wiped, and got back into the instance for another go.  No apologies from the pally, not even an excuse for no heals, nothing.  He didn’t say a word except for “water pls.”  My friend (the mage) and I knew this wasn’t going to go well.

The second instance of jackassery was when the hunter pulled a pack of mobs with scatter shot.  Scatter shot.  I’ll say it again, he pulled the group with scatter shot.  Now, perhaps there is some kind of trick to that certain pull where scatter shot is the best thing to use.  I highly doubt it.  Needless to say, the wandering mob ran into a patrol that was coming back, aggroed the pat, and we wiped once again.  As we were ghost running back the hunter said “Oops!  I pressed the wrong button guys, sorry.”  You expect me to believe that at level 70 you can’t concentrate on the correct button to press for a pull?  In the middle of some crazy action and you’re freakin out trying not to wipe, sure I can believe you pressed the wrong button.  But when nothings going on and we’re just waiting for a pull?  That’s called being a moron.

To top it all off, a few minutes later (after having told us the “wrong button” story) he said “LoL someone told me to use scatter shot on those mobs!”  Get your story straight, buddy.

I don’t really think the hunter was quite all there in the head.  During trash fights he was running around like a goddamn monkey on crack.  If he grabbed aggro, he would run all around, making it that much harder for the tank to get the mob back.  He would trap something, and then run to the total other side of the fight (in order to get range, I assume).  But why did he need to run through the fight?  Why couldn’t he just back up a little bit, and stay near the mob just incase he needed to drop another trap?  Speaking of dropping another trap, he apparently likes to freeze sheep, and other random mobs that do not need CC.  He dropped frost traps randomly, freezing mobs that we were fighting and such.  He was pretty much a disaster.

Luckily we actually managed to finish the instance.  We wiped on the gnome, but I went in to tank the second try and we did it.  We even managed to kill the final boss, woo for us!  I was happy about that.  Nothing good dropped for me, but I managed to turn in a quest and get Myrmidon’s Headdress which is a pretty sweet tanking helm.

It might be good for me to get to the point of this story, because I do have a point.  My point is, try not to be a total jackass when you’re grouping in a PUG.  I try to be as nice as I can, as polite as I can, as helpful as I can, and as level headed as I can.  I play my role and I’m not an idiot about it.  If for some reason you have to stop casting heals (I dunno, maybe your microwave blew up or something) don’t be completely silent about it and hope everyone forgets.  Say you’ll try better next time, or say what went wrong.  Say anything (call us douchebags for dying even without heals) I don’t care.  Just don’t be totally quiet.

And try not to be a moron when you pull.  Bad pulls happen, yes, but a little concentration and knowing what button to press will stop that.  If you’re a hunter and you grab aggro, don’t run around like a madman.  If you do this, you will probably die, because the mob follows you and the tank has a hard time regaining aggro.

Watch your aggro, know your role (I’m not saying “PALLYS HAVE TO HEAL!” but I’m saying, if you went into the group saying you were gonna heal, then heal goddammit), have some sense of group etiquette, and don’t be a moron.  That’s really all it takes for a PUG to go smoothly.