What was your first reaction when Chris Metzen loudly said the next expansion was World of Warcraft: Cataclysm? I was there in the press seats, and I can tell you I was excited. Well, except when the huge explosion queued in along with Deathwing’s roar. I almost get a heart attack. Come on, I’m a New Yorker. We are starting to get used to explosions.
Cataclysm is going to be awesome no doubt, and there’s so much room to expand upon the lore and all those long epic quest series that ended abruptly and can now be revisited for a continuation. It’s gonna be hard to quit WoW. Not only do we have Icecrown Citadel to tackle for a while, there will be an epic world event prior to Cataclysm. Who didn’t love the zombie invasion? It had some problems here and there, but that was so totally nuts in a cool way. You could become a zombie and attack other players. We’ll see more of the Twilight’s Hammer. We will see some tremors here and there. Probably get to see some interesting quests from NPCs and faction leaders showing concern about the tremors. I can’t but think of that artwork Chris Metzen showed us at Blizzcon with Thrall carrying babies and children to protect them from the Cataclysm.
It reminded me so much to Sir Lothar carrying Prince Varian and other children escaping the destruction of Stormwind during the First War. Many of you had different reactions to the Cataclysm announcement, but all of those most likely were positive.
You know you really want to play World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Here’s Nadine’s reaction to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Maybe yours was similar?
I loved it. I didn’t expect it, and I love it when I almost think I know what’s coming, and they go and surprise me like this. Completely unexpectable. Also, the connection between Deathwing and the Elemental Lords; hell, it was damn obvious, and I couldn’t see it. I say this because I believe the Elemental Plane is Deathwing’s domain, the place he, as the Earthwarder, was entrusted to keep safe. Ysera has the Emerald Dream, Deathwing the Elemental Plane. He was just the jailor; pre-corruption, of course. He pretty much left his duty after he went villain.
I’m looking forward it so much, because of just one reason: lore. The lore has gone worse with WoW; don’t misunderstand me, the background is greater with each patch, but the storytelling… it’s just wrong. Too much inconsistencies, too much unexplained stuff, too much lack of lore. Too much disappointment and waste of awesome resources. I can’t explain myself why they aren’t able to tell a story properly, when the most basic points can be worked out by any basic lore-nerd.
I’m looking forward Cataclysm for a reason lore-wise. 2 reasons, to be exact. 1st, WotLK is the end of W3. No more past lore they have to care about; more or less. The age of the LK ends here and now. There are no more “free resources” to use, and the already established characters that still haven’t appeared lack the needed background to simply pop up around.
So they’ll need to take the storytelling seriously. If they don’t, the story will go to hell, and I’m not talking about Sargeras. A game has a lot of factors that make him live: gameplay, friends, story, background… but the lore has only one: story. You, Blizzard, know how to tell good stories. Tell us good stories, and quit contradicting yourself almost every time, and add lore, for god’s sake. WotLK instances are terrorism for lore (save ICC). Sartharion is the best example of lore fail.
The 2nd point is the “reduction of content”. Translated: less zones. You’d think it’s bad, but after Crystalsong sadness, I prefer to have half the zones and have them completely developed rather than having a dozen of half-made zones. I just hate it when they release unfinished content. Hope they have learned the lesson.
And that’s all. Good luck with the story, Blizzard. For god’s and lore’s sake, work it out properly. Don’t use stupid excuses like “we can’t tell a proper story using MMO format”. That’s calling your fans stupids to their faces, and I don’t like anyone calling me stupid like that.