by David Piner on Feb 07, 2007
One of the things that I absolutely love about MMORPGs is the ability to immerse yourself into the lore. You’re the valiant hero going out on an epic adventure with magic, swords, and well other catchy buzzwords that apply to the game. Some games choose to only have a vague backstory and come up with your own story through the game while others guide you along a rich and epic story. World of Warcraft does the later.
For instance, a good example of deep amounts of subtle lore is the first major Human line of quests out of Stormwind and Westfall. You start out by killing off Defias thinking they are nothing more then rogues out to destroy Stormwind. As the quest advances you realize they are nothing more then a group of people who rebuilt Stormwind after the razing during the second war.
However, at times, Blizzard has to bend the rules or break the lore in order to create a fulfilling game experience. For instance, the Draenei have changed quite a bit from what they originally were (a simple shamanistic tribe hunted by Orcs). There are also really contradictory situations such as Orc Warlocks. Thrall forever stopped the practice of fel magic and wished for his people to pursue a more shamanistic way.
There again, there is also some very excellent situations that arise that use the lore to both the lore fans cheers and their sadness. Many situations arise in the game where heroes from past games are killed off by players themselves and other heroes are found still alive.
So that leads us to this week’s question, Lore – What is it good for? Scroll down to vote in this week’s poll or continue reading for my take on things.
!! This week’s edition may have story spoilers. Click here if you’d just like to vote. !!
I’m not sure how I feel in relation to the lore and WoW. I believe that, outside of a few things that obviously had to be bended to fit into the game (like Arator a half-elf who uses the Blood Elf model), that it’s really well done. The majority of the story aligned quests (the things outside of the random NPCs needing help for stew) are full of lore and depth and are more then just slaying Defias or finding random magical amulets.
There are a few things I disagree with the lore. Well, alright, one. That’s the death of Kael’thas. Those of you who didn’t play Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne may not know what significance Kael’thas has outside of Silvermoon, but he was one of the most awesome heroes in the game. Sure, he was a subpar hero the majority of the time (only having a nice AoE attack as his claim to fame) but he was really awesome.
At the end of TFT (Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne) Kael’thas took the remaining High Elven survivors who believed in him (therefore joining the Blood Elves) into Outland with him. From there they launched an attack on Arthas and then once again retreated to Outland. In TBC you basically, well, kill him for a quest drop along with Lady Vashj (another TFT hero).
Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider
That’s right, this solid figure from the story, a pretty decent person all through the game is now in line with the legion (of whom he hated so bad for ruining his homeland) and is now a raid boss. A raid boss for a simple quest drop that lets you complete the final mission in The Caverns of Time. This annoys me because I personally don’t believe “somepallydude” should march in there and slay my beloved Kael.
I mean, on one hand yeah he isn’t immortal nor is she all powerful like some of the other heroes. He should be, however, more then a roadblock on the way to Illidan. Personally I’d rather see him in Silvermoon rambling on about how he craves for magic then see him slayed for a quest drop. That is probably my only gripe with the lore so far (that and Kel’Thuzad being a level 60 raid boss).
That said, outside of my raging fanboyism for Kael, I think they’ve done an OUTSTANDING job with creating a fantastic amount of lore for the game. Nothing surprises me anymore at the amount of depth placed into quests. For instance, the entire Blood Elf starting zone is nothing more then one giant nod to TFT.
Other things like Khadger (a WC2 hero) being in Outland and Sylvanas’s necklace are just wonderful touches added to the game. Personally I feel that the lore is overall very satisfying and adds a ton of atmosphere to the game, although there are a few things I don’t like (Kael!!!).
So what’s your opinion? Vote in our poor and join us in the discussion over at our forums!