So let's say Theramore isn't favoritism

#1 - Dec. 1, 2011, 11:16 a.m.

Whether I personally believe there is a horde bias or not is largely irrelevant to what I am about to post, so I'll just accept for the sake of argument that there isn't one.

The whole Theramore thing still bugs me.

Look, Jaina is one of the most powerful archmages in Azeroth. Yes, some of you will say Jaina is a peacenik, and frankly you're largely right, but even the smelliest hippy in the world will fight when you try to burn their house down. Jaina would not just let someone come into her house and mess it up. Anyone should realize this.

Now, let's check the other side. Who does the Horde HONESTLY have that could pull off burning down Jaina's place.

Sylvanas might be able to pull it off, but she's a bit busy up in the Northern Eastern Kingdoms and besides, fire isn't her style; she'd use the plague.

Lor'themar? Come on, that guy hasn't left Silvermoon since he was put in the game.

Baine? Jaina helped him out with his father's death, for some reason I doubt he'd do it.

Vol'jin? He hates Garrosh more than any of the alliance leaders. If he does anything it'll be a coup.

Gallywix? MIA since the start of Cata. He ain't doing it.

That leaves Garrosh. No one has ever accused this orc of being a mental giant, and frankly no one ever will, but he's the only leader that isn't either too busy, too apathetic, or too even minded to do anything to theramore.

Now, you expect me to believe that this buffoon of an orc, who a few years back was pouting up in Nagrand about Draenor dying, actually manages to not only get the drop on Jaina, but actually manages to defeat her forces and ultimately the archmage herself in order to burn her city to the ground?

I'm sorry, not buying it. Even without favoritism, it's still bad lore.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#72 - Dec. 1, 2011, 8:34 p.m.

Now, you expect me to believe that this buffoon of an orc, who a few years back was pouting up in Nagrand about Draenor dying, actually manages to not only get the drop on Jaina, but actually manages to defeat her forces and ultimately the archmage herself in order to burn her city to the ground?

I'm sorry, not buying it. Even without favoritism, it's still bad lore.

You're filling in an awful lot of details with assumptions to make your case. Sure, your argument might still be valid once you know exactly how things will play out with Theramore, but you just wrote a mini-dissertation based on one vague statement about the Horde attacking the city.

Rather than telling us all the reasons this doesn't make sense, aren't you a little curious to know exactly what it is you're criticizing?

I personally wish the event wasn't mentioned as early as it was. It gives forum goers like you months to fill in the context however you see fit and pick apart all the details you don't have.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#92 - Dec. 1, 2011, 8:50 p.m.

You're filling in an awful lot of details with assumptions to make your case. Sure, your argument might still be valid once you know exactly how things will play out with Theramore, but you just wrote a mini-dissertation based on one vague statement about the Horde attacking the city.

Rather than telling us all the reasons this doesn't make sense, aren't you a little curious to know exactly what it is you're criticizing?

I personally wish the event wasn't mentioned as early as it was. It gives forum goers like you months to fill in the context however you see fit and pick apart all the details you don't have.

Except it's not speculation.

After the Broken Front, we were promised that the Alliance was going to get to do something.

That didn't happen.

When rumors of Cataclysm's skewed questing experience were leaked, we were promised the Alliance was going to get to fight back.

That didn't happen.

When Cataclysm started and the Horde ran roughshod over us, we were told to be patient and we'd have our chance.

That didn't happen.

This is your fourth promise. You've failed to deliver on all three before. If you put your hand on a hot iron three times and each time burns, it's insane to think that THIS time, it might be cool.

This is no longer speculation. This is logical deduction.

Surely, you can't begrudge us this. You've given us nothing else to go on.

I didn't promise anything just now. And that kind of speaks to all of the other claims you've made about our broken "promises" of the past. It's difficult to have a sensible discussion if you read everything we say as an absolute commitment that will have an immediate follow-through within the course of a patch cycle.

"Well, we specifically promised X would happen, but let's go back on that. The Alliance just aren't very cool and I don't want to make playing that faction feel good." This isn't a black-and-white world we live in. And rarely do we make promises, much less guarantee time frames. Sorry. It just doesn't work that way. This game has too many moving parts and is too complex for us to just immediately swing the pendulum every time it feels too heavy on one side.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#105 - Dec. 1, 2011, 8:59 p.m.

I'd like to point out that the leaked story isn't "Theramore gets attacked," it's "Theramore gets destroyed."

Destroyed.

Our quest hub is destroyed to give the Horde a good story.

Wrong. A city with a leader who has tried to refrain from taking sides gets destroyed to give this fictional universe what, we feel, will be a good story.

Why would you interpret this as something to give only the Horde good story? Do you remember the full quote translated from Taiwanese? Here:

The whole war will be ignited during the world event which leading the game into Mist of Pandaria. Theramore will be destroyed and the leaders of Alliance were outrageous at this matter and completely devote themselves into the war, which reach its peak on the continent of Pandaria. The Horde and the Alliance literally fought on the homeland of Pandaria, which pissed the pandarens off.

You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#117 - Dec. 1, 2011, 9:04 p.m.

Does it really matter?
Quest hub gets destroyed....Horde wins...Alliance is forced into to the swamp.
I doubt you'll see much of anything come from it Alliance side. That's how it goes.

You've proven one thing. It's not worth my time to debate such wild assumptions right now. I don't know why I keep clicking on threads with "Theramore" in the title anymore.

And I honestly don't care if your response would be that I shouldn't expect anything else -- that we've left you feeling bitter and pessimistic. It's not an excuse to carry on a completely irrational argument about a plot you just made up out of disillusionment.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#120 - Dec. 1, 2011, 9:05 p.m.

Will the Theramore story go like this?

- Jaina leaves to go grocery shopping
- Garrosh's large army hiding in the bushes pops up and quickly burns down Theramore
- Jaina comes back and cries and then stands next to Varian in SW as he gets ready to become Warchief of the alliance with an epic collection quest

It worked for Sam Houston.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#130 - Dec. 1, 2011, 9:08 p.m.

I think the thing is Cataclysm WAS NOT your best work in terms of how they developed the alliance....because they didn't develop them. Victories are one thing, but when you are questing in a warzone and you are doing more side quests or not participating in battles (or seeing anything you do change the zone) it's just a bad experience "Oh we lose here move one" "We won but pull out anyway" or you just lose and they don't seem to care.

The alliance needs personality, that's one thing they didn't get and most of the story (especially the worgen that lose their story after the starting zone) felt very incomplete and rushed.

Fair enough.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#143 - Dec. 1, 2011, 9:14 p.m.

12/01/2011 12:55 PMPosted by Lorien
Sure, your argument might still be valid once you know exactly how things will play out with Theramore,

What a poor concession! At least stand by the story since it hasn't happened yet; act like we should look forward to the plot!

I'm just saying I fully expect people to come back to the forums once the event is actually live and claim that I completely lied to them, and that we didn't follow through on our guarantee to have Jaina spit in Garrosh's face, freezing and shattering his thick skull, followed by Varian flying down on Tyrael's Charger and blowing all of Orgrimmar into the ocean with a sneeze. And then pandas.

Zarhym

Community Manager

#218 - Dec. 1, 2011, 9:42 p.m.

I'm just saying I fully expect people to come back to the forums once the event is actually live and claim that I completely lied to them, and that we didn't follow through on our guarantee to have Jaina spit in Garrosh's face, freezing and shattering his thick skull, followed by Varian flying down on Tyrael's Charger and blowing all of Orgrimmar into the ocean with a sneeze. And then pandas.

Hey, without all the other hyperbole, can we get a cinematic of Jaina spitting in Garrosh's face?

Hehe, I was actually picturing that. And it cuts to Varian doing a Herman Cain-style head turn and awkwardly slow smile, as one tooth sparkles and it ends with an iris fade to black.