The other faction: my friend or my enemy?

This post contains minor spoilers for the quests in Deepholm and Vashj'ir. They're nothing major, but if you wish to avoid them, here is your warning.

As I have already written about, WoW circa Cataclysm has been less than consistent with its storytelling, and the same sort of mood-whiplash I wrote about before relating to our motivations in Uldum compared to our motivation in Cataclysm's other zones has shown up again. This time, it has shown up in how inconsistent Cataclysm's storytelling is in terms of how we should view the other faction: the Horde. Different people may have different opinions on how the other faction should be viewed, but I think we can all agree that if Blizzard wants us to feel a particular way about the other faction, they'll be much more effective at making us think a certain way about them if they can be consistent in enforcing that viewpoint. Now, Blizzard has said that they want there to be more faction conflict than there was in Wrath of the Lich King, so you would think that, with Cataclysm being a complete redesign of WoW, they would design the game to foster that kind of combative atmosphere, yet Cataclysm hasn't been very consistent with that goal.

This inconsistency shows up best (for the Alliance, anyway) if you quest in Vashj'ir first and then move on to Deepholm. In Vashj'ir--from the Alliance perspective, anyways--your entire reason for going there is to fight the Horde, for they have attacked us in our attempts to scout out a new land mass. But after finishing up Vash'ir, you go to Deepholm, where while searching for a fragment of the World Pillar, you discover that the Horde ship that was delivering it might have been attacked by the Alliance. Upon returning with this news to Stormcaller Mylra, she has this to say:

"The Earthen Ring is a neutral organization, [name]. We cannot pick sides in the war between the Horde and the Alliance. Look around you -- our members come from all backgrounds. Our mission would be compromised should racial tensions be put above our goal. Let's try to keep this under wraps until we have more information."

So in two sequential zones, we go from being entirely motivated by the need to fight the other faction to being expected to cooperate with them. Something just doesn't add up here.

The animosity in Vashj'ir was to be expected. Like I said, Blizzard has said that they want Cataclysm to reignite the fires of war between the Alliance and the Horde, and they have shown some effort towards making that happen. The Worgan starting area is an example of this kind of effrt, for it contains much Forsaken aggression against the innocent Gilneans, the kind that makes me as ready to fight them as they clearly are to fight me. This is exactly the kind of animosity that it seems Blizzard wants players to have for the other faction, and yet when we get to Deepholm, we are asked to put that animosity in check for the sake of saving the world. Many players have expressed their desire for the factions to stop their bickering and come together to save the world, and for once, we actually get it. But why now? Why, after so many instances of being told that we should hate the other faction, do we get to cooperate with them now?

We saw this inconsistency in other parts of the game, too. Northrend featured the event that forever cemented that the Alliance and the Horde would never cooperate again (the Wrathgate), yet also includes numerous examples of the players putting aside their differences to help out one of the many neutral factions on Northrend (the Kirin Tor, the Argent Crusade, the Sons of Hodir, etc.). And yet, in addition to this cooperation, we also saw many examples of faction animosity in Northrend (the quest Catch More Dispatches, the Gunship Battle in Icecrown Citadel). In Hyjal, we rallied behind the Guardians of Hyjal to save the mountain, and in Deepholm, we rallied behind the Earthen Ring to save the world. Yet in the face of trying to take down one of the biggest threats to Azeroth at the time (the Lich King), the factions still had an air battle. So it seems as if the only time we can get the Alliance and the Horde to cooperate is when we have a third party that they are both rallying behind; in other words, having a common enemy just isn't enough to get the Alliance and the Horde to put aside their differences. I guess that's just what it takes to get the two to cooperate.

As a non sequitur, I have often noticed that if you read the story that unfolds in WoW like a novel, it seems that the theme of that novel would be the destructive nature of faction conflict and how much good can be wrought when the two sides put aside their differences. In Hyjal and Deepholm, the Alliance and the Horde work together and save the mountain and the world, respectively. In Vashj'ir, we ride into battle ready to face some Horde scum, and we are attacked by a kraken and almost die. When we cooperate, good things happen, and when we don't, bad things result. Perhaps that's the whole moral of WoW, that cooperation is good and needless conflict is bad. That could explain why we veteran players often complain about the damage wrought by faction conflict: we have already learned that moral, and to see new content that is still trying to teach it to us means the game is re-teaching us something we already know. When that thing we already know is a moral lesson, and the game tries to teach us that lesson through demonstration, watching those demonstrations of why faction conflict is bad long after we have realized this fact is just frustrating.

Don't you know there's a Shattering on? Redux

The last time I asked the question, "Don't you know there's a Shattering on?", it was because I was struck by the nonchalance the citizens of Stormwind seemed to have taken towards the recent destruction of their world, and I was able to formulate a reason as to why they were so calm after a gigantic dragon had just ravaged their city. Now I am forced to ask this question again, this time by the Hero's Call board. Allow me to copy a line from the Hero's Call quest for each Cataclysm zone (the Alliance versions of those quests, that is) that succinctly sums up your purpose going into each zone:

Vashj'ir: "Recent attacks by the Horde on our trade ships must be met with swift and just force!"

Mount Hyjal: "Our brothers in the Cenarion Circle report that Deathwing's minions have launched a destructive offensive against the world tree and threaten to burn it to the ground!"

Deepholm: "The Earthen Ring requires our aid! They report that the elemental plane of Deepholm threatens to overtake our world and destroy all life on Azeroth!"

Twilight Highlands: "King Wrynn requires a trustworthy and proven hero for a mission of the utmost importance."

Uldum: "Be one of the first to enter glorious Uldum and claim its treasures in honor of the Alliance!"

One of these things is not like the other... I mean, what's up with Uldum? The way that your motivation for going into Uldum stands out from your motivation for going into all of the other zones becomes even more clear as you accept the introductory quests for each zone:

Vashj'ir: "As you may have heard, the Horde's attacking just offshore. The fighting's been fierce and relentless. We need every able body out there repelling the enemy!"

Mount Hyjal: "It is good that you've come here just as Azeroth finds itself in a time of great need. Deathwing's minions are attacking Hyjal and seek to bring the destructive Ragnaros back into our world."

Deepholm: "Deathwing's return to our world left a rift open between Azeroth and Deepholm. If we don't mend the breach, this land will be torn asunder."

Twilight Highlands: "Great burdens have been placed on my son's shoulders in his short lifetime, and I fear his responsibilities are only going to grow. He will never learn leadership confined to the keep, but I am loathe to send him forth without escort. [Name], your deeds in the wake of this cataclysm are already legendary. You would be an excellent mentor for young Prince Anduin."

Uldum: "The ancient region of Uldum has been exposed! Treasures beyond your wildest dreams, free for the taking! We just need a bit of an escort, what with the bandits and all..."

Let's look at each zone individually. In Vashj'ir, the Horde has attacked Alliance ships out near an island that has recently surfaced, and we need to go out and defend ourselves, lest we loose even more lives to the conflict. On Mount Hyjal, the mountain threatens to burn if we don't do something about it, and Ragnaros might be brought back, which would be an even greater threat upon the world. In Deepholm, the world threatens to tear apart if the world pillar cannot be reconstructed. For the Twilight Haghlands, though Varian doesn't exactly make it clear what is wrong in that zone, the tone of the quests give the impression that it is important and consequential. In Uldum, there are treasures to be found! Yes, one of these things really isn't like the other.

In other words, it seems as if our actions in every zone in Cataclysm minus Uldum are motivated by the basic need to save the world or ourselves, or at the very least, some grander purpose. We are out there to do things for other people, as is our character's motivation for much of the game. But when we get around to going to Uldum, we suddenly find ourselves motivated purely by the treasures we can find. Sure, the quests may try to gloss over that by saying that we are looking for these treasures "for the glory of the Alliance" or that we are really helping this caravan get into Uldum, but at the end of the day, rather than being there to help, we are there for fame and glory. In every other zone, we are there to make a difference, to help the innocent, to save the world, but in Uldum, we are there for easy treasures... what.

This dichotomy was especially apparent to me because I only quested through Hyjal and Deepholm before starting Uldum, and in both of those zones, we narrowly avert widespread destruction though swift and timely action. In Hyjal, we narrowly avert the destruction of the mountain by fighting back those responsible; in Deepholm, we narrowly avert the destruction of the whole world by resembling the world pillar. Between these two zones, the mood of the expansion is set as one where the world is constantly teetering on the brink of destruction, and only by acting quickly can we save it. That's why it's pretty jarring to spend two zones saving a world that is very close to destruction, then to be lead to a zone where our only reason for being there is to see what treasures we can find. As the people in that caravan asked me to escort them into the desert, I couldn't help but ask myself, don't you know that there's a world out there that could be lost if we don't go help? Don't you know there's a Shattering on?

The one possible reason I could think of for Blizzard to put in a zone with such a different mood is that they wanted to show that our characters are not the spotless paragons of good they might otherwise seem to be. They may be heroes, but perhaps Blizzard wanted to show that they are by no means perfect, and they can get excited about personal gain just like anyone. I can understand why they would want to do this. After all, they are trying to tell a story, and we are simply playing the part of the protagonist of that story. If the protagonist of a story is too perfect, he becomes a Mary Sue, and the story becomes unbelievable. But our characters do have flaws, the most prominent of which might be their gullibility. The way we help Tyrus Blackhorn, Drakaru, Teron Gorefiend regain their power in Mount Hyjal, Grizzly Hills, and Shadowmoon Valley, respectively, show just how easily our characters trust others, a trust which is often taken advantage of. But being that that is the only flaw that comes to mind (for me, at least), perhaps they are a bit too close to being Mary Sues, which is why Blizzard wants to add self-centered greed to the list of their flaws by sending them to Uldum to look for treasure.

Does it work? I suppose this is a matter of opinion, but I'm of the opinion that it doesn't. Our characters spend so long being near-perfect heroes (with gullibility as their only flaws) that for them to show this interest in more selfish motivators so suddenly feels more like character derailment than character development, even if there isn't much character to derail in the first place. Now, maybe I need to level an alt through the old content so I can see that our characters really can be pretty self centered, because the truth is that I haven't leveled a character past level 14 since the start of the expansion. Hell, it probably isn't out of character at all for goblins. But I can say that two large zones' worth of setting our character up as a grand world-saving hero is enough to establish our characters suddenly taking on the role of a treasure hunter as decidedly out of character.

And even if this concept did work, it would completely ignore the fact that the world is teetering on the brink of destruction, as was made clear to us in Hyjal and Deepholm. No amount of character development or any other such justification can mask the fact that Hyjal and Deepholm probably aren't the only areas in need of being saved by our characters, and to be forced to go treasure hunting when the world is teetering on the brink of destruction forces our characters to show an uncomfortable amount of disregard for the world at large.

The curse of being genre savvy

This post contains spoilers revealed during the Lich King fight in Icecrown Citadel. At this point, I consider said spoilers to be fair game, but if you are trying to avoid them for some reason, you have been warned.

On my recent post about the seeming lack of panic in our post-Shattering world, Tesh of Tish Tosh Tesh left a comment which gave me quite a bit of food for thought:

"What strikes me as odd in the whole thing is that yes, it's later, but instead of prioritizing defeating the dragon, Varian and Garrosh are playing the whole "Orcs vs. Humans" game again.

I want a third, neutral faction for playable characters. The Horde and Alliance are both being led by dimwits."

Preach, brother! As I have said before, we can't influence our leaders in WoW the same way we can influence them in the real world, which leads to some very frustrating results as we see Azeroth suffer for their incompetence. In the face of these disappointments, it is tempting to wish we could strike out on our own, ignore this destructive faction conflict, and actually do some good for the world. It's tempting to wish such a thing, because we players are cursed with being genre savvy.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, genre savvy usually describes a character in a fictional universe who, if not knowing outright that they are in a work of fiction, at least know enough about the rules of that fictional universe to avoid some of the most common pratfalls characters in that universe would otherwise make. Scott from the Austin Powers series is a good example of a genre savvy character, endlessly mocking his father's overly elaborate plans, constantly asking why he doesn't take the simple routes that would guarantee him success. The Lich King is the closest thing World of Warcraft has to a genre savvy character (aside from the players, of course), in that he knows that if he lets "Azeroth's greatest champions" get stronger and more powerful by facing his best minions, they'll simply become even more powerful minions when he eventually kills them and enslaves them, making them even more useful. You can find more examples on the page linked to above if you still are a bit iffy on the concept.

So how does the idea of genre savvy play in to our frustration when we see the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde ignore the significant threats in favor of old conflicts that serve no purpose? As I mentioned briefly just now, we players are extremely genre savvy, pretty much by definition. After all, the definition of a genre savvy character is one who does all of the things the viewers know are the intelligent things to do in a given fictional situation, so you can't get much more genre savvy than the viewers themselves. As such, we knew that the conflict between the two factions is largely pointless and serves only to distract us from the more important threats, like Deathwing's return. We know this, and thus we are genre savvy, but our avatars do not, and thus they are not.

As I said in my post about the doomsday cultists who showed up before the Shattering, what we players know and what the characters we control know are two entirely different sets of knowledge, and this includes our knowledge about faction conflict. We know that the there is no reason to fight the Alliance or the Horde (depending on what side you play), because we know players on the other faction and know that they are good people too. Our avatars, however, are not privy to this knowledge, and their only experiences with the other faction are in battlegrounds, hardly the place for building camaraderie and friendship. It is this disconnect between our knowledge and the knowledge of our characters that creates the frustration we feel due to being genre savvy. Though we know what we know, we cannot impart our knowledge to our characters and make them act in a way that would be more conducive to a beneficial outcome. In other words, we cannot make our avatars genre savvy.

Now, this is typical of 99% of media. Most media simply doesn't contain particularly genre savvy characters, because those characters would know how to circumvent much of what creates tension and conflict in those universes, and the same can be said for WoW. And yet, as we control our characters going through this evolving world, we wish we could make our characters genre savvy. We wish we could do things like break off in to our own faction and make the world right again by disregarding faction conflict entirely. Yet this is not something I see as often in the communities surrounding other games. There are plenty of other video games that are story driven, with equally dedicated communities surrounding them, following their story lines with bated breath. Why don't they have the players of those games have the same reaction to genre-blind characters as we WoW players do to our game?

In my eyes, the biggest reason for this difference lies in the way that story is presented to us. Most games don't constantly evolve the way WoW does, with constant updates to the game and the story. In most games, the story is written, put together, and shipped complete to the customer, climax and all. All console games are like this; players simply experience a story that has already been written, and if they don't like it, tough, it's already been determined. In WoW, however, the story is constantly evolving right in front of us, and with as big of a community as WoW has, we often find out about changes to the story long before their consequences have been fully realized. If Cataclysm were a console game, we would boot it up, find out that Garrosh and Varian are acting really stupid, then experience the consequences of that as we play. As it is now, however, we see them being genre blind, and it pains us because it is happening now, and we know the consequences are going to be bad, but we can't do anything about it. Playing a console game with a plot determined long before the player starts playing is like watching a news story about an event that has just happened; we may not like what happens, but there's nothing we can do to change it. Watching the evolving story of WoW, however, is like watching live coverage of a tragedy half way across the world; we want to do something about it, and we think we can, because it is happening right now, but we are really powerless to change the course of events.

So not only are we cursed with genre savvy while our characters are not, but we are cursed to watch the story take place right before our very eyes and be unable to do anything about it. That is the true tragedy of being a WoW player who is invested in this game's storyline; we can only watch as the world goes to hell right before our very eyes, for we are powerless to do anything about it.

Justifying the limits on player influence

Bless me, readers, for I have sinned; it has been three months since my last confession. In the past few weeks, I have not been faithful to World of Warcraft. I have been cheating on WoW with another game, and I am a bit ashamed of it because it has meant less inspiration for topics I could write about for this blog. Who is this mistress who has pulled me away from the game, you ask? She is a tempting one, one who has caused many to falter from their chosen paths. She is the indie game sensation... Minecraft.

It's understandable if you haven't heard of Minecraft, but the fact that it is the most successful indie game of all time, and it's only in alpha, should say something about the phenomenon it has become. I could never do the game justice with my own explanations, so I'll just direct you to YouTube user SeaNanners, who explains the game quite well in his "Welcome to Minecraft" series. You can start with part 1 here and go on as you please. I invite you to watch his video (or even a few of them) if you aren't familiar with the game, since it will give you a better idea of where I'm coming from when I talk about these two games, World of Warcraft and Minecraft.

Minecraft is an interesting game. It's a sandbox game, a game that answers the question of, "What do you do in this game?" with "Whatever you want to." It's similar in that respect to games like Dwarf Fortress or Animal Crossing, especially the latter, in the much of the fun that there is to be had is driven by the player's creativity, rather than things like missions or other objective goals. This may sound boring to players used to games where what you do in-game is entirely driven by what the game designers want you to do, but once you adjust to this freedom and all of the possibilities it provides, some pretty amazing things are possible. I, for example, built in my Minecraft world, complete from scratch, a volcano which is continually erupting. Someone else has built a sixteen-bit computer in Minecraft, and a group of people worked together to build York Minster Cathedral to scale in the proper size. It's pretty amazing what one can do in this game.

But what does this have to do with WoW, you ask? Well, playing Minecraft has made me realize just how little freedom we have in WoW, even when it seems like we have so much. Sure, there is plenty to do in this game--raids, leveling, battlegrounds, crafting, fishing--and yet, we are very limited in how we can tackle all of these options. If we wanted to try to take Warsong Gulch by destroying our opponents' entrance into the battlefield, rather than just capturing their flag, we couldn't do it. If we wanted to try taking Icecrown Citadel by just flying to the top of the Frozen Throne, we couldn't do it. If we wanted to finish a quest where we act as a double agent by converting over to the other side, rather than by returning to the side we were working with before, we couldn't do it. Though there are many things we can do in WoW, how we go about those activities is really pretty linear. We can choose how we fight Blood-Queen Lana'thel on our way to Arthas, but we can't try using deception, espionage, or even diplomacy to get past her. When starting a death knight, we can't choose to remain an agent of the scourge and play on the side of evil if we want to. What we do and much of how we do it is all decided for us.

This kind of limited freedom is something I have discussed before, such as when I discussed how we players really don't have any power to change how the plot of WoW progresses, and when I discussed how we players can't use the knowledge we have to change our character's actions, for their actions are dictated by the plot of the game. Having given it some thought, though, I can now see why our actions in WoW are so limited and so inconsequential: for a game of this scope, they have to be.

In terms of justifying the lack of consequences of our options, one of the things that makes WoW, in my opinion, great, is that everyone gets to have the same great experience when they play, as long as they are willing to put in the effort. Someone who started playing five years ago and someone who started playing five months ago both have equal objective odds of being able to complete the Wrathgate questline or take down the Lich King, as long as they are both willing to put in the same amount of work. Now, if our actions had greater consequences for the game's world, some of these experiences could be lost, and new players would have no chance of experiencing them. Without the use of phasing to show the consequences of our questing in Dragonblight, new players would come to the zone and see that every significant thing that needed to be done had been done. If a player completing the Wrathgate questline caused the changes that are currently phased to happen permanently to the zone, newer players would have no chance at seeing this amazing questline. And if killing the Lich King permanently crippled the enemies in Icecrown Citadel (as killing their leader should), then newer players wouldn't experience the satisfaction of beating that raid when it was as difficult as it could be, and their satisfaction would be shallower for that reason. Or even worse, if players killing the Lich King killed him for good, players who were just a bit behind in getting to him wouldn't be able to fight him at all. In short, WoW must remain a static world so that new players can experience it and all its majesty the same way veterans get to.

As for the limitations on the kinds of choices players can make in how they tackle the game, suffice it to say that WoW is a huge game. Blizzard has enough on their hands trying to make a game as expansive as WoW is now; imagine how much work they'd have to do if there were multiple ways of going through it. If, for example, death knights could decide to stay with the scourge, Blizzard would need to design an entire set of quests to see those death knights to level 80 (soon to be 85), and that would take away from time they could spend developing more content for the rest of us. If the game didn't include so many different areas of play, perhaps there could be options like this, but because we have so many options in terms of what we do, we can't have many in terms of how we do what we do. It's just not feasible.

Redemption for the Lich King?

Warning: This post contains spoilers concerning the final fight against the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel. If you haven't seen his death cinematic and are trying to remain spoiler free for whatever reason, please don't read on.

WoW Insider recently featured an interview with a Lutheran pastor who plays WoW about the various ways those two aspects of his life intersect. Though I skimmed over most of the interview, one answer in particular caught my attention:

Do you find any of the themes in WoW morally or spiritually disturbing?

Sure. Life is spiritually and morally disturbing. I can't tell you how bummed I was that there was no redemption for Arthas, or even Illidan, for that matter. I know a lot of people love to hate those guys, but I saw humanity in them: our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities and the way little evils lead to greater ones, until we're trapped and hardened, with no answer, escape or hope. So I desperately wanted a way for their stories to be redemption stories. Humans need redemption.

I'm sure he's not alone in this issue. I know quite a few people who, in spite of knowing that Arthas was probably going to die at the end of his battle and not have a chance at redemption, wished for a happier ending for the Lich King. While the Lutheran pastor brings up the question of whether villains in general should be given a chance to redeem themselves, I think it's better to focus our discussion on one, the Lich King. So I ask, should Arthas have had a chance at redemption, rather than simply dying by our hands?

I have already discussed how WoW, as a piece of art, has a responsibility to challenge our ideas and assumptions with its story, so that already justifies denying its villains redemption. The idea of a villain is basically an embodiment of evil that our hero (or heroes, in the case of WoW) can fight directly to metaphorically strike down all that we consider evil. Evil, that ambiguous concept we can't seem to pin down completely, yet we all recognize as something objectionable. It's comforting to be told that evil is not as omnipotent as we fear, which is why redemption for a story's villain can often be a very gratifying ending. Of course, this means that, if we want to believe that everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves and that everyone has some bit of good inside of them, then there is no better way to make us question our assumptions than to show that a villain is truly evil and can't be redeemed. Perhaps that's why Arthas simply died at our hands rather than having a chance at redemption.

But was Arthas really beyond redemption? Though I can't find the exact dialog anywhere online, in the Alliance version of the Halls of Reflection (this might happen in the Horde version too, but I wouldn't know), Uther tells us that the reason the scourge haven't run rampant over Azeroth already might be that the last remnant of Arthas's humanity, the last bit of good within him, is holding the scourge back. This alone seems to give some possibility of redemption for Arthas, since that means there might be some good in him that could be brought out. However, it says something darker to me, as well. If Arthas, as the leader of the scourge, struggling to hold them back, that must make for some inner conflict the extent of which we can't possibly fathom. It says to me that the little bit of Arthas left in the Lich King can't be leading that great of an existence when the struggle to be good is a literal struggle.

We see more evidence of that struggle during Arthas's death cinematic. Arthas's final words gives us a bit more of a glimpse as to what it was like to be the Lich King.
Arthas: "Father! Is it... over?"
Terenas: "At long last. No king rules forever, my son."
Arthas: "I see... only darkness... before me."
Both of Arthas's lines gives us a bit more insight into what that last remnant of his humanity was going through while he was the Lich King. Upon realizing he is about to die, he asks his father whether it is "over". That line doesn't give me an image of Arthas as the embodiment of evil; it gives me an image of Arthas suffering just as much as the souls within Frostmourne. The line even suggests that Arthas is happy it's over, which doesn't surprise me. After being the Lich King for so long, and after being as infused with evil as he has been, I doubt Arthas could image being good again. The line "I see only darkness before me" confirms this suspicion in my mind; Arthas was so beyond redemption that he can't fathom anything other than evil.

So, between the hell of Arthas's literal inner conflict and his inability to fathom anything other than evil, was redemption really the best outcome for him? I say nay. When a person's existence is that torturous, death really may be the best ending for them. That humanity that the pastor saw in Arthas isn't the same humanity I see in him. The pastor saw Arthas's humanity as a symbol of our own humanity, a humanity that could potentially be brought to the forefront again. I see his humanity as similar to the Christian view of humanity in general, meaning not what is human within us, but what is common to all us people: we are trapped in a realm of suffering (this world), with release found only in death. In the same way that we humans can't return to Eden because we are cursed with knowledge of good and evil, Arthas cannot return to his pre-Lich King form because he has been so corrupted with evil. Thus, it is my opinion that death was the best outcome for him.

Now, I know I am basing a lot of this speculation on the actual death of Arthas, meaning it's all based on story points that were probably constructed to support him dying, rather than him potentially being redeemed. However, considering how much of a lore novice I am, that's really the best I have to work with, and hey, it's still canon.

Event out of nowhere: Why the sudden nature of Operation: Gnomeregan was a mistake

The title of this post is a reference to a NSFW image which you can view here.

On Tuesday night, I participated in Operation: Gnomeregan. I stood proudly as a soldier of the Alliance alongside Gelbin Mekkatorque as we tried to take back the surface of Gnomeregan from the troggs and leper gnomes. And though fun was had by all (I'll give my full thoughts on the event on Monday), something about the whole turn of events seemed... off. But why was that? Here I was, fighting along side my allies, as well as Mekkatorque's armies and mechano fighters... say, where did those come from? And on second thought, why would Mekkatorque use a letter to tell me about an invasion that was set to occur the night after I got it. As you can tell by the title of this post, the fact that Operation: Gnomeregan came out of nowhere is what seemed off to me.

Now, you might think I'm wrong in saying that Operation: Gnomeregan came out of nowhere. There has been plenty of news about it on the various WoW fansites, as well as an official announcement on the official WoW fansite, so how can I say there wasn't any lead-up? Easily, dear readers: where was the build-up in Azeroth itself? WoW went from a stagnant world where very little was happening outside of Icecrown Citadel and practically nothing was happening outside of Northrend, to a world where the leader of an entire race decides, seemingly on a whim, to attack a city and take it back for gnomes everywhere. So quickly, High Tinker; so soon. I couldn't help but wonder: has he been planing this for a long time? Did he amass those armies in secret? Did he just pull those mechano-fighters out of a locker somewhere? And why did he have me test drive them if I wasn't even going to be able use them? (But that's a gripe for another post.)

Point is, in Azeroth itself, this grand undertaking, this significant event in the history of the Gnomish people, seemingly came out of nowhere. It started one day, and all of a sudden, it was done. No planning, no preparation aside from the few quests we did, nothing. Any planning that was done was done by the High Tinker behind closed doors, and while that is feasible, I find it hard to believe that Mekkatorque would put such a large amount of effort into this operation and then send out letters to anyone of the proper level without them first proving their worth. The whole thing just seems rushed (in-universe, mind you; I'm not making a jab at Blizzard there), and that made it rather anti-climactic.

Blizzard poster Lylirra addressed this very point in a forum post on Tuesday:

Q. Why are these events so short in duration?
A. Both Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall are intended to be fun in-game events that allow players to experience the continuation of the Gnomeregan Exile and Darkspear troll storylines, and we think each quest line achieves just that. As several gnomes would argue, just because something is "short" doesn't mean it's not worthwhile! ;)

They certainly nailed the fun in-game event part, but as a continuation of the Gnomergan Exile's storyline, I find that Operation: Gnomeregan just doesn't measure up, mostly because of all of the plot holes created by its brevity. Where did Mekkatorque get all of those mechano-fighters to fight his battle? How did Mekkatorque know so much about Gnomeregan's surface level without any scouting to check it out? Why did Mekkatorque launch this attack after so little planing? And if he did spend a lot of time planning, did spend time building up his mechano-forces, and did send out scouts, why would he recruit every tom, dick, and harry who was powerful enough to come and help him? With an operation of this scale, shouldn't he have tested the loyalty and ability of the forces fighting with him before sending them in? Sure, theoretically, our exploits in Northrend show that we are powerful and trustworthy, since the questlines don't allow us to be anything other than loyal to the Alliance, but no real leader would put so much trust in such rogue adventurers that he would invite them via letter to help with the operation. And even then, though the massive zerg rush was very fun, wouldn't it have been an inefficient tactic? Wouldn't it be better to have a few highly trained forces, rather than a bunch of adventurers attacking as they please? And wouldn't a leader as smart as Mekkatorque have known all this?

Now, the quests leading up to the invasion itself were a small way for us to prove our loyalty to the Gnomeregan Exiles, but if Mekkatorque had been planning this for a long time, he would have doubtless planned a better way to test our loyalty than a few quests. What could that way have been, you ask? A preparation stage. I think Operation: Gnomeregan (I would probably say the same thing about Zalazane's Fall, but I'll make no assumptions without having experienced it) should have been preceded by a week-long or more period where we would have helped Mekkatorque prepare for the invasion. Blizzard could have taken the same quests we did that led up to the invasion and stretched them out as dailies over the course of that time. This would have allowed us to help build up the mechano army, recruit soldiers to make a sizable fighting force, improve Mekkatorque's speech, and do the requisite scouting in a believable amount of time. Doing all of this would also have allowed us to build up Mekkatorque's trust, making it believable that he would trust us to fight alongside him.

I know I might be alone in this. I know I might be the only one who thinks that there wasn't enough lead-up to the event, that the plotholes are as gaping as they are, and that the whole thing was too short. But such is the life of an opinionated person, and I wouldn't put these thoughts out there were I not ready to defend them from people who disagree.

Azerothian politics and the illusion of power

The role of us players in the evolving story of Azeroth is an interesting one, and a confounding one, at times. After all, look at what we have accomplished. We've killed the leader of the Burning Legion, two old gods (or at least incapacitated them for a while), the king of the undead hordes, and even an observer of the titans themselves. Our prowess is obviously quite impressive for faceless adventurers (or, as the Lich King himself says, "Azeroth's greatest champions"), for through cooperation, we have saved Azeroth from countless threats that even the heroes of lore couldn't combat. In fact, we players have become those heroes; that's why we are Azeroth's greatest champions.

However, though we may posses great power as players, we make up for that abundance of power through a lack of control. The dichotomy between those two wasn't apparent to me for most of my time playing WoW, but one event brought it to the forefront of my awareness. Well, not one event, so much as one key player in contemporary WoW lore, and all the ways he has bollocksed up everything: Garrosh Hellscream. I have written about this polarizing figure before, and I concluded that, as much as we may hate him, it's for the best that Blizzard keep the events of WoW going as they have and as they plan. However, I bring him up today because Garrosh, his mistakes, and his inevitable rise to power as Warchieft of the Horde perfectly illustrates the sheer lack of control we players have. That lack of control is illustrated by the amount of frustration I see players express over Garrosh's brazenness and Thrall's baffling decision to keep Garrosh in a position of power, in spite of his history of decisions that work against Thrall's goals.

Put in a different way, we players know what is best for Azeroth. We know that the best thing for the races to do would be to put aside their petty squabbles and cooperate, for we have seen the good that can be wrought when they do so and the loss that comes about when they don't. And yet, wish as we may that we could somehow alter the politics of this that world we inhabit, we cannot. Now, I know I don't speak for all players here. I know there are players out there who are glad that the drums of war are sounding yet again, who can't wait to see how this conflict evolves, but I know there are also plenty of players who wish it could be avoided. If anything, that shows that we put some emotional stock in Azeroth, which shows just how good of a game Blizzard has developed. But I digress. The fact that we can't stop Garrosh from messing everything up, that we can't urge the other leaders to work for peace, rather than war, and that we can't prevent a destructive conflict we can see coming from a mile away shows just how little control we players really have when it comes to the events that happen in Azeroth. We may have a lot of power, which is why we can kill beings like old gods, but we have very little control, which is why we can't affect the story of WoW at all.

Why does this dichotomy exist? It exists because, in the end, WoW is Blizzard's game, and it progresses as Blizzard sees fit. We players think we have power within the world of Azeroth, but that is only because Blizzard gives us that power. They give us the power to defeat monstrous enemies if we have the right gear and skills; if they didn't do that, we couldn't defeat them, plain and simple. Thus, we really don't have any inherent power within the WoW universe; we only have abilities which Blizzard has allowed us to have. We could only change the course of Azerothian politics if Blizzard gave us that power, too, and there are plenty of reasons for them to not do that.

As I said, the fact that we players wish we could affect the way WoW's political scene plays out says a lot about just how good of a game Blizzard has developed. They haven't just developed a game, they've developed a world, a world whose outcome we feel invested in. But the thing is, WoW is really a very stagnant world. The world of WoW only changes when Blizzard decides it's going to change, and though we players feel as if we are somehow instrumental in this change, we really aren't. We can only kill the great monsters we kill because Blizzard has made them killable and made us the ones who are able to kill them. Blizzard, it turns out, is really the one with the power here, so it's no wonder they have the control, as well. In the end, this is Blizzard's world, not ours; we just play in it.

The sad inevitability of Deathwing's defeat

Warning: This post contains spoilers about the death of the Lich King. If you have yet to defeat him and you wish to go into the fight unspoiled, please do not read any farther.

As I was admiring Deathwing's Cataclysm model on WoWWiki, I was hit by a sudden realization that changed my admiration to sadness. Here is this great villain, with a detailed model to represent him as he decimates our world. Here is this terrifying creature, destruction incarnate, who can change the face of Azeroth forever simply by returning to it. Steeped in lore, immensely powerful, Deathwing is a very intimidating villain. And by the end of the expansion pack, he'll probably be dead. Simple as that; he's been cast as the main villain, so he's probably going to die.

Something about that just doesn't sit right with me. If Cataclysm will follow the precedents set by the previous three games, then it's only a matter of time before we can kill Deathwing, and this once great antagonist will be just another trophy on the wall for players. But maybe it's just me. Maybe, because I haven't experienced the thrill of killing the final boss of an expansion after many tries and failures, I think too little of the experience, but something about a team of faceless adventurers being able to take down some of the greatest villains in the Warcraft universe just doesn't seem to do justice to these figures.

But I don't think the problem lies in these bosses being killable by players; I think the problem lies in how the killing of these bosses is treated by the game itself. The killing of a lore figure like the Lich King or Illadan or Kil'Jaeden should be a big deal, but something about it just... isn't. Some of the reasons for that are unavoidable in the MMO genre. When we can kill a villain, then hear others claim responsibility for the kill a week later, it takes away from the larger significance of our accomplishment. When we can kill that villain, then go into the raid the next week and see him again, as if we had never laid our blade on him, it makes the whole thing feel meaningless. The killing of major villains on a weekly basis just feels... bland.

There is hope, however, and we can see that hope in the way that the death of the Lich King was handled. Two things were unique about Arthas's death: the fact that his death rewards players with a cutscene, and the fact that his defeat was not a complete win for us "good guys". The cutscene may seem a minor issue, but few events in-game have cutscenes, so the presence of one clearly indicates that something important has happened. More important, however, was the fact that we, the players, were not able to defeat the Lich King; we were only able to defeat Arthas, and Bolvar Fordragon had to take his place as the new King of the Damned. Thus, we really weren't able to defeat the Lich King, though we were able to defeat his avatar, so our victory was believable in its scope.

What does this mean for the future and for Deathwing? Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the lore behind Deathwing to ponder how something similar could be done to make our defeating him reasonable, but I do have one idea. Perhaps, rather than trying to defeat Deathwing, we would merely try to stop him. I don't know what we'd be trying to stop him from doing, but perhaps at some point in Cataclysm's story, it would be revealed that he was doing something that would threaten to shatter Azeroth completely, and rather than trying to kill him, we would only be trying to prevent him from doing whatever it was he was doing. With that under our belt, Deathwing could then be set free upon the world to be a recurring antagonist, continually hindering the efforts the good guys in whatever way the writers find convenient. Then, perhaps after some event has weakened him sufficiently (another foe, perhaps), or he has simply been weakened by time, we could kill him.

Aside from the benefit of this approach making the idea of us players fighting and "defeating" Deathwing more realistic, it would also allow the writers to keep him around as a character and weave him into the lore of expansions yet to come. It would really be a shame to bring him back for a one-shot deal when it would be much more convenient (and believable) for him to stay around longer. And besides, if we keep killing off Warcraft's major villains, who will be left to play the roll of antagonist in Warcraft's continually evolving story?

Overarching motivation, in-universe and out

One of the things I'm sure most of us love about the world of World of Warcraft is just how open of a world is it. There's so much to do with so many classes and races to do it with, and it's this scope that has kept me playing the game for what will soon be five years. But with this kind of open world comes the risk that it may be too open. A game like WoW runs the risk of becoming a quicksand box (a play on the term "sandbox game", which describes a game like WoW where there are tons of things you do and you can choose what you do), in which a sandbox game becomes so open that the player has no motivation to play, usually due to a lack of goals to accomplish. I know many of you will probably say that WoW's extensive array of quests prevent it from becoming a quicksand box, and as much as I may agree with you, quite of a few of my friend has tried WoW and stopped playing because of an overall lack of general motivation. There are quests, but for what purpose do we complete these quests? How does me helping a drunken gnome with his buzzboxes relate to defending Darnassus? Most of us probably get too caught up in these little intermediary goals to really think about our characters' lack of overall motivation (art reflects life, indeed), which is why we are able to overlook it.

But as with life, for some of us, our lack of an overall motivation can only last so long before we begin to ask, what for? Our characters get to explore this huge world, fight impressive and intimidating monsters, earn great rewards, but why? After all, there are a finite number of quests in the game, so those intermediary motivators will eventually run out, and then we will be forced to face the question again, what for? Though the introductory cinematics that play when we make a new character do give us an abstract motivation for our avatar, we have almost no way to follow up on that motivation for any extended period of time. Take the Night Elves as an example. Our motivation is to "defend Darnassus and the wild children of nature against the Legion's encroaching corruption." Ok then, so I do the quests in Teldrassil to help protect our tree from any sort of corruption it may be suffering from, but when those run out (as they do around level 12), what then? I'm apparently supposed to protect it from the Legion's corruption, but where is this Legion? How are they corrupting our tree? What am I supposed to do to stop them? Sadly, the game gives us no answers until higher levels, when we are no longer concerned with the motivation the cinematic gave us.

While WoW may not have very practicable main motivators for our characters, it does have quests that send us to new zones once we have outgrown the quests within an old zone, such as What's Wrong at Cenarion Thicket?, which sends players in Outland from Zangermarsh to Terokkar Forest. WoW abounds with these kinds of quests, and they allow us to make sure there are always quests for us to do, people for us to help, etc., so our character is never lacking in motivation Problem is, they still don't give our characters any overall motivation. They help give our characters overall motivation about as much as adding more quests to our starting zone would; they simply delay the realization that our characters don't have a larger purpose or goal.

As you can probably tell by now, I am mostly considering this issue from a lore/in-universe standpoint. We players have plenty of overarching motivators to keep us playing: leveling up, getting loot, experiencing content, overcoming long and difficult challenges, etc. How much story matters to us is something that varies from player to player, but you can't deny that the story of Warcraft truly is an amazing story, and it's a shame for a player to play without any thought for the lore whatsoever. After all, a player who plays with no thought for the story is really playing only for the numbers (be they gold, experience, stats, or whatever), and I would think that most of us would like to think of ourselves as more than people pushing buttons to make numbers bigger.

But though we would like to think that we have larger goals in mind when we play WoW, I think the current state of overall motivation in the WoW universe mirrors our own motivation for playing. Sure, we may have goals like getting more money, more levels, better gear, etc., but when you think about it, those motivators are a lot like our characters' seeming motivation (doing more quests): they give the illusion of a larger, overall purpose, but are really comprised of a series of smaller, nearly identical goals. In-universe, our characters really just do task after task for other people in exchange for money, experience, and occasionally gear. Expanded into the real world, this model still holds. Those of us who play the game to level up are really just chasing a series of milestones that result in a number increasing by one (as well as our characters evolving to become more powerful). Those of us who try to get better gear are really just chasing a series of small upgrades that have the larger effect of increasing some numbers on our character panel. I could go on, but I think you get my point.

But we players do have an overarching motivator that keeps us playing, something grander and deeper than increasing numbers: fun. We play this game because we enjoy it, plain and simple. Everyone has different definitions of fun, so I won't write a long expository paragraph of examples of ways that WoW is fun, and I don't think I have to. With rare exception, I'm sure most of you who read this won't need to be convinced that you play WoW because it is fun.

So if we players have an overarching motivator that isn't explicitly shown in the game, can our characters have one, too? I think so. It's a motivating factor that can't be found in our quests, our introductory cinematic, or maybe even our lore. It's something that may not even be able to be summarized in one word, but I shall try regardless. That motivating factor is what I would call honor (not that kind). You can call it whatever you like--dignity, valor, integrity--they are all words to describe the same thing: that sense of doing what is right. We help those in trouble because it's the right thing to do. We accomplish to intermediary goals because, by doing so, we are helping other people and making their lives better. Obviously I am talking about our avatars, though the same priciples apply in real life, as well. Considering how ephemeral our accomplishment in Azeroth are (different people can help the same NPC multiple times, and they'll still need our help when we roll a new character; gear upgrades never last forever; level gains are only as impressive as they are close to the level cap, and we can always do away with those gains by rolling an alt), something intangible like honor may be closest thing our characters have to a practicable, overarching goal.