Discussion YMMV / WorldOfWarcraft

I removed this because the trope listed is In-Universe Examples Only. But sadly, I just seem to agree with it enough that I'll put it here.

• Nostalgia Filter: Consider how much of the game changed since its release in 2004. Several classes, especially the hybrids, are actually playable and actually work the way you would expect them to. Content is actually not being wasted by locking the majority of the playerbase out by attunement chains. (Most of the Can't Catch Up was caused by other players, though, so it's not Bizzard and Vivendi's fault since they didn't intend for selfish players to refuse to help their friends in need.)
  • And the Elemental Invasion. Wait around the cities and someone's going to say how the Zombie Invasion was better and that the fandom rejoiced. This is ignoring how, during the zombie invasion, there was just as much complaining about how many people were interrupted by zombies or how much they event sucked and should have been optional.
  • Attunement in general. This supposedly weeded out the "Bad players" back in the day, when all it took to get attuned was to be lucky enough to find a group that formed for it, especially on some servers like most Wasteland EST PvP Servers. This lead to a Can't Catch Up in which perfectly good players were stuck waiting for an attunement group to form while everyone else was busy trying to get the bosses down.
    • And evidently people used to "need a brain" to get to end-game. Evidently, "Needing a brain" meant "being able to be lucky to have a group that would do convoluted attunement chains" and "having the free time to run dungeons enough to get gear so the guilds would even look at you."

Limpin' with the bizkit.

• Author's Saving Throw
  • When the first draft of Faction Incursions hit the PTR, many players, even Alliance players, were alarmed by how the Vol'Dun Incursion involved the Alliance attempting an explicit genocide on the Vulpera purely because they were letting the Horde use their trade routes, to the point that the Alliance forces attacking the Vulpera were outright called the "Purge Squads". Once 8.1 and the Incursions went live, the Alliance's attacks on the Vulpera were changed from being directly genocidal to them "merely" destroying the Horde supplies and caravans, with the Alliance version of the Incursion even having your quest contact explicitly order you not to harm the Vulpera.

So from what I've seen, this change was seen by nearly everyone as a positive, as even the most diehard Horde players felt that the original version was majorly out of character for the Alliance. (at least the diehard Horde fans on mmochamp, but I don't really go there anymore due to how toxic and hateful its become), but now apparently some are claiming that Horde fans actually hate it because it "whitewashes" the Alliance.

So, uh, thoughts?

Shamelessly plugging my comics, Oh yes. Hide / Show Replies

Before this devolve into an Edit War:

• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Even with the retcons about the Zandalar having an empire in the past with the Mogu, many players feel sympathy for them. Considering the Zandalar's home is lost, they were friendly to people of all races, befriended the player characters, and want to save themselves from extinction, this isn't surprising. Fortunately, Zandalar is a major player in Battle for Azeroth.
  • Obsidian Destroyers get this trope after the Retcon that they aren't creation of the Twin Emperors but instead Titan constructs enslaved and corrupted by the Nerubians and the Twin Emperors who forced them to fight in the front line.
  • Tyrande Whisperwind was supposed to come off as arrogant and dismissal of the Nightborne that caused them to go to the Horde. The problem is most of her grievance towards them are completely reasonable as well as the fact the she still goes out of her way to aid Thalyssra's rebellion. The fact that the Nightborne willingly go through with burning down Teldrassil, killing hundreds and thousands of Night Elf civillain in Battle for Azeroth made her concern came across as completely founded.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Malfurion Stormrage, despite being billed as an Alliance hero and a great, wise leader, is disliked by many night elf fans due to his apparent disinterest in actually supporting the night elves. He didn't lift a finger against the Horde in Cataclysm, despite the orcs rampaging through Ashenvale and killing his people, and doesn't even step in to protect Tyrande (his treatment of whom has also come under scrutiny) from Horde raids. Malf's dissonance was actually a plot point in Patch 4.2: Leyara maintains that the previous Archdruid, Fandral Staghelm, would never have done nothing while the orcs butchered their people.
  • Horde-side, a similar case applies to Baine who called the Alliance's actions in the Barrens, which included the massacre of the Stonespire tribe, justified, and exiled anyone who disagreed.
  • Thrall is this in his entire friendship with Jaina. He never once express concern for her when receiving the news that she is dead during Tides of War; or during the in-game events where she continuously forcing to make compromises and sacrifices while he basically had to be pushed to meet her halfway (and even then Thrall made sure to take actions to have as little risk for the Horde as possible). Seeing their friendship ended in Tides of Wars probably made some readers relief more than anything because now Jaina won't force to make sacrifices for Thrall while he continuously disappointed her.
  • In Legion, Aethas Sunreaver rejoins Dalaran by trading information on Felo'melorn (the royal blade of the Sunstrider family) to the Kirin Tor. This is presented as his personal quest for redemption, but a lot of players interpreted it as an act of prideless grovelling that only cemented his status as The Scrappy. The notion that Aethas would use his race's most prized artifact as little more than a bargaining chip is often criticized as disrespectful; blood elf fans in particular tend to express outrage when the subject comes up. Aethas then goes on, rather tritely, to have his faction compromised by traitors again, and although he handles it better this time, it's done nothing to dispel the many accusations of incompetence hurled his way by fans. That Aethas gets considerably more screentime than his far more well-liked counterpart, Rommath, also contributes to this.
  • The Horde as a whole can elicit this reaction from some players. They're presented as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits trying to find a place in the world and fighting for it, but considering they're more often than not the instigators in the various Alliance-Horde conflicts and are often the ones doing the more questionable acts, them trying to argue they're Not Evil, Just Misunderstood feels a bit hollow to some.
  • Thalyssra and the Nightborne was hit with this hard during Battle for Azeroth. They joined the Horde even after the Night Elf came to her aide during the rebellion because of Tyrande's dismissive attitude and because they want to join the world "as protectors, not conquerers". The problem is most of Tyrande's grievance towards them are completely reasonable as well as the fact the she still goes out of her way to aid Thalyssra's rebellion. The fact that the Nightborne willingly go through with burning down Teldrassil, killing hundreds and thousands of Night Elf civillain in Battle for Azeroth made Tyrande's concern came across as completely founded while making Thalyssra came off as a massive hypocritical Ungrateful Bastard and the Nightborne came across as expecting the Night Elf to fawn over their footsteps after thousand of years hiding away and then allying with Burning Legion.

The Mod's decision to remove it is because they think the developers's intention and anticipated the various reaction from the players. Here are the entries that I disagreed with:

• Obsidian Destroyer's case was never acknowledged in-game or any reaction from the characters after the retcon.
• The Tyrande-Nightborne storyline has the narratives treat the moment the Nightborne goes to the Horde as some kind of moments of realization and glory and didn't acknowledge that the Nightborne burned down the home of their kin and the people who helped their rebelliion.
• Thrall's friendship with Jaina was highlighted throughout the game as some kind of deep profound bond, but he never actually made any substantual compromise towards the Alliance/human and Jaina was generally Out of Focus. Tides of War really came ahead with him refuse to acknowledge his responsibility.
• Baine was never call out for his action by his fellow Taurens.
• The Horde as whole has always presented as "heroes", but Battle for Azeroth elicit a lot of complains from players who don't agree with Sylvanas that they are being forced to follow her orders, which is probably not intended by Blizzard. Players also complain that the Horde has been repeated hit by the Villain Ball.

The two entries I agree with:

• Malfurion was actually calls out for his (in)action.
• Zandalari trolls were made playable Allied Races

Edited by shatterstar Hide / Show Replies

It seems to me that the Alliance is being pushed into the role of the "Good guys" with each expansion. Mists of Pandaria is the most blatant case. For example; the cinematic for the Horde portrays Garrosh as a warmongering conqueror, but the Alliance cinematic makes it look like Varian is only going there to rescue his son. Does anyone else see this as serious Character Shilling of the Alliance? I personally think Blizzard needs to remember that the Aliiance aren't purely good guys and show that in the game.