Hate to break it to you, but if you do any kind of grind, be it weeks of daily chores or an all-day affair, then you’ve fallen for a psychological mind game.
All video games are completely pointless wastes of time. You should only play them if you are having fun minute to minute. Sometimes progression itself is the point and people find the grinding fun/relaxing. But if that's not you then yeah don't play them.
I don’t mind people enjoying themselves! But posts consisting of “Heh, I won’t fall for Blizzard’s trick. I’m gonna do the time-consuming chores for a trivial reward in one day.” is eye-rolling.
+1
Options
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Hate to break it to you, but if you do any kind of grind, be it weeks of daily chores or an all-day affair, then you’ve fallen for a psychological mind game.
All video games are completely pointless wastes of time. You should only play them if you are having fun minute to minute. Sometimes progression itself is the point and people find the grinding fun/relaxing. But if that's not you then yeah don't play them.
I don’t mind people enjoying themselves! But posts consisting of “Heh, I won’t fall for Blizzard’s trick. I’m gonna do the time-consuming chores for a trivial reward in one day.” is eye-rolling.
Honestly its almost a night and day difference in naga lands when you have flying. "oh that quest over there? Let me just fly over there without 10 fucking guys following me."
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I'm only 2 days away from flying myself. But today is the gnomes in flying boxes day. And fuck that quest. 3 days till flying it is.
I....I like to shoot them open and then not catch them.
I never get gnomes. And that's why I hate that quest. It's always scavenger dogs or other assorted baddies that attack me when I free them. The chances of actually getting a gnome from the crate is very small. And then there's always the likelihood that some asshole with a bigger hit box than me will run in and steal the catch from me. That has happened on multiple occasions.
I did that quest enough to not ever do it again. The mechanics for it are annoying the "drop rate" of the gnomes is bad so it just takes forever to complete and its annoying as hell and simply not worth the reward.
I did that quest enough to not ever do it again. The mechanics for it are annoying the "drop rate" of the gnomes is bad so it just takes forever to complete and its annoying as hell and simply not worth the reward.
This was like a quest to get a recycled something or other. Most of the enemies in the area were elite, it seemed no one was doing the quest to help burn them down and it took like 25 minutes to finish.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I did that quest enough to not ever do it again. The mechanics for it are annoying the "drop rate" of the gnomes is bad so it just takes forever to complete and its annoying as hell and simply not worth the reward.
This was like a quest to get a recycled something or other. Most of the enemies in the area were elite, it seemed no one was doing the quest to help burn them down and it took like 25 minutes to finish.
They also are outside junkwatt depot and I highly recommend doing them outside the depot if you are doing the quest. Doing it with the elites running around makes an annoying thing that much more so. It would not be so bad to do if not everybody on the same day was doing that activity which just makes it a super pain in the butt.
I did that quest enough to not ever do it again. The mechanics for it are annoying the "drop rate" of the gnomes is bad so it just takes forever to complete and its annoying as hell and simply not worth the reward.
This was like a quest to get a recycled something or other. Most of the enemies in the area were elite, it seemed no one was doing the quest to help burn them down and it took like 25 minutes to finish.
They also are outside junkwatt depot and I highly recommend doing them outside the depot if you are doing the quest. Doing it with the elites running around makes an annoying thing that much more so. It would not be so bad to do if not everybody on the same day was doing that activity which just makes it a super pain in the butt.
Well I'm already done with revered, exalted can just be the whatever world activity they want that day or not at all fuck you gnomes.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
So Bellular posted a new video today (shocking I know! (seriously, he makes like 4 billion videos a day these days)).
But this one was particularly interesting. It deals with a leak. A leak that has not been substantiated and could very well be a hoax.
But, if there's even a shred of truth in it, everything he discusses is quite interesting.
Spoilering the video, because while right now it is based solely on a leak, the possibility that this is real might ruin future patches and/or expansions for people. So click only if you don't care about theorycrafting about leaks that might or might not be real.
1) 8.30 is a raid on Stormwind. The attack on Thunder Bluff was a ruse, and while the heroes rush to defend Thunder Bluff, Sylvanas conquers Stormwind pretty much unchallenged. So the players and lore heroes show up to take it back from her.
2) A giant battle ensues, in which Bolvar the Lich King shows up and starts purging everybody. Pretty much 100% of the cast of the game is killed in a very Tarantino-esque bloodbath, including the player characters.
3) Helya shows up to fulfill her side of the pact that was made with Sylvanas in Legion, and Helya ushers the souls of all the dead to the Shadowlands.
4) Next expansion, titled "The Shadowlands" will be about two things: A) Finding a way back to the mortal realm and to life, and Defeating the Black Empire while we are there.
5) This whole thing was Sylvanas's master plan all along, and the entire story is a giant "Watchmen" ending, where the villain (in the Watchmen it was Adrian Veidt, in Warcraft it is Sylvanas) ends up being the savior of the world through extremely immoral means. Sacrifice the few (million) to save the many. That's where this is headed.
If the leak is true, Sylvanas is the hero. She does extremely shitty things to get us there, but the entire thing has been a giant manipulation, which served to wage a war against the Black Empire and ultimately save the world.
0
Options
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
If that's true and that's the actual plan, I quit. That would be fucking idiotic.
I've heard this leak and it sounds god damn stupid everytime, so its probably true. Unless someone with a brain steps in and goes "whoa whoa whoa no fuck this." But those people already left blizzard.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
ThePantsAssociationA million could-be years on a thousand may-be worldsRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
How would that work mechanically as a patch? Your character dies... and then back to BFA business as usual until the expansion hits and you're dead again looking for a way out of the Shadowlands?
Also, I want to believe Blizzard won't pull the plot "twist" that Sylvanis is actually right and playing 8-D chess with all her stupid crap, but I guess that's asking too much.
It would work the same way Shadowbringers works in FFXIV. With a handwave and a nod.
In Shadowbringers, for those who don't know, the previous expansion ends with
The player character's soul literally getting kidnapped (soul napped?) out of their body and transported to another world, where they meet up with their companions who were all previously soul napped as well.
Our physical bodies are all laying comatose in the real world, while we are off in this alternate realm of existence having adventures.
It's silly from an MMO perspective, especially since they allow you to go back and do stuff in the rest of the game world. But concessions have to be made for gameplay.
That's actually something I can easily accept. That part is easy.
Sylvannas going Kerrigan was also high on the possibilities, and it was always going to suck. Though "you all die" is...surprising.
honestly as silly as it seems there are some advantages to the whole everybody dies take. The shadow lands has been something the game has talked about since it launched and it gives you an easy way to bring back past characters again in a way that would be specific to that expansion so you would not have to worry about having them there going forward. They would have to be really careful how this is done because it could really be a huge turn off if done badly and lose them a lot of people. Still death is not a career ending injury hell I die a few times every raid and I keep getting back up again so an expansion about the shadowlands does make some sense. It would be one way to finally purge the remnants of old ones who we killed but still linger and fester.
How would that work mechanically as a patch? Your character dies... and then back to BFA business as usual until the expansion hits and you're dead again looking for a way out of the Shadowlands?
Also, I want to believe Blizzard won't pull the plot "twist" that Sylvanis is actually right and playing 8-D chess with all her stupid crap, but I guess that's asking too much.
If the leak is to be believed and I don't put a lot of stock in it the goblins help resuscitate mechatorque and between the gnomes and goblins make a device that lets you move into the shadowlands and back on command like a hearth stone. If they really go with tinkers and given the increasing role tinkers are playing in BFA I can sort of see that as a way to go.
I think that leak is BS not so much because it’s dumb as because it would do a better job of tying a bunch of plot points together than blizzard typically have done
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
The Warcraft story forum saw this earlier and had discounted it as being 4chan tripe. Kinda surprised that Bellular is going in on it so hard
0
Options
ThePantsAssociationA million could-be years on a thousand may-be worldsRegistered Userregular
Leaktalk
OK, assuming the leak is true, I'm trying to figure out Sylvanis' master plan. In a nutshell, she used the discovery of azerite as a tool to start a massive war that strengthens and unbinds an old god in order to kill everyone so they can become ghosts and join together to kill the old gods. Somewhere in that plan is taking over Stormwind - which according to the books, she wants to turn everyone there undead to bolster Forsaken numbers. That part seems antithetical to the plan, but fine. I guess she also wants to raise dead night elves as Forsaken so she they can die later and be... I guess undead ghosts? Do you stay undead when you're dead?
OK, assuming the leak is true, I'm trying to figure out Sylvanis' master plan. In a nutshell, she used the discovery of azerite as a tool to start a massive war that strengthens and unbinds an old god in order to kill everyone so they can become ghosts and join together to kill the old gods. Somewhere in that plan is taking over Stormwind - which according to the books, she wants to turn everyone there undead to bolster Forsaken numbers. That part seems antithetical to the plan, but fine. I guess she also wants to raise dead night elves as Forsaken so she they can die later and be... I guess undead ghosts? Do you stay undead when you're dead?
I can sort of see it. We have known for some time that whatever sylvannas saw in the shadowlands whens he died scared the shit out of her so badly she is willing to do anything to not have that be her final fate. It is not impossible given some of the story threads so far that her and helya are working to somehow purge/cleanse the afterlife of some unspeakable evil. From the comics the void seems to be very much afraid of/wanting to kill sylvannas and seeing her as a major threat to it.
0
Options
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
It would work the same way Shadowbringers works in FFXIV. With a handwave and a nod.
In Shadowbringers, for those who don't know, the previous expansion ends with
The player character's soul literally getting kidnapped (soul napped?) out of their body and transported to another world, where they meet up with their companions who were all previously soul napped as well.
Our physical bodies are all laying comatose in the real world, while we are off in this alternate realm of existence having adventures.
It's silly from an MMO perspective, especially since they allow you to go back and do stuff in the rest of the game world. But concessions have to be made for gameplay.
That's actually something I can easily accept. That part is easy.
That's not what happens.
Your buddies have their souls snatched, but you are summoned whole, body and soul. They explicitly mention in the dialogue that this is why you can move back and forth between the worlds while they can't.
Also you travel to the other world at the beginning of Shadowbringers, not the end of Stormblood.
+3
Options
Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
edited September 2019
I mean, I am probably more cool with that ending that what it seemed like things were leading up to. I think the completely off the hook directions are pretty much what Warcraft's story is at this point.
only issue I have (having only read the summary right now) is how none of that really seems to indicate it had to happen, what exactly we are being saved from? Is the point supposed to be that Sylvanus knew Bolvar was going to kill everyone and by grouping them all up Helya could get the whole group that second chance? And the fact that her sending us to the shadowlands and we need to get out is basically a repeat of a small questline in Legion but turned into an entire expansion? Also that would be like, the third time we did something involving Helya.
I am still kind of ok with how absurd that is. WoWs plot is kind of like a silly JRPG at this point which are my favorite games, so I have experience with this kind of silliness.
Oh and also I just realized. Not to even mention how this completely ignores whateverthefuck N'zoth was doing in the story. But what happens to the whole Azerite and Azeroth part of the story? Was one of the main mechanics of the entire expansion just a throwaway side plot the whole time?
It really makes no sense that an expansion would be built around your character being a ghost and trying to get revived. Are they going to lock you out of the entire game world until you complete the expansion story? From a gameplay perspective I don't think they can do that. So the plot at least needs some way to justify moving back and forth.
It really makes no sense that an expansion would be built around your character being a ghost and trying to get revived. Are they going to lock you out of the entire game world until you complete the expansion story? From a gameplay perspective I don't think they can do that. So the plot at least needs some way to justify moving back and forth.
This also leads to a weird disconnect between the game world and the story. An expansion patch has never ended with the characters in an immediate situation. There’s been a lull in the story until whatever inciting incident (The Lich King attacks, the factions discovers Pandaria, etc.) happens alongside the new expansion’s launch.
So...you finish the raid, die, get trapped in the Shadowlands, and...hearth back out? I know WoW makes concessions for the sake of gameplay, but this one just seems too front and center.
+6
Options
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
If these leaks are true then I hope everyone dies by falling rocks.
Of corruption.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
It’s not really any more front and center than being “trapped” on Draenor/pandaria/etc and just being able to hearth back to stormwind, or being able to travel back to pre-burned teldrassil, and so on
Which is to say it’s kinda silly, but oh well.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
That’s different: it’s a gameplay conceit to let players take a break. If you want to keep going you can. The game doesn’t awkwardly stop in the middle of something: it will continue if you let it. When the action stops because the rest isn’t here yet, there is usually an intended pause in the lore. You don’t discover Pandaria and wait for an expansion. The Iron Horde doesn’t invade as the conclusion to Seige, and so forth.
It’s a game-mandated pause as opposed to a player driven one. And that will feel very different.
+3
Options
ThePantsAssociationA million could-be years on a thousand may-be worldsRegistered Userregular
It’s not really any more front and center than being “trapped” on Draenor/pandaria/etc and just being able to hearth back to stormwind, or being able to travel back to pre-burned teldrassil, and so on
Which is to say it’s kinda silly, but oh well.
The leak suggests you would be killed and "trapped" in the Shadowlands at the end of a patch, rather than once the expansion kicks off. With the expansion, the gnomes and goblins allegedly will come up with a device to send you back and forth (and create a tinker class). But that means there would be a long period between your death and the story explanation in the expansion where you would just awkwardly hearth back and go about your business. In the past, you didn't actually go to Draenor/Pandaria/etc until the expansion arrived.
Assuming the leak isn't BS, of course.
ThePantsAssociation on
+2
Options
Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
I don't care how stupid a leak is. I realized talking about potential expansions, leaks or not, was more fun than actually playing it sometime ago. I revel in it. This is more true than ever with BFA. Both because of the eagerness to move on, but also because of how hard they are trying to keep this a secret.
It is just so polarizing compared to Legion when we pretty much had a direct hint about the final patch a few months after the expansion started.
I mean, sargeras stuck his giant sword in the planet and then we all mostly fucked around for eight months before it was addressed
I don’t think players finishing the last raid encounter, seeing a cinematic and then waiting some amount of months for the story to actually continue would be the weird; we all kinda understand that’s how it works
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I mean, it's way easier and cleaner narratively to just have the player be a lone survivor and pause on 'Everything's going down in the Shadowlands, everyone else is stuck there, now what?' instead.
Then have you die or use crazy magitech to get there at the beginning of the next xpac.
It would work the same way Shadowbringers works in FFXIV. With a handwave and a nod.
In Shadowbringers, for those who don't know, the previous expansion ends with
The player character's soul literally getting kidnapped (soul napped?) out of their body and transported to another world, where they meet up with their companions who were all previously soul napped as well.
Our physical bodies are all laying comatose in the real world, while we are off in this alternate realm of existence having adventures.
It's silly from an MMO perspective, especially since they allow you to go back and do stuff in the rest of the game world. But concessions have to be made for gameplay.
That's actually something I can easily accept. That part is easy.
inaccurate
the player character and only the player character travels between dimensions with their real body, that's why they can pop back and forth and no one else can.
I've seen the images that are the alleged reason for the leak and they're like super fake
Ever since WoW first showed off the rough sketches they do for expansion maps, every leak tries to crib that style. It's always an angled shot of some sort of powerpoint presentation, as though the people looking at it have only SECONDS to get the picture. And then despite only having mere moments to get a picture of the expansion map and logo (and there's always a finished WoW expansion logo, as though that's the first thing that they do), they have a fully detailed list of all the plot points and the new race or class that is coming with the expansion. It's such a goofy conceit. Either you have access to a bunch of information you can drop, or you don't.
Every leak tries to drop EVERYTHING about the expansion, when the leaks we've had that are true are extremely sparse with details, often accidental. You only get big, multi-detail leaks days before the expansion gets announced, because press material starts going out.
Also, tinkerer. Every leak says we're either getting demon hunter, runemaster, or tinkerer as a class.
What viable classes aren't playable at this point, thinking about it?
Barbarian is folded into warrior, scout into hunter, witch doctor is spread across other casters, runemaster's planned mechanics are in DK and monk, various necromantic types are folded into DK, etc.
Shadow Hunter might be appropriate for a Shadowlands expansion, but it feels sort of weird just from a naming standpoint? Spell Breaker seems difficult to fit in. Tinkerer or engineer or other techy classes might make sense, but would feel weird in the likeliest xpac themes. Dragonsworn might work for anything, since it looks like we're getting more Wrathion content soon.
They could do something really crazy, like roll out a race with a single racial class available or something.
Posts
I don't really recall anyone saying this?
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
I....I like to shoot them open and then not catch them.
I never get gnomes. And that's why I hate that quest. It's always scavenger dogs or other assorted baddies that attack me when I free them. The chances of actually getting a gnome from the crate is very small. And then there's always the likelihood that some asshole with a bigger hit box than me will run in and steal the catch from me. That has happened on multiple occasions.
This was like a quest to get a recycled something or other. Most of the enemies in the area were elite, it seemed no one was doing the quest to help burn them down and it took like 25 minutes to finish.
pleasepaypreacher.net
They also are outside junkwatt depot and I highly recommend doing them outside the depot if you are doing the quest. Doing it with the elites running around makes an annoying thing that much more so. It would not be so bad to do if not everybody on the same day was doing that activity which just makes it a super pain in the butt.
Well I'm already done with revered, exalted can just be the whatever world activity they want that day or not at all fuck you gnomes.
pleasepaypreacher.net
But this one was particularly interesting. It deals with a leak. A leak that has not been substantiated and could very well be a hoax.
But, if there's even a shred of truth in it, everything he discusses is quite interesting.
Spoilering the video, because while right now it is based solely on a leak, the possibility that this is real might ruin future patches and/or expansions for people. So click only if you don't care about theorycrafting about leaks that might or might not be real.
A Cliff's Notes summary of the video:
2) A giant battle ensues, in which Bolvar the Lich King shows up and starts purging everybody. Pretty much 100% of the cast of the game is killed in a very Tarantino-esque bloodbath, including the player characters.
3) Helya shows up to fulfill her side of the pact that was made with Sylvanas in Legion, and Helya ushers the souls of all the dead to the Shadowlands.
4) Next expansion, titled "The Shadowlands" will be about two things: A) Finding a way back to the mortal realm and to life, and
5) This whole thing was Sylvanas's master plan all along, and the entire story is a giant "Watchmen" ending, where the villain (in the Watchmen it was Adrian Veidt, in Warcraft it is Sylvanas) ends up being the savior of the world through extremely immoral means. Sacrifice the few (million) to save the many. That's where this is headed.
If the leak is true, Sylvanas is the hero. She does extremely shitty things to get us there, but the entire thing has been a giant manipulation, which served to wage a war against the Black Empire and ultimately save the world.
OoooOoooOOOOoOOOOooo you all die! I bet you didn't see that coming!
pleasepaypreacher.net
Also, I want to believe Blizzard won't pull the plot "twist" that Sylvanis is actually right and playing 8-D chess with all her stupid crap, but I guess that's asking too much.
In Shadowbringers, for those who don't know, the previous expansion ends with
Our physical bodies are all laying comatose in the real world, while we are off in this alternate realm of existence having adventures.
It's silly from an MMO perspective, especially since they allow you to go back and do stuff in the rest of the game world. But concessions have to be made for gameplay.
That's actually something I can easily accept. That part is easy.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
That's not what happens.
Also you travel to the other world at the beginning of Shadowbringers, not the end of Stormblood.
I am still kind of ok with how absurd that is. WoWs plot is kind of like a silly JRPG at this point which are my favorite games, so I have experience with this kind of silliness.
Oh and also I just realized. Not to even mention how this completely ignores whateverthefuck N'zoth was doing in the story. But what happens to the whole Azerite and Azeroth part of the story? Was one of the main mechanics of the entire expansion just a throwaway side plot the whole time?
If it IS true, then it’s so stupid it doesn’t merit such protection. But this is WoW, so the leak is likely fake because it isn’t stupid enough.
World gets recreated by the Titans
Next Blizzcon announcement, WoW 2: Age of Sigmar Sylvanas
So...you finish the raid, die, get trapped in the Shadowlands, and...hearth back out? I know WoW makes concessions for the sake of gameplay, but this one just seems too front and center.
Of corruption.
Which is to say it’s kinda silly, but oh well.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
It’s a game-mandated pause as opposed to a player driven one. And that will feel very different.
Assuming the leak isn't BS, of course.
It is just so polarizing compared to Legion when we pretty much had a direct hint about the final patch a few months after the expansion started.
I don’t think players finishing the last raid encounter, seeing a cinematic and then waiting some amount of months for the story to actually continue would be the weird; we all kinda understand that’s how it works
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Then have you die or use crazy magitech to get there at the beginning of the next xpac.
inaccurate
Ever since WoW first showed off the rough sketches they do for expansion maps, every leak tries to crib that style. It's always an angled shot of some sort of powerpoint presentation, as though the people looking at it have only SECONDS to get the picture. And then despite only having mere moments to get a picture of the expansion map and logo (and there's always a finished WoW expansion logo, as though that's the first thing that they do), they have a fully detailed list of all the plot points and the new race or class that is coming with the expansion. It's such a goofy conceit. Either you have access to a bunch of information you can drop, or you don't.
Every leak tries to drop EVERYTHING about the expansion, when the leaks we've had that are true are extremely sparse with details, often accidental. You only get big, multi-detail leaks days before the expansion gets announced, because press material starts going out.
Also, tinkerer. Every leak says we're either getting demon hunter, runemaster, or tinkerer as a class.
Barbarian is folded into warrior, scout into hunter, witch doctor is spread across other casters, runemaster's planned mechanics are in DK and monk, various necromantic types are folded into DK, etc.
Shadow Hunter might be appropriate for a Shadowlands expansion, but it feels sort of weird just from a naming standpoint? Spell Breaker seems difficult to fit in. Tinkerer or engineer or other techy classes might make sense, but would feel weird in the likeliest xpac themes. Dragonsworn might work for anything, since it looks like we're getting more Wrathion content soon.
They could do something really crazy, like roll out a race with a single racial class available or something.