I’ve been putting off a potential return to World of Warcraft for some time now. People who got to know me, or maybe even had brief interactions with me in the meantime, would know that I’ve been trying to find reasons to get back into WoW like I once used to, but never really finding them in anything. And even the expansion of Mists of Pandaria hasn’t appealed to me in one iota (if anything, it’s information largely nudging towards pandas being a playable “race” (while the idea of choosing your side is an interesting idea, the rest is not) and the details in regard to non-combat pets getting to battle (to which I immediately think Pokemon – which I already have for the DS, thankyoumuch), it makes me facepalm a lot) so I have no real intention of investing for the gameplay aspect. And since Blizzard has gone the atypical road of comics and decided “Lore is for Idiots” and hit the reset button on it, I got nothing to interest me story-wise either. And the fact they’ve lost something like 3 million subscribers over the time since Cataclysm (and now started advertising WoW with Chuck Norris involved – yet another damned internet cliché) I see this boat as one that tried to fly but sprung a leak. And is now sinking into the very maelstrom it created.
Yet there’s people that remain playing. People that take part, do things, continually paying every month for that experience. While the likes of trollers (who seek entertainment by intervening in other people’s gaming experience), ninjas (who seek entertainment by claiming to need items they will never use and just sell) and gold sellers (who probably don’t find entertainment at all) can be self-explanatory for why they even continue to exist there, I’ve actually seen glimpses of roleplaying in the first few days of my recently started 7 day test. I honestly couldn’t understand why. And not only roleplaying, but developing new communities away from the main hubs. And not just communities, but good communities, with a standard of roleplaying and being confidently safe in the knowledge that they would actually generate interest from those who find them. And so the mind boggles.
How is this possible? How can these people continue playing a game that’s been all but lore-fucked into oblivion? And with the big releases that have been spread over the consoles the last month or two, why aren’t they lost in those games? Why aren’t they unleashing Fus Ro Dah’s over the face of every Nord they see? Why aren’t they teabagging their kills on the Battlefield? What would compel them to take enough interest in this game to continue coming back to it? But maybe, above all else, why am I so determined to find an answer for this when I personally feel that this entire thing is going to collapse like a broken castle, shattered and beaten by the stones it threw at itself?
The only thing that I can conclude, in this entire mesh of blargh and confusion, is one word that seems to be prevailent over all else: Ignorance. Maybe these people do not care about the changes Blizzard are doing to molest the entire existence of what lore there was in Warcraft. Maybe these people would rather initiate their own roleplay, in the way they intend for it to happen, without the need to discuss lore lines or even brush across them. Maybe these people are simply acting on a world they are more familiar with – a world they believe in, not one that Blizzard believes in. They do not see the changes to lore because they do not roleplay anything involving the lore. They have their own world in their hands, and anything outside of it can go fuck itself. And maybe, deep inside, that’s why I struggled to find an answer – because I, too, wanted to be ignorant of the changes Blizzard made, and be ignorant of the mess they’ve made of the castle.
For those people who have complained about the lore of Blizzard and Warcraft, I put this to you now: Why care? Those of you that have a history with Warcraft and have a favourite segment of the lore that you dedicate novels, comics or even fanart to, why change or stop that because of some overpaid goofballs that don’t have a brain cell between them? You know what you love about the world, stick to it. Make it your own, not Blizzard’s. 3 million people can’t be wrong, and that’s not counting the potential millions who already followed this state of mind long before I did. You want to keep the lore from the sourcebooks and the story that you’re familiar with? Do it. Nothing stops you from that.
That will be why I am going to return. I want to help forge this world that ignores Blizzard’s failings.
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