A look at the beta of WoW: Midnight shows that there is still much to discuss. Because the quality leaves much to be desired.
Anyone looking into the beta of the upcoming expansion of World of Warcraft, namely Midnight, can experience most of the content already. Story fans are particularly soaking up the quests and dialogues found in the game. However, while a few small details are exciting, there are also reasons for concern. Some dialogues in Midnight feel out of place, making ancient characters, who are supposed to be wise, suddenly seem like they aren’t the brightest candle in the chandelier.
While reading the quests, I noticed a few things that I particularly liked, but also some details that made me uneasy. I then checked various forums and social media to see if I was alone in my opinion – and no, others have noticed this as well.
Small details that bring joy …
But let me start with something positive. Blizzard has done quite a good job with the new Quel’Thalas. Blood elf fans will lose themselves in the redesign of their homeland and love the area – I really believe that.
Moreover, the developers have ensured that there are small quips in the dialogues. Little allusions to the culture and history of the blood elves and their ancestors. For instance, you can speak with members of the Silver Covenant – that is, high elves. If you play as a blood elf yourself, then you are likely to have lines like these on hand:
- “I do not heed the words of traitors.”
- “I can still smell the demonic magic on you. You are lucky that we have a common enemy right now.”
- “I will fight to defend Silvermoon, but I will never forget how you betrayed us by joining the Horde.”
- “I had friends in Theramore when the Horde bombed it. We just have a purpose alliance, nothing more.”
These are all lines that make me think: Very cool that Blizzard is incorporating this. It feels right and fitting.
… and important NPCs with millennia of lifespan behave like 14-year-olds
Unfortunately, this does not run through the entire expansion. Because elsewhere, especially prominent NPCs stand out negatively. Let’s take Lady Liadrin, whom we presented to you in more detail here. She is an important character of the blood elves and plays a significant role in Midnight. She accompanies us on several quests, and after a while in Zul’Aman with the Amani trolls, she says the following:
As we traveled with Zul’jarra, I found my assumptions about the Amani … were challenged.
First, I did not know that each tribe has its own identity with its own ruling class. And that they are called “Amani” because that is the original name of their tribe and the name of the ruling tribe.
I also did not know that although they worship several Loa, each tribe is associated with one Loa – Akil’zon for the Amani and Halazzi for the Bleeding Hollow.
Or, I assume that the Woodland Trolls and the Splitters are the same. I guess we will see.
This statement would be completely acceptable if it came from a young, inexperienced blood elf. However, it is absolutely unacceptable if it comes from Lady Liadrin. A blood elf who has been fighting against the trolls in Quel’Thalas for millennia. A blood elf who has lived for many centuries in a society where trolls are the greatest enemy, and at times represents the strongest force against exactly these trolls with her blood knights.
It is absolutely unbelievable that a woman in this position of power, whose job has long been to defend the land from the enemy, only now, after such a long time, acquires complete basic knowledge about the trolls and begins to reconsider her past decisions based on this basic knowledge.
Even if one says: “Okay, maybe Liadrin has never sent reconnaissance troops and spies into troll territory to understand them better and was only driven by hatred and racism”… even then, it makes absolutely no sense.
Because Lady Liadrin has, like all blood elves, been part of the Horde for almost 20 years game time. She has fought alongside trolls and was even present in the troll empire of Zandalar. The fact that she has learned absolutely nothing about troll culture, including the Amani, in these 20 years can only lead to one conclusion: Liadrin is completely incompetent and foolish.
Also, the player “TheVagrantWarrior” sums this up a bit more dramatically in the WoW subreddit regarding this incident:
This is simply beyond frustrating. The writing constantly fails to respect the depth and age of Azeroth’s cultures. It reduces conflicts and relationships that spanned millennia to incredible ignorance. (…)
We are talking about the high/blood elves… a culture whose entire foundation and martial past is inextricably linked to the troll wars. 2,800 years since the troll wars officially ended and 7,000 years of battles, skirmishes, and coexistence with various troll tribes.
And yet our “experienced leader” is written as outrageously dumb and ignorant of basic troll culture, as if she has lived the last 7,000 years in a vacuum. (…)
The homogenization of all races in Azeroth is a disaster for the story and immersion. Bring back cultural peculiarities and stop sacrificing thousands of years of in-game history just for a convenient and ignorant plot point!
I know that Blizzard has occasionally changed quests in the past when the community was particularly upset about content, and I can only hope that this will be the case here as well. Because the amount of “After thousands of years of war, we all learn fundamental knowledge about each other and suddenly understand each other” in World of Warcraft has become annoying and increasingly devalues characters.
A trend that I hope will come to an end soon, because it is precisely these conflicts between the individual races and factions that make up a large part of the allure of an exciting fantasy world. And just by the example of the Silver Covenant or other conflicts in Silvermoon, it is clear that the writers can still incorporate such elements.
It just seems that completely different people are working on different parts of the story, which then appears quite inappropriate in some places. Hopefully, a few improvements can be made before the release of the expansion – because neither Liadrin nor the blood elves deserve this.
If you want to test your nerd knowledge about the blood elves, check out our quiz about Quel’Thalas.
