A new trailer for World of Warcraft reveals a lot about the story of Patch 11.2. But it reveals even more about the preferences of the players.
Communities for MMORPGs can sometimes be a peculiar bunch – the player base of World of Warcraft is no exception. One peculiarity is that certain things in the game become popular memes, which are then picked up by the developers. A new trailer for Patch 11.2 Spirits of K’aresh once again showcases the main character of WoW – the feet of Xal’atath.
Spoiler warning: The trailer contains important details about the story of Patch 11.2. It is essentially a cutscene from the campaign.
What is shown in the trailer? The trailer shows that we are teaming up with Xal’atath. Alleria is, of course, far from thrilled about it, but the space traveler instructs her to trust him instead of Xal’atath.
When Xal’atath glides into the scene, it is – as one would expect – from a rear view, where her feet are once again prominently visible.
Observant veterans have some concerns about the trailer, as both the characters’ behavior and the dialogues remind them of a cinematic from Patch 9.2 – namely Shadowlands. The similarity is likely intentional, and the concerns are unfounded, as the story is told much better. It seems they are playing with this similarity to twist expectations.
Patch 11.2 has substance – literally
Where does the meme come from? At the beginning of The War Within, Xal’atath was shown in several cutscenes – naturally, she is the antagonist of the story. Since she mostly hovers, there were several moments when her feet were prominently visible. Usually only for brief moments, but because the WoW community is what it is, they made a big deal out of it. Every day, memes flooded the game’s subreddit.
But even the developers jumped on the bandwagon and acknowledged it in the patch notes for April 1, where they included the following entries:
- All sequences with Xal’atath are now from a frog’s perspective.
- The ability to zoom out in sequences with Xal’atath has been removed.
- A bug was fixed where Xal’atath’s character model showed her shoes. The employee who added the shoes has been transferred to another department.
- All sequences with Xal’atath now have the rating “maybe better not”.
When it became apparent in the story of Patch 11.1 that Xal’atath was intentionally not visible with her feet, the community’s reaction was swift: Many comments like “the patch is unplayable” or “something is missing in this new content update” appeared almost daily.
The result can be seen in the latest trailer for Patch 11.2 Spirits of K’aresh. Because here, Xal’atath slowly glides into the frame once again – of course, with her feet first.
How the community is reacting: In the WoW subreddit, the trailer naturally caught immediate attention and became the number one topic of discussion.
- “I hope the concept artist who made the first image of Xal’atath with bare feet gets paid well, considering how much Blizzard is milking this.” – AmountPlus7269
- “Quentin Tarantino would like this.” – op23no1
- “Finally. I renewed my subscription for the feet and ended up with goblins, the game was literally unplayable. /s” – Sleipsten
How much of this is pure humor and how much has a background among the fans, the exact origin of which one might not want to delve into too deeply, is of course left to one’s own interpretation.
If you want to prepare for the new patch, the best leveling event in WoW is coming back soon.
