Something is missing from the War of Thorns in World of Warcraft – it would have been more impressive if the burning of Teldrassil had been a surprise.
The War of Thorns has come to an end and forever changed the face of World of Warcraft. However, the big reveal did not come, as long before the pre-event, players knew that in the end, Teldrassil would be in flames. I believe that Blizzard ruined a very important, dramatic point with this. Ignorance ahead of time would have been beneficial.
Theories instead of shock: Because Blizzard announced the burning of the World Tree at BlizzCon, the War of Thorns lacked a bit of spice. It would have been much more exciting and dramatic to find out during the event that Teldrassil would be in flames.
But since this was already known in advance, it was more about the question of how exactly the tree burns down. When the big surprise failed to materialize and the “most obvious of all solutions” actually occurred, the disappointment was great.
Ignorance would have had a stronger effect. The entire event would have been much more dramatic and impressive if one did not already know about the end. Horde players would have fought eagerly at the Dark Shore, and Alliance players would have defended feverishly because the outcome would have been uncertain. This was not the case, which is why the whole war seemed a bit “in vain” – both sides knew what was at stake in the end, and that every defense was useless and was only meant to usher in Battle for Azeroth.
Datamining as the culprit? In the fast-paced age of the internet, with massive access to information and dataminers tearing apart every patch long before release, it is quite difficult to withhold information. Or is it?
In this case, I’m convinced that it wouldn’t have been so difficult. Because it would have only required a few encryptions in the game – the final cinematic, the “skybox” of the burning Teldrassil, and the one quest that Alliance players experience on the burning tree. Blizzard has already proven that they can obscure certain elements beyond recognition – for “Warbringer: Sylvanas” was in the game data since Patch 8.0 but was not extracted.
In retrospect, I wish I had not known about the downfall of Darnassus. The quest line would have had a much stronger impact if the fire had only been visible at the last moment.
In the future, I hope that Blizzard will conceal more big twists again and not reveal them in advance – even if it makes BlizzCon somewhat less exciting. Thus, the downfall of the Night Elves became somewhat less thrilling and significantly less dramatic. It lacked the shock of the unexpected; instead, a rather whiny “Why did it have to be Sylvanas?” came to the fore.
What is your opinion on this? Is it cool that you know about such big events long in advance, so you can “say goodbye” a bit? Or would it have more impact if it remained concealed until the end?
