The Broken Shore of WoW was not the same. Once, one was supposed to fight Tyrande there.
While many things in World of Warcraft: Legion worked well, it was a long and rocky road for the developers to reach the current state of the game. Especially the Broken Shore – the introductory scenario – underwent many changes throughout its development. Today, the scenario lasts about 25 minutes and focuses on the Legion threat and the deaths of important heroes – but it was not always like this!
In a panel at BlizzCon, the developers talked about a very early version of the scenario, which had a total length of almost 3 hours.
Gnomes overcome a ruin, the player jumps into a Gyrocopter and must bring a tower down. Afterward, you rescue captured elves, tend to the wounded, fight against Naga, and slowly explore the island.
But the real “highlight” came after that: Relatively out of place, there was a beautiful area on the island, a part of an ancient city of the highborne. Amidst beautiful trees and elven architecture stands Tyrande Whisperwind, surrounded by a circle of dead sentinels. Also present were the spirits of the ancient priestesses who worshiped Elune alongside Tyrande 10,000 years ago.
The reason for this event was a dreadlord who had taken Tyrande under his control – it was up to the players to attack the high priestess. As soon as her health points were reduced to 30%, she begs “Mother Moon” to destroy this illusion, after which exactly that happens: All players find themselves in the destroyed ruins, nothing is left of the beautiful city.
Ultimately, however, these plans were discarded. The scenario was cool and fun, but the story lacked an important point: the Legion. The threat was too obscured and overshadowed by other stories. So they started from scratch and redesigned the Broken Shore to what we know today.
Cortyn says: Even though I can understand the reasons for the redesign, I would still have enjoyed the Tyrande story as an “elf fan”. Ultimately, however, it is probably better to keep the introductory scenario short and snappy to tell the story. The threat of the Legion would probably not come across as convincingly if we had spent a lot of time with illusions and flying gnome helicopters.
