So it's no secret that Blizzard's announced the next expansion for WoW is going to be the last one. While I'll be among those breathing a sigh of relief that finally it won't be hogging such a big portion of the MMO market and will open hopefully start to allow some of the newer IP to get a more substantial share of the player base, I won't be dancing a jig on the game's grave. I'll admit I had some fun with it in the past and I do think the story's an entertaining one. That being the case, I'd hoped that when the game finally did see its final chapter, it would be with an appropriately climactic and epic challenge.
So when I look over this final expansion and see who the big baddies are supposed to be, I can't help but think this isn't the glorious finale to a vast and sweeping storyline, but the last stumbling steps of a mammoth as it collapses to die shitting itself from dysentery. See, the WoW storyline, for most of its run, managed to do a decent job escalating the stakes with its ultimate villains. For the core game at launch, you had a big evil dragon, the king of the fire elementals and the leader of a race of giant insects. In Burning Crusade, you had what was essentially an arch demon. In WoTLK, you had the lord of all undead. And in Cata, you had a giant arch-dragon capable of global destruction.
But after that, things seemed to get wonky. Mists seemed to me to be something of a latteral step, maybe even a step backward. The ultimate villain turns out to be Garoosh, a pissed-off orc leading a bunch of other pissed-off orcs. Yes, he was the warchief and leading an army, but it was hard to feel like he was truly a global threat on par with villains like the Lich King or Deathwing. He wasn't an unholy abomination risen from the grave that seemed to be unkillable, nor was he a dragon so huge he could destroy an entire country just by farting on it. His was a threat that didn't seem so insurmountable or one that threw the possibility of victory into question. He's got an army? Guess what, so does the Alliance, and one that's ostensibly not suffering from divided loyalties. He wants a war? Fine, the Alliance can give him one. It's not that I think Garoosh was to be underestimated; its just that he seemed like a problem that could be handled if taken seriously; and he was taken seriously, so they did handle him.
Now in this last expansion, Warlords of Draenor, from what I've seen of the advertisements, the ultimate baddies this time around are going to be...Pissed-Off Orcs Part 2. Really Blizzard? Is this the note you want the game that single-handedly maintained your dominance of the mmo market for years to go out on? A retread of ground already covered (Draenor) with essentially the same villians from the expansion a lot of people have said was the weakest (at least story-wise)?
Personally, if there was going to be an end to the WoW-era plotline (I know I've heard rumors they're going to continue the RTS Warcraft franchise) I would think they'd want it to be something suitably world-shaking in its story. There's been major hints with the dwarf facet of the WoW canon that the Titans were due to return to Azeroth one day. So why not go out on THAT? The people of Azeroth could unite under the power of their creators to finally banish away Sageras, the god of all evil in the Warcraft universe. After facing a threat like Deathwing, that would truly be the only manner in which I could imagine the stakes rising any higher. And he would certainly feel like a more compelling ultimate, final-showdown-style bad guy than Garoosh and his cronies with their anger management issues.
So when I look over this final expansion and see who the big baddies are supposed to be, I can't help but think this isn't the glorious finale to a vast and sweeping storyline, but the last stumbling steps of a mammoth as it collapses to die shitting itself from dysentery. See, the WoW storyline, for most of its run, managed to do a decent job escalating the stakes with its ultimate villains. For the core game at launch, you had a big evil dragon, the king of the fire elementals and the leader of a race of giant insects. In Burning Crusade, you had what was essentially an arch demon. In WoTLK, you had the lord of all undead. And in Cata, you had a giant arch-dragon capable of global destruction.
But after that, things seemed to get wonky. Mists seemed to me to be something of a latteral step, maybe even a step backward. The ultimate villain turns out to be Garoosh, a pissed-off orc leading a bunch of other pissed-off orcs. Yes, he was the warchief and leading an army, but it was hard to feel like he was truly a global threat on par with villains like the Lich King or Deathwing. He wasn't an unholy abomination risen from the grave that seemed to be unkillable, nor was he a dragon so huge he could destroy an entire country just by farting on it. His was a threat that didn't seem so insurmountable or one that threw the possibility of victory into question. He's got an army? Guess what, so does the Alliance, and one that's ostensibly not suffering from divided loyalties. He wants a war? Fine, the Alliance can give him one. It's not that I think Garoosh was to be underestimated; its just that he seemed like a problem that could be handled if taken seriously; and he was taken seriously, so they did handle him.
Now in this last expansion, Warlords of Draenor, from what I've seen of the advertisements, the ultimate baddies this time around are going to be...Pissed-Off Orcs Part 2. Really Blizzard? Is this the note you want the game that single-handedly maintained your dominance of the mmo market for years to go out on? A retread of ground already covered (Draenor) with essentially the same villians from the expansion a lot of people have said was the weakest (at least story-wise)?
Personally, if there was going to be an end to the WoW-era plotline (I know I've heard rumors they're going to continue the RTS Warcraft franchise) I would think they'd want it to be something suitably world-shaking in its story. There's been major hints with the dwarf facet of the WoW canon that the Titans were due to return to Azeroth one day. So why not go out on THAT? The people of Azeroth could unite under the power of their creators to finally banish away Sageras, the god of all evil in the Warcraft universe. After facing a threat like Deathwing, that would truly be the only manner in which I could imagine the stakes rising any higher. And he would certainly feel like a more compelling ultimate, final-showdown-style bad guy than Garoosh and his cronies with their anger management issues.
