08-12-2014, 09:10 PM (This post was last modified: 08-13-2014, 09:38 AM by Grakor456.)
So with strong support for custom lore in general, the conversation in the thread led to this next question being posed. In particular: how much do we tamper with canon lore? There are three main options here:
1. Full-blown, change canon events to have different outcomes. Change up who are heroes and who are villains, have stories go in completely unexpected directions, and so on. This option allows for the greatest freedom, but is also the greatest deviation from the setting's story.
2. Touching up canon lore, without altering the ultimate outcomes. This would be about polishing WoW's story to attempt to improve the writing (the actual result of which would depend on point of view, admittedly.) This means that while the results may be the same, the manner in which they are produced can be different.
3. Not touching canon lore at all. Note that due to the fact that CotH effectively already allows for additions of non-canon events and storylines, this means that the addition of "custom lore" would mean very little would ultimately change. This restricts custom lore possibilities heavily, but allows the canon story to remain unchanged.
What is your opinion? Let us know.
Have you hugged an orc today?
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
As per the previous thread, I voted for three. My reasoning is that I don't believe that option two will neither have any real impact on how characters are played nor have any impact on the server as a whole. Basically, if lore is to be nitpicked, might as well go for the full on change in the first option, and that will open up a whole other can of worms.
I'd like to see things like custom towns and factions, being that the world is probably much bigger than we see, and a custom town would have much more leeway to have all sorts of craziness (or non-craziness) happen both on its own accord as well as reacting to what's going on in the world as a whole.
My vote is for the third option because I don't believe that we should drastically change WoW's lore for a few reasons.
1. You would need a 100% agreement from the playerbase in order to do that and honestly, most people like the Cata lore and enjoy RPing in the setting provided whilst also being able to have their own storylines away from any world-changing events. I mean, we don't really need to go making Varian the moustache-twirling villian and Malfurion a poor farmhand.
2. It would be confusing for new players coming to the server who enjoy and are familiar with Warcraft lore only to come here and have everything be turned upside down. I think it would dissuade a lot of new players from joining as well as end up with a few oldies leaving because of the sudden change.
3. PERSONAL OPINION TIME: I personally think that custom lore on a smaller scale would be an awesome thing, with custom towns, custom factions, the whole lot. However, I don't think it's really necessary to go butchering the setting's current lore because while we all whinge at Blizzard for their lore decisions, could we really come up with something that is so good, it deserves to be put in place over Blizzard's?
“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
— G.K. Chesterton
I feel a bit torn between #1 and #2, but voted #1. The tie-breaker for me was the Sin'Shoalai experience. While it may have had flaws, it was the best experience subjectively. I felt a part of real events that did not have a pre-determined outcome. I didn't mind "just being one of the many 'heroes'" because the feeling of the end being variable and impactable was well pulled off.
But even after I take off nostalgia goggles and look at it from an experience-design standpoint, #1 makes sense:
- Re-writing a commercially-minded-written past (I for one think the whole Horde/Alliance breakdown itself makes no sense economically, culturally, historically or politically. I ideally see a WoW with many nuanced alliances and faction-relationships)
- It allows for the future to also be customisable. This makes people feel invested and that's good for too many reasons to list. (Subjectively, this is the main reason for me. I don't care that much about a custom past, but I would really love a fully customisable future)
- It's attractive to creatives that love WoW but don't LOVE WoW: In terms of fostering creativity, it allows for the most creative space, it requires most imagination-work and re-visualisation. Sure, there will be stray sheep to corral and hits and misses, but that's mostly the case now.
- There's no rush. This can be a process. WoW's not going anywhere, so this can be well tuned. If anyone will pull it off well, it'll be CotH.
- It's an adventure! No really. At least as a tie-breaker, I think this should get done because it will be exciting and new for us. All the cool people you like will still be here, your character's past will be adaptable and preservable.
- From the thread(s), everyone seems to like custom micro-lore, the very least. I think at least that should be fully enabled: What doesn't break lore can be done. (When well reasoned and thought out - we all love credibility in our fiction)
Quote:2. Touching up canon lore, without altering the ultimate outcomes. This would be about polishing WoW's story to attempt to improve the writing (the actual result of which would depend on point of view, admittedly.)
I'd say, start with this and see where it leads us. There is so much undiscovered due to a lack of descriptions and writing, so many areas left untouched, so many places to still explore and go to. People just don't for the places have been abandoned and left behind for too long! Everybody has been there and most people agree that over the years, it would have changed; We just don't see it!
Fix the other half of Silvermoon, start healing The Dead Scar with a storyline; Fix Stormwind up, expand on existing little towns and tear down ruins that are no longer fitting to the world! Add mobs, remove mobs, write background informations out of all the untouched and abandoned things. Trolls, The Twisting Nether, Succubi to name just three at the back of my mind.
When that's done, we can possibly look into the first; I don't think affecting one zone may necessarily affect the others which leaves a lot of freedom to look for the "What's next." once all that is done. (Best example I got: Fixing the other half of Silvermoon won't suddenly make Garrosh a good guy -- BUT, once all that is done, we can look into changing the main storyline and maybe he does end up becoming good? That's for later!)
Polish everything, and when it shines and sparkles; Look into the bigger story! If anything, it is good practice for all of us!
I chose the second option, because from my own experience it's often the details that the server tends to have problems with. However, I do think the changing of some outcomes is fine so long as they're not totally gamechanging, unless there's somebody on the team who is a better concept writer than the people who work at Blizz *cough* Rigley *cough*.
08-13-2014, 08:55 AM (This post was last modified: 08-13-2014, 08:55 AM by Hawk.)
Ultimately, I voted for option two. Personally I agree with Psychyn - start fixing up the parts of the lore that are unexplained or things that should've really been taken care of by now. For example, the Draenei. They've been "salvaging from the crash" for what, 8 years now?
(Although with that said, I would absolutely love for CotH to tackle custom storyline at some point in the future.)
"I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep."
I voted for 1, but I really feel that a mix of 1 and 2 should be executed. There are storylines that shouldn't be touched, I feel, but then, there's also totally botched main plot writing that really needs to be addressed. Case in point is Grakor's example of Garrosh from the last thread. There are also certainly many things that deserve being expanded upon--Psychyn gave some fine examples--that don't warrant a total rewrite, either. I feel that we should be able to make as many changes as we want, so long as it's coherent and designed to improve upon our experience of the overall story of the universe. As well, we should be able to flesh out the material given to us however we feel fit, and explain things that Blizzard just absolutely fails to do so by itself.
With the exception of Garrosh and his inability to maintain a personality, I don't think the lore goes really bad until mists. Focus on option 2 as far as the main story goes.
That being said, I voted one. As a player who hasn't rp'd on the server for about nine months now, my opinion matters less than those still active. But I know myself and many others would be excited to rp if things got weird.
Quote:[8:53AM] Cassius: Xigo is the best guy ever. he doesn't afraid of anything.
Option 2 for now. With the exception of Garrosh in MoP, the canon material is honestly quite fine in most regards. Maybe give some player flexibility at places that don't HAVE a canon conclusion (such as the fighting in Swamp of Sorrows and all).
I know a lot of people are voting 1 with MoP's conclusion and WoD in mind, but we need to remember that both of those things are faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from us for now. Cataclysm has generally competant lore and characters and we really don't need to veer off into fanfiction territory were we try to "fix" our favorite characters (or dispose of ones we dislike).
I voted for option one, the caveat being that I think it should be rarely enforced. Make changing massive things an option if the majority of the server and GM team think that it's for the best, but it shouldn't necessarily be a common occurrence. In the end we're still going to move on to new expansions and if thinks get -too- wibbly wobbly we'll have a situation where it would make no sense for us to go to the next expansion because things are just so different from what we have.
I don't think it'll be a big deal if we add our own flavor to localized, zone storylines though. A regrouped Southshore offensive against the encroaching Forsaken, a fully realized outcome to the Ashenvale conflict (If it becomes a big deal in later expansions we can just say the losing side came back with a renewed force), and other general tidying up of areas, loose ends, and plot lines.
In the end I have to vote for #2 on this, but it was a tough decision between that and #1.
While my faith in Blizzard's ability to write solid and compelling story lines has long been shattered, I do feel it's wise to look ahead into what they have in store for the game and use that as our guiding star, if you will. For sure, the half-witted material we're given by them could use some re-writing. In doing so, we have an opportunity to implement our characters into the story as the cogs in the wheels of changes we know will happen. I also like the idea of bringing closure to content that's been left open-ended for a long time, or at the very least, evolving them. Even expanding and expounding upon them where there's room without altering the greater story line would be fine and fun!
That being said, if the vast majority of the population feels a major change needs to be made, I don't want to say it can't be done. However, I will say that I feel it's something that should only be done with the consent of the realm, after lengthy consideration by our GM's, and a process should be laid out in which the desired goals and outcomes of the change, the details of how the change is/will be brought about, and what future(s) could lie ahead as a result of the change need to be clearly laid out, discussed both as a community and privately among the GM's, and edited accordingly. Questions need to be asked, like: If this change is going to happen, will it discriminate against, or be found highly unfavorable by any of the player base because of changes it will make to factions, races, etc? I'm sure some of the details will even need to have polls ran and be voted on.
My point being, I'm all for #2 because I think there's abundant potential for fun, creative play while staying within reasonable boundaries, BUT, #1 also has potential for good things on this realm, so long as it's not taken lightly.
08-13-2014, 08:07 PM (This post was last modified: 08-13-2014, 08:11 PM by Alliicce.)
I'm still standing up for option three. I really don't believe there's a need to change/rewrite things. Sometimes the answer you might be looking for would be somewhere while searching on WoWpedia (WoWwiki is garbage). Research really helps in my opinion. And to be honest Custom Lore keeps making me think it's for people who dislike how a character is coming out. Just leave it alone. You can perfectly make events that won't damage lore at all and keep things interesting. I prefer additions to lore rather than change/rewrites. Depending on your perspective, my ideas may fall under the option 2 category, but I would like to think otherwise. We should still really explore Cataclysm's zones more than focusing on Custom Lore right away. They all have their own storylines, so if we finished them all up, then perhaps we can expand fully to Custom Lore.
Quote:I'd like to see things like custom towns and factions, being that the world is probably much bigger than we see, and a custom town would have much more leeway to have all sorts of craziness (or non-craziness) happen both on its own accord as well as reacting to what's going on in the world as a whole.
- @"Jonoth"
Spoiler:
For example, let's pick Gilneas since I know some people would love to visit that place again. Lore wise, it's abandoned. Though that does not mean we can't go back to it for a time, only to abandon it again. I don't imagine the Alliance or Horde forces would support such things, so perhaps a group of people on a smaller scale who raised enough money for the journey there.
What you could do... Surviving Gilnean Nobles or a group of Gilneans want to venture back to Gilneas. People think they're out of their minds for it, but they managed to get enough support to take a sea voyage over there. They land near Stormglen Village and spruce up the place-- After killing off the massive spiders.. And yeah, that's basically an intro to an idea. You could have things from the Blackwald coming at them, Forsaken somehow springing up, etc... Then they basically abandon the place and head back home. It's like an exciting adventure.
Quote:Fix the other half of Silvermoon, start healing The Dead Scar with a storyline; Fix Stormwind up, expand on existing little towns and tear down ruins that are no longer fitting to the world! Add mobs, remove mobs, write background informations out of all the untouched and abandoned things. Trolls, The Twisting Nether, Succubi to name just three at the back of my mind.
- @"Psychyn"
Spoiler:
Fixing cities is something I can agree on, but logically thinking.. I can see why it's taking a long time. It's the cost and effort. Gold does not shower into the factions' bank accounts. The costs are probably put into the war effort rather than building costs.
In real life, there's this road in my county that got the okay to be paved and it took five years to finish instead of one. Mostly because my county spends money on stupid crap instead of things we really need..
What you could do... Have a group of people protest or rise against the government to focus on them and the city. Basically like what happened with Defias and Stormwind, but with a different faction/city. Hell, could even make a new group for Stormwind that held similar views like the Defias, could even be like.. A gang war with them. /cough Not implying the new group would totally wear blue bandanas..
Lore-wise, the Dead Scar is irreversible.
At the East Sanctum of Eversong Woods, located along the edge of the Dead Scar, Apprentice Mirveda conducts tests of the soil and has come to the conclusion that the damage done to the land of the Dead Scar is irreversible — another reason to leave Quel'Thalas and seek the destiny promised in Outland. Yet Mirveda herself thinks that soil is not everything and will be seen.
Quotes from the quests.
Quote:"This was a fully functional arcane sanctum before Arthas and his army of Scourge decided to plow through it on their way to Silvermoon.
Now it's as useful to us as any part of the Dead Scar. The soil is tainted, undead are drawn to it and the energy in the ley lines is completely disrupted.
What I want to know, <name>, is whether this taint is reversible or not. I want you to collect soil samples from this area so I can study them. Perhaps with time we can set things back to normal."
Quote:"My endeavors are hopeless, <name>. The very nature of the soil has been altered... the taint is irreversible."
Quote:"These notes... are shocking. If they're correct it means the damage to the land on the Dead Scar is irreversible.
I'll notify the grand magister right away. More reason for our race to escape this world and find our true fate in Outland."
"We totally can heal the Dead Scar! Look at Western Plaguelands!" - Anon
Despite being where the Plague took hold in Lordaeron, the Western Plaguelands were in surprisingly better condition (though still quite dead) than the Eastern Plaguelands. It may be one of the factors that helped Cenarion Circle nurse majority of this land to its former state.
The Eastern Plaguelands are still.. Working out things. Here's a quote from a druid fighting against the Undead that roam the Eastern Plaguelands.
Quote:"Even if the flowers died out shortly after they bloomed, they proved our point to the Scourge: they are losing, and we are winning."
What you could do... There could be a group that could attempt such a healing, but the results will be futile and produce some.. Horrors due to the dark energy from the Dead Scar.
As for.. The last three with the Trolls, Succubi, and the Twisting Nether, I'm not quite sure what you mean there.
Quote:For example, the Draenei. They've been "salvaging from the crash" for what, 8 years now?
- @"Hawk"
Spoiler:
In the short story Prophet's Lesson, which takes place after the Shattering, The Exodar is nearly repaired. According to Vindicator Romnar, all key systems have been repaired, and they are now just cleaning up and bolstering any areas of apparent weakness. He states they should have The Exodar up and running, and operational within a week, and by the end of the short story Vindicator Maraad announces that is has been fully repaired.
Quote:"Your faction is the underdog right?
You always lose and suck at everything.
You lose towns, people and your second in command is a 14-year old who uses dark magic on his protectors and runs away alone the the wilderness."