PCGamer Interview on the Battle for Azeroth Pre-Patch Controversy

Live Posted 2018/08/11 at 4:25 PM by perculia

PCGamerBFA Pre-Patch Lore Synopsis

Click here for the full PCGamer Interview

Hazzikostas: I think a lot of the player reaction stems from that emotional investment in people's views of Sylvanas, a character that has been prominent in the Warcraft franchise going back years and years—at this point predating WoW itself—and then of the Horde as a whole. One of the big questions in players' minds was, "Well this act seems evil. Does this act define the Horde as a whole? Does this implicitly then define me as a player who is a member of the Horde?" And that is what has kept them bound together over the years, but those differences can and will emerge. It was very interesting to see the point and counterpoint unfold as we saw the pragmatic ruthlessness of Sylvanas on display countered by the focus on honor and justice, values embodied by Saurfang most of all. Both of those are still encapsulated within "what is the Horde?"

Hazzikostaks: On the internet, as this giant game of telephone to some extent, things can definitely take on a life of their own. At Blizzcon 2017, I remember Alex Afrasiabi teed up the question of who struck first: The Burning of or the assault on Lordaeron? But that was before alpha. That was at the very initial announcement of Battle for Azeroth. From the time the game was in alpha, beta, and beyond, the order of events was manifestly clear through the contents within the game.

speculated on Sylvanas' future

We can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise.

leveling getting harder

Hazzikostas: We think the whole thing is solved. The fix that we applied—it wasn't just this blanket reduction. It was actually hand-tuned and selected values going up to 24 percent reduction in the 60 to 80 level range and tapering off above and below that. It wasn't a code bug. It's all just a lot of math. Doing the squish, we were accounting for changes to base player stats, player abilities, the gear itself becoming weaker but also the removal of the artifact weapons at the high end and trying to tune and balance players against each other in the absence of all those things. In particular, we had underestimated the impact that the artifact weapons had. So when we made changes to offset its removal, we basically undershot those changes leaving players weaker than they had been before globally.

here

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Comment by 2KyetiI expect at least the really vocal to still find a way to lashout/hate on this as well.
That being said I think it's fair enough answers given and in general glad there's finally a communication rather than responding with silence.
Either way I'm excited to see how the story pan's out.Comment by kaleestrazaI expect the response to this article to be completely measured and reasonable.Comment by DraccyBFA is definitely going to be a ride for sure; would be nice if everyone tagged along, but that's unlikely.Comment by XaleaThis is what we call "damage control." Good luck with that.Comment by Samym23I'm sure the story will be awasome, but we need to wait and see...
That's the hard part : try to NOT judge with only the few pieces we have and wait for the whole puzzle.

Let's enjoy Kul Tiras and Zandalar story for a while, Uldir raid and the new Xavius 2.0 "G'hunn", and see what is coming next about faction war with Azshara coming inside as a third faction !Comment by SemiNobleBereanI loved the idea of a fourth war. I just wish they held off one more expansion or at least a hint at a third faction or the old gods playing the horde and alliance against each other. That wouldve been better at this time. But in hindsight when its all said and done hopefully we will all be happy.Comment by RyuFlameheartWe can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise.Comment by EasyrokWe can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise.Comment by SemiNobleBereanIm beginning to think they are going to make it so Teldrassil is/was an Old God and burning it was a good thing.Comment by NadowLich queen?Comment by stymI'm sure the story will be awasome, but we need to wait and see...
That's the hard part : try to NOT judge with only the few pieces we have and wait for the whole puzzleComment by EntropionAnd once again the Alliance is left looking like the weaker faction due to not exploring the same complexities being afforded to the Horde. Tyrande is left looking like a deserter to her people and weak in the eyes of those who don't bother reading the novellas (which a large number of players don't) and out of game storytelling which is just a weird format that doesn't mesh well with ingame stories.

In a way both factions are being done a huge disservice. The Horde can never seem to hold on to a warchief, are usually painted as the aggressors, and tend to lose interesting old lore characters unceremoniously such as Vol'Jin who never got a chance to shine.

The Alliance on the other hand can never seem to win a conflict, always seem to be reactionary to the aforementioned Horde aggression, can seem to do no wrong even though they have bloodthirsty lore figures such as Admiral Taylor, repeatedly have their faction leaders shown in an unflattering light (Malfurion & Tyrande) or even have entire races just seem weak such as the nightelves who have been repeatedly shat on in lieu of propping up the infallible Humans and their godlike "human-potential".

A lot of this could be avoided if they limited their storytelling to being ingame or did a better job of tying in the novels to precedent character development. It would also help if they finally step away and stop trying to force tropes like this whole faction conflict which doesn't make sense after all both factions have repeatedly gone through together.

At the end of the day I still love the game and I am looking forward to what BfA will bring. It just gets tiresome when characters start acting jarringly out of character for the sake of forced storytelling and it detracts from the flow of a cogent and coherent storyline.Comment by HildericThe leveling isn't solved. Dungeons aren't worth doing because the time investment versus XP gain is a net loss, 60-80 questing is unbearable, and heirlooms give what the base XP should be, making them necessary but at the same time useless. It's also just too much. 1-120 is twice as much as the base game in 2004 offered. It's time for a level squish. Make the levels 1-50, past expansions entirely optional and the old world the main focus until new expansion content.Comment by AsharinhunAgain only talking about the Horde... not a single mention of giving some well-deserved love and positive attention to the night elves, nor even a hint. It really seems Blizz doesn't care about kaldorei players anymore. Now where is the Alliance cinematic equvivalent of Old Soldier? It doesn't exist. Would have been nice, wouldn't it?Comment by Lordzelot666Do they think that old soldier gave "context" to the Sylvanas warbringer? Or made up for it? Or renewed faith that the horde is not baddies?
I for one don't want to have Garrosh 2.0 because I liked Garrosh and it sucked to have him turn against the horde. Sylvanas dying for it, or being killed for it, won't be better or surprising.Comment by BlaketonAt this point I believe the only "surprise" would be Sylvanas having neither redemption for her actions pre-BFA, or complete elevation to the saviour of Azeroth. Let's face it, the consensus of many is that both will happen.Comment by etheldaldthey talk like old soldier fixes everything.

doesn't change the fact of what the horde did, the horde deserves to be dismantled.
and that sucks because i wanted a more "gray" alliance, but meh.

let's see what they have for us in this xpac.Comment by broken0chaosthe pragmatic ruthlessness of Sylvanashis failureComment by AsheevaWe can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise.Comment by Kapax89This expansion was written on the napkin of a restaurant.

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