Jon Del Arroz’s Fandom Pulse piece on the BlizzCon show laid the dates on the table: Diablo V in spring 2029, a StarCraft open-world shooter in spring 2030, a Netflix Diablo cartoon still “in development,” and a Warcraft III campaign that shipped on the spot.
World of Warcraft offered me little. I played it with family for family reasons before diving in with my wife to experience it as a duo.
We firmly criticized story elements, just as you detailed: Arthas when human was a symbol of sense. The equivocation of the supporting characters at Stratholme was our first real taste of what was to come. There was no longer right or wrong or safeguarding the innocent, now the storyline devolved into feelings and fake outrage as a prop.
Still determined to play, we ignored the story and played into Battle for Azeroth. When I read the details of the development direction of Shadowlands, I stopped playing. Good that we did as my daughter went back in and played it. In Dragon Flight (edit - daughter spoke of Dragon Flight, not Shadowlands), every quest was about helping someone's gay spouse: a man tells you to get a cake for his husband; etc.
Just looking at the Blizzard WoW development team should tell everyone who plays what they need to know: the men are gone and in their place are lesbians. The few "men" left try to hide what they are behind bizarre hairdos and emasculating pronouns.
The question we need to face on a secular level: Can a lesbian develop a good game? Has it ever happened?
On a spiritual level: Can a bunch of lesbians and emasculated males produce anything worth our time?
I believe the answer to both is no. But the corporate committees will not ever allow a redress of the staff composition that brought us here - not when the president of Blizzard is a proud pride celebrator himself...
Warcraft 2 was really my first proper computer game. It and StarCraft will always have a special place in my heart, even though all the future entries greatly disappointed me.
The Original blizzard games were also cribbing off the Command and Conquer series (culturally). Especially Red Alert, where there was a clear enemy in the commies and you had to save spies, scientists, etc.
But moral ambiguity is a rot, and sets its eyes on everything.
Excellent insights. I think, there is one more factor at work, not just in Warcraft but everywhere: fidget spinning. Humans don't want to live. They want to distract their minds until they die. Whether it be defensible busyness or indefensible hobbies, people chase the carrot that is right in front of them. And if they don't see a carrot? If there's a brief moment to look for God or meaning or purpose? They will go searching for a carrot instead. Warcraft -- taken to excess -- is just another way to waste your life until you are finally rid of the burden of consciousness.
I graduated high school in 2002 and got to play the human campaign in Warcraft 3. The gameplay was literally magical, it was deep, engrossing, and with the heroes having meaningful progression as games went on. But the story left a pit in my stomach especially showing Arthas degrading in real-time. I then played the Undead faction and it just got uglier and uglier. Then I stopped, the great gameplay was not enough to have me push through the story. I rolled my eyes at the 'refugee' angle even then. I was very lucky to not be sucked into WoW and I never got the appeal. I suppose I prefer things like books which have a definitive beginning and end where WoW could go on literally forever. Pun intended.
1. Warcraft's story beats and growing "complexity" by introducing a lot of gray areas in the game has primed men, especially white men, impacted by that story to be more willing, and able, to retreat from reality, more willing to accept "the other" regardless of consequences, and more prone to considering themselves the actual evil.
2. This trajectory maps to an era where the western world needs men to be weak in these ways so leaders and influential groups can engineer what they know is destructive change; change incompatible with a civil society. Changes that prevent men from advancing, building a fiefdom (or at least a homestead), or having control pretty much anything other than what they do with their free time.
3. The Arthas storyline tainting the Anglo-Saxon white human dominated Alliance vs. Thrall's exemplary character and quest to show the "other" are actually the noble savages manipulated into doing what they have done. But the mean ol' Alliance won't let them be!
As someone who has played Warcraft games since the 1994 I'd argue it draws substantially more from classic story structure than today's headlines and your observations are coincidence at a time we're looking for a disease.
Western literature has been blurring the line between good and evil, the villainous redemption, and the tragic fall for over a full millennia, if not longer. Warcraft's storylines are very much in the vein of almost all fictional writing and myth as far back as we go. Not only do we have redeemed villains (Gilgamesh, to Long John Silver, to Boromir, to Darth Vader) we have the fall from grace. Mairon, an angelic being corrupted by Morgoth became Sauron. Agamemnon turns from great king to a tyrant. Lancelot finds the Grail (twice!) only to be prevented from getting it because of his sins.
Arthas is no better or worse than the villains in the latter category and, though the world is more connected I can't imagine this as a significant contributor to the degeneration of today's male population.
I won't say the story along with a much more connected and sensitive world didn't have an impact, it did. Still, let's say 250 million people million have engaged with the Warcraft IP since the first game (remember there are books and a movie too) that's still only 3% of the world-wide population.
The other societal changes you mentioned about Trades disappearing, "Equality", and DEI have had a way more corrosive effect.
World of Warcraft offered me little. I played it with family for family reasons before diving in with my wife to experience it as a duo.
We firmly criticized story elements, just as you detailed: Arthas when human was a symbol of sense. The equivocation of the supporting characters at Stratholme was our first real taste of what was to come. There was no longer right or wrong or safeguarding the innocent, now the storyline devolved into feelings and fake outrage as a prop.
Still determined to play, we ignored the story and played into Battle for Azeroth. When I read the details of the development direction of Shadowlands, I stopped playing. Good that we did as my daughter went back in and played it. In Dragon Flight (edit - daughter spoke of Dragon Flight, not Shadowlands), every quest was about helping someone's gay spouse: a man tells you to get a cake for his husband; etc.
Just looking at the Blizzard WoW development team should tell everyone who plays what they need to know: the men are gone and in their place are lesbians. The few "men" left try to hide what they are behind bizarre hairdos and emasculating pronouns.
The question we need to face on a secular level: Can a lesbian develop a good game? Has it ever happened?
On a spiritual level: Can a bunch of lesbians and emasculated males produce anything worth our time?
I believe the answer to both is no. But the corporate committees will not ever allow a redress of the staff composition that brought us here - not when the president of Blizzard is a proud pride celebrator himself...
Warcraft 2 was really my first proper computer game. It and StarCraft will always have a special place in my heart, even though all the future entries greatly disappointed me.
The Original blizzard games were also cribbing off the Command and Conquer series (culturally). Especially Red Alert, where there was a clear enemy in the commies and you had to save spies, scientists, etc.
But moral ambiguity is a rot, and sets its eyes on everything.
Excellent insights. I think, there is one more factor at work, not just in Warcraft but everywhere: fidget spinning. Humans don't want to live. They want to distract their minds until they die. Whether it be defensible busyness or indefensible hobbies, people chase the carrot that is right in front of them. And if they don't see a carrot? If there's a brief moment to look for God or meaning or purpose? They will go searching for a carrot instead. Warcraft -- taken to excess -- is just another way to waste your life until you are finally rid of the burden of consciousness.
I graduated high school in 2002 and got to play the human campaign in Warcraft 3. The gameplay was literally magical, it was deep, engrossing, and with the heroes having meaningful progression as games went on. But the story left a pit in my stomach especially showing Arthas degrading in real-time. I then played the Undead faction and it just got uglier and uglier. Then I stopped, the great gameplay was not enough to have me push through the story. I rolled my eyes at the 'refugee' angle even then. I was very lucky to not be sucked into WoW and I never got the appeal. I suppose I prefer things like books which have a definitive beginning and end where WoW could go on literally forever. Pun intended.
There seem to be a few main points:
1. Warcraft's story beats and growing "complexity" by introducing a lot of gray areas in the game has primed men, especially white men, impacted by that story to be more willing, and able, to retreat from reality, more willing to accept "the other" regardless of consequences, and more prone to considering themselves the actual evil.
2. This trajectory maps to an era where the western world needs men to be weak in these ways so leaders and influential groups can engineer what they know is destructive change; change incompatible with a civil society. Changes that prevent men from advancing, building a fiefdom (or at least a homestead), or having control pretty much anything other than what they do with their free time.
3. The Arthas storyline tainting the Anglo-Saxon white human dominated Alliance vs. Thrall's exemplary character and quest to show the "other" are actually the noble savages manipulated into doing what they have done. But the mean ol' Alliance won't let them be!
As someone who has played Warcraft games since the 1994 I'd argue it draws substantially more from classic story structure than today's headlines and your observations are coincidence at a time we're looking for a disease.
Western literature has been blurring the line between good and evil, the villainous redemption, and the tragic fall for over a full millennia, if not longer. Warcraft's storylines are very much in the vein of almost all fictional writing and myth as far back as we go. Not only do we have redeemed villains (Gilgamesh, to Long John Silver, to Boromir, to Darth Vader) we have the fall from grace. Mairon, an angelic being corrupted by Morgoth became Sauron. Agamemnon turns from great king to a tyrant. Lancelot finds the Grail (twice!) only to be prevented from getting it because of his sins.
Arthas is no better or worse than the villains in the latter category and, though the world is more connected I can't imagine this as a significant contributor to the degeneration of today's male population.
I won't say the story along with a much more connected and sensitive world didn't have an impact, it did. Still, let's say 250 million people million have engaged with the Warcraft IP since the first game (remember there are books and a movie too) that's still only 3% of the world-wide population.
The other societal changes you mentioned about Trades disappearing, "Equality", and DEI have had a way more corrosive effect.
“Bruh, it’s just 125 million people…”