Project Lore

Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. Welcome to day two of Blue Stew, everyone. A lot of you seemed interested in what this column has to offer, so I'm going to do my best to bring you its brothy goodness every day this week. Now, on with today's serving...

• Oh man, what is it with Druids? It seems that poor Blizzard just can't get a break from their polymorphic prejudice! Veere has set up an obstacle course made out of Winchesters so that he can get even better at jumping the gun. Wanting to test his progress, he decided to post this gem on the official forums: "NE Mages = The Death of Lore?" I don't know what it is that makes people think that lore exists in a vacuum. Moving forward with the timeline and shaking things up a little bit doesn't equal a retcon, people! So the arcane has been forbidden from Night Elf culture for thousands of years? OK, that's fine, but I'm sure you've all heard this phrase before: "Desperate times call for desperate measures!" Look at it this way, when the world is as threatened as it is by a force like Deathwing, each and every race on Azeroth is going to take a good, long, hard look at themselves and figure out what they can or need to do to overcome that destruction, and sometimes that means breaking taboos and sharing resources with each other. If that means paths once closed need to be re-opened, well, I see no problems with that. But, of course, there will be ramifications for doing so. Blue poster Kisirani reminds us that Blizzard is not ignorant of such things: "I'd like to reinforce that we're perfectly aware of the way Night Elf society has viewed arcane magic over the years. We are similarly aware that Night Elf Mages have been in the game since patch 1.3. Not all Highborne became the High Elves and Blood Elves of today. As evidenced in the screenshot linked, patch 3.2.2 begins the explanation. We're not ignoring what came before, but we are moving the storyline forward, and at times, that means change and a shake up in the status quo." So, please, where Cataclysm lore is concerned, be aware that these things have been announced long before they actually occur within the game world.
• Lyresse spends most of her days inside a giant, plastic bubble. Not because she's sick, but because she's always wondered what it was like to be a hamster. She's also curious about WoW's shoulda-beens and coulda-beens, and asks if phasing technology could be used to breathe new life into old quest lines. Her given examples include finishing the bridge in Redridge Mountains and the remote nature of Marshall's Refuge in Un'Goro Crater (how the heck did they manage to get a flight path out there?). Wryxian responds with a tight-lipped answer, admitting that he knows little of what the development team plans to do with the technology, but that "the main issue will be deciding on when to stop using it." It doesn't seem like we'll be getting any real answers on this subject anytime soon, and while I have no doubt it will be used to make new quest lines more exciting, I'm not sure what can be done for old ones like those Lyresse is interested in. The fact of the matter is that we have to consider Cataclysm as a quantum leap forward in the WoW universe. Everything is moving forward, and many of those old quests might not even be available any longer. That is to say that we likely won't get another line dealing with the bridge in Redridge, because either it will be finished at the start of the expansion, or it will be utterly destroyed. So, I'm not entirely sure that we're going to see old areas of the world that could've benefitted from it in the past actually incorporate phasing now, but rather that they all will from here on out.
• Grand Apothecary Putress I think Lindra can read minds, because she's asked a question that I've been itching to ever since being clued into the massive changes of Cataclysm: "What's going to happen to the Plaguelands?" Wryxian answered the call once again, expressing his own interest in the possibilities: "It's really intriguing wondering what exactly will happen to places like the Plaguelands. Will they be kept much as they are, even despite the nailing we all expect Arthas will receive, or will they be liberated and thus potentially becoming hotly contested by all the various races that may be interested in re-claiming the area for their own?" With Arthas most likely gone, the Scourge will lose their power. Like a bee hive without its Queen, they'll become listless and without direction. With production of new Scourge at a halt, they become easy pickin's for the likes of the Argent Dawn and Scarlet Crusade, eventually allowed the Plaguelands to be reclaimed by those who seek to call it home. Will the Blood Elves want to rebuild Quel'Thalas? Do the Humans want to reclaim their former capital of Lordaeron? And what about the Forsaken? They still need a place to call home (and, in fact, they seem intent on expanding their influence with the sacking of Gilneas). It seems to me that, with the spirit of open contention between factions at hand, that the Plaguelands will once again become a battlefield. So, what of the Scourge? Just because Arthas is gone doesn't mean they've lost all of their masters. In fact, there are a couple traitorous Forsaken who might see the Lick King's death as an opportunity. Despite their disdain for the Scourge, who could resist controlling an instant army?

Well, that wraps it up for today, folks. Add your thoughts below and, as always, keep those suggestions flowing!

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Tyr's Hand.  I am sure many of you old school players are very fond of this area of the Eastern Plaguelands.  The area is likely named for the Nordic god of justice, Týr, who had his hand bitten off by Fenrir.  Thus Tyr's Hand.  But a lesson in background lore is not why we are here today.  In my first installment of what I hope will become a semi-regular column, I look back on Tyr's Hand and the many hours I spent in the untouched area of the Plaguelands. As soon as I hit 60 I knew that I was going to have some serious farming ahead of me so I followed my rogue officer into Tyr's Hand, an area that I had never been.  We would farm the land before the night's Onyxia or Molten Core runs until our actions became second nature.  As a pair of rogues we would drop entire squads of Scarlet Crusaders without stopping.  Our names became a staple in the area between 4PM and 7:30PM EST.  Basically, we became a more active pair of NPCs.  Only, we focused our attention on destroying the last bastion of humanity in EPL for personal gain.  We were there so often, that numerous people thought we were china farmers. In fact, the china farmers thought we were china farmers!  From our time spent in Tyr's, we managed to pick up basic strings of Chinese to be able to talk with them.  We would trade stacks of Conjured Sweet Rolls for their Runecloth, help them when they seemed to be in trouble or chase off the horde together.  It was a grand old time.  Unfortunately, “ni hao” is all that I remember since my macro has long since been deleted. Although I was simply a very advanced bot when I was in Tyr's Hand, I rather miss it.  Pushing my limits of DPS and seeing how far I could go without eating food became a game to me.  Could I take four guys myself?  Will this guy drop my 6th green in a row?  Will I be able to fill up my bags before the raid begins?  Do the mobs in the eastern castle (up the hill) really have better droprates?  Will I ever have enough money to get my epic mount? Forget dailies, I would rather stand in one area and farm it dry than run all over creation farming.  Too bad running all over creation pays better.

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