Board 8 > Anagram Ranks Anything Blizzard Entertainment-related

(+) Yeah! (+)

Thrall stepping down as Warchief and naming Garrosh as his successor.

Arathi Basin

Anagram posted...

Someone who played Horde, tell me if the ogres get more lore than the following: Tuskarr, Forgotten One, Furbolg, Gnoll. I guess they surely at least beat Void Elves, right? Void Elves are just the most embarrassing concept ever. Are ogres even in the top 10 non-playable races in terms of amount of lore?

First: Cho'Gall does make in appearance in Alt Draenor, as a Mythic Only phase to the final fight of a raid where he ganks the final boss. Still dies like a chump. He's more interesting just existing in HotS, where he requires two players to play.

Ogre lore is bad and inconsistent. It's still so dumb that we cant play them with them being Horde allied because they didnt want to make a female model.

Tuskarr: No. Dragonflight added more Tuskarr.
Forgotten One: about on par. War Within has them behind-the-scenes again.
Furbolg: Yes, Dragonflight added more Furbolg, but its "repgrind to learn their language"
Gnoll: Yes. Dragonflight added more Gnoll, and their whole purpose is "have a fucking annoying dungeon" and "worship food and decay, in that order."

You skipped my Bloodlust nomination, by the way.

Isquen posted...

First: Cho'Gall does make in appearance in Alt Draenor, as a Mythic Only phase to the final fight of a raid where he ganks the final boss. Still dies like a chump. He's more interesting just existing in HotS, where he requires two players to play.

Oh shit, I do remember hearing that Cho'gall is a two-played character in HotS, that's actually a fascinating idea, but I bet it's completely terrible in practice and worse than having two normal characters, right?

Ogre lore is bad and inconsistent. It's still so dumb that we cant play them with them being Horde allied because they didnt want to make a female model.

I think the ogre lore is that they're descended from even bigger monster ogres in Draenor? And there are like other proto-ogre descendants? I could SWEAR there was an ancient magical ogre city in ruins, but maybe I'm thinking of another series.

Tuskarr: No. Dragonflight added more Tuskarr.

This is more shocking than any actual plot twist in WoW.

Forgotten One: about on par. War Within has them behind-the-scenes again.
Furbolg: Yes, Dragonflight added more Furbolg, but its "repgrind to learn their language"
Gnoll: Yes. Dragonflight added more Gnoll, and their whole purpose is "have a fucking annoying dungeon" and "worship food and decay, in that order."

Not shocked that gnolls are a nothing race. They've always been a nothing race that's just there to be killed by adventurers.

You skipped my Bloodlust nomination, by the way.

lol me, sorry.

Nominate: Frostmourne

Dark Archons

Starcraft briefings

Tassadar/Zeratul

pre-rendered vs engine cutscenes

Anagram posted...

"Don't Stand in the Fire": Let it be known that I never stood in the fire, I never got caught by it even once. But boy oh boy, are there some players who just can't follow the most basic of instructions. I don't know why!

And then WotLK went and added a fire mechanic where the fire got bigger if you stood in it.

On the topic of standing in fire, nominate: Shade of Aran

Battlecruisers

- Power Overwhelming
Defense of the Ancients
StarCraft
The Purge of Stratholme
User Map Settings
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Warcraft III
Necromancer (Diablo II)
Diablo II
Heroes (WC3)
Oynxia Wipe Video
Leeroy Jenkins
Unit Quotes
kek
Sound Design (StarCraft)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
World of Warcraft
Hydralisk (Unit)
Samwise Didier

- Jacked Up and Good to Go
True Colors (Mission)
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Scarlet Monastery
StarCraft Briefings: 10/10. It makes complete sense that in the context of a sci-fi setting, everyone will communicate via radio (or psychic powers) and just use a bunch of computer screens, so you don't need to physically see the characters in a meeting room or whatever. It makes complete sense that the characters rarely even see each other physically. See, in a fantasy setting, yes, everyone needs to be next to each other to discuss their next course of action or whatever. But in the context of a military in a sci-fi setting? You'd only be in the same room if you want to avoid being spied on or something. And the Protoss, who are very meditative and, weird to say this, nonsexual, it makes complete sense that they'd also basically just not interact physically. And the Zerg just have a hivemind. It's a great diagetic way to give StarCraft more of its own feeling distinct from Warcraft, to make it feel like a military instead of a medieval army, and to make it feel sci-fi instead of fantasy. And then SC2 threw all of this into the garbage and just has everyone in meeting rooms or walking in hallways or standing around in a room together.
Corrupted Blood Incident
To Chain the Beast (Mission): Perfect mission. It's 100% clear what everyone's motives are, what their goals are, and what they expect to get out of this. The idea of having to bring four of your weakest infantry unit and move them next to the Overmind is dangerous and makes complete sense. The fact that you're on the offensive instead of the defensive is great, particularly because you're the villains. It's this really interesting echo of the final mission of the vanilla game, where the Protoss and Terrans team up against the Overmind in the middle of the map in order to save the galaxy. Here, the UED is on its own because everyone hates them, and it wants to capture the Overmind instead of killing it, and when it succeeds, it immediately floods the airwaves with propaganda about Stukov's fake heroic sacrifice, whereas the Protoss mission ends with Tassadar's actual heroic sacrifice. The UED perceives itself as the heroes, but Tassadar, Zeratul, and Raynor were the actual heroes. Perfectly done.
Make Love, Not Warcraft
In Utter Darkness
Human Campaign Ending Cinematic (WC3)
Witch Skin (Mercy)
Tower Defense
Battle.net (Original)
Ironforge
United Earth Directorate
Zeratul
Zerg Rush
Terran 1 (Theme)
Red Shirt Guy
<Fantasy Given Name> <Force/Object/Concept><Profession/Action/Other Cool Word>
Archon
Saviors of Uldum (Hearthstone Trailer)
Ulduar
Auction House (WoW)
Terran Theme 3
Campaign-only Units
Arthas Menethil
Dark Archon (Unit): I didn't really interpret the Dark Templar as the opposite of High Templar, I interpreted them as just a different thing. But it's okay. The Dark Archon is a cool unit, the exact kind of thing that appeals to a twelve-year-old, just like the regular Archon. I like how the High Templar has no attacks, but many special abilities, and the Archon has no special abilities but a strong attack, while the Dark Templar has strong attacks and no special abilities, but the Dark Archon has no attack and many special abilities. Gives it all a Yin-Yang feeling. Remember when SC2 was still in beta, and they were going to have Twilight Archons, which was High + Dark Templar? I bet it was a good idea to scrap it, I can't imagine that working out well.
Aldaris
Frostmourne: W--wait, you CAN'T get Frostmourne in WoW? You can just gather its pieces and forge them into new swords named Frostreaper and Icebringer? Jesus Christ, just give people what they want, how pathetic. Anyway, this is to me the definitive evil sword. It's just obviously a bad idea to grab this. I even like the fact that it's a sword, like in WC3, Arthas goes the first campaign using a hammer, which is not normally thought of purely a weapon, like paladins are meant to be defenders of righteousness rather than attackers, right? And then when Arthas finally goes off the deep end and is willing to just give up everything he has to get his revenge, that manifests in a literal way, with him giving up his paladin's hammer and taking a sword, which has no function other than to kill. The fact that the sword also just looks like a bad guy sword is icing on the cake. I like how even Muradin, who knows nothing about magic, is like "bro don't take that sword, it's obviously evil lmao."
Unnecessary Background Lore Depth
Trial of the Champion
Level 40 Mount
Junkenstein's Revenge
Critters
Molten Core
Blackrock Depths
Protoss
Unit Annoyed Quotes
Hidden Areas in WoW Classic
Defias Brotherhood
Terran Campaign Ending Cinematic (StarCraft 1)

- Stay a While and Listen
Bubble Hearthing
Turning on Black Ops 6
Jeff Kaplan Dinoflask Videos
Wasteland Patrol
Witchwood (Hearthstone Trailer)
Battlecruiser (Unit): It doesn't make any sense to call this a battlecruiser; it's obviously a battleship. You only use the word battlecruiser to describe the second largest class of direct combat surface ship, between a cruiser and a battleship. But... it does undeniably sound cooler than battleship, so I'll allow it. It's the perfect-looking ship for the Terrans. Didier designed it himself, describing it as just "throwing rectangles together," and that comes through. It's identifiable as some kind of powerful spaceship, but at the same time, it looks sort of jury-rigged or ill-conceived. Powerful and advanced, but made by people who are themselves neither of those things. Almost WWII-y in some ways. The fact that they're actually better than carriers is also funny; it should obviously be the Protoss who have the strongest unit in the game, but surprise! It's the Terrans. I love the Yamato Cannon, it does nothing special, it's just a giant fuck you-style energy beam, completely appropriate for the Terrans, even though its name makes no sense. And you know what? Although late game units are usually useless, the battlecruiser IS slightly better than the other ultra-late game units. You can't rush them, but they ARE usable under very specialized circumstances, so good for them. Although, someone explain to me why the captain has a Russian accent. And I appreciate how SC2 gives them a battery of smaller lasers instead of the single strong one; I know it's probably less effective against stronger units, but it definitely looks cooler and lets them chew through large groups of weak enemies like nothing.

Demon Hunter (Diablo)
Crafting (WoW)
Daelin Proudmoore
Funeral Crash Incident
Galvadon (Theme)
Deeprun Tram
Siege Tanks
Reinhardt Wilhelm
Duskwood
The Culling of Arthas (UMS Map)
Roadhog
Ghost (Unit)
Gnomeregan
Pokmon RPG StarCraft UMS Maps
SCVs, Drones, and Probes
Human Campaign (WC3)
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
Karazhan (Raid)
Mercenary Heroes (TFT)
Jaina Proudmoore
Marine (Unit)
Johnbobb's Hypothetical Junkertown Smash Stage
Tyrael
Undead Campaign (WC3)
Twilight of the Gods
Light v Tempest
StarCraft vs Halo Match (2004)
Stop Poking Me
Meat Hook
Vespene Gas
Bloodlust: I specifically remember talking to my friend Evan in high school about the then-recent release of TFT. He told me "I don't understand any spell except the ones that do damage or heal damage," and I was like "What about spells that improve your ability to do damage?" and he said "No, I never use those." Anyway, the idea of just increasing your attack rate is fun. I like how it also makes you literally bigger. The fact that orcs get this is appropriate, it's almost funny how their entire shtick is being barbarians, and then their magic just makes them even angrier. Perfectly appropriate idea for an Orc spell, but the fact that every shaman gets it in WoW is a little weird. Like, sure, this is fine for Orcs, but the peaceful Tauren? The kindly Panderan? The duteous Dwarves? The HOLY SHIT Earthen are playable? I had no fucking idea Earthen are playable, that's not listed on the WoW Wiki for some reason. They can join Alliance or Horde? Seriously? You'll let us play neutral Earthen, but still not Ogres and Naga? Jesus Christ. These Earthen characters look atrocious, they're just recolored Dwarves with gems sticking out of their bodies at random places. I refuse to believe anyone thinks this looks good. Why do they have normal human hair? Their hair is supposed to be rocks in the shape of hair! 200% experience for exploring a new location, I can't think of anything less useful.
Benediction & Anathema
Dragoon (Word)
Hemet Nesingwary
Jim Raynor
Azuarc's Leveling Guide
Nukes
Diablo 1 Recreation Event (Diablo III)
Overwatch (Game)
Uther the Lightbringer
Sombra ARG
Booty Bay
Tychus Findlay
Tassadar/Zeratul: You thought I would have to look this up, but I remembered. That useless piece of knowledge from when I screwed around in the map editor in 1999, where the hero archon is the hypothetical Tassadar + Zeratul? I remember it clearly. I love how this is the most powerful unit in the game, and not by a small amount. Zeratul and Tassadar are each individually powerful, so the idea that they'd combine to form someone even stronger is sensible. It's actually odd that we never got an important archon, or a climatic scene where an important character has to go into archon mode to save the day, given how memorable the unit is.
Wow Classic Hardcore
Wrath of the Lich King Opening Cinematic
The Barrens
Diablo 1 Ending
Tauren Marine
Winston
Psychopath Mei

- Systems Functional
Ilios Bottomless Pit
Overwatch SFM Pornography
Stitches
Deckard Cain
The Horde
Overlord (Unit)
Invading Enemy Capital Cities
Shade of Aran: Medivh has to be the last named character in the first three games to not appear in WoW, right? I cannot think of any others. Even the dead ones show up all the time. Ner'zhul even shows up as a ghost AND an alternate universe guy, and his brain got overwritten by Arthas, so I--oh, he appears in Legion, never mind. The idea of not having Medivh show up, but instead you fight the ghost of his father, isn't bad. I remember reading the WC3 manual, and I remember this guy's role in it. Medivh's mother is like "Hm, I need to find a man so I can pump out a baby to give my magic powers to," so she approaches this guy, who's at first excited that she's interested in him, then she's like "Oh no, I just need to pump out a baby, we'll fuck exactly once, and then you're raising him by yourself." Honestly, I don't blame him for accepting that deal, have you SEEN Medivh's mom?
Mystery Deathmatch
Tassadar
Arcturus Mengsk
Modern D2 Clones
StarCraft: Ghost
Diablo (Game)
Fastest Map Possible
Whimsyshire
Naxxramas
Alterac Valley
Griefing

Prerendered Cutscenes vs In-Engine Cutscenes: It's hard to rank this because it's not a single thing, it's a comparison. There's something, I hate to say this, soulful about shitty 90s prerendered cutscenes. FFVII most of all, but SC1 isn't far behind. The graphics are actually so bad in SC1's cutscenes that they're honestly worse than the unit portraits, but I appreciate that. It gives everything this sort of "we're trying, but our ambition is greater than our skill or budget" feeling, which is one of the main ingredients in the recipe of soul. But then, I can't imagine WC3 having these kinds of cutscenes, they're only really appropriate for sci-fi? Like, if you've seen the prerendered cutscenes for later releases of older Final Fantasies, they're always terrible and don't work at all. Does that make sense? Prerendered cutscenes work perfectly fine for StarCraft, but Warcraft wisely kept everything in-engine. And then you have Diablo, where like, I don't know... You kind of HAD to use prerendered there because the in-engine characters are so small and hard to make out from the perspective of the player that you can't really have them take specific actions like shoving a gem into their forehead.
Micromanagement
Hearthstone (Game)
Spawning as McCree in Lucioball
Ghostcrawler (WoW Dev)
Creep (Zerg)
Alamo
Un'Goro Crater
Grom Hellscream
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
StarCraft: Cartooned
League of Legends
Blizzcon
Big Game Hunters
Mass Casters
Night Elves (WC3 Faction)
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End (Card)
Voyage to the Sunken City (Hearthstone Trailer)
Samir Duran
Valkyrie (Unit)
Town of Salem
Death Blossom
-craft (suffix)
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
Darkspear Trolls
Warriors (WoW Classic)
Mass Carriers
Spawn More Overlords
Science Vessel (Unit)
Retribution Paladins
Mercy Multi-Rez
Gamon
Thrall
Far Sight
12 Days of StarCraft
Mists of Pandaria
Spawn More Overlords
Jaedong
Gyrocopter (Unit)
Warsong Gulch
Cataclysm (Event): It's not a TERRIBLE idea to shake things up. You could do worse. It's an excuse to revamp the entire world to allow for flying mounts, which makes sense (although they never even bother explaining why Northrend is unaffected), it immediately shows us how dangerous this new villain is, and it lets us progress a few years into the future to show how the world has changed. Like, it's an okay concept to just revamp vanilla WoW.
Splash Damage
WoW Celebrity Commercials
Horde Bias vs Alliance Bias
Bethesda, BioWare, and Blizzard
Quests (WoW)
Deckard Cain Rap
Heroes of the Storm
Marius (Diablo II)
Javelin Amazon
Is WoW a Furry Game? (Debate)
WoW Classic
Fenix
Blackwing's Lair
Nazeebo
Bob, do Something!
Overwatch and TF2 Comparisons
Jade Golems
Wings of Liberty
Othmar Garithos
Tristram
StarCraft II Honest Trailer
Mutalisk (Unit): As a kid, I had no idea what these things were supposed to actually look like. Ugly monster snakes with wings? I really love how the stacking effect was completely unintentional in 1998, but it became such a core concept of the unit's identity that Blizzard not only kept it, it added units to counter muta stacks that only work against stacking, and they programmed SC2 specifically to include it. I'll say this, though... I just don't believe these things as space vehicles. I believe a battlecruiser or carrier or scout or wraith can travel through space and enter the atmosphere. These things, I don't care if the Overmind evolved them to work in space, I just don't buy it. I buy it for overlords. It's very difficult to pull off organic space vehicles, there are more bad examples than good ones, and I don't think the Zerg ever quite pulled it off.
The Butcher
Act III (Diablo II)
Vicarious Visions
Infesting a Probe and Summoning Protoss Units as Zerg (SC2)
Dr. Boom (Card)
Looking for Baal?
Artanis
Rakanishu
Divine Storm
Rogue (Diablo)

- Fifty DKP Minus
Sombra
Bound Maps (UMS)
Infestor (Unit)
Lurker (Unit)
"Don't Stand in the Fire"
Diablo III
Terran Building Flight
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft II
Ana
Mothership (Unit)
Paladin Builds (Diablo II)
Lost Vikings II: Norse by Norsewest
Prison Break (World of Warcraft)
Illidan Stormrage
Jeff Kaplan Videos
Stratholme
Queen (StarCraft 1)
Asmongold Ion Interview - What Sword?
Malfurion Stormrage
Sarah Kerrigan
Stormgate
Radio Free Zerg
First Take of Leeroy Jenkins
Mike Morhaime
Arathi Basin: This was always and forever the least interesting of the three classic BGs. AV was a gigantic raid that could last for literal days. WSG was 5v5 and everyone mattered immensely. Arathi Basin was 15v15, just big enough that individuals are unlikely to swing things on their own, but not big enough to have those gigantic battles of pure chaos. It was even boring visually! AV is a bunch of snowy mountain fortresses, WSG is a magical forest, and AB is some kind of hilly farmland. Points to them for at least trying to integrate Stromgarde into the plot, I guess.
Lost Vikings
Maiev Shadowsong
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
"Tempest Keep was merely a setback!"
Un'Goro: The Journey
Warcraft I
Diablo 4, but Twitch Controls Every 60 Seconds
Gear Score
Mia Rose
Melting Faces as a Shadow Priest
Mei's Snowball Offensive
Team Melee
Murky
Legacy of the Void Opening Cinematic
Cloud9
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
kekeke
Hero Shooter (Genre)
StarCraft II
Warcraft (Film)
Shanghai Dragons
Silicon & Synapse
Blackthorne (Game)
Flying (WoW)
Lillian Voss

- You Are Not Prepared
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm: I said that WotLK was my last expansion, but that's technically untrue. I did play Cataclysm for like a week after it came out, then just gave up on it. I remember specifically where I stopped playing, too, I was near Menethil in the water. I don't remember why I was in the water, just that I was. It's just... maybe it's not Cata's fault. Maybe it's just WoW fatigue settling in by that point. I'm not prepared to say that Cata was 100% a bad expansion. I didn't hate the Worgen or Goblin starting zones (I did both), even if both were a little lame. It had some ideas. But as I said earlier, looking through it, it really feels like a long excuse to just kill off all of the remaining WC2 Horde characters. Like, the destruction of Menethil, Menethil was interesting. I liked Menethil. It was something unique and new that didn't exist elsewhere, this human settlement in Kalimdor that is only loosely associated with the Alliance. The Horde had a lot of "we're allies, but not really part of the Horde" cities, like the ogre city, and Menethil was really the only equivalent of that for the Alliance. And then it's destroyed for shock value and to establish that Garrosh is bad. Later, this writing style would be used to destroy Darnassus, but I don't mind that one, because Darnassus was ass. But the writing isn't quite as atrocious yet, right? We're not yet at Shadowlands levels.
Vivendi Games
Goldshire Inn (Moonguard)
Primal Zerg
Theoretical StarCraft MMO
Call of Duty on Battle.net
Symmetra's Shield Generator Ult
Scepter of the Shifting Sands Quest Chain
Rescuing the Guy in Blackrock Depths
6 Bastion Team
StarCraft 64
Cho'gall
Microsoft Acquisition
Tyrande Whisperwind
Auction House (Diablo III)
Junker Queen
Primal Zerg Kerrigan
7v1 comp stomp no noob no bs
Ready Player One
Cole Cassidy
Do You Guys Not Have Phones?
No Mercy TikTok Trend
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Bobby Kotick
Always Online
Nova
Activision
Being Corrupted into a Being Raid Boss

- Not Even Death Can Save You
Thrall Naming Garrosh as Successor: I remember during WotLK, I immediately knew that Garrosh was going to be the new Horde leader. He was getting way too much screen time. And I said this on the forums, and people were like "you're just guessing, Garrosh isn't going to be the next leader, it would be Cairne if anyone." Bam dam shebam, good thing I'm always right about everything. This feels 100% like a decision to make the Horde the villains without having to make Thrall do anything morally questionable, same with how Sylvanas briefly becomes the leader of the Horde. Like, the idea of Thrall being emotionally attached to this guy because he's Grom's son, and just refusing to recognize that Garrosh is a violent moron because he wants to project Grom onto him, is good, even if Grom was also a violent moron. It doesn't quite work, because Garrosh should be older than Thrall, yet acts like he's 19, but that's okay, it's fine, I'll accept that. And then Thrall having to come back and clean up his mess later and feeling guilt over the entire thing is also good. But it's like, by that point, Garrosh started a war, he nuked a city, he killed Cairn, and he used magic to create a time traveling version of the evil Old Horde. Garrosh did literally every single thing wrong that he could have possibly done wrong, and it's at least partly Thrall's fault, but everyone is just like "Oh well, better luck next time." I guess that's how it has to go, if you're in the universe and you just want this to be over, there's no one else you can plausibly replace Garrosh with except Thrall again. But the whole ordeal just convinces me that Thrall has the worst judgment ever, and his successes during WC3 were just accidents of fate. Let's not even go into how Garrosh's actions vindicate Daelin Proudmoore's crazy racism. It would be more interesting if Theramore's destruction pushes Jaina over the edge and now SHE'S the crazy racist who wants to blow up orcs and has to be stopped, and it briefly looked like she would be, but then she just doesn't. She's just like "Yeah okay, let's just end this war and punish only Garrosh." God, imagine playing Horde. You've either got complete nothing leaders like Vol'jin and Lor'themar, or you have crazy murderers like Garrosh and Sylvanas.
Sub-100% Drop Rate on Quest Drops
Sylvanas Windrunner
Kael'thas Sunstrider
Warcraft III: Reforged
BlitzChung Incident
Overwatch 2's PvE Cancellation
Blizzard (Weather)
Cosby Suite

- Veto
Diablo IV: I haven't played it! It looks kind of boring, though.

--------------------------------

We'll do one more round of these, and then the topic will be over. So, get your last nom in now.

Final Nomination: The death of Arthas cutscene
https://youtu.be/qAIrj_Vqdfc?si=AzV4zSGZ_vlOz9l0

Omega

Final nomination: The Ashbringer

Anagram posted...

Why do they have normal human hair? Their hair is supposed to be rocks in the shape of hair! 200% experience for exploring a new location, I can't think of anything less useful.

Re: Earthen hair - it's metal strands, like volcanic glass on Alolan Dugtrio. Amusingly, this lets women be bearded too (several important ones frequently are.)
Re: the Wide-Eyed Wonder racial- you may think it awful, but I literally leveled my rogue Earthen from 1-70 (max is currently 80) coasting around Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and most of Northrend before Chromie told me to get my ass back to Dornogal. In the process, I realized I have no idea how to play Rogue, but suck it, heirlooms of old.

Re: Menethil - do you mean Theramore? I've never heard a place called Menethil, but Theramore's the place that got mana-bombed.

And lastly re: the Cataclysm event - yeah, weird it didn't touch Northrend, though maybe that was because Yogg Saron was already doing a number on it. But! It's important to note that we're still feeling the effects of it, as a zone in War Within basically has an underground sun that started going dark periodically around the time of the Cataclysm. Or perhaps around the time Silithus got stabbed. I forget which and when.

Final nomination... hmm. Ragnaros, I guess.

Tencent

Garrosh

Great topic! I have one last nomination for it:

Anagram Ranks Anything Blizzard Entertainment-related

Great topic, had a lot of fun going through the write-ups and it's honestly been a nostalgia blast.

Nominate: Warlocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEK4OXIx9NE

Isquen posted...

Re: Earthen hair - it's metal strands, like volcanic glass on Alolan Dugtrio. Amusingly, this lets women be bearded too (several important ones frequently are.)

That actually does make it a little better.

Re: the Wide-Eyed Wonder racial- you may think it awful, but I literally leveled my rogue Earthen from 1-70 (max is currently 80) coasting around Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and most of Northrend before Chromie told me to get my ass back to Dornogal. In the process, I realized I have no idea how to play Rogue, but suck it, heirlooms of old.

Kind of shocked to hear that.

Re: Menethil - do you mean Theramore? I've never heard a place called Menethil, but Theramore's the place that got mana-bombed.

I did mean Theramore. Although, Menethil could have meant Menethil Harbor, which was a major Alliance location. I just made a mistake.

Thanks for doing this, I always enjoy these topics.

Nominate: StarEdit

goofy accents

Blizzard North

Thanks again, fun as always! Sometimes I feel like ripping this idea off cause it's great but there's only like 3 things I'd feel comfortable with doing.

Nom: Soldier 76

battle chests

Nominate: Kobolds and Catacombs trailer

https://youtu.be/LG_SqrpZjl4?si=ucwAea4XEZb4Dnd7

Want to sneak in one more nom before it's over.

The Undercity

I know you're not a Hearthstone guy, but I feel like I ought to sneak one more in since there's so much there to work with.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds

- Power Overwhelming
Defense of the Ancients
StarCraft
The Purge of Stratholme
User Map Settings
StarEdit: Stroke of genius to put this in. SC1 and WC3 have essentially three appeals: the campaign, the multiplayer, and user maps. Notice how I didn't include SC2 there, because no one ever made maps for it that were worth anything. Giving this kind of power to players to create their own games gave StarCraft another ten more years of life than it would have had otherwise. It's like one of those things they probably didn't expect to become the game's lifeblood, you know? Like how the ability to do multiplayer battles was a late addition to Pokmon RB, and they almost didn't bother because of how much work it was, only to find out that people looooooooooooved it. And you know what? WC3 isn't as good as SC1 in many respects, but its map editor only improved things. It took things to the next level and gave us so much freedom to make whatever terrible ideas we had when we were fifteen. I downloaded the strangest games made by insane people, and I loved it. I wonder how many teenagers turned into video game developers because of these tools?
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Warcraft III
Necromancer (Diablo II)
Diablo II
Heroes (WC3)
Oynxia Wipe Video
Leeroy Jenkins
Unit Quotes
kek
Sound Design (StarCraft)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
World of Warcraft
Hydralisk (Unit)
Samwise Didier

- Jacked Up and Good to Go
True Colors (Mission)
Goofy Accents: I fucking LOVE goofy accents. The most disappointing thing in MGSV is that it doesn't have a group of minibosses who each have their own unusual weapon choice and a variety of silly accents. And you know what? StarCraft fucking delivers. Every single human unit's voice is burned into my memory. You've got generic rednecks, you've deep-voiced firebats, you've Chuck Yaegers, you've got Russians, you've got German dominatrices, you've got stereotypical sergeants, it's all perfect. And SC2 delivers on this as well. I'm a simple man, give me a unit where the pilot is just Arnold Schwarzenegger and I'm going to build it. Unfortunately, the Protoss all have the same kind of breathy telepath voice, except for Alarak in the sequel, so none of them are as memorable. WC3 doesn't deliver as hard as SC1, too. Sure, there are some units who are memorable (peon, footman, knight, paladin), but the vast majority don't do it for me. You know what RTS has amazing unit selection quotes and silly accents? Dawn of War. It's not as good as SC1 and WC3, but it's incredible at unit voices.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Scarlet Monastery
StarCraft Briefings
Corrupted Blood Incident
To Chain the Beast (Mission)
Make Love, Not Warcraft
In Utter Darkness (Mission)
Human Campaign Ending Cinematic (WC3)
Witch Skin (Mercy)
Tower Defense
Undercity: There are advantages to be Horde, and advantages to being Alliance. But I will admit this: the Alliance always had a huge advantage in endgame raiding convenience, at least in vanilla. IF is right next door to MC and BWL, and via Menethil, it's reasonably close to Ony, and it is, weirdly enough, the second closest to AQ, since only TB is closer. Sure, the Horde is closer to Naxx and ZG (via Ratchet), but that's it. Imagine having to coordinate your MC raid from UC and spend an extra fifteen minutes flying! But Horde has way easier access to most leveling instances, so it sort of levels out in terms of convenience. SM ALONE makes Horde by far the better option for convenient leveling. Oh wait, I'm supposed to talk about UC, not UC's location. It's the coolest-looking capital in vanilla, and not by a small amount. SW is just a normal fantasy city. Org is a tribal city with a war theme, and TB is just "what if Native Americans lived on some buttes?" Tragically, Darn is actually the coolest Alliance city, but Darn is both annoyingly laid-out and it's at the ass-end of nowhere, in a far corner of the map, as far away from anything of interest as possible except on instance that no one ever did. Literally the most inconveniently-located city, and if you play as a mage, warlock, or paladin, you can't even use it as a hub to learn new spells, although to be honest, I don't remember if IF or SW support that for druids. But back to UC. It makes no sense for it to look the way it does. It should just look like a normal human city with some modifications. It should look like Stormwind with the iconography changed up. Instead, it looks like some kind of magical necromancy dungeon, with bubbling green goop everywhere, evil ziggurats everywhere, it just looks nothing like any human city anywhere else in the game. Like, WoW is supposed to take place like three years after WC3? We see in WC3 that Lordaeron clearly looks like a normal fantasy kingdom, just like Stormwind. It makes no sense at all, and don't tell me that these are refitted crypts underneath the original city or whatever. But it's in the service of giving us an absolutely killer atmosphere. I said earlier that IF has the warlocks squirreled away in the corner to imply they're not really welcome; here, there's an entire quarter of the city devoted to evil alchemy. There are just human slaves who survived the Plague doing jobs for the Forsaken. There's a woman with a lobotomy just hanging out, being experimented on by evil scientists. Like, it makes absolutely no sense that Thrall and Cairn would tolerate this shit. Sylvanas and her friends are just so blatantly and unapologetically evil, not even attempting to hide it. Even the Orcs, even Garrosh shouldn't tolerate this. Like, I really cannot emphasize this enough: no one else is even remotely as bad as the Forsaken. Blood elves and their enslavement of a geometry angel? Eh, they let it go when they found another option. Trolls being cannibals? Well, okay, but the Forsaken are also cannibals, in addition to everything else. Goblins and their environmental destruction? What a joke. Only the Dark Iron Dwarves ever did anything as bad as the Forsaken, and most of it wasn't even really their fault, and, crucially, they stopped long before they joined the Alliance. You can call the Alliance boring, and it is, and you can say that Blizzard does everything to make sure that no important Alliance members do anything bad, and it's true, and that the Alliance is much more boring as a result, and that is also true, but here's the ultimate truth: at least the Alliance members all make sense. It is completely sensible that every single group in the Alliance joined it and is accepted by the others. Like, you cannot possibly justify anyone tolerating these assholes. You can't even really justify the Forsaken being the inhabitants of Lordaeron. I just don't buy that normal people would act this way after being revived, unless their minds were altered to be more evillllll by the plague or necromancy. Even the 'good' Forsaken still tolerate the lobotomy slaves. So when the Horde is like "Bro stop oppressing us," you know what, you deserve to be oppressed. If you're friends with a man who owns a lobotomized slave, then you deserve to be oppressed.
Battle.net (Original)
Ironforge
United Earth Directorate
Zeratul
Zerg Rush
Terran 1 (Theme)
Red Shirt Guy

Omega (Mission): I love how it takes this long. All throughout StarCraft, there are so many "we hate you, but we'll team up against a greater enemy" moments. And here we finally are: the end of the game, and everyone teams up against YOU. It took three campaigns, but finally, Artanis, Mengsk, and DuGalle have all realized that the actual greatest threat to them is Kerrigan. It's not the Overmind, it's not the UED, it's not anything else, it's Sarah Kerrigan. Everyone has reason to hate each other, and yet they drag what remains of their forces to the finish line just because they've finally put two and two together and want to end your life. The only major character still alive who sits this one out is Raynor. It's a great concept that the final boss is YOU, that everyone puts aside their differences to fight YOU, and you're all alone. No one will support Kerrigan anymore. Yeah, she has the Cerebrate I GUESS, but she's standing alone against the universe. She has all the power in the universe, enough to fight three armies at the same time, but power is all she has. Artanis and Mengsk swear revenge and run away, but DuGalle? The man realizes he's lost, that he's doomed his soldiers, and eats a bullet while Kerrigan becomes queen of the universe. Perfect ending. However, I still hate playing as Zerg.
<Fantasy Given Name> <Force/Object/Concept><Profession/Action/Other Cool Word>
Archon
Saviors of Uldum (Hearthstone Trailer)
Ulduar
Auction House (WoW)
Terran Theme 3
Campaign-only Units
Battlegrounds (Hearthstone): Okay, so this is basically a game mode where eight players play 1v1 rounds, last man standing? And all of the normal mechanics and rules are altered, and unique cards? That sounds pretty decent, actually. It sounds like they actually put some effort into making this unique. I can't comment on the mechanics themselves, but it doesn't sound bad. Wow, the Wiki page on this is super long because it has to explain all of the mechanics, yikes. This picture of a sorceress eating a cupcake while dressed in basically nothing, man, I almost can't believe that flies in Hearthstone. Out of curiosity, does this game actually have a story? Like, is this supposed to be canon with WoW, or another dimension, or what?
Arthas Menethil
Dark Archon (Unit)
Aldaris
Frostmourne
Unnecessary Background Lore Depth
Trial of the Champion
Level 40 Mount
Junkenstein's Revenge
Critters
Molten Core
Blackrock Depths
Protoss
Unit Annoyed Quotes
Hidden Areas in WoW Classic
Defias Brotherhood
Terran Campaign Ending Cinematic (StarCraft 1)

- Stay a While and Listen
Bubble Hearthing
Turning on Black Ops 6
Death of Arthas Cutscene: I said it before, and I'll say it again: Arthas gets BY FAR the best treatment of any character in WC3 who's also in WoW. He is BY FAR the least ruined (besides Tyrande, who went from being boring to being exactly as boring). Finally getting to have closure with his father, realizing that it's over, and his father not condemning him, but just comforting him with the true fact that "no king rules forever," contrasted with the fact that undead (theoretically) live forever, is all acceptable. Terenas sets his body on the floor, then warns Tirion about what what must be done to replace Arthas. Tirion's like "Yeah okay, guess I'm a paladin, I'll do it," and then Bolvar is like "Nah brah, my body's already screwed up anyway, look at my glowing nostrils, I'll be the new Lich King until Sylvanas shows up and ruins the plot because Blizzard runs out of ideas." The fact that the new Lich King chooses this out of service and sacrifice instead of Arthas' lust for power is yet another great contrast. Like, this is not the best ending ever, but it's okay. It's pretty good. Arthas' death isn't a 10/10 moment, but it has actual artistic intent, and you can clearly see what they're going for. What I'm trying to say is this: they stuck the landing. It's not perfect, and neither is WotLK, but it's a pretty good ending to a pretty good expansion, and Arthas goes out with an unexpected amount of sympathy from people who all regret what this came to. Too bad about Shadowlands! I'm prepared to call this the last moment of true WoW. Everything after this doesn't count, and also about 30% of what's before this, too.
Jeff Kaplan Dinoflask Videos
Wasteland Patrol
Witchwood (Hearthstone Trailer)
Battlecruiser (Unit)
Demon Hunter (Diablo)
Crafting (WoW)
Daelin Proudmoore
Funeral Crash Incident
Galvadon (Theme)
Deeprun Tram
Siege Tanks
Reinhardt Wilhelm
Duskwood
The Culling of Arthas (UMS Map)
Roadhog
Ghost (Unit)
Gnomeregan
Pokmon RPG StarCraft UMS Maps
SCVs, Drones, and Probes
Human Campaign (WC3)
Ashbringer: I don't hate the idea of making a good-aligned paladin sword that contrasts with Frostmourne. And Ashbringer definitely looks cool. Holy shit, you could only get this in Legion if you played a Ret Paladin as an artifact weapon? I refuse to believe that artifacts were a good idea, people LIKE replacing their gear. Anyway, look, Ashbringer looks cool, it has a cool name, and it has a fine backstory... but it's not as cool as Frostmourne, and players couldn't use it until fucking Legion, despite it being played up as a major iconic weapon. God, later there's an evil version named Fatebringer, with a skull in it, how dumb. Look, as a new weapon iconic to WoW, it's serviceable. But do you know the actual truth? Sulfuras and Thunderfury were always more iconic because they were just THERE, they were just something that people wanted and obtained and something you were jealous of while standing in front of the IF AH. Even the Arcanite Reaper is more iconic than Ashbringer, I'm sorry.
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
Karazhan (Raid)
Mercenary Heroes (TFT)
Jaina Proudmoore
Marine (Unit)
Johnbobb's Hypothetical Junkertown Smash Stage
Tyrael
Undead Campaign (WC3)
Twilight of the Gods
Light v Tempest
StarCraft vs Halo Match (2004)
Stop Poking Me
Meat Hook
Vespene Gas
Bloodlust
Benediction & Anathema
Battle Chests: Fucking love 'em. Goddamn, remember being a kid at Best Buy, and you've just see these things hanging on the shelves? I never bought any, because I already owned the games, but there was a special feeling of seeing "that" game you saw on the shelves all the time. Great example is American McGee's Alice, I saw that on Best Buy's shelves, never selling, for like six years straight. These actually sold.
Dragoon (Word)
Hemet Nesingwary
Jim Raynor
Azuarc's Leveling Guide
Nukes
Diablo 1 Recreation Event (Diablo III)
Overwatch (Game)

Nightsong (Song): I put this on, changed tabs, and forgot I'd put it on. When I realized I was listening to something, I briefly thought youtube had cycled into an anime opening as it sometimes does. Shows how much I know about foreign languages!
Uther the Lightbringer
Sombra ARG
Booty Bay
Tychus Findlay
Warlock (Class): I remember in vanilla, you never saw a 60 warlock without at least some purples. It just never happened. So few people played the class, but gear for it dropped at the same rate as everyone else's, so an immense number of warlocks ended up with like -300 DKP because their guilds just had no choice but to award them their tier sets. It's a cool idea for a class, too, turning the evil enemy's powers against them. I don't know about the Horde, but I liked how in SW and IF, the warlock trainers are off to the side in the dingy parts of town, implying they're not accepted by others and have to work in the shadows. That said, I think a lot of people agree, myself included, that we got the warlock instead of the necromancer, and I do think the necromancer would have been pretty cool. But it's true that demons play a larger role in the setting than undead, so it's okay. I also like how in like 2023, long after anyone cared, they added the ability to summon an incubus instead of a succubus. Anyway, as an actual class, the main things they had were just dots, so many dots. And even though they were dot-focused, they were still the second best at AoE. There are fights in vanilla where if you don't have a mage or warlock, it's just going to be painful.
Tassadar/Zeratul
Wow Classic Hardcore
Wrath of the Lich King Opening Cinematic
The Barrens
Diablo 1 Ending
Tauren Marine
Winston
Psychopath Mei

- Systems Functional
Ilios Bottomless Pit
Overwatch SFM Pornography
Stitches
Blizzard North: Oh god, so this is the part of Blizzard that made Diablo 1 and 2, which is why those games are much better than what came later. Well, that makes sense. Sorry, but I can't rate their work on NFL Quarterback Club '95 or Justice League Task Force (Genesis Version).
Deckard Cain
The Horde
Overlord (Unit)
Invading Enemy Capital Cities
Shade of Aran
Mystery Deathmatch
Tassadar
Arcturus Mengsk
Modern D2 Clones
StarCraft: Ghost
Diablo (Game)
Fastest Map Possible
Whimsyshire
Naxxramas
Alterac Valley
Griefing
Prerendered Cutscenes vs In-Engine Cutscenes
Micromanagement
Hearthstone (Game)
Spawning as McCree in Lucioball
Ghostcrawler (WoW Dev)
Creep (Zerg)
Alamo
Un'Goro Crater
Grom Hellscream
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
StarCraft: Cartooned
League of Legends
Blizzcon
Big Game Hunters
Mass Casters
Night Elves (WC3 Faction)
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End (Card)
Voyage to the Sunken City (Hearthstone Trailer)
Samir Duran
Ragnaros: It's funny how this guy is such an icon of WoW despite being, in reality, kind of a punk. He's the lord of fire elementals. That's it. He wants to destroy Azeroth because he's a dick. I kind of enjoy how the Dark Iron Dwarves summoned him without realizing how dangerous he was, then got enslaved by him. I think the only reason anyone still remembers him is that he was the original 40-man raid boss, and the only one for a long time in the game. Like, nothing about him is especially unique. I enjoy how his raid meant there was only one real spec for mages, which was frost, and no one ever went arcane or fire ever. I think later expansions made it so that no enemy was immune to an element, even if it makes sense for a fire elemental to be immune to fire? God, so this guy returns in Cataclysm to help Deathwing destroy he world. What a dick.
Valkyrie (Unit)
Town of Salem
Death Blossom
-craft (suffix)
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
Darkspear Trolls
Warriors (WoW Classic)
Mass Carriers
Spawn More Overlords
Science Vessel (Unit)
Retribution Paladins
Mercy Multi-Rez
Gamon
Thrall
Far Sight
12 Days of StarCraft
Mists of Pandaria
Spawn More Overlords
Jaedong
Gyrocopter (Unit)
Warsong Gulch
Cataclysm (Event)
Splash Damage
WoW Celebrity Commercials
Horde Bias vs Alliance Bias
Bethesda, BioWare, and Blizzard
Quests (WoW)
Deckard Cain Rap
Heroes of the Storm
Marius (Diablo II)
Javelin Amazon
Is WoW a Furry Game? (Debate)
WoW Classic
Fenix
Blackwing's Lair
Nazeebo
Bob, do Something!
Overwatch and TF2 Comparisons
Jade Golems
Anagram Ranks Anything Blizzard Entertainment-related: Obviously, it's the greatest contribution to humanity since the invention of agriculture.
Wings of Liberty
Othmar Garithos
Tristram
StarCraft II Honest Trailer
Mutalisk (Unit)
The Butcher
Act III (Diablo II)
Vicarious Visions
Infesting a Probe and Summoning Protoss Units as Zerg (SC2)
Dr. Boom (Card)
Looking for Baal?
Artanis
Rakanishu
Kobolds & Catacombs (Hearthstone Trailer): Last one of the topic, let's see how this goes... "You signed up the best, you're on a great quest." This isn't quite up to par, I'm going to just say it. Oh god, kobold "You no take candle" reference. I don't know of any setting where kobolds are really important? They're always just fodder. Quality D&D parody title, though, that's why this isn't a tier lower.
Divine Storm
Rogue (Diablo)

- Fifty DKP Minus
Sombra
Bound Maps (UMS)
Infestor (Unit)
Lurker (Unit)
"Don't Stand in the Fire"
Diablo III
Terran Building Flight
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft II
Ana
Mothership (Unit)
Paladin Builds (Diablo II)
Lost Vikings II: Norse by Norsewest
Prison Break (World of Warcraft)
Illidan Stormrage
Jeff Kaplan Videos
Stratholme
Queen (StarCraft 1)
Asmongold Ion Interview - What Sword?
Malfurion Stormrage
Sarah Kerrigan
Stormgate
Tencent: I mean, I don't especially like them, but whatever. I know some people think they're ruining gaming, but it's not like gaming was perfect before they showed up to the party. It is true that since they acquired Riot, LoL's new heroes do look much more genericized and more heavily waifu-based.
Radio Free Zerg
First Take of Leeroy Jenkins
Mike Morhaime
Arathi Basin
Lost Vikings
Maiev Shadowsong
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
"Tempest Keep was merely a setback!"
Un'Goro: The Journey
Warcraft I
Diablo 4, but Twitch Controls Every 60 Seconds
Gear Score
Mia Rose
Melting Faces as a Shadow Priest
Mei's Snowball Offensive
Team Melee
Murky
Legacy of the Void Opening Cinematic
Cloud9
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
kekeke
Hero Shooter (Genre)
StarCraft II
Warcraft (Film)
Shanghai Dragons
Silicon & Synapse
Blackthorne (Game)
Flying (WoW)
Lillian Voss

- You Are Not Prepared
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Vivendi Games
Goldshire Inn (Moonguard)
Primal Zerg
Theoretical StarCraft MMO
Call of Duty on Battle.net
Symmetra's Shield Generator Ult
Scepter of the Shifting Sands Quest Chain
Rescuing the Guy in Blackrock Depths
6 Bastion Team
StarCraft 64
Cho'gall
Microsoft Acquisition
Tyrande Whisperwind
Auction House (Diablo III)
Junker Queen
Primal Zerg Kerrigan
7v1 comp stomp no noob no bs
Ready Player One
Cole Cassidy
Do You Guys Not Have Phones?
Thrall Naming Garrosh as Successor
No Mercy TikTok Trend
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Bobby Kotick
Always Online
Nova
Activision
Being Corrupted into a Being Raid Boss

- Not Even Death Can Save You
Sub-100% Drop Rate on Quest Drops
Sylvanas Windrunner
Kael'thas Sunstrider
Warcraft III: Reforged
Garrosh Hellscream: For the amount people hated him, it is incredible that Blizzard kept him around for so long. I don't think anyone at all likes this asshole. He's just so, SO stupid. And not merely stupid, but violent and bad-tempered and unsympathetic. Like, at least Sylvanas actually did get wronged one time. Sylvanas actually did get killed and turned into undead by a bad guy, she has a right to be angry about that one thing. Garrosh doesn't even have that! All he has is rage about he has to deal with other people sometimes. Like, the game treats Garrosh as if his contempt of demons makes him unique and interesting, but actually, it just means there's no one else to blame for his stupidity except himself. At least his father could complain about being manipulated by demons some of the time. And I said this before, but Garrosh's age makes no sense. The minimum possible age he could be is in his late 30s, he'd logically be even older than that, but he acts like a hotblooded 20 year old. And the fact that this guy couldn't even push Jaina over the edge and turn her into a villain means that he just achieves nothing. The only thing he ever achieves is creating another, even more evil Horde via time travel. And the fact that Garrosh is not a minor character, he's actually super important for like four expansions, just makes it even worse. Here's another advantage for Alliance: we didn't have to deal with this guy at all for BC and WotLK.
BlitzChung Incident
Overwatch 2's PvE Cancellation
Blizzard (Weather)
Cosby Suite

-----------------------

And that's it! Thank you all for playing, see you next time.

Kobold Lore:

Kobolds wear candles because they are scared of "The Darkness" which is an embodiment of like ummm... darkness. I don't know. Anyway it is a real creature which you can see and attack, but not when it's dark and it makes things dark. So you need a light to fend it off which is why they have candles.

Now, it was one of those things where like previous generations of kobolds started doing this, but later on the ones that moved to like kalimdor and the eastern kingdoms didn't actually have a need to use candles and just did it because like that's what everyone else did. Uhh, that's until like Legion where there is a darkness like mob (not the darkness... like a spawn of it? I don't know) that you can pop in a cave where there are bunch of kobolds. Also, in this cave you can pretend to be a kobold and give quests to the other ones.

A funny thing too is that the disguise is just you wearing a candle on your head. Kobolds don't seem to be able to really distinguish that well. Also, they don't really have any real sense of value for items except that shiny things are good and also wax is good because they use it to make candles.

It was not until the most recent expansion where we get to fight the darkness in a dungeon where we help to liberate the kobold city from the evil candle king. We help the leader of the Kobold resistance (Skitter, who sounds like Stich from lilo and stich defeat him.

Thanks for the write ups!

Thanks for this topic Anagram. It was a fun trip down memory lane, and it was interesting to see your opinions on various things.

Thanks for this topic! It was another banger.

That said, it is with great regret Anagram that I am now forced to revoke your nerd card. The Yamato cannon on the Terran battlecruisers is an obvious reference to the classic anime Space Battleship Yamato. In which the titular ship famously had a capital class BFG known as the Wave Motion Gun, as seen here:

https://youtu.be/GJ6MGeeFjF0?si=eXQVkBhWcQ_uwOuj

Yeah, this was a fun topic. Thanks for doing this!

Fun stuff. Thank you for tolerating me being Red Shirt Guy.

Anagram posted...

Out of curiosity, does this game actually have a story? Like, is this supposed to be canon with WoW, or another dimension, or what?

AFAIK, canonically, everyone's literally playing Hearthstone in the Ironforge tavern. It's just a game themed around their own world that they play amicably together.

Unless you meant specifically Battlegrounds, at which point, not that I know of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPguoeYTvMI

10/10 topic looking forward to the next one

KokoroAkechi posted...

Kobold Lore:

Kobolds wear candles because they are scared of "The Darkness" which is an embodiment of like ummm... darkness. I don't know. Anyway it is a real creature which you can see and attack, but not when it's dark and it makes things dark. So you need a light to fend it off which is why they have candles.

Now, it was one of those things where like previous generations of kobolds started doing this, but later on the ones that moved to like kalimdor and the eastern kingdoms didn't actually have a need to use candles and just did it because like that's what everyone else did. Uhh, that's until like Legion where there is a darkness like mob (not the darkness... like a spawn of it? I don't know) that you can pop in a cave where there are bunch of kobolds. Also, in this cave you can pretend to be a kobold and give quests to the other ones.

A funny thing too is that the disguise is just you wearing a candle on your head. Kobolds don't seem to be able to really distinguish that well. Also, they don't really have any real sense of value for items except that shiny things are good and also wax is good because they use it to make candles.

It was not until the most recent expansion where we get to fight the darkness in a dungeon where we help to liberate the kobold city from the evil candle king. We help the leader of the Kobold resistance (Skitter, who sounds like Stich from lilo and stich defeat him.

I'm shocked there's this much lore about kobolds, shows what I know. Though, I have my doubts as to whether or not kobolds could even build a building, much less a city.

TeamRocketElite posted...

Thanks for the write ups!

Fiop posted...

Yeah, this was a fun topic. Thanks for doing this!

I try.

Isquen posted...

Fun stuff. Thank you for tolerating me being Red Shirt Guy.

What do you mean you were Red Shirt Guy?

redrocket posted...

Thanks for this topic! It was another banger.

That said, it is with great regret Anagram that I am now forced to revoke your nerd card. The Yamato cannon on the Terran battlecruisers is an obvious reference to the classic anime Space Battleship Yamato. In which the titular ship famously had a capital class BFG known as the Wave Motion Gun, as seen here:

https://youtu.be/GJ6MGeeFjF0?si=eXQVkBhWcQ_uwOuj

I have sure never seen this anime.

azuarc posted...

AFAIK, canonically, everyone's literally playing Hearthstone in the Ironforge tavern. It's just a game themed around their own world that they play amicably together.

Unless you meant specifically Battlegrounds, at which point, not that I know of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPguoeYTvMI

That just raises so many more questions.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

10/10 topic looking forward to the next one

Dunno what its topic will be, but there will be more for sure.

Oh, you know, bringing up lore stuff and fact checking every so often. RSG was a guy at a Blizzcon pointing out lore inconsistencies in a Q&A, and he's been immortalized in the game as a "Wildhammer Fact Checker" amongst other things. Like how I will fact check the most interesting thing about Tyrande, who was as bland as water soup, nearly lost herself to becoming an avatar of vengeance during the whole Sylvanas-goes-evil thing (and being the one to ultimately gank and behead her second-in-command Nathanos)

She still sucks though. Fun to play in HotS but meh.

Oh, I suppose I should point out that the Darkspear Tribe renounced cannibalism when they joined the Horde.