One thing that has really struck me about the new content in World of Warcraft is the storytelling. Of course it’s not going to win any literature awards but it this is fantasy and escapism and, obviously, a video game. I’ve always been a sucker for involving stories in video games from way back when I used to play lots of graphic adventure games. Highlights are Monkey Island 1 and 2 (blatantly ripped off by Pirates of the Caribbean and Ron Gilbert should definitely sue!) and the marvellous “Beneath a Steel Sky”* (with artwork by Dave Gibbons, comic artist responsible for illustrating the seminal Alan Moore graphic novel, Watchmen as well as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and other 2000AD strips).

In the late 90s I got into RPG games like Baldur’s Gate and, particularly, Planescape: Torment - an absolutely fantastic game with a tremendous story. Story driven action games were not far behind: Half-Life involved the player in a realistic world (realistic for a game anyway) with characters, scripted events and a professionally written story. Deus Ex, while verbose in it’s exposition, also had a gripping story line and multiple endings. Half-Life 2, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, created a world that just came to life and while you didn’t need to know the backstory, there were enough clues going on to give you an idea. Plus there were enough tips and clues to give you an idea that the developers had actually thought about the story and about giving you the right “dramatic need” that would compel you to finish the game.

Which is all deviating from the point. One of the things that has always struck me about World of Warcraft was that if you actually paid attention to the quests you were doing and the dialogue between characters then there was quite an involved story going on. Quite an epic story going on in fact. One you could find out more about after you’d finished finding new ingredients for a questionable looking alcoholic beverage that goblin in Ratchet was concocting.

Up until The Burning Crusade, I’d never really “got it”. Sure, I’d been an undead dude and I new I was different a different type of undead dude to all the undead dudes I was sent out to kill. Something to do with being a good type of undead (while still being a bad type of undead at the same time). Confused? Me too! I kind of get Orcs (who have been given a lot of bad press by the types of Tolkien et al and are not, in fact, intrinsically evil. In fact, they’re only the bad guys in the same way that the Indians were always the bad guys in the old RKO westerns.) and Trolls but I still don’t get the Tauren (large, humanoid cow creatures).

Blood Elves I get. I really get. Quite simply because the quests in the two starter zones are focussed on a story point but also because of, well, the graphics. As I mentioned before, Silvermoon City is fantastic - a testament to opulence and debauchery. These creatures are addicted to magic in the same way that city bankers and movie stars are addicted to cocaine and it shows in their natural environment. But this decadent paradise has been shattered by the invasion of the undead Scourge (who are really very naughty undead and we don’t like them much) and is still recovering. How can we tell? Because there’s a bloody great big swathe of dead ground, known as “The Dead Scar”, tearing through the zone, leading all the way up to the gates of Silvermoon . Eversong Woods itself is a pretty place with luxuriously green grass, golden leaved trees and elegant marble (I imagine) buildings dotted throughout. But all this is juxtaposed next to this dark, zombie infested scar dividing not only this zone but runs through out the adjacent zone (Ghostlands) too. It’s even more obvious when you look at the zone map.

The quests that you get in Eversong Woods lead you nicely into the Ghostlands zone which has a very different look but still has the Dead Scar running all the way through it, leading you to Deathholme, sanctuary of Dar’khan D’somethingorother, a traitorous elf who betrayed the city of Silvermoon by allying with the Scourge (boo! hiss!) and letting them have access to the Sunwell. (I only happen to know all this because last year I bought a couple of Warcraft Manga graphic novels** which happened to be about this very person.) Deathholme itself is very reminiscent of the Noxious Glade area of Eastern Plaguelands (an adjacent zone which people won’t be visiting until they’re level 55+) and is a great place to have the final showdown in a series of quests that ultimately lead to the Blood Elves finally being accepted as part of the Horde.

The point is that I remember all this. It seemed quite clear while I was doing these quests why I was doing them. I haven’t really had that feeling before in WoW but finally I actually felt involved. Our land had been invaded and we were taking it back and that traitorous rat bastard who welched us out was going to get his fucking kneecaps nailed to the floor. Not only did the questline make this abundantly clear, but the presence of the Dead Scar was a constant reminder of what had happened - something that none of the other zones seem to do.

One final thing I noticed that really adds to the characterization of the extremely arrogant and decadent Blood Elves was that despite being in the Ghostlands, surrounded by the ruins of their once proud and mighty civilization, they still find time to set up a table for a candlelight dinner with a view over the devestation. Wonderful! Make mine a Suntouched Special Reserve!

*Beneath A Steel Sky can legitimately be downloaded for free here.
**Dragon Hunt and Shadows of Ice - part of the Sunwell Trilogy