I've always found it amusing how there can be undead priests but no paladins. And then we get tauren paladins.

Pft, WoW lore makes total sense. Humans, dwarves, and gnomes all come from robots; Orcs from Dimension/Planet Warhammer; trolls from Cthulhu; everything else is elves. (Which were originally trolls.) Paladins are from magic Unown (#201!) and Hunters are definitely based on a WC unit maybe probably.

The writer of WoW and Starcraft (Chris Metzen) isn't exactly a genius...

Raping characters and lore to create new WoW instances, creating or ret-conning old characters into horrible best in the universe-mary-sues.
Kerrigan practically embodies the Mary Sue villain for example. (look it up)

Yeah wow is going to die cause of it.. i hope Blizzard will soon know it..

I've long been of the opinion that the lore serves the game and not the other way around.

Want a game that doesn't alienate female players? Lore changes.

Want a game that doesn't do X or Y that'd be bad for the the player base or community or just plain "a fun game"? Lore changes.

[url=#user_comment_55272]@Stoney[/url] You're stupid.

Also this is shown in the book the shattering, so maybe cheek your lore facts first.

um, i thought id just point something out to the writer of this. Don't you read any of the Q&A with the wow quest creator and lore writers. When the question of Jaina and Thrall is brought up they reject it and say no Aggra the female dwarf with thrall at the mailstrom is going to be his wife.

you can all complain til the cows come home, but at the end of the day you're still going to shut up and pay blizz to play their game

I eat trolls.

Night elf females taking up a druidic role is just an example of their race expanding gender roles. It's not necessarily something that Blizzard made up because they just wanted to bend the lore. Why is it more solid to say that only men can become druids?

This is one reason why I'm moving to RIFT. WoW is pretty much broken already. After Cata, you can really see it.

Lore is one thing. History, tradition, that all changes depending on a lot of factors. What PO'd me about WoW is how they ruined the characters. Illidan, Kael'thas, Jaina, Thrall... I miss them all.

Just a heads up, the humans never rejected the Forsaken. They actually allied with them in Warcraft 3 and were betrayed by the Forsaken, who killed them and took the city they had promised to the humans for themselves.

The Forsaken rejected humanity, not the other way around.

Its alot like the Undead quests where you kill Dalaran Mages but in the end in litch king they are all buddy buddy....so cool :P

[url=#user_comment_55132]@Adi[/url]. nefarion has died about 10 times. blizz does what they want!

The perfect example for Blizzard miraculous elixir of ressurecting is Onyxia,this boss is present in every patch.I mean ,cmon shes a fossil and even if they think to put the broodmother in the next expansion(BE SURE!)I think that Onyxia is tired and she need to sleep...FOREVER.

[url=#user_comment_55096]@Krasgoth[/url] Don't worry if you cry for Illidan ,he probably don't die(if he's dead ,NO PROBLM FOR BLLIZARD) and you will see him soon in another "IMBA" expansion with orcs as researchers(I must admit those guys really start to read in Cataclysm).

Let us not forget that NEs also rejected mages yet they are now playable. They rejected it in the lore due to Queen Azshara's hunger for arcane power and saw how destructive it was when the Well of Eternity was opened. Of course we know now that this is just a precursor to the next xpac.

[url=#user_comment_55096]@Krasgoth[/url] You're retarded - go play TFT. Illidan is the hero of that game. He unifies the downtrodden races of both the naga and the blood elves and takes the fight to Arthas. If not for Illidan, Arthas would've destroyed the world. So yes, he was retconned as a villian in TBC.

Also, he makes a valid point.
Blood Elves "Go evil" for a short period of time, but are disowned by the alliance, even though they where BFF's for all of TWO WARS.
Forsaken are seen as monsters and not allowed back into the alliance.
Worgen and Death Knights are both welcomed in with open arms.

I really enjoy how people arguing the lore is fine, only think that WoW and the books that came out for wow are the only lore on the subject.
There was in fact, 5 games, and books BEFORE world of Warcraft, that all got "retoconned" for the game play of wow.

I really have to disagree, the games fine, people really overreact to the littlest changes.

Oh and...

http://www.wowpedia.org/Druid_and_Priest_Statue_Set

Explains how Nelf society changed.

People need to stop being so narrowminded.

but for logical gameplay they called it Paladin and just shoo'd them into the pally line of things.

There are actually a lot more things that make less sense than tauren pallys. In a time of need, they looked to the sun where other taruen (druids) looked to the moon. They inadvertently discovered the light. They could have made the class "Sun walkers" and renamed everyting and made it special,

Billybob, do yourself a favor and look up the definition of "retcon".

Eredar history wasn't touched until WoW:BC. There were Eredar, and there were Broken, but no explanation 'til BC...and just because it wasn't available doesn't mean it was "retconned in".

Warcraft 1-3 (like me) this is still very dumb. I'm playing this game beacouse gameplay is great, but when i'm see what Blizzard is doing to lore my heard is bleeding :( What a pity that Warcraft community aren't such conservative as WFB/WH40k.

Yup, lore is totally screwed up now :/ Holy cows, orc mages, elfs in Horde, best characters killed every damn expansion, shithole Med'an (thank God he isn't in game yet), over 9k types of dragons instead of first 5 and many, many more. I know that everything was explained, but for someone who played

Much better than Uncanny Valley in my opinion. :/

Yeah yeah, true true and all that BUT WoW still looks like the child of a Gummibear that was raped by Sponge Bob :))

It's an RPG. Story shouldn't interfere with gameplay, but gameplay shouldn't interfere with the story either

They shouldn't have to explain every new mechanic. If they want "holy cows" who cares? It's a game. The story should never interfere with the gameplay.

If you really want a story go watch a movie-or don't since they have a tendency to be retconned just as often.

Heh, everyone that have been RP'ing for 6 years in WoW know by now that the game NEVER gets adapted to the lore. The lore ALWAYS gets adapted to the game, end of story.

merp

[url=#user_comment_55106]@karakadoru[/url]: Umm... Tyrande is the High Priestess of Elune. She is by no means a Druid. Druids in Night Elf society have historically always been male. That was changed when WoW was released and is a change that even WoW's in-game lore mentions as having occurred after Warcraft III.

Meh. That's WoW Lore, for ya, shallow excuses used to reinforcement derailment instead of pursuing organic growth. Because one is quick and easy, and the other takes some thought.

And when most players are fine with the quick and easy, or nothing at all...why go through the effort?

Y'all are ignorant. If you HONESTLY think that new things can't be learned, then you're just being straight up ignorant. WoW is an evolving game. We're shaping the lore of Warcraft as we play. Azeroth is in trouble. Great threat brings about great change. Don't be so damn stubborn.

¿¿ONLY NIGHT ELVES MALES CAN BE DRUIDS??... WTF r u talking about... have u ever read the warcraft story?... or even played the warcraft trilogy?... where the u leave Tyrande and her female druids?... get a copy of the story and start reading before doing this kind of crap

I'm still more upset about the gender role changes in NElf society (female Druids and male Priests) than the Holy Cow issue. I think the lore for the Tauren gaining "Paladins" fits the past lore well. They're basically glorified Shaman, similar to how Troll or NElf Priests don't worship the Light.

You really have a very limited knowledge of WoW lore.

@Loop Not Defined: I think it has more to do with HOW they introduced them to the WoW-sphere:

"To escape from the blood elves we attempted to planeshift using a fragment of our magic fortress Tempest Keep, and mistakenly arrived on Azeroth."

"So you crashed a spaceship."

"Although the Eredar have been a staple of Warcraft lore since at least WC3"

Eredar were clearly evil Daemon lords in WC3 and totally and completely unlinked with the Draenai.

The real draenai are 'the broken' who were made up in WC3, then in the next game, retconned.

After all,if the milk can be holy they may continue theyr training and became a veritable mage,warlock or even a rougue.Now the orcs are an example for cows,they learn to use theyir "big" head and now they know how to polymorph something.Son the arena from Orgri will be changed with a Library^^.

well, wow changes, so does its lore . all changes , americans hv a black president , why cant a cow be wearing plate and spamming holy light???

[url=#user_comment_55097]@Risquevania[/url], and if you don't like his opinion, then don't read his comic. He already stated he doesn't care. He makes a good point, the longer the story gets dragged on the less solid it becomes. I don't see anywhere in his post saying the game sucks/is unplayable/unenjoyable etc. So shut it.

Don't like the lore? Go find a better game then. 90% of MMOs don't even have much lore to begin with. Then almost every one of the 10% make changes to fit the game style, like taking out existing class-skills that's too powerful for a mmo. Better yet, go play D&D if you love RP that much.

lol @ the person who said that Illidan was "Retconned in as a villain". For someone complaining about lore, you sure have no idea of his storyline.

The lore is pretty strong in game - If you "stopped playing wow because of the lore", you probably have some sort of deep seated emotional problems.

"acceptable"

I deal with this a lot, being a lore buff. The problem is, what is acceptable to you isn't what is acceptable to me, or other people. Some people have problems with the story changing, others do not. Some story changes are accepted, others are not. That said, good comic. :)

Yeah I agree completly, I basically stopped playing wow vanilla becuase of the total lorefuck with the Draenei.

Although the Eredar have been a staple of Warcraft lore since at least WC3, it isn't until WoW:BC that people start flipping out with "LOL SPACE GOATS".

Why?

I'm not even sure were to begin with this absolutely uneducated, stupid whine about Warcraft lore.
some things are purely game-mechanics, and some people just like the creator of this comic doesn't seem to be able to grasp such simple differences. All franchies do numerous retcons, get over it.

The story begin to be 2 simply,nobody die,after 1-2 expansions he is resurected and the story will be always the same.And app why the forsaken wait for the Cataclysm to attack Gilneas ,if they could do this on sea?...yeah a big gate and a small road was the problm.

Oh yeah and the death knights weak up simultan with the Argent Crusade.In War3 Kael,Vajh & Illidan with a hole army couldn't stop Arthas(not the Lich King) and in WoW Tyrion and a hand of 25 friends put down the Citadel Dors,kill all Lich King's generals with n.p and after the Lich King is defeated.

Oremir: "Why sould WoW know annything about Warhammer?"
At least Blizzard should know about Warhammer, because they totally ripped them off (Ok from an objective standpoint they ALL "stole" from Tolkien...although he also was inspired by...oh crap)

This is EXACTLY why I stopped playing WoW after Burning Crusade.
I just couldn't stand the raping of the story anymore.
Beside WoW being the graphic equivalent of Sponge Bob and the Gummybears.

I am loving WoW because as many said gameplay is smooth(mosttimes). Whereas other games has got lots of bugs and problems... Warhammer was a nice story till I got sick of pings, bugs and lack of players... Blizzard needs some fresh blood and that is the point where pop cultures joins with to lore:p

"A game lore should be acceptable, not explainable."

Because that's sooo realistic, right? o_O

I'm sorry, but some people like the fact that the game lore isn't just skin deep.

It doesn't help that many of the complaints against recent lore have been superficial at best.

Just gonna point out that since this is Blizzards game they're absolutely fine to make up absolutely anything they like in their FANTASY world. Y'know. The kind of world that is thought up in someones head, doesn't exist, and therefore is not bound by the same laws, natures,or rules of our own world

People were ok with Orcs lore being changed, under the cover of. "It's additional lore we didn't have before." But a much newer race "Older according to it's lore" all of a sudden is retconning BS if it's expanded upon? It's not like Lotr that's been established for 70 years suddenly being changed.

And things like Sargeras corrupting the Eredar being "BS" Ermm the Eredar/Dranei was a recently created race, that they additionally added lore too.

Remember back when Orcs were just an alien race even in WC2 they were pretty much their own savage people, then all of a sudden, oh they're not bad

Every race being DK is kinda bs, but to add a few existing class/races.

Zul'Jin (Troll Druid)
Nathos Blight Caller (Undead Hunter)
Blood Elf Dude in Outlands instance (Blood Elf Druid)
Most Blood elf (Blood Elf Warrior)
Dark Iron (Dwarf Mages)
Undead Paladin (NPC you don't fight in Uldaman

Most of the lore is fine, people are just nit picky. A lot of these characters already exist. "Undead hunters are just stupid." Logically, yes, in a way, however. Did we just forget about Nathos Blightcaller, you know, a undead hunter? Races/Class combinations existed for awhile.

Some shit can be explained easily, like humans and death knights. But overall I agree, there is far to many irl references and tauren paladins feels dumb (despite that I play one).

They really do need a new IP to start again with and this time make sure Metzin keeps adquate notes, that "Sargaras corrupted the Eredar" thing oh so long ago is utter bullshit.

I dunno, some of its alright (i LIKE the spin on the dragonflights and the HP Lovecraft stuff), but the clusterfuck its become is not.

Still, some entertaing questlines still exist or are newly added, shame stuff like is few and far between and the rest of the mindscrew brings it down. :(

Talcon, i love you xD

On a serious note - i couldn't have said it better myself !
Stop sucking to Blizz and see the fact that they simply SCREWED lore to create mroe "choices" instead adding something original.

[url=#user_comment_54896]@Oremir[/url] Maybe the misunderstood the games name for "World of Warhammer" ;)

[url=#user_comment_54882]@Albion[/url]: ... Why sould WoW know annything about Warhammer? ... i think you have your universes mixed up there.

60% of the WoW gaming community knew shit about Warhammer Lore.(40% doesnt care about lore).
Former fans of Warhammer have left WoW.
Funny thing: Those 60% that got to know Warhammer through WoW will cry "this is not MY lore" if they happen to read a Warhammer-book or play the original RPG.

Hey!
I'm a Draenei Shadow Priest
Anti-lore power... WOOOHHHH!!
:B

The World of WOW is not too big anymore, globalization is HERE!!!!

PS. i like Holy Cows, and in the war, changes are acceptable!!!!

Hey, hey guys, guys, hey!
UNDEAD.
PRIESTS.
Trollface.jpg

"A game lore should be acceptable, not explainable."

FUCKING. THIS. I hate it when people jump to the defense of their franchise of choice with increasingly roundabout logic. Just accept that this shit isn't perfect already, for fuck's sake.

I'm an ammendment to be, I said ammendment to be...

I stopped taking the lore seriously the moment holy squid faces from space joined the Alliance. Guess the Draenei resembling the main villain of Warcraft III who nearly destroyed the world doesn't really concern them.

Also, retconning Illidan from repentant anti-hero to crazed villain.

[url=#user_comment_54648]@jasdero[/url]: I am sorry father, I have sinned...I played WoW for the story. It's the only reason I haven't up and left for any other games just yet. People keep saying dimension crossing is wrong for WoW..but they conveniently forget that the Burning Legions ARE from different dimension.

Well, in the lore there are many things respected in the game, and for people telling, Night Elfs mages are bullshit, in the game lore the Nelf passed to druidic faith only after realizing that their magic power lured the demons on azeroth, and the highborne were actually mages, and the first ever.

I'm a dedicated lore-hound, and even I have to concede that the lore has become much more convoluted since 2007. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

this image scrap playxp(http://www.playxp.com/)

Gameplay > Lore

Although I do agree that they could spend a little more time trying to tie the two together better.

However, the only issue I really have with it lately is "You will PvP and you will like it! No matter how stupid it is!" attitude to factions relations.

Oh stop being a lore nazi, jo!

On a side note, since blizzard made night elf mages and gnomes warriors, why can't they make blood elves druids >:(

WoW lore has been a joke since space-goats

Thrall has his own ass to tap, Aggra. Jaina x Thrall shall always be a fan fic idea.

Erm, blizzard making those playable, not what was drawn. Sorry.

Should have made that character in the background an undead hunter. That one was just dumb.

Tauren Paladins. HOLY COW!

You can do another "where we will end up", Rogues with health regen... Recuperate.... WTF.... I just saw a rogue own every duel he did and never got his life below 80%

The real problem with WoW lore is not it's inability to remain straight. As pointed out; "A game lore should be acceptable, not explainable"
If you have start a phrase with "yes but" you are doing it wrong.
Blizz is still good, but they lost the ability to hold to one's soul and mind.

[url=#user_comment_54623]@NoFUTURE[/url] Explain Arcane Mage NEs. I believe the punishment for using arcane was death. But you know, whatever they put it behind them. Not like blood elves are any indication they wouldn't.

Just look at the video coverage from Blizzcon 2010's Lore Q&A... they litterally made stuff up while sitting there... xD

in all truth they should just get rid of the alliance/horde faction separation. They should go old school with alignment and certain actions causing certain factions to like or hate you more. Good people hang out with the dwarves and evil with the undead and so forth.

The blue dragon flight that wanted to destroy / control magic, taking it out of mortal hands didn't matter (the whole dragon flight(s) back story makes less sense all the time).

The whole time bubble thing just really pisses me off as well as on all past achievements.

Forget the Holy Cows, the worst one must be that the past two expansions, Outlands and Northrend all happened in a time warping bubble, so none of that mattered anyways. Arthas and Illidan were apparently dead or trapped in time without knowing it and can't do anything.

Just remember, it's all a Nemesis plot.

In most MMOs everybody cares only about leveling and getting loot, and none of your actions will significantly affect the status of the world, no matter how big and important the demon lord you defeat is. If you care about lore and roleplay you shouldn't play MMOs.

Perfect. Now I can answer "Why I quitted WoW? HOLY COWS!".

well at least the artist is honest. No one is playing wow for the story anymore, its just loot and ego addicted fat, pasty white people who can't break free from their skinner box.

Homer Simpson once said that beer was the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. Therefore: if demons cause half of the trouble on Azaroth, then logically demons must be 50% beer. Mystery solved?

The reason is simple: The great Demon Moneymaker destroyed the common Fantasy-Logic and ethics. Therefore the whole world collapsed and Space-Ships, build by Demons, startet to crash on uncharted Islands near Kalimdor. Friends become Enemys and Allies become friends, no issue, right?

Cont: Only major things that probably should be kept from WoW may be some of the (new) racial lore up to thier arrival, though I'd like to see a war against Arthas in a strategy sence as well.

And people wonder why I have a hatred of WoW. Mainly due to the fact that I do not care for how much they UTTERLY BUTHERED THE LORE that I spent 3 Strategy games making and learning. Admittedly it'd be best that if a WarCraft 4 was to be created, it'd be backed up pre Burning Crusade, if not pre-Wow

Yep. My plan for most mmorpg's is just accept the quest without reading it and go on to hunt the virtual boars instead of trying to make sense of the plot which will just get more twisted than one of them metal spring toys I forgot the name of.

Lore of Warcraft * 1997-2007
May Warcraft 3 always be on our hearts

gay NE male counts as a female, thus the ability to shadowmeld...

There certainly are big retcons though. I think the most major one revolves around Sargeras and Eradars, which are not very forgivable. The rest of the additions/retcons are either much smaller, or done tastefully in my opinion.

I think the problem you have with lore may be that you don't actually read them...
Night Elves are supposed to be very xenophobic and elitist. That's why they can't live with anyone, even the taurens.
Tauren paladins, unlike female NE druids, are not retcon--they're new additions.

The Lore being correctly used in a MMORPG? pfft.. ignorants

So how did male elves shadowmeld? As well as doing it in broad daylight?

Tauren Pallies= New way of looking at Earth Mother Religion
Gnome DK= Mad Necromancer scientists, fits perfectly (see Ick & Krick)

Thrall marrying Jaina? Want to see ^^

Female druids = shapeshifted male elf perverts.

[url=#user_comment_54626]@Hi[/url] "Ah, yes. Highborne. We dismissed that claim."

And to the guy who says WoW is full of lore holes. It's really not. There's tons of stories and such that all match up. Characters respect events that happened in books, yada yada. The only time lore is really bent is for the players to have more characters to play with.

And Forsaken weren't really even rejected.. they never even wanted to go back after killing hundreds of humans and taking their city. Death Knights were sent with the backing of some big players asking for acceptance and forgiveness to kill a common enemy.

N.Elf mages have been around forever, did you even read the quest lines explaining the return of the highborne?

...- and own alsmost everything between Silvermoon and Arathi. All that while fighting on many battles: Plaguelands, invading Gilneas, Northrend, ... becoming a force to be reckond with and crumbling from within. For hells sake, Silvanas couldn't even put a hold to Putress shit by herself.

Oh, and while at it, am I the only one to think that the future will inevitably lead up to a war in which a major fraction of the undead will leave the Horde with New Lordaeron being a neutral city? I mean, look: Humans a a predominant race, yes, but undead? They are everywhere, alone-... (TBC)

Actually many of the new classes are quiet acceptable as they would present a development. Races are more intermingled than they used to be so it'd only make sense for them to lern new things. NEW Things. Not things they abolished because they got drunk on them tore the planet in half. N.Ef Mages...

Next comic will be about STEAM (suffice to say we havent actually had a real steam focused comic that i can remember)

I don't actually mind them opening up sections of society to new practices that were taboo or unknown before. The things that annoy me most are when they openly retcon ie making the draenai pretty and not from Draenor after all. It cheapens all their other changes by association.

Hunting virtual boars is okay. What about murdering others, then kidnapping their children. As a DAILY!

Man, this is like the Demoman blowing up his parents at age 6.

Outland along with the orcs and draenei go all the way back to warcraft 1 so im OK with that, but holy cows and N.elf mages + other shit, really pisses me off >:

Its just another way for blizz to make money.

But if you aren't on an RP server to RP on (I'm just on one for the atmosphere,) there is no need to really pay that much attention to the lore. Even there, just a minor knowledge of WoW's crazy lore is okay. ('cus you'll be making your own... technically.)

(cont.)
They actually gave an in-game reasoning for Tauren Paladins. Apparently they view the Moon and the Suns as the eyes of the Earthmother, yet only worshiped the moon. So an NPC Tauren asked why not worship the sun? And thus: Holy Cows. (Paladins and Priests)

Eh, a few things make sense, and a few things don't. Female NElf Druids and Male NElf Priests are easier to hand wave away than NElf Mages. True, there was that Faction of them in Dire Maul, and they are now part of the Night Elves at large, but when you get to the number of NElf Mage PCs... (tbc)

could be worse, we could have night elf warlocks

also: RETBULL GIVES YOU WINGS!

Waait a moment. Just to include a observation. Draenei could always be Shamen. I played one way back in burning crusade. The explanation was that the murkblood that traveled with the Draenei where passing on the knowlage to those that sought to grow closer to the earth. Or something like that.

something about hat-wearing were-folk doesn't sit right.

[url=#user_comment_54604]@Grug[/url]: Lore wise, yes, but some player readers may not get why N. Elves avoid magic.

Strange that Jo didn't include a pic of Night Elf Mages, because that's the worst abuse of lore out of all the new classes.

Besides Tauren Paladins are bad ass and fit well.

Warcraft, the furry lore.

Next update: Were tiger race.

[url=#user_comment_54587]@Truth[/url]: "Bioware will never sacrifice their story telling in the name of needless and unnecesary gameplay changes." BWAHAHA! That's a good one! ... Oh, wait. You were being serious? Oh, man... get ready for Disappointmentville.

Tauren paladins and draeni shamans make sense,though:When the Cataclysm came,some Tauren stopped following their shamanistic religion or whatever and followed the Light and Draenei came from the planet of the Orcs so they must have started using shamanism too at some point.

Can only say one thing:

"LOLore!"

Lore became meaningless at Burning Crusade and Space-Cows.

dont have a cow man ...

Don't worry, it's not just fantasy lore that gets weirder over time.

Real "lore" does exactly the same thing. Just look at armies still honestly having cavalry, and religions abiding rules that made sense 3000 years ago.

Too bad that wow made the world of mmos in the last years... too bad

Yeah, which remains of that one time...

...wait. What am I doing on the internet when the Superbowl is on?

And this is why ToR will be better, BioWare will never sacrifice their story telling in the name of needless and unnecesary gameplay changes. The world could've lived without cow paladins but Blizzard did it anyway.

I do not mind the Cowadins. Mainly because Paladin's are meat shields and what better to be one with than a walking, talking steakhouse special.

Warcraft 3's lore was acceptable, WoW's wasn't, it was just an amalgamation of different mythologies from worldwide civilizations, but Paladin Taurens was pretty much the first step toward that ultimate "Wtf?"

This comic is exactly why I never actually gave WoW a try: Because I am a lore-nerd, and WoW is riddled with inconsistencies and retcons.

Even Chris Metzen described WoW as a "lore train-wreck". On one side they had an intricate established lore, on the other they had a wide-reaching, addictive gameplay. Which one to sacrifice to make tons of easy cash wasn't hard to figure...

An in-game archaeology find explains that until some time ago, N.Elf males were druids, and N.Elf females were priests, until one day when society changed and all that junk. But yeah, it don't make sense a lot of the time.

BTW: N.Elves and Tauren can live together, but as Cenarion Circlists.

Gnomes can play pyro in next expansion

herp

derp