Blizzard Debuts Cinematic for World of WarCraft: Warlords of Draenor

You are not PREPARED!

They were already attempting mass murder on the draenei because of Ner'zhul convincing them to do so. They were not living peacefully before drinking the blood.

And don't think that the Burning Legion's influence is broken. I bet Kil'jaeden won't stand idly by as his plan fails.

Nope, time travel into an alternate timeline.

@bjorn: Yeah I've got a lot of issues with this as well. I haven't played WoW in five years but I like(d) the Warcraft lore. So...are the events of everything up to this point now null and void? They still have a couple of storylines that could be made into expansions (the emerald dream comes to mind), but is any of that possible now? Did Malfurion live to see Archimonde die? Was Archimonde even a major player? Did Arthas and Ner'zhul(think that's right) ever become the Lich King? Mutilation might be too strong of a word, but it feels appropriate. This is disappointing.

Are the events of WoW considered canon?

I wish Blizzard would stop mutilating their own lore. They are entering Lucas territory right now. The story of Durotan, fall of the Orcs and continuously the sacking of Stormwind was pretty freaking good. Not to mention that the whole freaking Warcraft lore is hinged on this one pivotal point, the creation of the green orcs, then the opening of the dark portal after they drunk the blood. How did Hellscream go trough the dark portal to a time when it wasn't even open? How will they open it now that the Burning Legion's influence is broken? Is necromancy even a class anymore? Where the fuck is Doomhammer?

But what I really don't get is that the orcs were mostly hunter's and shamans. Living peacefully with nature. The point was that they wouldn't have done what they did if not for the demon blood. That's their whole story, they where corrupted, fell from grace, murdered and plundered their way through Azeroth and sacking Stormwind. Marching on Lordaeron, killing Lothar, winning back their honor after killing Mannoroth in WarCraft 3.

My brain hurts, I cant think about this anymore. Guess it was inevitable that as with all good video-game lore, it will get mutilated sooner or later.

I started playing WoW over the weekend because Dan's feature on the site got me curious and now I'm hooked.

The horde lore is in a weird place with Thrall stepping down and Vol'jin stepping up as Warchief. The Thrall stuff should be interesting since we might see some interaction with him, Durotan, and Grom. I'm more interested in what Sylvannas and Lor'themar Theron are going to be doing in new Outlands.

It's probably way cheaper.

Probably the best way to look at it is the same way the newer Star Trek movies 'canonically rebooted' the series, except instead of Spock being all cool and shit, it was Garrosh being a huge asshole to everyone.

So I heard that the Warcraft movie would be live action, and I have to ask... why? Seriously... why?

Wow that got me really pumped up for the new expansion! I think imma start leveling an orc shaman. Kinda forgot how much I enjoy the lore, hopefully they try to do more with that rather than a bunch more pop culture references every other quest.

That was pretty badass.

nope! It's basically alternate timeline stuff, separate universe. Everything that happened in the main timeline stays the same.

I feel like this is not well thought out.

But uh, wouldn't this then completely screw up and alter all the following events?

Taht was a pretty great cinematic. Still not as good as the WotlK cinematic but nonetheless pretty great.

I tried to read a wiki to understand what Thrall has been doing since Burning Crusade, and I couldn't really make out what the deal was other than he was trying to fix the Cataclysm, or something with the Earthen.

But from what I did read to get up to date on the lore, I'm actually more interested in what Baine Bloodhoof and Vol'jin are going to be up to. That shit that went down with Cairne was a raw deal.

like Final Fantasy, WarCraft (as well as Diablo & Starcraft, because let's be honest) will be relevant again. some day...

I feel like Blizzard went out of their way to make this expansion solely for me, or at least folks like me. There's exactly one aspect of Warcraft I remain obsessed with to this day, and that's Grom Hellscream. (To the point where my favourite hero in DOTA is Juggernaut, and will forever more be.)

With him back in the picture, I just.. Won't be able to resist picking this damn thing up. As lame as time-travel is as a concept, and as desperate as Blizzard seem, a combination of outworld, orcs, the burning legion and Hellscream is the best thing imaginable for me.

So yes, I did like Burning Crusade quite a bit.

And when they get back to Azeroth, it's completely different and Murlocs run the world, thanks to all of this timeline muddling.

Nice callback.

He's quite possibly the biggest dickhead in all of WoW. I'm glad that we got the chance to crush him in Pandaria.

I'll be interested in Thrall's role in Draenor. I know its stupid to preorder this but I'd like that free level 90 boost to get a shaman ready.

I love me some warcraft cheese.

Time travel.. seriously ? I guess it's always been there in the background, but damn.. what a "great" way to completely muddle up the lore.

But hey, I guess they gotta find some kinda way for people to get to fight and interact with all the characters they know and love. It's becoming a recurring theme though, I don't know how many times they've gone back to the roots at this point...

So do I, but the new work they've been doing on the models at least means it will finally look better than the last..decade.

I wish WoW looked this good.

Loved that shot that was referencing Warcraft 3 where Grom Hellscream gets killed by Manaroth exploding. I haven't played WoW since Wrath (and that was a free trial) but the story in this seems like something I want to experience for myself. It seems to be a bit fan service-y but Warcraft 3 was my first PC game and because they're tying the two stories together it seems like it will be a great expansion.

It's also nice that they brought back the old composer to do the music because the newer music hasn't been so hot. The only down side to this is that Grom isn't voiced by the original voice actor, all orcs seem to sound pretty generic now - with the exception of Thrall.

im pretty sure 90 percent of that movie is going to be cg anyway.

I played them all and liked 3 a bunch. Haven't ever cared for the lore very much, but these cinematics are pretty great.

You and me both. I can't imagine how much money it would cost to make a 90 minute movie out of the art from these cinematics, but I'd watch it for sure.

@mythdark: Grom's forces are building a Horde settlement in Ashenvale when Cenarius comes to wreck them. In desperation they seek the corrupted spring without knowing that Mannoroth had spilt his blood into it to tempt them. In order to beat Cenarius Grom chooses to drink from it knowing it might be corrupted, and after they kill Cenarius Mannoroth comes to claim them.

Thrall then redeems his soul with the aid of Jaina in one of the most annoying RTS missions ever.

November is way longer than I would have thought considering the current content drought.

Can't wait though.

@heatdrive88: It's an alternate time line, Garrosh goes back in time and warns his Father not to accept Gul'dans offer. The events of the original games and wow still happened, but there is now an alternate timeline.

I love these cinematics

Ok, I liked the parallel there between the original cinematic where Grom dies and this time when Garrosh jumped in to save him.

@liquidprince: Thats really a shame - I've always felt it holds up amazingly well. They get so much mileage out of the art style and it may not be the shiniest, but none of it ever looks _bad_ to me. I've also tried many other MMOs both free and subscription and while most are always fun for a month or two, WoW is always miles ahead in terms of depth and content and sheer fun in my opinion and I never feel the cost is undeserved.

Blizzard has a real cinematic talent. They are the best in the industry

gimme dat warlords

But this must be way further back in time than Warcraft 3 (as referred to in the first post in this quote), at the time of Warcraft 2 lore?

In Warcraft 3, though, the orcs under Grom Hellscream's command, are offered to drink from the cursed demon blood again, if I remember correctly.

Were you ever a Warcraft 1-3 follower, or did you start with WoW? As someone who grew up with 2 and a bit of 3 before moving into WoW, this is way cooler than it has any right to be, and makes me sad this isn't A: the movie, and B: it's WoW, which after Blizzard fucked me over with account restoration after it got hijacked during ~2 years I wasn't playing, I've vowed never to play again. Or at least pay Blizzard for the privilege to.

Grom looks like a fucking hobo. What the hell? He looks better in the Warcraft 3 Cinematic.

Cripes. That's practically all I can say.

Thanks for the update, by the way. I've been out of the game since Burning Crusade - I had no idea Garrosh turned into such a dickhead.

They've cannibalized the lore set up in WC I-III that they have legitimately no loose threads left to build upon, I think - no surprise they've gone back in time.

you pleases me.

If the games looked 0.0000000001% as good as the trailers, I might be interested in playing them. Seeing the game now however, it just looks so bad visually, it really sucks any and all will from me to even attempt it. That and there are a ton of other great MMO's out there now which are free. The Star Wars one was pretty fun, and Guild Wars 2 was pretty great as well.

This pleases me.

Grom Hellscream is radical. Too bad his son ended up being a huge ass.

you just saved my brain from meltdown. thanks!

I would rather have a Warcraft movie like this instead of one with real actors.