* The moment I have been waiting for has arrived! I’m talking, of course, about Bruce Baugh discussing the mythology of World of Warcraft. What did you think I meant? Bruce’s initial post on the topic praises the game’s writers for creating a fantasy world that’s both sprawling and, in some ways, actually post-apocalyptic.
* One thing Bruce touches on that I myself picked up on right away is the presence of more than two opposing forces. When I was a kid, I was always drawn to characters who, though evil, constituted a “third way” that was distinct from both the good guys and the main bad guys: Destro in G.I. Joe, Hordak and those snake guys in He-Man, the Rat King in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, and the bounty hunters in Star Wars, Shelob, Old Man Willow, and the Balrog in Tolkien, and so on. In essence, WoW boasts several such factions, which align and realign in such a way as to force alliances and conflicts out of a variety of configurations of the opposing powers. Now, in some ways that’s just common sense–the real world is not a bipolar one, and even during roughly bipolar periods like World War II or the Cold War you had any number of independent actors out for themselves. (Stalinist Russia during the former and Maoist China during the latter are really the Destros of 20th-century geopolitics.) But in the context of a fantasy world I’m viewing through the eyes of my inner eight-year-old, realism has nothing to do with it–it’s sheer magic.
* In a second, somewhat related post, Bruce takes a look at a major facet of the game as it stands these days–massive, organized attacks on the other races by a legion of demonically spawned undead called the Scourge–in terms of how it’s manifested as gameplay. The mechanics of the Scourge’s invasion are unique and greatly enjoyable–giant floating necropolises!–but in terms of my love of third-way villains, I could be wrong but I think this is a case of the game’s third-way villains becoming the main antagonist, like if in the ruins of the Empire some surviving minion of Jabba the Hutt got ahold of another Death Star and some cloning facilities and went buckwild. I love it!
* Moving on, I’m sorry but I can’t see any reason I shouldn’t be predisposed to liking a movie in which you can see this:
* There used to be a piece on Splash Page in which Grant Morrison reveals that he’s been involved in some way with preparations for a Flash movie, but I think it’s gone now? Anyway here’s what he said:
“The thing with Hollywood stuff,” Morrison started to explain, “is that I’ve signed all these NDAs, so I can’t talk about it. I don’t want to get myself in trouble for saying the wrong things. There’s a lot of projects I’m not ready to talk about. I can’t. It’s just not allowed.”
So we thought we were shifting gears by asking him his thoughts on the upcoming “Flash” film — after all, he’s resurrected the Flash in “Final Crisis.” But it appears that we may have hit upon another sore spot, since it appears he’s pitched a “Flash” film.
“Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I can’t talk about,” Morrison said. “Yes, I have talked to them. I’m deeply involved in those discussions. I know what’s going down with all of that, and it’s actually really exciting. But beyond that, I can’t say anything. I wish I could tell you. I’m sure announcements will probably be made at some point, but I can’t say anything.”
* Non-indie-comics reader Ben Morse ponders Matt Kindt’s Super Spy.
(Via Kennyb.)
I live to serve, Comrade Sahib.
And yes, the Scourge (and the rest of the Burning Legion) was a context-shifting kind of thing. The First and Second Wars between the Horde and Alliance, the subjects of the first two Warcraft RTSes, had the demons in the background using the orcs as their weapons, and ended with the Dark Portal being shut down as the orcs’ homeworld was being blown up. Then came the Third War, with the Burning Legion taking matters into its own hands and fighting Horde just as happily as Alliance, and the two sides having to work together to keep an arch-demon from destroying all of Azeroth’s mana supply and then presumably blowing up the planet. Close thing, too. Then comes the Scourge, in the Warcraft II: The Frozen Throne expansion pack, setting up residence for the long haul. Broadly speaking it’s demonic forces in the west, Scourge in the east, and they do not respect existing boundaries.
Which is really cool.
Bruce, to what extent does player action (either collectively or by one particularly awesome dude) influence the flow of the game? Like, was the planet ever really in danger had the players really messed up or just run up the white flag en masse? Has one player’s lucky shot against a big bad ever altered a storyline? I don’t know how it works, ultimately.
Not much. New situations arrive on the developer’s schedule. To get the storytelling fun out of it, you basically turn off awareness of other people doing the same thing you are.
More on tht later, though. Just realized I need a nap. 🙂