Thunderspank

Fall of Theramoore

I had high expectations for the Fall of Theramoore scenario.

I even bought the book, I read it and while it was fun, I felt it was overpriced for the content it had. It would have been fine at the $5 – 7 price mark. When books by Terry Pratchett or Patrick Rothfuss sell for around$10 – 12, paying $16 for Tides of War just leaves me feeling cheated. For $16 you should get a LOT more content.

Yeah I know Tides was hardcover but I had to buy the hardcover since it was the only version available in deadtree form. The only reason to read it was for the story, the writing itself doesn’t lend itself to rereading. Golden writes well enough, but she has to tell a straightforward story and she tells it, she doesn’t show it. The difference is subtle but if you pick up one of Terry Pratchett’s books you’ll see the difference at once. When you’re shown something and left to interpret it in your head, you can go back and reread a book and get more out of it. But if you’re told what happened straight up, it doesn’t leave much for your imagination and you don’t get as involved in the story.

And the story… it is good enough for a MMO’s plot but it is not a complex story. I can see how Blizzard want to expand on their brand with doing lore in much more detail in  books and for what they’re intended for they’re good. But really the core lore  should also be in a Lore Journal in game or on the Blizzard site.

Anyway, back to the scenario.

There is not much replay value in it. I played the horde version and for me, the reasons are:

1. A quiet world. Doesn’t feel like a big battle going on. Its glorified group questing in a town that is asleep at night. Where is the horde war machine? Where are the alliance generals you need to avoid lest they smash you to smithereens? Why don’t you even get to see Jaina in the distance and run from her or something?
2. No challenge. I know my gear level is way higher than 353, but you don’t even need to think. There should be some crap you need to avoid, something you need skill for which you can work on improving. There is just a big circle on the ground you need to stay out of and that is it. Put some stuff in there that can kill you no matter what that you need to be very careful about!
3. Flat story telling. Scenarios were expected to move story telling along. They didn’t do it for me. There was nothing different from group quests in the scenario.

I was hoping they would be more like the quest rogues do for the daggers in Gilneas. Not as tough, but with some new mechanics. Didn’t see any of that.

And the portal at the end drops you in your capital city. That is bloody annoying. It took me forever and a day to get where I was in Nagrand.

So what would I like to see in scenarios?

1. Challenge that you can’t outgear. Raid boss stomping around that you can’t kill. Some gauntlet event that you need to avoid environmental effects in. Pats that summon other mobs that summon more mobs.
2. Make it feel bigger… more stuff in the background maybe.
3. New mechanics. Make it a little different from a typical group quest!

Anyway, I’m decidedly underwhelmed with the scenario. So much so that I feel meh about placing my pre-order for Mists. Oh I will play it, I will get it. But this scenario was such a let down for new content after a year’s wait that I lost interest in content I had “invented” for myself. It just made me want to log off. And I did.

Blizzard can do better. I hope they don’t pull this crap again. Not all scenarios will be awesome, its fine to have some basic ones. It just sucks that they didn’t pull out all the stops for the first one ever, the replacement for the launch event and the first new content in one year.