Breakfast Topic: Why Not Change History?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 14th 2006 at 8:00AM
With the expansion, we'll be able to venture into the Caverns of Time, where we'll be able to travel through time and visit crucial moments of Azeroth's history. We're tasked with safeguarding the past, but... why? Will Alliance players really be enthusiastic about aiding in Thrall's escape from Durnholde Keep? Do any of us want to return to the past only to idly watch as Medivh opens the Dark Portal, for example? It seems Nozdormu really needs to work on his advertising pitch...And if we have the power to travel to the past, why not use it to fix things? Tired of farming to create a Scepter of the Shifting Sands? Why not just go back and prevent Fandral Staghelm from smashing it in the first place - or better yet, take it from him? So we can travel into the past - but why don't we change it?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pzychotix Aug 14th 2006 8:11AM
Here's an idea. If you phail, bits of WoW start randomly dying.
Come on, obviously you don't mess with time. Didn't you ever watch Back to the Future?
Encodes Aug 14th 2006 8:21AM
If we didnt free Thrall then archimonde wouldnt have been defeated and the burning legion would have killed us all!
Burgdorn Aug 14th 2006 8:33AM
Well that is the thing about being Norzdormu though, he knows every event that will ever happen from the past until the future. Why? Because he is there, and it is his job to safe guard that events happen as they are suppose to happen. We are more or less stopping others who are trying to play with events as they are now.
I guess to it sounds cool to be able to alter the past but what if that makes the present worse off then it actually is? Follow Norzdormu's way of things to keep the future on course, it is always better for all of us.
ForBAEHOO Aug 14th 2006 8:36AM
Your efforts are already part of history you can not change the past for the exact reason that you already did what you do when you go there
Lummox Aug 14th 2006 10:30AM
Actually, if you read through Blizzard's preview, there are "dark, sinister agents have infiltrated the timeways, embarking on shadowy missions to alter the course of the past, present and future." So my take on it is that we are being sent in to stop said agents and ensure those events all take place.
Why would you still want to do that if, for example, you were an Alliance and not saving Thrall would mean no Horde? Well, as Encodes mentioned, Archimonde would not/may not have been defeated.
Every action has a ripple effect towards the future, and as ripples move forward they get bigger and bigger. While in a short-sighted way you are correct in saying that an Alliance would be better served if Thrall didn't escape, you have no clue as to what the potential repercussions of that will be. There is an equal likelihood that the world would be worse off as there is for the world being better (from an Alliance point of view).
Better the evil we do know than the evil we don't...
James Aug 14th 2006 10:46AM
Wow, this is a great topic. I haven't read the Warcraft books or know the storyline at all. Is there a lot you have to read to understand why Azeroth is in it's current state? Do the instances in the game reflect the full storyline; obviously stating since you said why not stop Fandral from smashing the Scepter? The more and more I play WoW, the storyline keeps getting more and more interesting. I'm excited to hear about the time-based addition for the Burning Crusade. I've always been a fan of time-related games, such as Chrono Trigger. How many books is there to describe this story? I would like to read on how this all takes place!
SSpectre Aug 14th 2006 10:56AM
Someone didn't watch Back to the Future on AMC last night...
Astra Aug 14th 2006 12:07PM
The great "paradox" of time travel is that oft-mentioned "kill your own grandfather" nonsense. The only thing is, the existence of time travel negates free will. If it was possible to return to the past, you couldn't change anything anyhow--that you even exist, that there is a past means everything prior to you (in your frame of reference) has been determined.
Of course it means that everything in your future is already determined by someone else's past, but that's only really an issue if they can move from their frame of reference to yours. Crazy as Terry Gilliam is, 12 Monkeys got it pretty close: a return to the past will do nothing to change the flow of history. That you have returned means only that the events between the past and your return must happen exactly that way, regardless of your action.
cheezedog420 Aug 14th 2006 2:27PM
I personaly think that Blizzard will do a good job presenting the time travel quests in a manner that leads you to believe you where ment to go back in time and accomplish the things that you do. Blizzard never does things half assed, and there highlighting these quests in particular show that they really excited about the work that went into them.
Now it may be possible that you won't be able to play the Thrall quest with a Alliance charicter, and Alliance quest with a horde charicter. But if that is so, its so because the way that Blizzard decided to play out the quest just does not allow it. And as much as it sucks that this must be done, it must be done. So let it be done.
In any case, I really hope there are more people such as myself that have faith that the best that can be done, will be done. After all, if you don't have some faith in your fellow man to do what is expected of them, what are you here for?
Cheezedog420
lol Aug 15th 2006 10:28AM
Lore, LOL!!!1