Breakfast Topic: Does the levity mess up the lore?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 12th 2008 at 8:00AM
Warning: Wrath spoilers ahead!
Blizzard's pretty good at Lore when they want to be, with the whole 2.4 storyline, the Battle of Ahn'Qiraj, and many epic storylines promising to come out of Northrend. At the same time, they also have their own offbeat brand of humor that is never far gone from their design philosophy, and it shows up in their stories too.
Sometimes it serves them well and adds a bit of levity, but other time, it seems to take on a life of its own, a life that can strangle what could have otherwise been something compelling and interesting. Zul'Aman is perhaps the most pertinent example. What could have been the last attempt of the Farstriders to shut down the troll menace threatening their people, what could have been a revival of the Troll killing tradition of the Arathi, or an examination of the High Elves who stayed loyal to the Alliance but still hate the Amani, instead turned into a cheap redneck treasure hunt. It killed much of the allure of the zone and turned what could have been a epic struggle against a former hero of the Horde into a run of the mill bunny bashing session.
It feels sort of the same way with Hemet Nesingwary and the DHETA. It's been a running gag that Hemet must be some sort of incredible genocidal maniac who's run countless animal species into extinction. Yet there's never been any indication until now that he is. In fact, the Tauren, who by all indication are Hunters who still understand the need for balance and harmony with nature, seem to have respect for him.
Yet here's this DHETA group, a maniacal group of radicals who eschew any killing of animals at all, looking to bring him down. As a Druid roleplayer, I've never seen Druids as the type to lean so radically to one side like that. They've always, in my mind, understood the need to kill, the cycle of predator and prey, and there are druid quests that would seem to bear that out -- the very wearing of leather armor would seem to bear that out. So how am I supposed to reconcile the Cenarion Circle I know with a cheap joke about PETA?
Then again, Hemet himself is sort of part of Blizzard's lightheartedness to begin with, his name and original camp in Stranglethorn Vale being one big Hemingway joke. So it could be I'm reading too much into it. What do you think?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Breakfast Topics, Lore, RP, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Mith Aug 12th 2008 8:11AM
i like it
Aislinana Aug 12th 2008 8:13AM
I think DEHTA is a very quirky PETA bash. I think having druid extremists kinda is an interesting twist on Blizzard's fairly ingrained ambiguity on "who's evil, and who's good?" even if it is a little too tongue-in-cheek.
Hemet Nesingwary could be seen as a big bad sport hunter (which is against some teachings) but is the DEHTA better? They have you slaughter humanoids in defense of the animals. It really makes you wonder, yet again, who is in the right here.
If either are.
Braundo Aug 12th 2008 10:46AM
That's what I thought about this. It seems more like a jab at ecoterrorism and extremists than anything else, given that it looks like you'll be KILLING PEOPLE because they killed animals.
I still think DEHTA is the stupidest thing to come to WoW, bar none.
Karthak Aug 12th 2008 8:15AM
Don't forget that not all druids are nice. The druids within the Wailing Caverns, for instance, are completely evil. In the rpg there is also mention of centaur druids, and those are nasty people. What I mean to say is that it's not surprising to me that there are druid factions with very different philosophies.
ScorchHellfire Aug 12th 2008 6:53PM
and there are vrykul druid models... and they've allied themselves with the scourge... it seems to me that druids are the true evil class! not locks and dks... (especially since they're the only class thats seems capable of soloing onyxia at this point...)
Todd Aug 12th 2008 8:16AM
Hemet is still just pissed about having his book torn and scattered throughout Stranglethorn.
Hoggersbud Aug 12th 2008 8:18AM
look, no matter how many animals Hemet, or his son send us out to kill, there's always more. Clearly these animals must have been exposed to some sort of mutagenic agent that is causing them to reproduce at excess rates.
The killing is thus practical and necessary. On with the slaughter!
Wasuremono Aug 12th 2008 8:20AM
Yes they take it too far. It's okay to have a few Haris Pilton NPC's or a few clouded references such as the orginal Hemet Nessingwary questlines or the Legend of Zelda questlines but when it becomes a major instance in the game (Zul'Aman) or a major faction and questline like DEHTA then it is too far. Simply renaming the DEHTA faction and making it less of a reference to PETA would make it a whole lot easier to swallow.
Zali Aug 12th 2008 8:52AM
There are plenty of Darrowshire type questlines. (my personal favorite.) I just don't see how a little tongue and cheek humor is taking it too far. I think one of the reasons that WOW is so successful with so many people is that it hosts a fantastic amount of diversity in game content.
Juliah Aug 13th 2008 10:33AM
Yep, I agree with both you and Daniel. Humor should be a sprinkled accent in a game like this, not the main course. It should be used sparingly, like salt: a little goes a long way.
Notricus Aug 12th 2008 4:39PM
I agree, blizzard messed up lore with nesingwary and D.E.T.H.A. Also gnomes are a mess up also, they were just put it for more quests which were also jokes like half the quests in wow so i hope the unique quests in northrend are going to be as unique as people say and hopefully related to lore.
sephirah Aug 12th 2008 8:26AM
One of the reasons of the success of WoW is the humor in the game.
Kiukiu Aug 12th 2008 8:32AM
For all the many mindless grind quests in Nagrand and the countless times I was ganked doing them across multiple characters, I can assure you that I feel no sympathy for him :)
Piper Aug 12th 2008 8:36AM
I agree with Aislinana. Granted, maybe it's just because I'm a lit major, but I see a very serious critique of our society within the too-silly clash of Hemet and DEHTA. I sort of saw that in ZA, too - a bunch of treasure hunters invading an ancestral home? It's not even a group bent on vengeance or destruction, but just a bunch of morons who want shiny treasures. Sounds sort of like the riot of museum looting that's been occurring recently...
.... then again, I may be reading WAY too much into all this.
Kristian Cee Aug 12th 2008 8:38AM
PETA is already a joke without Blizzard's help.
Eternalpayn Aug 12th 2008 10:16AM
Win.
John Aug 12th 2008 8:38AM
Just so you know:
(from wikipedia:
"Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group"
So it's inappropriate to apply the word to the killing of animals. Since this is fantasy we can extend the definiteion to the killing of other intelligent species, but certainly not killing animals. Nesingwary is simply a big game hunter. The Peta parody is pretty dumb and completely out of place in the setting, but I'll reserve final judgement for when I actually encounter them in the game, maybe it'll be funny.
Matthew Rossi Aug 12th 2008 9:20AM
The mammoths being killed by the loot crazed poachers in Borean Tundra are sapient. They even have a quest giver who telepathically talks to you.
Now, if animals can talk and give you gold for performing tasks, then killing them is different from murder how?
Zali Aug 12th 2008 10:44AM
@Matthew Rossi:
They taste better... unless you are undead.
Tridus Aug 12th 2008 8:40AM
I don't mind Nesingwary or the DEHTA stuff, really. That whole thing has never been very serious to begin with, and it doesn't really affect anything else.
ZA though, I agree with you. ZA to me seems a lot like Blizzard spoofing the players themselves. Most players don't need any reason to kill something in game other then "ooh, loot!" What was the name of the very first quest in that? "Ooh, shinies!"
Zul'jin was a hero of the Horde. Apparently he's not anymore, since there's low level Blood Elf quests to deal with the Amani. But ZA doesn't really explore anything of the sort.