Breakfast Topic: As Orgrimmar burns

Now, as we approach the eve of destruction, as the elements tear apart the world we know and love, the gates of Orgrimmar are relevant to me once again. The wonderment is still there. The awe and the sense of scale still remains. I'm sad. I am watching my favorite place in all of Azeroth burn to the ground before my very eyes. It is heartbreaking, and I am heartbroken.
I know the city will be rebuilt. I know Orgrimmar is coming back better than ever, its gates fortified and its structures secure. But I cannot get over what I am witnessing -- a living, breathing world that, six years down the road, still conveys a sense of excitement and change and wonder. My world is burning. My gates are burning. Cataclysm is weeks away. It never hit me until right now, as I stand before my favorite landmark in all of Azeroth and watch its destruction.
At what moment did you realize that Cataclysm was not just some expansion to a game you love, but an event that is truly changing the world you have grown to cherish?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
cocoboom Nov 18th 2010 8:03AM
when it was announced at blizzcon last year
Ishammel Nov 18th 2010 9:23AM
I'm uprating this - it was just good sarcastic humour, I'm sure no malice was intended.
Moghar Nov 18th 2010 8:03AM
4.03a PTR
Qazaam Nov 18th 2010 8:35AM
Yes, this. I downloaded the ptr last night and it finally hit me. Now, in live, I'm just traveling around, already missing the old Azeroth.
Maymer Nov 18th 2010 12:25PM
I agree with you. Until the PTR, I have been forcing myself to not go looking for much Cataclysm information, so that when I finally enter it, I could gain a true sense of awe and wonder like I did when I first began playing.
Blizzard has once again shown me how wrong I was. I was not shocked or awed at what I saw Stormwind turn into....
I was completely flabbergasted!
My beloved city of old had transformed into a juggernaut of human power, her sweeping towers scorched, her streets stained with ash and soot from the devil spawn Deathwing himself. Her buildings, once so generic and common, have had breathe of life placed upon them, their stone structure screaming its power to all of Azeroth.
I was truly in shock when I saw the new Stormwind City Graveyard. It felt like a true monument to all the soldiers that had fallen for Stormwind and her safety.
Yet, there was one determining factor that truly made me feel that my beloved Stormwind, much like my much loved Azeroth, had grown up.
Stormwind Keep.
No longer is it an obscure building, flanked as a long hallway. No longer does the great leader of Stormwind stand oddly with a throne in the middle of the room. No. The keep now has a grand outside entrance, with a towering statue of Varian. Instead of a long hallway that almost welcomes the Horde, it contains a strong and powerful image of our leader, as if screaming "Come! Come inside my city! We have been destroyed once by your kind....and I shall not allow it to happen again!"
I do wonder though how the other cities look. I hear Orgrimmar is absolutely stunning, and don't feel pictures truly do it justice.
Byron Nov 18th 2010 5:50PM
The new Orgrimar is impressive, but unfortunately it's still no Warsong Hold.
It doesn't tower over the landscape with black steel spikes jutting so far into the sky that even Deathwing would think twice about flying too close. Zeppelins don't fly *into* it as if it were an earthbound space station. And it's not rooted deep into the ground like an ancient tree.
It's infinitely more formidable than the old Orgrimar, but not the pinnacle of Horde architecture that Warsong Hold is.
I wish what they had done was to enclose the entire Valley of Strength in one massive superstructure similar to Warsong Hold, and built the walls into the Valley's canyon walls, and put massive steel spikes on top like Blades Edge Mountains, maybe with some Black Dragon Flight corpses impaled on a few of them for good measure.
Sigh, what could have been...
Nina Katarina Nov 18th 2010 8:04AM
When we ran ZG last week, and my friend said, "We'll only have a couple more chances at this thing, you know."
Still didn't get my kitty.
Luci Nov 18th 2010 8:41AM
Same thing. I am running it tonight, but I'm one of the folks anticipating a 23rd drop date for 4.03a, so I imagine that leaves one, maybe two more times after tonight. :(
Best of luck to all of us fighting until the end.
roseclown Nov 18th 2010 9:25AM
Same. I have only one level yet till I hit exalted, and just enough time to get it. So here's hoping. I also hope one of the mounts drop, but don't expect it. I'm just glad that I can solo Thekal on my hunter...
clundgren Nov 18th 2010 12:57PM
Innumerable visits to ZG and I have the raptor but no tiger. While I was thrilled to get the raptor, I'm Horde, so it was just one more for the stable. I figure I have two more shots at the mount I really covet.
Hey Blizz, how about you tweak those drop rate for the final week or so? Huh? Huh?
Swifteye Nov 18th 2010 8:06AM
It's still not quite real to me... I have a feeling it won't be totally real until I head to the top of Thunder Bluff one day soon to find Baine Bloodhoof, and it finally sinks in then that I truly will never see Cairne again.
*sniffle*
corpsehand Nov 18th 2010 8:17AM
I know exactly how you feel. I find myself in Thunder Bluff a lot more lately, making sure to give the occasional /salute or /bow to Cairne as I pass.
Also makes me wish I'd rolled a Tauren years ago.
greywolfe Nov 18th 2010 8:24AM
i realize i'm going to get burned at the stake for this, and/or downvoted a lot, whichever comes first, but i never played the rts games. so, by warcraft iii, i never actually knew anything about the tauren and certainly had no idea about cairne.
when i started playing, i started off with a human mage for five mintues, before i realized that i didn't want to do that. i'd been reading the manual and decided that i liked the idea of shape-shifting and wanted to be a bear.
night elves never really sat well with me, but the tauren...well, the minute i ran up thunder bluff for the first time, i knew that this was going to be my "home" in the game. and then, of course i got to know about cairne.
so, when the leaks started happening about what occurs to him - that made it real for me.
Aaron Nov 18th 2010 8:39AM
@Greywolfe why would you get down voted or burned at the steak (hehe get it tauren steak) for that?
greywolfe Nov 18th 2010 8:44AM
@aaron: for not having played the rts games.
Amy Schley Nov 18th 2010 9:24AM
Contrary to what some may believe, not having played the RTS game is a more common experience than having played it. Many of us were sucked in by our friends, not by our devotion to Blizzard's entire catalog.
And then there are those, like the friend who got me into WoW, who bought the RTS as filler for when he couldn't afford his WoW subscription.
mshosking63 Nov 18th 2010 9:28AM
yep, this. Pre-emptive RIP Cairne (and bye and good luck Thrall). Heroes of mine for a long, long time...
Inferno Nov 18th 2010 9:37AM
I just finished completing Loremaster a couple days ago. Cairne sends you a letter with your tabard. I will keep that letter forever. RIP Cairne. You will be missed.
Stza Nov 18th 2010 10:55AM
the loss of Cairne will really hit home with me
:(
Ste Nov 18th 2010 11:49AM
You didn't play the RTS games? Heathen!
That's really a slap in the face to those of us that did.