WoW Moviewatch: Warcraft lore academy
by Michael Gray 
Mar 20th 2012 at 6:00PM
Doronsmovies is trying to help tackle that issue with a series of videos called Warcraft lore academy. The series of videos talks about key characters in the stories, presenting these snippets of lore as a kind of machinima classroom.
The videos are a great idea, even if they boil down to a character standing in a room with an accompanying voiceover. If you're trying to get started with the game's story, you could have a much worse way to start.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.`
Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Charron Mar 20th 2012 6:28PM
The Pre-WOW series on youtube really brought me up to speed in the BC era, since I never played Warcraft III (sacriligious, i know!). All of the story, none of the gameplay. A good saturday afternoon of lore to be had over 9 episodes.
Dankie Mar 20th 2012 6:33PM
I'd love to know the series you're referring to. I tried watching this vid and found I couldn't stand an asthmatic Scooby-doo for more than 25 seconds, but I think the concept it brilliant.
Charron Mar 20th 2012 7:11PM
Looks like there's one video with all 9 parts, almost 5 hours!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIz4lgxlLHw
Or at WarcraftMovies, the individual parts are still there, no membership needed.
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=34771
(see list in movie notes for other parts)
Enjoy!
Aetain Mar 20th 2012 6:34PM
Not a bad idea, but I couldn't keep watching. That voice! >_
doronproductionfilms Mar 20th 2012 6:50PM
Guys i am so sorry about the voice really, i ve had test with my voice actor, and i didn`t have time to do tons of tests because i wanted the machinima too be out, because my last one was almost a year ago. And few people heard the voice before machinima was made and people said it is good. I am sorry i am already working on a new voice which will be better. I hope you don`t hate the video because of it :)
Btw i will make a new machinima lore academy in about a month or two. The schedule is: Cairne Bloodhoof lore lesson in 2-3 days, after that a huge interactive machinima, after that about 2 normal lore lessons and after that lore lesson academy( Btw i will make lore machinima every 5 episodes, and normal episodes come out every week or so) Don`t forget to subscribe if you would like to see some updates.
Dankie Mar 20th 2012 8:41PM
I don't hate it at all, I think it's a brilliant idea. :D Sometimes our 'better ideas' turn into a learning experience instead of hitting the bullseye dead center; just look at the Beatles 'magical mystery tour' - the movie was a flop, but it had brilliant music and a visual style that actually influenced great filmmakers for over a generation. As a film, it has its good and bad points - There's always a learning curve when you experiment and try new ideas - the fantastic thing is you tried it: you wrote, directed and edited it. That's amazing and bold. You should be proud.
I'll definitely check out your next endeavor, so keep your chin up and keep creating.
Awesome Mar 20th 2012 9:24PM
first and foremost, thank you! Lore is confusing, and you're trying to disentangle that ugly web for us, so thank you again!
Also, the voice isn't what's annoying really, it's the way he's talking. He starts off normal, and then raises the tone of his voice towards the end of the sentence. This only really gets annoying when he says a bunch of small sentences.
In any case, keep it up, thanks yet again, and try to change the race you use, mix it up!
Gigi Mar 20th 2012 10:28PM
I kept thinking of Yoda and wondered why this is in a WoW movie... lol I think a more 'normal' voice would be better because you don't want to distract from the actual lesson. I think a lot of people need this as sitting and watching this is faster then reading a book so thank you... although I love reading the books myself ;)
darksky Mar 20th 2012 7:03PM
As a lore fan, I love the concept of getting more folks edumacated about the tales of Azeroth, and thus give kudos for the effort here.
But...
1) I kept getting distracted by the mispronunciations. Every time I heard "Menenthil" or "Northend" instead of "Menethil" or "Northrend" it just made my mind lose focus from the film.
2) The voice. For one thing, despite the author's protests, it does sound an awful lot like Oxhorn's -- maybe not an exact copy, but close enough to be a distraction. I also kinda agree with @Aetain above: it's just not easy to listen to for that long.
I would also add that the ADD in me started getting a college lecture vibe out of the thing. After a couple minutes, I kinda felt myself thinking "more show, less tell!"
Like I say, I love the concept -- I just think that (1) & (2) above keep the viewer distracted from the content too much of the time, and that's a shame. Don't give the viewer a hook to pull themselves out of the story, and you've got a great thing going!