1 You know, though, this is one of those spots where you really could do a movie. There's certainly the material for it. It's more of a question of "which part, and how do you change it up to make it accessible to the moviegoer who never played any of the games, and how much can you do of that until the actual players get ticked?"

2 This might not actually be that bad.  The biggest problem I have with MMOs is that the player has very little, if any, power to affect the world.  This is because if one person changes something, then 10 million other people can't.  So having a story where the characters actually make a difference will be nice to see.

Of course, I expect the screenplay to be heavily pro-Alliance, which will piss off 46% of the players.

3 I'm not sure, wouldn't there be a temptation to go "the Horde are the minority underdogs, lets set them up as the good guys"?

Even though its a toss-up which is worse, the Alliance's periodic bouts of genocidal xenophobia, or the Horde's open door policy regarding abomination and evil. . .

4

Hey, those innocent Alliance guys were just minding their own business, ruthlessly exploiting the environment and destroying their own habitats (Gnomergaran, Sunwell), while the Horde was just peacefully living in harmony with nature, when the Scourge came along and started playing with WMD in Lorderon.

Seriously, my guess is they'll have a Horde/Alliance party cooperating vs. the Scourge or the Lich King.  The whole thing will be full of sappy lessons about how enemies are really just misunderstood neighbors.  Never mind that the Scourge and L.K. are utterly vile and should be eradicated.  That part of the lesson will be overlooked.

5 I'd actually hope for something like that, if only because the Alliance and Horde really should have stopped killing each other years ago, from sheer pragmatism.  "Yes, we hate each other bitterly. . . but our choices are, keep killing each other, or join together to stop the Scourge, the Burning Legion, or some other crap from *blowing up the planet*."

Sadly, your probably right that they'd try and make the Scourge sympathetic, or some such. . .

6 Yes, but then what would all the level 80 munchkins do instead of gank lvl 25s from the opposite team?

7 ubu:  That's exactly my guess.  While Warcraft has a mountain of lore behind it, it reads an awful lot like The Silmarillon (and is about as depressing) and the average moviegoer could care less, even if they *do* play WoW.  The Unlikely-Team-Up movie cliche is far too easy a choice... just insert MacGuffin, threaten the world, form a party (in a tavern?), and away you go.  I am a little surprised that it's live-action, given the rather impressive CGI we've seen in the intro sequences and some of the commercials... I guess that's because a lot of people just refuse to go to a CGI movie.

And it is quite frustrating that, in order to keep the whole Alliance/Horde thing in perpetual status quo for the players, most of the key characters never quite seem to realize that the whole friggin' planet is under attack by upwards of a half-dozen different powers that could wipe out/enslave all life on it.  Bioweapons, zombies, titans, plagues of intelligent insects, an entire planet torn to shreds, multiple races pressed into slavery (including the original orc armies in the first place)... no, fighting your most powerful potential allies over a few farms in AV is more important.

8

Nonsense. The blacksmithy is the key to AV. Let the Horde have the farm.  Wait, what? 

INC 2 STABLES!!!!!

9 Wrong battleground.  Blacksmith and Stables are in AB.

10

Guess it depends on how Hollywood they want to get with it.  I can all-too-easily see "The Redemption of Arthas" as a storyline.

Regardless of that, though, it's almost certainly going to involve Morg...err...Icecrown and end with a battle against Sau...err, the Lich King.  They'll need to re-do some of the artwork though.

11 I'm so damned unhip. I've never even played the game.

12 Man, you have a blog. It's much hipper than playing WoW. Heck, it's ANIME BLOG.

13 *psss!*  Me neither.  I prefer single player RPGs and pencil & paper games ( well, P&P played via AIM ) myself.  Better story, and fewer rampaging assholes.

14

Heck, it's ANIME BLOG.

That proves I'm a geek, not that I'm hip.

15 S'okay. "I've never played WOW", for geeks, is the equivalent of "I've never tried heroin", including a lot of the destructive effects.

My account got hacked into a couple of weeks ago, and all I could feel was this huge sense of relief. I'm having it restored, but I intend to give away my (vast, virtual) wealth and retire it anyway...

16 I've never played WOW while on heroin.

17 Well, that's reassuring.

18 Would now be a bad time to confess that I just got my third character to 80 with a bit of judicious two-boxing? And I'm the casual in my group of friends, with neither a PvP title nor an honest-to-gosh raid achievement, even though I was the one who lured them all into the game originally...

I try to spend what little free time I have working on my Japanese, but there are many nights where I can't focus enough to study something new, but am fully capable of slaughtering helpless murlocs.

-j

19 I've never player WOW while not on heroin either, for what it's worth.

But I am a 44th level Jonin in Billy vs. Snakeman.

20 Heh. Now that's a funny little game.

21 I'm surprised at just how many regulars here play...

I've been on something of a work-enforced sabbatical for the last year or so; I never even made 80.