Pyromancer

Steamer/YouTuber - Big lore nerd.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

My amazing new intro - now with music and sound effects! I'll never stop thanking @sjotrik for his INCREDIBLE work!!

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@HelloImDr3w I miss it bad.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@GrimDeath86 I actually think only like 1-2 of them are actually sketch. The rest are just caught up in the scheme.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

The Titans are the bad guys.

Wait…

[WoW Gold @WoWGoldChain]

What’s your most controversial World of Warcraft opinion?

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@Nicholasli0 For Azeroth!

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@andrewwhitus Probably not!

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

W

[Josh Greenfield @AggrendWoW]

Long potentially sappy yap incoming.

You know, having worked on this game for last few years I have done a lot of playtesting my own content, internal alpha testing, team playtests, etc. I've probably "played" multiple thousand of hours of WoW: Forever at this point.

Since beta launched, I'd been playing it as much as I could, but it was sporadic. I managed to reach 20 on two characters doing that, so it was not an insignificant amount of playtime. However, I often times interrupt myself to go send a slack msg, or fix a bug when I notice things while playing, and it usually turns into work in one way or another after a few hours.

But yesterday, I just... played the game for a whole day in the beta. I'm talking 9 or 10 hours. Slack closed, off VPN. I just played.

And it was a full day:
- I got 4/5 pieces of the Fang set on my druid
- Crafted a sweet leather helm for her
- Finished leveling my forsaken pally to 20
- Finished up the last of my dungeon quests my warrior
- I met a hilarious and very irreverent paladin tank who I ran Wailing Caverns 3 times in a row with to try and get him the cape from Verdan, and me the fang boots from Serpentis (Neither of us got what we wanted)
- Did 2 dungeons with some guild members I haven't really spoken to or grouped with in 3 years or so

It was a transformative experience for me. I think yesterday was when it is really starting to actually feel real. It wasn't Blizzcon and how crazy that was, the reception to beta, the podcast, or anything like that. It was just "no lifing" the game for 10 hours and wanting more at the end. Honestly, I got a little emotional.

It hit me that the team really did it. I mean they DID IT. Yeah there's improvements and fixes to be made still, and there's feedback to act on (and stay tuned, we've got updates coming soon on some big feedback items). But all of that stuff aside, this is going to be a legendary launch, and the Forever team completely blew even my expectations out of the water.

I look at each loving detail or small secret, knowing who exactly put that there and thinking how we couldn't have done this without that person. Then I think of the brilliant things that person added that haven't been found or aren't available yet, and I get almost giddy with excitement for them.

I said a week or so ago that I thought we had something special here, and we do. I just can't believe the dumb luck that I get to be a part of this moment with such a once-in-a-lifetime team. It's wild.

Anyway, rambly sunday morning post. Have fun and be good to each other!

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@EbonhardtTV They're not actually racist though!

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@DeputyKibbles That’s not going to happen 🤣

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

The sickest part of this is I don’t even know if he’s trolling 🤣

[Liquid Thdlock @Thdlock]

Wow forever needs ARTIFACT POWER

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@Blazin420W Dude looks homeless

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

New players getting into WoW for the first time right now witnessing the Forever discourse.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@ChemBearEsq Nah just people using it as a thinly veiled outlet for their real racism.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

Dude what the fuck?

[Zack @Asmongold]

@mrfishspit @Warcraft America is the Alliance, Horde is the Taliban. Everyone knows this

Here are additional slurs we've invented for horde races:

Kodo jockey

Greenbacks

Mudhutter

Zugger

Dust Monkey

Axe Dragger

Totem Tipper

Dark Portal Deportees

Lawnmowers

Bonebacks

Coffindodgers

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@atgxmbino @theMolgran @spreadsheeticus It’s been years

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@theMolgran @spreadsheeticus Wow, you sure got me man

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@spreadsheeticus @theMolgran No that's all real

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@Northrendish @theMolgran Nice dog whistle.

You don't get to say "it's fantasy it's not real" whilst immediately comparing them to a group of real people and following it with slurs inspired by real ones like "kodo jockey."

Get a grip.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@riley_stahura @LaLunaTM You can just replace Taliban with white supremacist groups as well btw. You don't get to say "it's fake and online" and then immediately concede the obvious and intentional parallels to real life like you've cooked somehow.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@theMolgran I get mad about video games. I don't larp being a fucking racist online lmfao.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@SilentPrune

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

@AteoGaming @Mikael39038105 :)

https://t.co/AhCifpthIT

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

Surely this will result in healthy discourse full of critical thinking and understanding.

[Cornfed Nebraska Boy @Marmstrongwow]

I'm seeing a lot of discourse about who WoW Forever is being made for and while I cannot speak for anyone else on the team I can speak for myself. I am making WoW forever for the classic gamer and for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse over the years because they were not satisfied with changes that were made to the game. Whether those changes were to the art style, the story, social aspects, game design, or changes to their favorite class.

I did not spend the last year of my life relearning and mastering how to do things like we did it 20+ years ago for retail players. I could have taken it easy and just kept doing things like I had done for the past 8 years on retail...because I was much more familiar with it and it actually takes a lot less time to do (height maps on textures do a ton of heavy lifting). Because the reality is that the majority of retail players wouldn't care and would probably actually prefer it. But I felt I had a duty to uphold an artistic vision and integrity that millions of people expect from us. But not just for our players, but for my co-workers past and present who worked on it over 20 years ago. If I could not create something that resembled their work then I failed not only them...but myself.

Please do not take this as me throwing any shade at retail players or the retail team because I am one myself...but I wanted to make Forever as authentic of a Vanilla experience as possible. This involves making decisions wildly different than retail. It means holding the line against changes that create a domino affect down the road. It means keeping friction and inconveniences in the game. It means finding friends and forming groups with strangers and being social!! Because WoWs social aspects have always been the pillar of the game and over the years it has slowly been chiseled away at with changes that allow you play alone.

Since the day I started working on the Riverglades I have lived by three sayings.

"Convenience is the death of the journey."

"If you're making a game for everyone then you're making it for no one."

"Every change we make incurs a debt to the authenticity of the game and sooner or later that debt will be paid."

These are my core beliefs and I had a specific group of people I was targeting with my work. These beliefs cannot be shaken and I will try to hold the line against anything that goes against them and will continue to pester the team about things that feel out of place.

That being said, my hope is that Forever will pull in as many people as possible, whether you are a retail gamer, a classic gamer, someone who hasn't played in years, or even a new player. I hope you can all remember what made this game so special in the first place and that starts with understanding why we are so passionate about keeping it authentic.

[Pyromancer @PyromancerYT]

LMAO this is goofy asf