He takes it riding one day, and there is a jump that he wants to do. Well, there is a scene in the novel where Arthas has a horse that he names Invincible, but he’s reckless when he rides this horse. I think Arthas is more interesting because his fatal flaw was that he felt like he needed to do everything in his power to protect his people. I think a character who is really pure and never fails is not interesting. Golden: That was something I explored in the novel. The game never explained where the horse came from, but Chrissy knows where the horse came from. Groot: Well, in the game, Arthas starts out on foot and then in the switch from the Human campaign to the Undead he suddenly has this horse. Is there anything particular from the novel that you want to bring into the game? Golden: Yeah, we’re trying to smooth out a lot of stuff like that. Groot: What’s the line? There’s a moment where Thrall frees Grom Hellscream from a cage and says, “Great, because we’re getting out of here.” Those kind of bring you out of the story. Some of the lines are a little clunky and feel too modern.
#BLIZZARD WARCRAFT 3 FROZEN THRONE DIDNT INSTALL UPDATE#
Golden: I’ve been basically going back to my book, and I have the script up on one side and my notes up on the other, and I’ll go through and find a scene and try to update it. So what is your process like in revising that script? Golden: We actually revisited the realm of torment cinematic where Katherine Proudmoore comes across and sees what Jaina has been living with her whole life, so we were able to make sure that the dialogue in the game links back to what people have seen recently in World of Warcraft. “Oh yeah, you can kill my dad.” So we really want to take that part and expand it and treat it in the way that lines up with our understanding of Jaina today. It almost seems like she signs off in this cursory manner. The way it was originally written, there is not a lot of what Jaina is thinking about. Groot: It is still a work in progress, but one thing that comes to mind is, there is a moment in the Frozen Throne’s Orc campaign where Jaina’s dad shows up – and general Proudmoore is the big bad in that situation – and that is a pivotal moment for Jaina because she comes to the conclusion that her dad cannot be stopped, so she signs off on allowing the Orcs to assassinate her dad. What’s the biggest alteration you’ve made so far? We’re not trying to quadruple the length of the cinematics, but we are trying to make everything feel like a cohesive, coherent whole. Their roles and thought processes have been explored to a greater degree in World of Warcraft and the novels, so we can bring some of that context back into Warcraft III: Reforged. These characters have room to be expanded on. Especially for characters like Sylvanas or Jaina. Groot: When Warcraft III first came out and the story was being put together, I don’t think there was a master plan of knowing exactly where everything was headed, especially for some of these characters who became very prominent. What do you think about going back through the book and adding a few key lines?” So we went through it, and sometimes we would pick just a few key lines that would add this whole new layer of context. So when I was invited to participate in this remake, I said, “Hey I got this. Within novelizations you’re able to give a lot more backstory and take a scene and expand it. I wrote Arthas: Rise of the Lich King in 2009 and that was essentially a novelization of his arc through Warcraft III. Golden: I would say it’s more like augmentation. How are you adding to or changing Warcraft III: Reforged’s story in light of what’s happened with World of Warcraft? Is there going to be any revision? While visiting Blizzard’s campus for our month of coverage, we sat down to talk with senior writer Christie Golden and editor Justin Groot about how they’re taking a red pen to Warcraft III’s original script. With Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard returns to the classic RTS that launched Word of Warcraft, but this remake gives the developer the opportunity to smooth over some of its rough story beats and ensure the lore remains up to date. Thanks to the most popular MMO on the planet, WarCraft III’s lore has experienced a great deal of iteration and expansion.