Thoughts on Warcraft III Reforged (ongoing)

Well, my favorite PC game of all time has been remastered and reworked into Warcraft III: Reforged, and all my childhood dreams have come true... or have they?

Yesterday I streamed my first reactions of the Warcraft 3 Reforged campaigns and, while I remained as optimistic as possible throughout the first few missions, ultimately I ended the day in a disappointed funk. Though I like the game's models, the truth is, Blizzard got all their priorities wrong and delivered a straight-up underwhelming, misleading product. And I can't figure out why! This is the company that made modern masterpieces like Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm, both with amazing models, UI, gameplay, and features, but then they release something that feels like an unfinished beta project made by amateurs.

I'm trying to remain positive, even though the game's score on Metacritic was 1.9 yesterday and has dropped all the way down to 1.1 as of posting this. Blizzard can't ignore that, can they? My hope is that they listen to players (for once), refund us all their money, set Warcraft III's classic launcher back to its old self, and then just start over and try again. No harm, no foul. They can come back to us in a year or two when they've released a polished product. But until then, it just feels off.

Anyway, enough ranting. My purpose in making this post was actually more constructive. I'm here to make a list of the things I like and the things I don't like about Warcraft 3 Reforged as I play through it. This list will change quite a bit as I add things to it in the coming months, so feel free to check back. These may give useful data for a future video on the Abelhawk channel.

Warcraft 3 Easter Eggs: Spells and Icons, Part 2:

Due to the volume of videos I've made on my channel, I've decided to make this my last video I share on this blog. If you want to see the rest, follow my channel. This is a good one to end on, too, since it basically closes up the entire series I've worked on up to this point, and it's my longest video to date.

I CAN NOT believe how big the channel has gotten. As of this writing, I have almost 10,000 subscribers, 10 members or patrons, 91 videos, and I've made about $500 off of ad revenue! I can't believe this! It's incredible that I happened to stumble on these secrets almost exactly three years ago, and turn them into an amazing way for me to share my love of Warcraft to the internet. I met a Blizzard developer, I get most of my viewers from Recommended videos on YouTube, and now I'm going to get into streaming! It's a dream come true. My only hope now is that someday I'll run into someone in real life who says "Hey! You're Abelhawk!"

Warcraft 3

I got some fun tips for animating and decided to put them to use with Warcraft III quotes. I thought this one turned out pretty good! It's amazing how it can take four and a half hours to animate 3 seconds.

Warcraft 3 Unused Icons and Spells

It's been a long time coming! After doing the research probably a year and a half ago and recording the audio last Fourth of July, I'm finally done with Part 1. I can't tell you how amazing it is to finally have free time again.

Some Interesting Concept Art from the Warcraft III DVD

This is a somewhat informal video I made just to break the monotony between updates (my fanbase is getting quite anxious about any and all other Easter eggs I can find and upload to my channel which is great but exhausting!). A while ago I bought the Warcraft III Special Edition DVD, and this is basically my take on all the fan art found on it. And if you're considering buying the DVD on Amazon like I did, don't. It's not worth it. But hopefully the "Art of Warcraft" book I ordered this week is...

>>goo.gl/gfmpcf<<

Warcraft Resources for D&D 5e

Man, this is one of those projects I just look at and think "Did I really do all of this?" I've definitely got lost in this document. Ever since I discovered Critical Role at the beginning of the year and subsequently bought the core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 5e, assembled materials to be a Dungeon Master, and played some of my first games, I've tried to adapt the Warcraft universe to a playable setting. I began by creating my own custom races, and after balancing them with some help from people online, I decided to add deities to help DMs interested in playing a Warcraft setting design clerics. I also realized that I'd better add an items/weapons section to add in the appropriate information for the exotic weapons used by the custom races, and before I knew it, I now had a 16-page document detailing everything from new mechanics to changed spell names to lore considerations in the Warcraft universe.

Warcraft III Easter Eggs Bonus: Models (Part 2)

Not much to say at this point, other than I'm getting burned out from these again. Well, that's not true. Mostly I'm just starting to care less about little details or accuracy. I'm not a pro, after all. I do all my research for these in-house with no help except from YouTube comments. Pretty good all things considered.

>>goo.gl/LrehOO<<

WarCraft Easter Eggs Bonus: Models

I'm back into my one claim to fame, the Warcraft III Easter Eggs series! This time I'm looking at the models in the game. It was fun to look closely at each model and see some of the things that make the game tick. Once again, there doesn't seem to be many resources online that talk about the things I've found, so I just keep filling that empty niche. You're welcome, everyone. The ending of this video was unexpectedly fun to make. My only explanation for its weirdness is that I just do what the Muse dictates.

This was also my chance to celebrate having more than 1,000 YouTube subscribers! Woot!

>> goo.gl/Xzptkm <<

Arena Games: My Experience Finally Being a DM!

Two weeks ago, after aspiring for two years, I finally was able to try out DMing a game of Dungeons & Dragons! I always thought I'd find a group and play as a player before actually running my own game, but the game that some coworkers run at work was too slow for me (Only two hours a week, split up between two days), and the GURPS game I play with my friends leaves much to be desired (I really hate the GURPS system, and I found myself being too picky on the DM), but luckily watching Critical Role gave me all the experience, inspiration, and motivation I needed to give it a shot.

WarCraft Easter Eggs: All the Rest

Well, my journey through the Warcraft 3 Easter eggs has come to an unofficial end. I've found pretty much every secret there is to find, I hope. Below are the two "addendum" videos that showcase all the ones I missed during my first pass through all the campaigns. After this, I have ideas for two more videos, one about the models in the game and the other about the interface icons, so I'll get to work on those at some point in the future. But as far as the campaigns go, these secrets were all really awesome to find.

>> goo.gl/rKN0aA <<

>> https://goo.gl/Z8QQ4S <<

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: The Founding of Durotar

All right, that should please the thronging crowds for a while—every single campaign in WarCraft III. Looking back, I honestly can't believe how much work I've done. Each video probably took at least a half hour of work per minute of video time, possibly more when you count the research involved. I'm going to take a much-needed break from WarCraft videos, and in a month or two I'll finish with the finale, a video showcasing all the ones I missed.

>> https://youtu.be/9_Cldgfy39A <<

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: Legacy of the Damned

Whew! I stayed up late and got up early all week to get this thing done. I think I deserve a break. I wasn't planning on doing The Founding of Durotar, but it did turn out to have some Easter eggs, so this is the second-to-last campaign video I'll feature.

>> https://youtu.be/536KpLoLBKg <<

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: Curse of the Blood Elves

I always thought this was a weird campaign—my least favorite in WarCraft III. But it has its fun moments. Blood elves were my favorite race for quite a while, and this campaign actually surprised me quite a bit with the secrets it was hiding.

>> https://youtu.be/kDxQYR5xEcc <<

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: Terror of the Tides

This one turned out a lot longer than I expected. I may have split it into two if I had known beforehand. The Blink ability really added a ton of secret places. Hope you enjoy! I'm excited to have finally started the Frozen Throne! 

>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snmYczCppWo <<

Behind WarCraft III: An Interview with Campaign Designer David Fried

As a fanatic of WarCraft III since the game came out when I was in eighth grade, I was honored to have had the awesome chance to speak with an actual developer of the game, David Fried. David came in contact with me through my WarCraft III Easter Egg videos (which can be found here), and graciously answered my questions about his experience as a campaign designer and writer.

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: Eternity's End

I can't believe how much publicity these videos are getting! A WarCraft III developer even commented on the videos and we've been conversing about amazing behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm going to abridge our conversation into an interview for this site soon.
The Reign of Chaos levels are complete! I can't wait to get started on the Frozen Throne ones. This has been one of the most rewarding projects I've ever worked on.

>> https://youtu.be/hhmuYUmZnCo?list=PLRKY06uPWOOT4lTcTn2Y7oTqp7Rj6xXSe <<

WarCraft III Easter Eggs: The Invasion of Kalimdor

This one was a super fun one to make, and I found some amazing secrets that I'm not sure anyone else has ever bothered to look for and find! I hope these videos get popular, especially if WarCraft III gets some updates in the coming year or two.

>>> https://youtu.be/FlcSCyc_XCQ <<<

WarCraft III Easter eggs: Path of the Damned

The next WarCraft Easter eggs video is up. Click the link below to watch it. I'm really impressed with the audience these videos are getting. The first one got over 1,000 views, and the second one seems to be doing pretty well. I'm guessing it'll get random spikes as people find it. I am a bit disappointed at its low posting SEO-wise on YouTube. Oh well. Maybe it'll get higher as people realize how much more thorough my videos are than any others on the web!

>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyeF_Apq0l8&feature=youtu.be <<

New Project: WarCraft III Easter Eggs

A few weeks ago, I was mildly interested in working on The Hard Lands (I need to write a post about that more in detail), so I opened the WarCraft III MPQ file to see if I could get any of the map icons to make a custom map. Instead of following through with that, I realized that I could rip the game's actual scenario map files and see them in the World Editor. I realized that there are all kinds of Easter eggs in the game that I never knew about, and indeed, that I couldn't find anywhere online.

Seizing this golden opportunity to do a service to the WarCraft III community (and possibly get some recognition for once), I decided to make a thorough, entertaining YouTube series where I showcase each Easter egg. I just finished the human one, and it already has over a thousand views! I'm lucky to have as high quality a website as The Hive Workshop to showcase my work; I bet most of my views came from there.

I got a lot of inspiration from the way PeanutButterGamer does his videos, and otherwise just had a blast messing around with Adobe Premiere. So far, people seem to like it, so I'm going to work like crazy to get the rest of the videos out over time, continuing with the Undead one next.

Click here to watch it! >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jwb73Wx8og <<

The Tale of Nicrodh

Okay, this piece is very interesting in my opinion; when I was in 3rd Grade, I was obsessed with WarCraft II, and made a custom campaign (or rather, series of individual maps, since you couldn't exactly do a campaign back then) called The Hard Lands. This was essentially a fanfiction (I know, don't judge me) of the lore of WarCraft as I could understand it at age eight; mostly, though, I just looked at the different units available on the map editor and made up my own lore about each one.

The following is a story that takes place in the Hard Lands, but as far as I can tell, it's completely irrelevant to the campaign's storyline. Judging by the name "Aegryn," as well as the overall style of this story, it's clear I got the idea for this out of the Alliance backstory in the WarCraft II manual. It's got some really weird story elements in it that I can't even figure out now (see "abomination of the castle of Alterac," "33,000-year-old Greek urn," "jeweled skillet," and "four Dolaemons"), but I remember being very proud of it, I'm glad I discovered it. It's very interesting to see how my imagination worked back then. 

If all goes well, I'm going to try and remake the old Hard Lands campaign on WarCraft III this year.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the irrelevant Tale of Nicrodh.