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‘Warcraft’: Will The Movie Be Better Than The Game? Fans Stand Divided

By Caroline Diana
Published on: 07:29 PST, Jun 8, 2016

World of Warcraft has a huge following not just in the U.S. and Europe, but also in China.

This was probably the reason Warcraft, the movie, was first released in China — two days ahead of the U.S. audience. In fact, the Chinese make up about half of the five million World of Warcraft players around the world, according to the BBC. Therefore, Warcraft’s early release does make sense.

Meanwhile, back home, it’s a nail-biting time for the World of Warcraft fans. The long-time loyalists of the Warcraft universe are anxious about how Warcraft, the movie, might turn out.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are filled with fan posts speculating Warcraft’s selection of cast, crew, plot, CGI effects, and so on. For the past few months #Warcraft has been trending on these social media platforms.

While some avid gamers of World of Warcraft are enthusiastic about the upcoming movie, a few veterans of the multiplayer game are not so jubilant. To them, even the trailer wasn’t impressive.

Don Meulmeester, a World of Warcraft veteran, is not too excited about the movie.

Sharing his views on Quora, he said, “For people that don’t know the World of Warcraft lore or people that don’t ‘care’ about it, the movie should be great. For ‘lore masters’ like me, the movie will probably suck.”

Some long-time players of the World of Warcraft universe believe that the movie will revive the game. It will bring back players who had earlier abandoned the game or even create a new horde of players.

Geno Martinez, an avid gamer, said that he is thrilled to watch Warcraft on the big screen.

“Hopefully it comes out on IMAX. The movie aims to revive interest in the Warcraft franchise as a whole, and aims to drive players not only to World of Warcraft, but also its other games set in the Warcraft universe, such as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which is itself also making a pretty penny. There’s also their MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, which features characters from the Warcraft franchise, which is also gaining popularity. Blizzard Entertainment obviously isn’t so short-sighted as to only rely on World of Warcraft as their only reliable money-maker. I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced Warcraft IV or something soon after the movie premiere, because that’s always how these things go,” said Martinez on Quora.

Petr Matafonov, a gamer, is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about Warcraft. Sharing his views on Quora, he said that the Warcraft movie will create a lot of buzz initially, but this will soon be followed by a continuous decline in interest.

“Warcraft doesn’t look that great. I will check it out, but only because it’s the only great big huge epic fantasy flick since Lord of the Rings (The Hobbit doesn’t do it for me). I always wanted to see green orcs on the big screen. In my honest opinion, many people will see Warcraft, the movie, out of curiosity, but they won’t buy the ticket the second time,” said Matafonov.

Kurtis Zwolinski, who used to play the World of Warcraft but stopped after a while, is happy about the movie release.

“I had to quit World of Warcraft years ago because it took over my life, and I wasn’t doing anything but play for like a year and a half. I’m really glad that this movie is coming out. It’s about time they made a solid live-action Warcraft movie,” Zwolinski said on Facebook.

[Photo by Richard Shotwell/AP Images]

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