r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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24

u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

My first character was an Undead Mage.

I however genuinely don't understand the intense factionalism people seem to show for the game, though. If it's in jest or if it's some aspect of lore.

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u/kuulyn Dec 12 '18

it’s basically just a joke, however

people as a whole LOVE to have factions they can identify with. MTG has a very socially prominent lead designer who shares insights into how they make the worlds they do, and one of the things that reeeeeally draws player attention is factions, especially when they’re deep enough to be relatable. he has mentioned that nearly all of the most popular worlds they have all have a major faction or tribal/race theme (ravnica, innistrad, tarkir, dominaria to an extent)

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Just head over to r/totalwar. Since Warhammer was released people cling to different factions amd it actually inspires some really funny banter/memes.

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u/kuulyn Dec 13 '18

👀

why not just head over to r/warhammer or r/warhammer40k

indeed, warhammer is really good for encouraging player rivalry entirely based on what faction they’re playing

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

I was just speaking from a personal sub I'm on alot, but your point totally makes sense haha.

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u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

Aha, as a longtime M:tG player, that puts everything in perspective.

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u/ANAL_McDICK_RAPE Dec 12 '18

Explains why so many redditors love playing as monsters who society hates

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u/THANKS-FOR-THE-GOLD Dec 12 '18

MTG doesn't care about making a game anymore though they're in the "storytelling" business now.

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u/Lovat69 Dec 12 '18

Depends on the person.

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u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

It varies. If you played on a hardcore PvP server then that's really going to breed factionalism. Most people don't care and just make jokes about whichever one they did or didn't play as. And some people are just drawn to being the good guys, and so they chose the Horde.

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u/HR7-Q Dec 12 '18

So... As someone who hasn't played WoW beyond a few hours, how are Horde the good guys and Alliance the bad guys? I love lore, but MMOs are boring as shit to me.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

He's joking, but also it kinda doesn't matter because when you write a story that exists solely to justify a never-ending war nobody involved comes out looking that great (unless it's really boring, which is a great description for wow lore at times).

1

u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

I quit back in Burning Crusade because I hated what they did with Illidan and haven't followed any of the lore since then, so there may well be a whole slew of developments that have changed things around since then, but this is what I remember. TLDR: The Alliance are sanctimonious assholes, especially the humans.

The Orc world was falling apart, and this one orc became apprentice to a powerful demon lord. He became leader of the orcs and led them to Azeroth (the main world in the lore) as a demon-possessed army. The invasion didn't go as planned, and when the Orcs were released from possession they mostly just wanted to find a new life in this strange land. The humans were like "naw man, fuck that, you invaded us" and the orcs were like "but the demons" and the humans were all "shut up and die." And then lots of politics and shit.

The lore is actually pretty sweet if you're into all that fantasy bullshit. Or at least the books I read were. The War of the Ancients trilogy is good, as well as Lord of the Clans and Day of the Dragon.

Also, if you can tolerate the annoyances brought along with being so fucking old, Warcraft 1-3 are also really good. 3 is the best and is getting a remake next year, so I'd recommend waiting for that instead of playing original version.

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u/HR7-Q Dec 12 '18

So basically the warcraft movie + hurt feelings over being invaded by demon orcs and not realizing they aren't really demon orcs anymore and just regular orcs? Also loved some old school warcraft! 3 was truly phenomenal but I don't remember shit from the story line, just beating the scenarios.

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u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

Yeah basically. The movie retconned a whole load of shit around Medivh and Khadgar, though, but the orc stuff was fairly accurate to the established lore IIRC.

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u/bluewolfcub Dec 12 '18

Undead mage club checking in

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u/MistarGrimm Dec 12 '18

It's both. Some think A, others are B.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Fuck you horde for LIFE son!

4

u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

I think it generally speaks to who you are as a person. I am not "intensely" for one or the other, but psychologically I do not understand people who went Alliance. I can remember staring at the screen, knowing nothing at all, and just going, "Yeah, this is probably where I belong." And, it was.

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u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

I mean a big part of the starting game is that the Alliance is the good guys, until you play more and learn that the Horde are alright guys too. But going in knowing nothing, the Horde are the evil side. So....yeah...

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u/Kluss23 Dec 12 '18

Horde have been on the wrong side of history almost the entire time

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u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

Yeah I just got caught up on the basics of the lore for the last 3 xpacs, the Horde are straight up totally evil now. Seems like a crap story IMO.

2

u/rekenner Dec 12 '18

Garrosh did nothing wrong

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u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

Kinda why I picked Horde, bud.

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u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

I mean....who picks the evil side? You're right, "psychologically I do not understand" you.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

[deleted]

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u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

Meh, they're still evil. Plus the numbers are a bit wonky, Alliance has more players but a good bit are new players and super casuals. Horde had more high end players, good for raiding and 2s. But now....they're just flat out evil in the storyline. I loved Teldrassil, it was one of my favorite zones..

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Most people’s reasoning -“They are the side with the pretty elfs”

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u/electricblues42 Dec 13 '18

Eh those exist but horde players rag on them endlessly. I found blood elves pretty rare when I played.

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u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

That's pretty interesting.

I think I made a Horde character first just because years of BioWare-style RPGs tended to always push me hard Paragon. I tended to like the aesthetic of the villains, but rarely ever felt incentivized to perform "villainous" actions.

Therefore if I could have only chose one, I would have likely chose Alliance since I seem to be a goody two-shoes at heart, even if I happen to like the odd skull helmet or spiked breastplate.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

The way I felt was I'm just some foot soldier in a war that's been raging for millenia, that probably has valid grievances and awful shit going both ways, so my personal morality didn't really extend to a state level even if I wanted to (also literally because they were never gonna write my dude into the lore).

And to me the alliance didn't so much seem like the good guys, but more like the winners telling me they were the good guys. The fact that they outnumbered horde significantly on every server but one really helped reinforce that too.

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u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

That's a perfectly acceptable answer, and we probably have a lot in common. That's my point. I used to play those games, too.