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Now, this may be a tad bit different than what some of my readers are used to, but its a video game and I am a gamer. I was asked by my new friend Zeleth to give him a comparison on which side I preferred for the newest expansion. I am sure there are plenty of people who are talking about all the things with the game from glitches/bugs to mechanics. Well this is strictly comparing (in my opinion) the lore from both sides and the feel of playing through each story.

I decided to go through this zone by zone as I take my time going through them. Now I know a lot of people are just rushing through to reach 100, but I feel you really miss out if this is how you go through the game. So, the comparison is between Shadowmoon Valley (SMV) and Frostfire Ridge (FFR). Looking to see which starting zone has an overall awesome story. Before we jump right into it I would like to say I am a Horde fanatic and I promise you by the end of this comparison you will see I am not biased on my opinions here.

Shadowmoon Valley

So I have a Draenei on Kil'Jaeden which I started playing with the day of release so I figured it would be best to start with SMV. First, let me say going through the entire zone as a Draenei is probably the coolest feeling. I am a huge Burning Crusade fan and I love pretty much everything involving the story behind the Draenei. I loved the little story in Warcraft 3. So, I’m not just hoping into SMV with no background here.

The best feeling I had in the entire zone is something small and simple, but including it was very much hitting home for me. You go out looking for the caravan wagon and here is Maraad and Akama. Literally here this tid bit of information about Akama picking up the sickles was probably the coolest little bit of information I could of received. At least, to me it was probably one of the best lil pieces people probably missed.

Getting to the end of the zone the epic cut scene really blows you away. Now, for SMV I think there are two important cut scenes for the end. Velen sacrificing himself and end zone cut scene. I had goose bumps on my arms and a shiver crawling up my spine. I was dug in and ready for some ass kicking adventure. The vibes leaving the zone were almost like getting high. Heading into Gorgrond at the end was kind of sad and exciting. If SMV offered me this huge feels package, what was Gorgrond gonna do for me?

So, overall I gave SMV 8/10 for reeling me in and really driving the package home. There was some things here and there that I feel were lacking, but overall awesome delivery.

Frostfire Ridge

I was so freaking hyped for this expansion let me tell you! I kept telling my friends, “Thrall’s gonna meet mommy and daddy and its going to be epic feels and shit!” That is what I wanted. I want Thrall and his parents to meet and somehow Thrall tell them who he is. This was the driving force for me because as everyone knows, Thrall never met his parents. I mean, normally I am all over Vul'jin and could care less about any of the other characters, but come one its his parents! So, this was my mindset when I loaded up my Troll on Proudmoore.

I get the zone and the feels are good. I see the tension of Thrall talking to his parents like there is a hidden desire for him to tell them who he is. To get to know them and be apart of something here. Now, I don’t want to say that the area was bad or anything like this. However, as someone who loves the lore of the entire Warcraft series this was huge for me and I felt let down. I don’t know if something later is going to happen where there is some talking between Thrall and Duratan, but in FFR I was let down. Overall, the story in the zone is rather good. Helping the orcs free themselves from Orges and the Iron Horde was just as tasty and good feeling as what I experienced in SMV.

Learning of the betrayal of their older brother was just like fuck, this guy has to die now. For honor! Just a great feeling finishing up in the zone and wiping my hands of the unworthy challengers. So, I moved on to Gorgrond feeling very accomplished with my Troll. In the end though I feel as though the story is much more scatter focused than SMV’s story. Due to this I docked points in my system and have to give FFR a 7/10.

Ending Notes

The end of SMV is just as epic as FFR, but SMV had a much better build up to that point. So, the winner of this comparison is SMV!

If you like/hate this comparison or my opinions on it, please let me know. Hopefully, I will be sharing this on the r/WoW subreddit and will be able to get more feedback fro the community. I am currently diving into Gorgrond and should have my comparison on that within the next couple of days. Thank you for reading guys!