Hello Everyone! (wait a minute). I had the chance to ask World of Warcraft lore expert Nobbel87 a few questions!

1.) What made you want to make videos about Warcraft’s Lore?

I started my YouTube channel for the sole purpose of uploading a guide for a friend. At the time, she was having a bit of trouble with a quest in Northrend and since explaining it didn’t do the trick, I figured why not show her. I also made a couple of videos for our guild events, but didn’t move into anything serious until Mists of Pandaria Beta. During the Cataclysm I followed people like Jesse Cox and TotalBiscuit who were rocking the beta coverage and I remember thinking to myself “If I get a beta access, I want to do the same”. As luck would have it, with MoP they offered a guaranteed beta access if you subscribed for a year so I did just that, made my beta videos and realized nobody really cared for what I had to say. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun making the videos, but the audience wasn’t there, except for 1 of them in which I talked about the possibilities at Theramore and the story behind it. This was before we knew how it would blow up, what would happen to Jaina and we only had little bits of lore to work with. By that time I was already interested in the lore, I love making videos, put that together and focused more on the lore videos as you see them today.

2.) Based on the lore you’ve researched, what events do you think we’ll see happen in the near future in WoW?

From what I can tell, there are 2 major directions that they’re working towards with the story. 1 is related to the old gods, Nyalotha, Azshara, N’zoth and the Black Empire. This is hinted at during the Emerald Nightmare raid where Ill’gynoth is whispering to us, the black blade of the empire lets us know that the prison is weakening and even Malfurion warns us about quickly dealing with the Legion so we can focus on the threat of the old gods.

The second direction would be the great dark beyond, Burning Legion, Army of Light and whatever else we might find there. In the artifact research they’ve hinted at a couple of new planets and races like the Aldrachi that held their ground against the Avatar of Sargeras. The Demon Hunters have their own private Legion ship, Velen wants to take the Exodar and fight against the Legion, Turalyon and Alleria have sent their message. All in all it seems like the Great Dark Beyond has a lot to offer when it comes to discovering what happened outside of Azeroth itself.

3.) What or who do you attribute your success as a streamer/ YouTuber to?

Hard to say really. A big part of the success comes from the people that share an interest in the lore, that enjoy the videos and are supportive about it. This can be by just watching the videos, leaving a like or comment or sending me a message. On bad days where the internet seems to be very negative, those positive comments really make a difference. Besides that I’ve followed advice from people like TotalBiscuit, Crendor and Jesse Cox. Produce the best quality you can manage, have a regular upload schedule, advertise what you love and do it because you enjoy doing it. Going into YouTube for the so called YouTube Fame or YouTube Money is setting yourself up for failure.

4.) Where did your love of lore come from?

I didn’t know a thing about Warcraft until a friend of mine showed me the classic World of Warcraft Cinematic and invited me to play together. At first I was hesitant, we just spend a whole summer playing Star Wars Galaxies, but eventually I tried it out and became addicted. The interest in lore didn’t come until Wrath of the Lich king where you had the Wrathgate cinematic. That cinematic sparked my interest into figuring out what was going on. I started Googling, picked up the novels, the comics, played Warcraft 3 and for some reason it all clicked, connected and got stuck in my head.

5.) if you could personally experience one WoW event in the lore, what would it be?

Uhm, most major lore events in WoW would end up with getting myself killed so I’ll go with the Steamy Romance Novels. Yeah, I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Marcus for a day.

6.) if you weren’t streaming/ YouTubing, what would you be doing?

Growing up, I never really knew what I wanted to be. Eventually figured out that helping others gives me the most fulfillment, but that’s very broad right? You can help people by working in customer service or telling the story behind a fictional game universe or work in healthcare. No idea what I’d be doing specifically, but something in that direction since that’s what I did before this YouTube hobby turned into a full-time thing.

7.) What keeps you motivated?

The joy of the production sequence from coming up with an idea to releasing the video and seeing the feedback. That’s why I mentioned earlier that you need to have a passion for what you’re going to do on YouTube, otherwise you end up unmotivated. Naturally some days it’s easier to get in gear then others, but on days like that I have supportive friends to fall back on and sometimes it’s ok to take a breather and do something else for a bit.

8.) What new projects do you have coming up that we should be excited for?

This year has nearly been all about Legion from beta times to explaining characters I knew were going to be in it up till now where I’m covering the artifacts and order halls. Next year I want to go back to combining both the Legion story with some older characters. When they announced Varian as a new hero of the storm, I was pumped to make a video about him only to realize that my schedule is pretty much full with videos that I still need to make about Legion. Currently working on getting the most important videos about Legion done with so next year I can do both again. Besides that…we’ll see what time is going to bring. We have the new Warcraft Chronicles to look forward to, Nighthold should open up, even the spoiler that they announced at Blizzcon. Good stuff, can’t wait to see it all!

Thank you so much for answering my questions Nobbel, You’re doing The Old God’s Work!

If you want to see Nobbel’s Videos and stay up to date, here is his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX34tk-noBVC4WVC9qQGyMw

Need a new streamer to watch? Nobbel does that to: www.twitch.tv/nobbel87