Although this is all good food for thought and stuff, this *is* a game.

It was a pivotal moment in Warcraft history. You don't have to participate in it if you really don't want to.

Besides, they may be able to explain it away in story.

Imagine if the dragons had actually foreseen what would happen if Arthas DIDN'T cleanse Stratholme. Perhaps the results could have been diastrous, leading to the conquest of Azeroth by the Burning Legion.

When dealing with time travel, it's better not to ask too many questions. :)

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zomg! Its a video game, those aren't real people! Why don't you go back to playing your Viva Pinata you wanna be Jack Thompson!!

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Haven't you ever seen any zombie movies?

Seriously, if they're GOING to be zombies soon (and scourge/undead pretty much counts right?) then they're not people, they're not families and it's not like you're going to be able to do much with their houses anyway.

It's not like they were potential undead, they were soon to be undead. Period. If you wouldn't feel bad about killing them once they're looking to kill you (and you shouldn't) then you shouldn't feel bad about preemptive killing to save more people later, especially when the people you save are your trained soldiers capable of saving even more people.

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Lawl @ the Jack Thompson comment.

Seriously though, it's just a different way to view things. I look at the Cleansing of Stratholme as the "Cleansing of Stratholme." Not the burning, not the slaughtering.

Also, in zombie movies if someone is GOING to become a zombie they usually want to be killed before that happens. I would want the same thing, wouldn't you?

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I would start off as saying it is just a game. Now for the moral debate part of the comment. If I remember correctly in Warcraft III the whole village had been infected and people were already undead and becoming undead, meaning Arthas didn't have much of a choice. Also, the dread lord was there recruiting the villagers into the undead army. Arthas' only choice was to slaughter the villagers, otherwise they'd ended up serving the undead.

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come on now, when are you not slauthering in this game.

so you are saying you have never ran an instance?

i would like to see how someone could get to 70 without killing anything or aiding someone to kill stuff(for healers/tanks)

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sometimes..it feels good to be bad

instead of thinking of it as slaughtering innocent citizens of Stratholme..try to think of it as helping the Alliance gain a tactical advantage by thinning out the Scourge's pool of potential recruits.

feel better now? I know I do. Have a lollipop, go ahead, I'm just a stranger offering you a treat.

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I've got to agree in principle with #1.

Had Arthas not been there and crossed that fateful line, then Uther may have redeemed him, there may have been no Lich King/Scourge/etc threat, the Alliance and Horde wouldn't have been strong enough to fight the Legion when it came roaring through to go after Mt. Hyjal.

And, as pointed out by Lykaon, it is just a game. If you're on an RP server, then fine... go into the instance and wipe, refusing to side with Arthas, and your hands will be clean. :)

No fuss, no muss.

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It's a gam... oh it's already been said a billion times.

I have a far harder time pushing the button to "harvest" a little sister in Bioshock, instead of saving her, than I will ever have making any choice in WoW.

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"But there's a big step between opening fantasy portals and burning down houses that are supposed to have families inside them. Does anyone else see a problem here?"

uh, you're killing fantasy families too

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and, you shouldn't harvest the girls, you should rescue them, better rewards

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It'll be just like the holocaust.

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Despite the "it's just a game" mentality, that "moral" decision is actually part of the storytelling that Blizz is trying to do with Lich King. There's a bit of info spread out in that aforementioned GFW magazine article, but the gist of it is that they almost want to make it seem that once you get to Arthas at level 80, are you any better than he was at that same spot? Haven't you done the same things he did? Aren't you just as bad as he was when he got to Icecrown?

Granted, most don't care about that stuff, they just want more phat lewtz and raiding and 30 minute Zul Amans, but that idea and concept is the kind of stuff that makes me keep playing. If it was just about phat lewtz, I'd still be playing Diablo 2. Stuff like this is what separates this game from the pack and gives it its longevity.

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OMGWTFBBQ when are you *not* killing "people" in this game. The majority of questlines are about "I don't like that guy, go lay his village to waste". More bullshit to get the comment count up.

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Just tell yourself they are insurgents with WMDs inside.

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You must be new to Digital Games! To get to Stratholme COT youll need to kill about 890,675 humanoids (woman incuded) from lev 1-80.

LOL, I hope u didn't post that on the official forums. Let the Game lean towards more mature content, this is a game based on WAR!

Blizzard is lazy anyway, u think there gonna animate NPC's seen thru the windows running around burning, screaming for help, and throwing there babies out the windows.

One cool thing would be how many non-demon human NPC's you can save from Arthas's Lunacy. maybe receive an item like a bucket that has to be refilled at well. If u reach the human saved goal, the raid completes a special quest.

Wheres my paycheck Blizz.

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Well this actually might be an issue on RP servers. It would be wierd to see paladins and priests runing around in stratholme and setting houses on fire.

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I have a couple undead characters, and one quest they made me give poisoned alcohol to human prisoners! i should quit the game! that was my character that gave the alcohol directly responsible for their deaths! ahh, you get the point. :P

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I'm not sure if this has been posted in the comments yet, but I know when I played WCIII during that level you destroyed their homes, however, before I slaughtered them I always let them become zombies first. Perhaps when you burn the house, the people will run out, tranform then attack you. Then it's just self defence.

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I prefer to think of it more as wanton destruction rather than slaughter, that helps me sleep at night!

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