"Grasping Physics" : 2012

Physics of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online video game. The game is based on a whole universe thriving in a world called Azeroth. You play as an adventurer of many different types; spell casters, healers, hunters, the options are endless. The world also has many different types of mythical creatures such as dragons and griffins. The landscape can change overnight. Everything in Azeroth is much different than the world we know. Even physics. The laws of forces, gravity, and action/reaction are all exaggerated or even broken in the world of Azeroth.

A lot of the characters are melee classes in the World of Warcraft. Swinging around heavy weapons creates the perfect opportunity to see the Law if Inertia in action. In the Mists of Pandaria cinematic trailer, there is an epic fight scene between an orc and a human. The orc is about two to three times bigger than the human. They are both fighting in foreign territory as well. The orc finds an ornamental structure that he is able to break off and use as a weapon. Through the use of amazing animation you can tell that the object has a lot of weight to it, more so than the human would be able to hold. The Law of Inertia is best illustrated when the orc swings the weapon, misses, causing his whole body to be hurled into another structure, destroying it. This example of exaggeration in the action gives us a sense of just how strong the orc is, as well as how heavy the hammer is.

Later in the cinematic, Shen Stormstout, a Pandarian monk, breaks the rule of Acceleration. Just as the human and orc are about to clash their weapons together, Stormstout places his staff between them.

After Stormstout separates the two, they go flying back, as he glides between them. This is showing that the smallest of forces can produce large accelerations. A little later he also smacks his staff on the ground, sending a force that knocks back the human and orc with no physical contact between them and the staff. Another example of this is seeing Deathwing fly to Stormwind in the Catacylsm trailer. His wings produce massive force throughout the land. They also spread fire to without touching anything. Another fact is that the entire elemental uprising happening throughout Azeroth is because of the rise of Deathwing. His freedom means the elements are at war the all of the “aspects” of Azeroth. The aspects are leaders of dragonflights. They were empowered by a titan, and each given a specific power to lead the dragonflights, as well as to watch over Kalimdor (a contenant in Azeroth). Even with Deathwings freedom, we see places miles and miles from where he is at, crumbling by the sheer force of his evil. No physical contact, yet the valleys cave in.

The laws of gravity are also quite different. In the same Mists of Pandaria cinematic, Stormstout using wind or air spells to slow his falls. Mages also have a spell called “slow fall” and priest’s have “levitate” that will allow you to defy gravity and slow to a stop when falling off of any object. But not just the spell casters are able to defy gravity. The terrain itself is often subject to anti gravity areas. As we can see in the Cataclysm video, a huge tidal wave is coming through an area known as Thousand Needles. The boulders sitting on top of one another have more mass the one they are on. We can visibly see the base of support is a very small area, while the center of gravity barely lines up with it. This is also seen in the Burning Crusade video. The scene where a human mage casts a spell on a tauren is back dropped with floating mountains. Here we see the mountains not having any contact with any terrain around it.

Sometimes, even the creatures of Azeroth appear to be unaware of gravity. In the Burning Crusade trailer, we see a female blood elf priest playing with a mana worm. This blue iridescent creature floats in the air and never touches the ground. The priest plays with it in her arms before sucking it’s life force out. The worm floats without effort. It doesn’t have any wings either. What’s interesting is that it looks like it is swimming in the air.

Reactions in the game are emphasized and exaggerated through out the whole story. The use of squash and stretch is greatly used in the Cataclysm cinematic. Deathwing, a deadly elemental dragon, bursts from the ground with rage. He makes his way throughout the world to finally land on the city of Stormwind’s front gates. The weight of his whole body stopping against the stone causes him to crunch into a squash and pop up just a bit. We can see the weight and force he is exerting by the crunch of the stone beneath him and his claw marks engraved into the walls.

Mages have a spell called “polymorph”. This spell enables them to transform a humanoid into a sheep. In the Burning Crusade cinematic we see a human mage transform a tauren shaman into a sheep. The spell leaves the poor sheep hanging in the air for some nice anticipation, before it drops to the ground. As it drops we can see it stretch a bit. In the same video, Illidan pushes himself into the air. To do this, we see him bend his knees for the squash and stretch upwards towards the sky. The squash and stretch gives him an effect of immense power.

We can also see a lot of squash and stretch with Stormstout in the aforementioned Mists of Pandaria videos. During the fight scenes, he cuts through the air with grace and lands with a bit of a squash. Not a lot however, because he lands very gently and slowly. His center of gravity is also always in the right spot when following those arcs. The male pandarians have very large stomachs for they are known as “brewmasters”. They are very well balanced for their sized. A scene in the classic World of Warcraft trailer shows a night elf running in the forest and then jumping into the air. While in the air, she transforms into a black panther. She creates a perfect parabolic arc and still keeps her center of gravity in the same spot throughout the transformation, even if it does move up in her body.

There is a scene in the Burning Crusade cinematic where a troll is riding a raptor and takes a turn. This part is treated as if the raptor were a motorcycle. The troll appears to lean into the turn with the raptor to help keep his balance. Unlike a vehicle which would pull the center of gravity towards the outside of the curve due to centrifugal force.

It seems in the world of Azeroth, the more spell casting abilities you know, the more the laws are susceptible to being broken in terms of physics. Even if you are not a spell caster, you are allowed to exaggerate every movement to showcase your strength. The world is still very realistic and full of wonder. Although the laws of physics are exaggerated or broken in the Warcraft universe, it is at appropriate times and done to give a mystic sense to the world.

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In my term paper I have added a few extra bullet points. As I was re-watching the trailers, little things were popping out to me. I also wanted to incorporate the discussions of centrifugal force and center of gravity. Right above this I have also posted the videos in case you are intrigued to watch them. I still get chills when watching the Wrath of the Lich King video. The animation on the fur boot is so crazy and inspiring!