not my first time saying this, and probably won’t be the last…
No one disputes Anduin’s right to have PTSD after all the crap he’s been put through. It’s the fact that others have been through things just as awful, if not worse, and yet the narrative weight focused so much on HIM that makes us roll our eyes. I get that there’s only so much room for every character in this story, SOMEONE was going to get the most focus. Still, no, I honestly think they could’ve done better.
also, taking my joke a little seriously for a moment… HOW many sapient species currently coexist on Azeroth now? We should be seeing dozens of mixed-race couples in each Faction by this point, instead of like, one dozen total. Again, limits of the story I suppose. Dammit, NOT making Lor’Themar and Thalyssa’s wedding an in-game event was such a missed opportunity. So many fun little side quests to make sure nothing goes wrong that we could’ve done…
In a brief moment of not being a cantankerous old codger, I really like all the stay-and-listens they’ve been throwing in lately. It’s a really good way to flesh out the world without the involvement of a quest.
And I do kind of …respect? what they’re trying to do with Anduin. Heaven knows mental health is a fraught topic, and while I’ve been known to sass about extremely arbitrary breaking points, that’s sort of how it is in real life. The dumbest things can make everything feel overwhelming. I dunno. There’s a whole vocabulary I’m trying to develop that isn’t easy for me. But it is important. The big thing is that trauma tends to be cumulative, and while harsh experiences early in life can help with developing resilience, there’s no solid barrier against losing yourself. Especially, one imagines, if you have an experience that really makes you doubt your entire sense of self – like being mind controlled.
But on the other hand, this being Blizzard, I’m kind of skeptical and my overall interest in another round of hand wringing is at an all time low.
S’complicated.
So far, my assessment is “could be worse”. We haven’t wallowed in Anduin’s feelings as much as I feared we might. And one “cheer up!” talk didn’t fix everything, which is great. Genuinely. I’ve had my share of pep talks and they’re nice, but they’re not a magical trauma cure.
It is a common enough meme for heroes to blame themselves for things that nobody else would. See “I should have been stronger” on the tvtropes website. This is also why, Ranger-General Sylvanas submits herself to the one who hated her most for judgement
I would make the argument that we wouldn’t see that many.
Think about it, how many couples do we actually see in game? Not many. Despite some Goldshire shenanigans wow doesn’t really show much in the way of couples. From the perspective of the world, we see only a very small fraction of the couples that exist mixed or otherwise. And most races would still be heavily culturally segregated. Remember, some of them are pretty new. Orcs, Night Elves, Draenei, Tauren, Dracthry, etc. are all pretty new to interacting with other races. Most groups have remained fairly isolated. So, it is safe to say the majority of couples are going to be the same race just because of that isolation if nothing else. And we only see a small fraction of those couples. Meaning the odds are we would see very few mixed couples.
That is well put, imo.
I would like to add some things people tend to not consider.
WoW Devs are not professional writers.
WoW Devs are not trained therapists.
An MMO style of game limits the amount of information that can be shared. in fact, any game limits the amount of info
MMO games actually have very little time to tell a story
So, consider the source. The story is not going to be a detailed, nuanced story of trauma. There was never any chance of it being that. It is going to be broad strokes. Many skilled, well intentioned, knowledgeable writers struggle to represent trauma well over multiple books.
Overall I actually think, given the limitations, they are actually doing a pretty good job of it. Sure, there are some things that could have been done better. But, that is always going to be the case.
It was a pyrrhic victory at best. The Alliance lost a substantial amount of forces in the intentional suicide mission. Gelbin and Jaina were both seriously injured during the forced retreat from the city.
The main threat the Zandalari posed in the war was their fleet. Without that they’re just an isolated island without a means of transporting any troops or tools of war to the main theaters of war.
I know, I know, the number of characters we see in-game cannot possibly be representative of the how large the population in-universe would actually be like. Think though- that’d be a hell of a way to put an end to the Faction War, if everyone just started marrying each other across all divides.
Thing is, Blizzard isn’t some small indie company consisting of 3 guys working from a windowless basement somewhere in Slovenia. They have enough money to hire a professional writer or two as, at the very least, consultants on how to convey these stories. Sure they might not understand the whole setting, but you have more devs and loremasters to fill in the gaps. If people worked together like this they could pull off great things.
I’ll agree that by virtue of being an MMO, the timeframe to convey something is MUCH shorter, but we have seen plenty of ‘stay a while and listen’ moments, which most have been very good. They have the resources and tools to make something better.
Then we can have mixed races. Just think of the Gnorens and Dwarcs.
I don’t think it is that simple. And let’s be honest, even if it was it would never be something corporate would do.
I agree.
Sure. Don’t misunderstand, I was not saying it couldn’t be better. But that if you are grading it you have to consider all the limitations.
Personally, I would probably give it a B, maybe B+ grade. That is factoring in the limitations. So, yes it could have been better. But overall it has been a pretty good job. Not perfect, not the best it could be. But still pretty good.
Oh of course, in practice its more complicated, but nothing that talented people can’t pull off. And you are 100% right about not being a corpo thing to do. Hence why we should line up these CEO and board roaches and… You know what, nevermind. Not gonna go there.
Absolutely. I’m not saying it was bad. So far TWW was a MASSIVE upgrade compared to BFA and SL, but I think one can’t get complacent when it comes to hold someone(or something) to standards.
Golden’s issue is that she wrote books that could be completed in a week. That kind of story telling leads to long draughts of misery for players in stories that can and do take years to be told.
I don’t disagree. I mostly point out that one has to take into account the limitations because I see a lot of posts that seem to be setting very unrealistic standards.
And part of that is because when people set expectations that are impossible to fill given the limitations of media their feedback just becomes noisy and pointless complaints that Blizzard is only going to shrug off. Which, unfortunately, often overwhelms legitimate complaints, and gets the good feedback thrown out as well.
The more people with realistic expectations giving feedback, the more likely we are to get that feedback followed.
Faking forsakens can’t clap. I will die spiteful of that. I will spite her forever for that. My restless spirit will haunt her bloodline forever for that.
Oh yes. Like, I never expected some mind-blowing narrative and character development. I never expected Nier Replicant levels of lore and narrative, but I still hold some standards
I think Golden gets more flak than she deserves, because she was being directed to write certain events and not given a practical framework/boundary to work within. Worse than that, she (by her own admission) was often giving conflicting bits of direction to work with, or not kept apprised of changes to the narrative that would have drastically altered what she was writing. Like, she wrote books that were well received before doing anything with Blizzard. They told her what to write and signed off on it. So, while some of the individual contributions she made might have been stinkers, there should have been something approximating a lore custodian to serve as a gatekeeper between the ideas that didn’t work and the existing framework.
Putting it another way, WoW’s story suffered from a lack of quality assurance. There should have been guard-rails in place so that Sylvanas, Saurfang, Kael’thas, whoever did not come across as entirely different characters depending on when you saw them or who wrote them.
Maybe it is some kind of massive zero sum game within the broader Warcraft fiction, that every character is inconsistent to the point of incredulity to balance out how nothing will ever move the needle for Anduin to the point of incredulity.
Ermm actually, Sylvanas’ actions directly lead to the afterlife being magnitudes more humane than before. She objectively might have done the most good out of any WoW character period just because of this.