It has nothing to do with positive messages and politics. Simply put, Blizzard has stopped focusing on consistent, believable, sensible narratives so that they can move to a much more “easily accessible” ‘big event’ approach.
A thing happens; bam. We move onto the next. Another thing happens, this time bigger; bam. We move onto the next.
There is no meat tying together the huge movements of the story, thus why it’s so jarring when crap like Teldrassil happens, and then we have nothing tying it to the rest of the game, and why all the characters suddenly forget it happens.
It’s why Dazar’alor felt so hollow and empty.
It’s why Nazjatar made no bloody sense at all.
They still don’t bother answering essential questions about the story; plain and simple.
As time passes, I ask myself why the factions would even exist at this point. Two massive wars with deaths all around? At some point, the racial leaders have to be tired of dying for each other and their alliances. At what point do Blood Elves just cement their own peace with the Eastern Kingdoms? Why should Surumar need to participate in the WoT? So on, and so on. Back in WC3 Lordaeron didn’t even want to act with the plague in their country, and now the human kingdoms are fighting across the world for the night elves?
Imho, I think a city-state system with reputation mattering more would be a fun take on factions but that’s a topic for another thread.
The message of Warcraft 3 was pretty blatantly ‘coexistence or extinction take your pick’. So at least it’s been a consistent message, it’s just weird they keep contriving reasons to say it again and again and again.
Also I’m not sure what political message they’re preaching. Try to get along with people from different nations and also war is bad? That’s the most inoffensive and agreeable sentiment imaginable.
But so is ‘Standing in fire is a bad idea’ but as any healer can tell you people clearly still struggle with that nugget of wisdom.
What beliefs? What politics? ‘War is bad?’ That’s not Blizzard making a political statement, that’s Blizzard regurgitating the same received, unexamined, absolutist morality trash that’s packaged a million different ways by our awful culture. ‘War is bad’ isn’t a political statement in this culture. If the global peontariat banded together to overthrow the Alliance and the Horde and lead Baine and Anduin to a guillotine, that would be a political statement. It would also, incidentally, be rad.
That’s one of the reason this expansion’s story feels so hollow - it’s not even saying anything. It’s lazy, uninspired, the default way our culture talks about this kind of conflict. It’s ‘insert story about war here’.
Of course, the underlying messages of the story, that might is to be revered, that the people in power deserve that power and can be trusted with it, that the status quo is to be defended and that any violent upheaval is always categorically wrong, those are all political statements, but it’s not like someone at Blizzard is cramming their views into the game. They don’t even know they’re doing it. They’re just eating from the same trashcan of ideology as the rest of us.
There’s nothing wrong with themes and messages in your stories. Most all stories have them; knowingly or not.
And plenty of stories full of war simultaneously be critical of it. Heck, that’s actually the nature of most of the best narratives related to war found in games/television/film/literature. And, ironically, lots of stories that are intended to be anti-war can actually end up being anything but. More often than not, they posit that violence performed by some groups is wrong, but violence performed by other groups or individuals who are morally/physically superior to us and in whom we should place all our implicit trust, is okay.
It’s not that matters of war/peace should just be excised entirely. Rather, creators and audiences should to be more mindful of themes and messages when they come up.
And I think the “moralizing” you’re talking about is actually just the factions/characters tending to drift more and more into a darker shade of black and a lighter shade of white compared to the more grayish area they were both in before. Not just in the character’s actions, but also in terms of narrative framing.
Man there is nothing morally or thematically consistent going on in this universe. I understand based on your canned phrases that this is just a gripe about the game not catering to your particular politics but come on.
I think it’s because Blizzard sees the factions in much the same way most people treat sports teams. Or how most Star trek fans treat Klingon vs Federation. Or how most people who read Twilight treated Edward vs Jacob.
Sure, people have their favorites. Their interest piques when they see the iconography or hear a statement related to their favorite. There’s some rivalry with the others, but most of us realize that at the end of the day, it’s the love of the sport/franchise/universe that unites us all.
And honestly, it’s not a bad strategy. WoW gets people to engage in the greater game by engaging in factions, and often gets people to engage in factions by getting them to engage in individual races/characters.
And then there’s those few who actually take things to the point of really disliking the other sides. Who feel the property would be better if the rivals were just removed entirely. Who turn their antipathy about a sports team/ship/faction and use it as fuel to harass its actual fans. And then there’s just good ol’ fashioned trolls who exploit it just to watch people get riled up.
I do think that Blizzard could/should do a better job moderating the community to handle these more problematic behaviors, though.
IS part of the problem in the forums that we don’t often enough see the distinction? As a person, I was disappointed they had Sylvanas burn Teldrassil, for example. But my character, and undead, who Sylvanas literally saved from a hell on earth as a scourge, he’s gonna trust her much longer than maybe he should.
It’s a game. After Teldrassil My druid would probably left the horde and just been a loyal cenarian circle member. My Goblin would have been pragmatic, and criticized sylvanas based on how profitable a decision was. My Tauren who I imagine grew up in Taurajo feels for the alliance the way Theramore citizens feel about the horde.
But more often than not, I see people in the forum fighting and dying on their take, not their characters take, but Theirs. It’s weird.
It is a thread about exposing the blatant ignorance, lack of ethics and lack of creativity of the people in charge of writting the lore of this game. Kharinak put it better than Hordehacker I agree but the sentiment is basically the same.
I think the biggest problem on the forums is a relative lack of moderation. But WoW’s playerbase is so large, diverse, and engaged that I’m sure it’s a huge challenge.
I think the only story with a ‘war is good, actually’ moral I’ve read is Starship Troopers.
And yeah to be honest fighting a bunch of thoughtless bug monsters in mech suits sounds pretty rad to me. But visiting horrific violence on thinking, feeling people is a only when the alternative is even worse option in my book.
WoW wanting an anti-war story isn’t inherently bad. There are no bad story ideas, just bad execution. And BFA was a calamitous execution.
Mainly because the tone can’t be consistent. You can’t have a story about the horrors of war in a game that’s going to make the horrors of war fun. This isn’t Spec Ops: The Line. If Blizz wants to make All Quiet On The Westfall Front then I say go for it. Just don’t put it in a scenario where I’m going to feel like a badass for exploding Paul Bäumer’s head with Shadow Word: Death.
