We’re playing a comic book, people. I see a lot of people arguing for things like ‘war in warcraft’ and generally just grim aspects and plot points to give the game an edge.
WarCraft (and the sort of pulpy, comic book media it’s based on) has definitely always had an element of violence. The units in WC2 literally explode into pools of blood! But it’s always been exaggerated, self-aware, totally cartoonish violence almost to the level of Itchy and Scratchy.
I feel like WarCraft needs to return to its almost ghoulishly lighthearted roots. Every attempt to make it ‘serious’ has felt seriously forced. The early games, and even earlier WoW worked because they had an outwardly bright setting with a hell of a lot of dark humor littered within it. It just doesn’t quite work as a Game of Thrones analogue, IMO.
Just own it, own the hamminess, let the voice actors, writers and artists have some fun! WarCraft is more fun when it feels like a hammy B-movie, than when it feels like Plan 9 From Outer Space.
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I remember being able to rapidly click on a sheep until it exploded in WC3.
You’re right this is a comic book world not a Stephen King novel.
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You must not know a lot of the deeper lore set deep within’ the World of Warcraft that isn’t always expressed correctly in the game because for some unknown reason they don’t put all information into the game.
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Putting important lore and character motivations in freaking books (and then not even so much as a callback in the game!) is a total pet peeve of mine. Regardless of issues I might have with the tone of the story, being unable to even experience it unless I buy completely different media is … well, it’s 
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While I agree that Warcraft has always had a cartoonish element, it’s worth remembering that the story is told over multiple forms of media. And with that comes different elements, ideas, and a lot of themes that go unknown.
A good example is how Saurfang doesn’t eat pork and makes one singular comment about it in Warsong hold, and then it’s never discussed again. But if you know your lore and have read the books, you know Saurfang doesn’t eat pork (despite pork being a delicacy in orcish culture) because it reminds him of Draenei women and children squeeling like pigs while being slaughtered.
That kind of thing? That’s dark. And nuanced. The game has multiple forms of such lore in many locations and through many media.
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Yeah, bad writing can do that. Blizzard’s never been known for great writing.
I do agree with this, I wish they’d put more of the information and background to each plot in this game’s story into the actual game itself, that way there is far less misunderstandings on so many things because the entire information is presented to the person. But, they seem to think otherwise or that a majority will look into any short story or other outside source to understand the full picture. It’s part of my criticism with the entire Darkshore prepatch story.
But, there are definitely dark aspects to this game, just not fully aware to the player unless you really delve deep into all of the game’s lore.
Personally I’m really tired of edginess.
It feels like this game has been trying to push the edgy, grimy, “grimness” far to much anymore, feels like that’s all that happens.
It gets boring, and is part of the reason I literally could not care less about the faction war anymore.
Blizzard has successfully killed all interest in the war between the alliance and horde for me. There is no real reason to be fighting, before random horde leaders just jump off the deep end, because blizzard can’t come up with a better reason.
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That kind of writing can definitely work when it’s written consistently - when you can maintain that sort of tone then it’s a blast. Unfortunately, WoW is a lighthearted ‘heroes defeat the villain’ story at its heart. There’s always going to be a sort of tonal dissonance with those sort of elements…
…But that’s not to say a wild shift in tone can’t be fun. It’s all about how they present it. As I said in the OP, hammy, overacted (or overwritten) dialog can be a lot of fun, even if the subject matter is a bit of a mess! Right now, for lack of a better term, it just feels like they’re trying a bit too hard given what they’re working with.
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We need to go back to just being normal dudes living in the world. this “champion” crap was a mistake that they double downed on.
The only thing they have gotten right since Wrath is class halls and they got rid of it as quick as they introduced it.
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I think it can be and is both. There’s more room for nuance when they do things like class halls and such, and lets not forget we had an act of genocide this expansion. The problem is it was lost in the midst of inept story telling and blizz using Dad levels of trickery to try and throw people off the scent.
Stories can be as light or dark as you want, but when they’re narrated by Gilbert Godfried and directed by michael bay no ones gonna care.
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I wouldn’t say this to be entirely true, some of Blizz’s writing hasn’t been as awful. I think what makes Blizz’s current writing frustrating and not very good is the feeling of multiple things being retconned or not fully fleshed out with information like they should’ve been giving.
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Step 1: Write super dark story
Step 2: Introduce Bikini transmogs
Step 3: Watch super dark yet hilarious cut scenes with our characters
Step 4: Have fun!
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I want this.
Disregard every point I’ve tried to make, I want every single quest text in WoW read out loud by Gilbert Gottfried.
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This. The first thing that comes to mind is the forced breeding of Draenei with Orcs after the Legion set the Orcs against them.
The universe gets very, very, dark. Like you said, this just doesn’t get brought up in game which is the fault of the game directors. This is exactly why I don’t want some green verdant plain with rolling hills in the next expansion considering the lore they’ve built around the Shadowlands and the Old Gods. Makes no sense.
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This I can agree with, I don’t understand why Blizz felt the need to put everyone’s player on a pedestal, but it also really belittles the lore and the fact that we as players have nothing canonically to do with the story line. We’re just here for the ride and are a bunch of murder hobos doing our jobs.
The only thing they’ve ever really credited to players is C’thun…. And the defias dude.
That I can agree with. BFA’s story feels much like it’s for the sake of shock value and not much else, and I dislike it at its core as someone who enjoys the Faction Conflict narrative because I’d prefer a conflict that’s believable.
While I think Sylvanas is a good character (in practice, not morality) I wish her motives were more well presented to us. If you read a Good War, you know much of Sylvanas’ intent and suddenly things make a lot more sense. As an avid night elf fan, I don’t care that the tree was burned, but rather, how the information was conveyed to us in game which made it feel hollow.
In truth, Warcraft is a game which takes ideas from multiple forms of media such as basic religion and faith, lovecraft, various realms of existence, etc - and tries to be creative with spins being put on them. Sometimes, like with the Old Gods, you’re going to have very dark themes, and I think Blizzard actually does well in this department. But sometimes, they miss the mark, and I think that boils down to trying to make mortal men and women way more than they should be, much like BFA has been constantly doing with the demigodifying of Tyrande (yes, demigodifying is now a word), Jaina and her shenanigans, Sylvanas being the greatest war mind to ever live, etc.
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The inconsistence is definitely what makes it unsatisfying. They keep going back and changing their mind to suit the current plot, and there’s no sense of an ongoing story when that happens. Retcons are poisonous in a long-lasting story like this one.
I do think they have had some genuine moments of really stiff writing though. Perhaps not objectively bad, but written in such a way that seems to conflict heavily with the tone of the source material.
As an example, you can have really dark elements in a kid’s cartoon (I am not calling WoW a kid’s cartoon, please don’t dive on me) - and have them feel natural and fit into the story if presented correctly. WoW’s darker elements, as of now, feel like they’re written for an entirely different setting.
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I mean… there’s dark and then there’s, whatever the BFA writing team made.
If you want a good story you need good writing.
Danny can forget about whatever plotline until the night king comes home… if you don’t have the people who have the creativity inside to make a good story, you aren’t going to get a good story.
You’re getting a design by committee as they all throw ideas together that they’ve hastily gathered from various forums.
Good times! 
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Yeah sadly it’s a huge criticism I have with Blizz’s writing especially lately. It’s very frustrating that people are often misinformed, and by no fault of their own other than not going outside of WoW’s game to look at the entire lore from outside sources or reading deep into everything. But even then, it can be hard to get everything piece by piece to understand the lore. I feel that Blizz definitely needs to put more context into their stories… But I personally like the Old God theme, but do find the entire premise of the Shadowlands leak to be rather silly in my own opinion. I saw an entirely different leak with an entirely different theme that I’d be way more down for 
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