New community council has Story/Lore section

Lore Story Forum
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Might be worth it? Going through the form right now.

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Hopeful that this means the devs will be more able to connect with the community, but as far as story/lore goes with the focus on ‘current and past experiences’ I can’t see too much ability for the council to affect anything due to Blizzard planning the story at least a few years in advance.

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Well Ion did say that 9.1 was finalized story-wise only in December/January so I do not think that is the truth.

I think what gets planned a few years in advance is stuff like “Lets do a Death expansion!” and “This character will be a villain”.

Form submitted tho

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I honestly hope they’re serious about listening to the playerbase though. I’m also glad that they admitted that stuff that worked 15 yrs ago is really out of date in this day and age and people don’t have the patience to grind boring content.

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If Blizzard goes the Marvel/DC Comics route and unveils Amon as WoW’s true Big Bad(until he dies leaving us with the Voice in the Darkness to take up the role of Big Bad) then his story is planned in Advance while everything else is planned as the story goes along.

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I submitted a form for the program, and am hoping to join it so I can help both the story/lore community and the RP community. I’ve been a long time roleplayer since vanilla, and I can say that what the players want in regards to both RP and story are closely connected. The community council is a great way to get player feedback and I hope that our concerns are able to be better heard through such a venue. I suggest that anyone who is a story forum regular submit a form so that we can better vocalize to Blizzard what it is we want. It’s important that posters such as ourselves, not figureheads from WoWhead or streamers, be put on the council since it’s us who make up the majority of the audience and know how to articulate what we want while representing varied interests on the same subject we all care about.

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On the one hand this looks exactly like what the forums should used for. On the other it does look like a genuine attempt at feedback and engagement so I hope it works out.

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I have serious doubts that they’ll actually listen to anyone who joins up as a lore consultant.

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I also submitted a form, although I am somewhat mixed on the idea of listening to the community for lore and story beats, both because that weakens the potential for the narrative to surprise and also because a lot of the community’s ideas in this regard are not very good.

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All I’ve been surprised by in Shadowlands so far is how obvious what happens in the story is.

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Sure, but what we have right now not being good doesn’t necessarily mean that community proposals will automatically be better. I sincerely dislike the idea of effectively crowdsourcing the narrative because it would mean that it would not have any real vision.

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My self-presentation was simple (obviously way more wordy than this)

I am good at:

  • Lore/Story analysis
  • Class fantasy ideas

Because

  • Social & Cultural Analysis degree (focusing on colonial/postcolonial Latin America)
  • Religious Studies degree (focusing on comparative religion esp Abrahamics and the occult/Western Occult History, ergo formal education in myth and folklore)
  • Roman Catholic
  • Initiated in voodoo + former occultist
  • Afroindigenous Andean Latin American

And my three examples were:

  • The work I’ve done on the wiki with the Inspirations sections
  • The Horde thread on this forum
  • My warlock stables thread on GD

I think “good” or “bad” comes from the fermentation process of a concept.

All my takes are rooted in the principles that:

  1. There must be narrative depth, complexity, and representatives for EACH race
  2. There must be narrative depth, complexity, and representatives for EACH class
  3. There must be narrative depth, complexity, and equity for BOTH factions
  4. There must be narrative equity between race/class/factions combinations for the Cosmic Forces.
  5. The story has to retain coherence and a semblance of integrity.
  6. WoW is best when it copies and blends IRL histories and myths and stories (eg Arthurian Reversal Arthas, eg Golden Emperor Shaohao with the Four August Celestials, eg Exodus Slave Rebellion Thrall/Go’el)

Eg my seemingly-mostly-agreed-upon “ideal map” I posted last week

Say what you will about me but my frustration in this game is rooted in a lack of equity and lack of using the myths/stories they’re already borrowing from in the development of the races and world that everyone agrees with.

So we end up with Disney Humans Who Can Do No Wrong and Villain Batted Horde time and time again.

Humans need to be decentered, yes, but also need more actual Arthurian plots. Trolls need to be stop being content fodder for instances and also need to use more African/Caribbean myths esp wrt the Loa. Etc.

Which, on that note, can’t remember if I mentioned I made a WoW alt for my “ideal universe” concepts:

https://twitter.com/BaalTheWarlock

Finished Shadow Pantheon thread a few hours ago (first pantheon I did cuz Halloween)

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I submitted one as well.

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I submitted my request. I think this might be a fun opportunity.

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For those applying, good luck and I wish my peeps the best of luck and that blizz actually listens to you guys :heart:

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Yikes. This is just as bad as Erevien applying for job lmao

Why are you joining if you disagree with the fundamental idea of it? Do you actually think your fanfic is better than anybody else’s?

People are getting the wrong idea. They aren’t looking for a story team. It’s not like they’re gonna spoil the whole expansion then ask people what to do instead. That’s stupid. What they’re having are level headed people judge and constructively criticize their product.

I’d be worried if we had any “forum extremist” in that position, it’d be a waste for somebody who could actually help.

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Thanks for the input, guy who barely posts around here.

I said my feelings are mixed because I don’t know how I feel about Blizzard taking lore feedback to heart because good stories aren’t crowdsourced. It has nothing to do with whether or not what I want to happen is better than what others want to happen.

The very fact that we’re having this discussion of “X shouldn’t be on the Community Council because their ideas suck!” is just a practical example of the pitfalls of community feedback shaping the story too much. Who gets to decide whose ideas suck? If we’re going to filter members of the community council based on who is likely to give “the correct” feedback then what’s the point of having a council?

Even Erevien should be able to apply, although his history of ban evasion probably would make that a long shot.

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Idk, the short story winners from 10 years ago are now part of the writing team, so maybe this is the new version of that pipeline from back then

and hopefully people who know what they’re talking about in that criticism, i.e. can recognize, name, and analyze actual existing tropes and how themes are playing out

Anyone can criticize a story, but doing so in a formal, “academic” capacity is different.

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Wow went from 38mil player to this. |October 30, 2021|5,965,501|-634,149|-10%|536,895|
| — | — | — | — | — |
|September 30, 2021|6,599,650|-105,366|-2%|593,969|
|August 30, 2021|6,705,016|-249,998|. There scared

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Which is why I will not be submitting my name. I like to do fan fictions and to critique the story but I have no formal literature skills.