Hello, I see you posted a thread about horrible writing. The current writing staff is pretty awful! They wouldnt know character building if it slapped them in the face!
Thanks for your post and have a great day!
People just want to go back to “how things are supposed to be” instead having this new norm nobody likes. Given that reddit wow also discusses the biggest story screw-ups and retcons, it does reflect badly on Steve Danuser and how his lead has changed the story to worse.
The writing IS bad, make no mistake. They have better wow-writers available (Golden and Weisman), who have proven to actually have a decent understand of WoW.
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I’m confident that a lot of the people who call the writing bad, and like to insult him and attack him as a person, don’t know anything about the story they are critiquing.
I’m also confident they skip every cutscene, dialogue, and quest text.
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It’s because they don’t know how game development works and think because Danuser has been lead narrative designer since the end of legion everything in the story is his fault.
Meanwhile the guy actually responsible for it gets off pretty much scot free finally being fired in 2020 because his behaviour wasn’t something they could keep hush hush due to him being mentioned by name in the California lawsuit.
Like many people who rise to their highest level of incompetence, he was promoted because he had the right friends and was in the right place at the right time.
It doesn’t matter what credentials he has if his work is mediocre at best.
They made that excuse at the same time that they made the claim that the reason Shadowlands is the way it is is because the old devs taught them to think like this, and they were never able to change their way of thinking and build a better expansion. Basically they blamed the people who haven’t worked there for a decade for what they are responsible for. The second time they made this claim I realized what a lame excuse it was.
Blizzard is entirely responsible for the state of the story. Danuser has had 2 expansions since the end of Legion to get it back on track, but he has failed. Everything is a plot twist that makes no sense, or a jump to an entirely different story that leaves loose ends everywhere.
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His credentials absolutely matter, because at the end of the day an opinion on writing is extremely subjective. Personally while I have a few gripes with the writing, I am by no means on the ‘Danuser Hate Train’. I know other people who actually like the story of WoW, because at the end of the day for them it’s a video game, and as long as there’s some form of narrative to move the plot forward, they don’t really care too much.
You do not become a lead narrative designer if you do not have the credentials or experience to do the job. Blizzard isn’t a family run business where you can get away with hiring your cousin Vinny who just needs a job to get by over the weekends.
You don’t have to be a chef to know if food tastes bad.
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The overwhelming majority of those who have expressed opinions about the story disagree with you. As an extreme outlier, you are wrong. You are one of the few who thinks he’s doing a great job. And when I say that, from all the reading I have done on the forums and elsewhere, you are the only one.
There are two names in the credit for “Narrative” for Shadowlands, Danuser and somebody who nobody ever heard of who seems to have been some sort of assistant.
Oh, please, LOL. That’s exactly how hiring was run for many years. Friends of friends who looked like they were going to fit into the frat boy office culture were hired over more competent but more boring people, and certainly over minorities of all kinds. Promotions went to recent hires who fit in, ie white guys who fit into a culture that permitted cube crawls and managers playing COD while their female underlings tried to do their jobs for them. More experienced employees were passed over for promotion.
Get real. Danuser has been working for Blizzard a long time. He got promoted because he was one of the boys. He’s still in that position because neither Ion nor Bobby think the story is important enough to bother putting effort into it, like the studios that do. Story won’t get you your esports glory.
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The forums and twitter is an extreme minority. 5% of the playerbase, at best. Regardless, whether or not people agree with me or not is irrelevant. Opinions on writing are always going to be subjective.
Where did I say he was doing a great job? I said I have issues with the writing (which by itself clearly implies that I don’t think he’s doing a great job) I’m just not on the Danuser Hate Train. Please read and understand what you’re reading before you run your fingers over the keyboard.
Not going to bother replying to the rest of your post as it’s ignorant trash with no basis in fact.
No he hasn’t BFA was Alex Afrasiabi Shadowlands was a mess because the Narrative team tried to change stuff last second after Alex was fired who was the original mind behind that expansion
Exactly. Danuser was a quest designer during BFA’s development (when most of the content for the expansion was hashed out and designed) he’s only been in the role of Lead Narrative Designer for a few years. Shadowlands is his first expansion where he’s been the lead narrative designer. Dragonflight will be his second expansion.
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The story got so bad that even Nobbel took a break from it.
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Easy.
Sylvanas is still alive.
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Again. Opinions on writing will be subjective.
You give a Steven King novel to 100 people and you’re going to get 100 different opinions on the quality of the writing, not a consensus.
You’re the last person who should be quoting what happened in that lawsuit considering your pinning the mess made by that alcoholic abuser Alex onto the guy who replaced him when Blizzard got caught with their pants down amd were forced to fire him
Couldn’t say it better like the reason why Shadowlands was a confusing mess is because they clearly changed the narrative that Alex would of originally had all planned and set out last second.
Like tbh they could of even been told to do so from the top so they could remove Alex Afrasiabi from the credits being led like lambs to the slaughter by higer ups.
It’s not even an opinion. He just got exhausted on trying to make sense of it.
That literally is an opinion.
Also he’s literally still releasing videos about WoW lore, with his latest one being released 9 days ago.
I’m pretty sure Danuser replaced Metzen.
He just got back to doing it after a long break. And no it’s not an opinion that you can’t branch things together to have them make sense. But now that he’s back, he’s trying his best to make sense of it.
He literally says he ‘stands by his opinion’ in his update video. I mean by all that is god damn holy, how can you say “It’s not an opinion that Nobbel doesn’t like the lore.” when Nobbel himself says: “My opinion is that I do not like the lore.”
Stop, just stop.
Everyone is going to have an opinion on the story and the writing quality. Some are going to like it, some are going to be neutral, some are going to hate it for one reason or another. This is an indisputable fact. Nobbel’s opinion on the lore and the gameplay for Shadowlands is his own, and you might share his opinion, but not everyone is going to.
That’s it. End of story. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 anima.