Things started to fall apart when the ‘multimedia’ thing started to grow. Which was VERY early on.
For example, they did the paper & pencil Warcraft RPG, published by another company but licensed by Blizzard. Except it was horrible and has been stamped “non-canon”.
Then they had those atrocious WoW comic books, which were just so unbelievably bad that there are no words.
(If anyone hasn’t read the WoW comic books… DON’T!)
And then there were the novels, which were generally not great.
And now those people are in charge of the in-game story.
It’s been a long road, but the basic problem is that WoW is an adventure game, but all the ‘multimedia’ stuff was written by people with no interest in an adventure game.
And now that they’re in charge, we have an adventure game being written by people with no interest in adventure games.
I never really saw the story as all that edgelord until the burning of the tree and all that sylvanas-focused crap. I was just like “I get it, the writers have watched game of thrones and that’s a popular show,” and I tuned it out. Didn’t even play horde in SL at all because of all the sylvie simping. I am so glad that is done and over with so I can play trolls again.
I don’t play this game for the story though. I started playing it because I had friends playing it. That was totally the only reason why, that and it was mad easier than Everquest, whose world and races I actually liked much better but I didn’t enjoy the game itself.
Then I got hooked on the gameplay, but, like, I thought the lich king was just a poor man’s darth vader crossed with a scooby doo villain, so there was literally never a time when I thought this game’s story was good.
I didn’t even know who Illidan was until Legion and I started in TBC. And my god does that guy ever need a hug, he’s just ridiculous to me.
In fact when I was brand new in TBC I deliberately didn’t look at the lore and just headcannoned everything about, say, elves. Like those elvish ruins, I had my own ideas about those and learning what I was supposed to understand about them was only a letdown.
Like, Zoram Strand is awesome when you don’t know anything about the game. Explaining stuff like that never did anything for me at all.
Sure, I’ll take that bet because I don’t think the same group of people that ask for a dark story will be the ones complaining about it being dark.
You guys like to blend those complaining into one group.
However, there’s one exception: people that don’t care about the story being friendship magic or dark. They enjoy throwing drama bombs and seeing who they catch. We tend to call them “trolls.”
Here’s an excerpt from the Sylvanas/Saurfang short story published on Blizzard’s web site right before BfA came out.
“Is it possible?” Sylvanas said. “If we marched an army to Darkshore to take the World Tree, would the Alliance be able to stop us?”
No. Not if the attack caught them by surprise. Not if the Horde could avoid getting bogged down inAshenvale . . .
“High Overlord,” Sylvanas pressed, “speak your mind. Is it possible?”
“It is possible,” Saurfang said slowly, “but not without serious consequences.”
“Indeed.”
“We would win one battle, not the war,” Saurfang said. “If we shift the balance of power, the Alliance will respond in kind. Our nations in the Eastern Kingdoms would be vulnerable to retaliation.”
“Especially mine,” Sylvanas said.
He was glad she had said it instead of him. What target would Greymane demand the Alliance attack but Sylvanas’s seat of power? “I do not know if we can protect the Undercity, not while the Alliance is united against us.”
“And what if they were not?” Sylvanas smiled again. “What if they were divided?”
Then the Horde wins. “How would that happen? If we launch a sneak attack on the night elves’ home, the entire Alliance will seek vengeance.”
“At first, yes. They will be furious, united against our aggression,” she said. “But what will the night elves want more than anything? They will demand that the Alliance help retake their conquered home.”
But the Alliance will not have the strength, not in Kalimdor, not with their fleets.
Again. She had done it again. She had opened his mind to a new possibility, and the world shifted under his feet. The strategic implications spun out before him like the Maelstrom. “It will take years before they can even consider retaking Darnassus.”
“You understand, High Overlord,” Sylvanas said. “Think it through. What happens next?”
“They might try to conquer the Undercity . . . but Darnassus becomes our hostage against that. The night elves will not allow your city to fall if they fear it means you will destroy theirs. The same goes for a strike against Silvermoon.” Saurfang’s thoughts raced. She’s right. This could work.
I feel like it’s kinda obvious from how good some of the zone storylines are (including DF). But then once you get to some of the main campaigns it’s like hol up why was this ending questline in Azure Span so epic and now I’m bored?!
But it feels like they didn’t talk to each other is my point. Take the cinematic for BfA for example:
Now the Old Soldier cinematic:
Does that seem like the same orc? Old Soldier happened before the BfA cinematic. He doesn’t look like he’s ready for suicide. He doesn’t look like he’s pissed at Sylvanas. I’m convinced they created Old Soldier after something changed internally.
A major complaint is how stupid all the major NPC’s are.
From Alexstraza constantly shifting out of dragon form every time she gets beat up (as if being a dragon is a strain that she can’t maintain) to the Kyrians just letting Evil Anduin walk up and stab the Archon because Kleia was fawning all over him.
I find it’s often been the case where individual zone storylines are actually better than the main expansion plot storyline. Possibly helped by the fact that you can do a zone in a single sitting, while the main story gets dragged out over months, gradually eroding any excitement that you DID manage to build up.
No one is asking for perfection, just answer few things, tie up some loose ends, have at least one or two characters reach their logical conclusions in their character arc but keep some things open-ended so that the audience can come up with their own interpretations and have debates on it for many years to come. That’s not asking for much.
Yeah, I have noticed some stuff like that, but only through videos I watch via YouTube. Given I have stopped following the story ever since the start of Battle for Azeroth. I just listen to it on YouTube now when I want some background noise while working on stuff.
)