Anyone else hate that Blizzard advances game story in books?

[zaino]

It’s fine

Read books you nerds

[Polarthief]

I'd rather read the story there than have to read the watered-down version in-game.

Honestly the most laughable response anyone can give. You can tell a great story through games, it just requires some amount of effort.

I'd love for the story in-game to be way better rather than having to read a book about it. Hell, I'd rather they just put the fucking book IN the game and you can read it through in-game as well, though I guess that wouldn't generate any extra income.

[Swalload]

Ahh, I understand. Yeah, I can't support that either.

I'm not a fan of ALL the books, but Rise of the Lich King was well-done in my opinion, and it didn't feel like a cheap attempt to siphon more money from me. It explained what I already knew it greater detail. I think at the time, the only thing I didn't know was Invincible was Arthas' horse before and after his transition into the Lich King.

But yes, I agree that leaving very key elements out of the game with the intention of making someone purchase something to know the full story is deceitful. If I remember correctly, though, the audio-stories concerning Alleria and Turalyon were free and posted right on the front page of MMO-C for all to enjoy free of cost.

Well sure if people are fan and they really want it, that's their business, and I'm not saying it means it's a bad product. It's just that it feels exactly like what people say about EA releasing half the game then force people to buy the rest as DLCs. Of course it's not that bad for WoW and the books, it's easy to play the game without reading the books, what I'm saying is that it's a similar concept of "why not have everything concerning the game inside the game itself?"

[Lothaeryn]

The problem is that there's never any mention of it ingame, it's always from one expac into another without any explanation ingame.

And they generally retcon certain bits to suit their narrative for the expansion anyway, which is why I've adopted the policy of not calling it canon until it's officially recognized in-game.

[Gaexion Ramza Beoulve]

If it doesn't happen in-game then it's not canon.

[yjmark]

You don't even need to read the books. Just look up Youtube "cliff notes" from folks like nobbel

But to the OP's direct question - I have no issues with it as long as it is just supplemental. There is only so much you can do in-game.

[Zka]

I don't give a damn about the story, it's mediocre at best anyway.

[Sigxy]

I'm not happy with it at all. I love it when they do it for backstory about characters and things that took place in the past.

But I just hate it when they throw in really important information into the books, in a game we're paying a sub for. EVEN MORE so when there's NO WAY for us to know about this in-game and we're treated like it's stuff we should already know about.

If it doesn't happen in-game then it's not canon.

Until they retcon it in novels, of course. Like when they decided to write in what faction dealt with what raid. Granted, I sorta liked it, but retcons it for some people who did the raids. *Shrugs*

[A Chozo]

I would have no problem with it if they managed to put some of that story in the game. Sometimes it feels empty, lore-wise.

[SoulSoBreezy]

When the argus patch came out , and we were meeting Alleria and Turalyon I HATED the fact they already spoke assuming i had read / listened to the 1000 years war novel . So... probably not going to buy the book , because reading in general bores me to sleep , I would HATE even more if the expansion starts just like argus content with characters IN GAME referencing to events in the books .
To me It's a big mistake for blizzard , not everyone buys those books and it sucks that a game that has done well without them for 10 years now makes them mandatory in order to fully comprehend the story or simply what the hell you are supposed to be doing .

Some Warcraft fans prefer to read the books than to playing through parts of the game they don't care to experience firsthand.

[Kirby9]

Blizzard has been doing fans a disservice with using novels and comics as tie-ins to World of Warcraft. They've been doing it for a while now. It started with The Shattering novel, which was the prelude Cataclysm and its gotten worse since then. We had that with Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor too, both of those novels sucked!! One of them wrecked Garrosh's character development completely.

I understand that only a sizeable minority care about the lore of WoW, but slowly we're seeing gamers get sucked into storytelling within games in this recent decade. Tomb Raider and God of War are prime examples of this (otherwise, I think they'd be pretty boring and not selling. Game-play is a factor, but the second major component is the story too.)

The problem is that the Warcraft Franchise has been doing this for ages now, contradicting itself from time to time and on a side note, it shits on the gameplay on top of the lore of the game, which makes it even less fun and causes them to lose subs. Personally, I believe that at this point, Blizzard should just start over, release remastered versions of the first two Warcraft games (i.e. updated graphics, gameplay, cinematics and other unique features). Then release a rebooted sequel to Warcraft I and II and slate it as such, effectively ignoring WC3 and WoW, but keeping some key elements of those games (albeit the best lore and gameplay elements).

I made a thread about this that you guys should check out. Can't link it for some reason due to some posting rule, but its called "If Warcraft 4 ever gets made, it should ignore Warcraft III and World of Warcraft."

[draynay]

The book should be the place to flesh these stories out more, it shouldn't take the place of in game storytelling, but should supplement and enrich it.

Its hard to be engrossed in a story where so much of it gets skipped unless you buy more stuff.

I don't like it when Cairne is just suddenly dead, that sort of thing annoyed me.

[Powerogue]

I didn't even notice so I don't know what you're talking about. You could go into Argus not even knowing who the heck Sargeras is and get the gist from the cutscenes.

This is brilliant compared to early WotLK or so whenever Varian just kind of appeared on the throne as a badass dual-wielding barbarian warrior and was king of Stormwind now. Not even an in-game mention of "Oh yeah, there were some comics, he lost his memory and split in half for a while and got these awesome swords but he got better and killed Onyxia oh yeah your onyxia kill was retconned into him btw"

As has been said good books and other tie-ins supplement the in-game story rather than replace it. Magni waking up from his diamondification happened in a legion comic for example, but it was also explained in-game clearly. The comic just gave more background to it as it delved into what Moira and the Council of Three Hammers thought of the situation.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

When the in-game lore is dependent upon you knowing what was in the books, yes. Cataclysm was very confusing precisely because of how much critical lore wasn't in-game.

[Devilyaki]

They prune the story in game like they prune our abilities..

[Doomchicken]

Some of the stupid shit like the trial of garrosh is not necessary in the game. What is necessary and was never shown was his escape. Him escaping to alt Draenor was a huge plot point and they did not even bother to show that in game and barely mentioned that it happened either. Shit like THAT needs to stop, but crap like what jainas been up to or again, the trial, we don't really need to see.

[Echocho]

I think they should go in assuming that people haven't read the books and offer at least a minimal recap in game so we know what the hell is going on.

[Deleted]

It's a terrible idea to outsource a video game's story telling to books.

It's also odd how people in this thread are making it look like the books are only adding depth to the story as mmorpg is a terrible platform to tell a story (it is, not denying that) or even claiming that people thinking it's a bad idea to outsource the story to books are illiterate book haters. Having associated books to add some depth to video game fantasy world is fine, I doubt anyone thinks otherwise.

Sadly, what blizzard is doing is outsourcing the storytelling to books. You should never have to read a silly video game based book in order to understand what's going on in the video game you're playing. They are adding new characters and killing old one's in books and this is never explaining in game, which is inexcusable. Wod of course is the best example of this. The whole premise of the xpack is incomprehensable if you don't browse this forum or read some silly book about it.

[Deleted]

the story telling in her books is decent but she isnt a very good writer imo. A lot of times i find myself having to read things over a few times because of badly constructed sentences. And yes I realize I’m not perfect at English but I’m also not a writer

[chubbybunny]

I love reading the books, and then going in game and visiting areas that were mentioned.. I remember reading about when thrall was captured and raised as a slave and then we had to go back in time and rescue him in the caverns of time dungeon, I had a nerdgasm.