Why are the writers pissing off everyone?

[Arrashi]

Thats simple, wow writers lack both skill and passion. And having agenda doesn't help either.

[Mage in Pajamas]

He went from hero to villain in the first campaign he appeared in. And then basically was a Darth Vader Clone (trope-wise) from then until his death. Yes there is SOME nuance there but let's not pretend Arthas was an amazingly deep character. He wasn't.

The Sha were at least a new idea, not just a copy/paste holdover from the RTS games.

You're missing the point. Never said Arthas was a deep character. I think the lore of the game and world was. There was a clear build up to what we were doing.

Keep the original post here in mind. I'm contrasting that to a game which creates arbitrary locales and big baddies on a whim post-Arthas.

I still enjoy it as a game but have zero interest in lore or story anymore.

[Kokolums]

I kinda gave up when they introduced Wrathion, started doing interesting things with him, and then just dropped it for no reason. I dislike getting hyped up for one character and then his/her entire plotline gets put on ice for years.

[Al Gorefiend]

Writing is subjective. I like WoWs lore and fall asleep watching Game of Thrones because of how generic and soap opera it is.

[3DTyrant]

After we killed Arthas it became pretty hard to come up with compelling new stories.

After the panda island and journey into evil space, what can you really expect now?

How is that, exactly? Seriously, I want to know.

[Mage in Pajamas]

How is that, exactly? Seriously, I want to know.

The first three iterations of Wow, vanilla through wrath progressed using characters and zones that we already knew. For brevity I'll use two examples.

We knew the orcs came from Outlands. We saw Art has attack Quel Thalas. Yet both were gated until the first expansion.

Even Cata opened long anticipated but hidden areas of the map.

When we were still in vanilla, we often fought to clean up the mess that Arthad left behind in the Plaguelands and the final raid was Naxx.

It's hard to replicate that experience of a long storyline that took a decade to complete.

Blizz had two options, develop a new arc or make each expansion complete one offs. I think the second option is easier than the latter.

[Littleraven]

I'm actually loving the lore. Is it perfect? No. But it never has been. There are a few things I would change for sure but until I get the full picture I can't really complain yet.

A friend brought up the idea that if you swapped Sylvanas with Garrosh it would be more interesting and in a way I agree but that opens a whole other can of worms.

[zlygork]

The only big problem I feel with their story telling right now is they are depending too much on "oh, this all makes sense now!" from a type of medium were the reaction on chapter-by-chapter continuity leans more towards "omg, this makes no sense whatsoever!" leading into "omg this is an asspull" which honestly is not only because of the playerbase; The "just wait and see approach" makes sense on a book that you can finish whenever or a tv series where you might be left on hold for 3 weeks, but not in a video game where it means "just wait a year+ and see for things to make sense" that is a ridiculous expectation on their end and they need to rethink their approach.

[EbaumsTipster]

The only big problem I feel with their story telling right now is they are depending too much on "oh, this all makes sense now!" from a type of medium were the reaction on chapter-by-chapter continuity leans more towards "omg, this makes no sense whatsoever!" leading into "omg this is an asspull" which honestly is not only because of the playerbase; The "just wait and see approach" makes sense on a book that you can finish whenever or a tv series where you might be left on hold for 3 weeks, but not in a video game where it means "just wait a year+ and see for things to make sense" that is a ridiculous expectation on their end and they need to rethink their approach.

So they should make patches self contained? Fuck that, only the launch zone stories should do that.

Self satisfactory stories just mean mean smaller, more frequent and less scope .

[zlygork]

So they should make patches self contained? Fuck that, only the launch zone stories should do that.

Self satisfactory stories just mean mean smaller, more frequent and less scope .

No, but I think they should strike a balance with a bit of both. There should definetly be an overall narrative evolving from patch to patch, but it shouldn't take me 3 years to find out that Vol'jin was tricked into chosing Sylvanas, for example. In other words, they shouldn't use big juicy hooks if they are not closely followed by a proper continuation.

[EbaumsTipster]

No, but I think they should strike a balance with a bit of both. There should definetly be an overall narrative evolving from patch to patch, but it shouldn't take me 3 years to find out that Vol'jin was tricked into chosing Sylvanas, for example. In other words, they shouldn't use big juicy hooks if they are not closely followed by a proper continuation.

The launch to 8.1 progression of the Zandalar/Kul Tiras story is pretty perfectly done from what I've heard, to the point where people are already sad about Rastakhans death despite knowing him from only a month of play. That's a two patch story that's done well and is mostly the kid if balance you're looking for.

[bowlink]

...Actually in-game is not to scale. The Devs have said as much multiple times in the past using Stormwind City specifically as an example. Stormwind is much larger than how it is represented in-game. Here's an example: There are two prisons in Stormwind. The Stockades is one. The Vault, which is where the most dangerous creatures on Azeroth are said to be houses is the other. Apparently The Vault had been planned as a raid back in the day but it was one of the many ideas that were cut from the finished product. The gate leading to it is still in-game but inaccessible of course. The Vault itself seems to have been retconned between Violet Hold and Baradin Hold though.

sigh scale: a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as between those of a drawing and its original) b : a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree projects done on a large scale.

in game stormwind is smaller than the storm wind of the books. which mean ingame stormwind is a SCALE Model of the one in the books.

which means its to scale

[Magnagarde]

The Zandalar and Kul Tiras stories are great. It is the faction campaigns and any and all faction interactions in BfA that contain some of the worst storytelling I have seen in WoW to date. I feel like completely different authors are behind the zone questing stories and the faction war stories because the difference in quality is tremendous.

[Dracullus]

Zuldazar, Jaina's recent stuff and whole Suramar are level above anything we saw in WoW before, including WotLK. Of course, unlike you ("the writers are pissing off everyone" riiiight), I respect that you may have different opinion.

Even if you are completely wrong.

[Dalheim]

How do you lower your suspension of disbelief so much?
Its impressive.

By not being a lil' bitch.

[Sanguinerd]

Oh shit I guess I forgot to be pissed off then..

[Powerogue]

They are either:

a) Following a very contrived plan
b) Forgetting their own lore

a) extremely yes. They've gotten good as of late at writing story elements so they look like it was like that all along. Ah yes, *ahem* all part of the plan that Illidan would be back and help us fight the legion! He definitely didn't just turn moustache-twirling evil in BC for no reason, that would be silly!

b) I'd say more that they're following their own lore, and people don't like that. Characters like Baine and Tyrande get spotlight, acting like Baine and Tyrande, and people hate them because they are themselves, but we never got the screentime in-game to truly appreciate how much we hated them until this point. They've always written characters with flaws to make them more interesting and believable, and the community tears into said flaws and demonizes them as utterly irredeemable characters.

[Kruzan]

sigh scale: a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as between those of a drawing and its original) b : a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree projects done on a large scale.

in game stormwind is smaller than the storm wind of the books. which mean ingame stormwind is a SCALE Model of the one in the books.

which means its to scale

That is not what "to scale" means. "To scale" means that all proportions are the same. Which it is obviously not, e.g. Stormwind is not scaled by the same amount as our characters.

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/...itish/to-scale

[Arainie]

I think it's really down to you expecting a fancy soufflé for a monday tv dinner starter, every single day. And someone else to cook it for you at that.

[Flarelaine]

So many trolls.
Just so many.

Takes one to know one, they say.