The BFA writing has been so bad i genuinely get angry

[THEORACLE64]

It’s not as bad as people make out, but it’s not been the best. I compare it to MoP’s story line tbh - starting out in a way that’s clearly a facade for the real storyline. Blizzard can’t do faction war story’s/expansion well, so the sooner we become one faction the better.

[Steelcryo]

Kinda lost me in the first paragraph suggesting that Jaina burning down an entire city of innocents to frame the horde would be better writing. Like that would fit with her character at all.

"Let's have this character, who had her own town destroyed, kill a bunch of innocent people who are on her side, to frame the horde to make her people attack the horde..."

Yeah, you lost any right to criticize Blizzards writing with that thought alone.

Also add onto that, your other complaint of Sylvannas "throwing" it because they wrote themselves into a corner. Despite her not giving a shit about the horde being exactly within her character and already an established fact for a long time. So today I learned that sticking to your established lore and character profiles is bad writing, who knew!

That's not to say there aren't a lot of flaws with some of the writing in BfA, but there is only so much scope for story when it's presented in a game. Sometimes things get cut, sometimes there is cross communication between developers and sometimes they just don't have time to tie up every loose end. Could they do a better job? Definitely. Should OP ever be allowed to write for the game? God no.

[Mehrunes]

Honestly I was mostly frustrated with the heavy MOP overlap, waiting for a moment to justify it in the way that Suramar did, and I feel like 8.2.5 finally did.

Looking back over everything, it was full of incredible, memorable moments, that just needed brought together.

(and people to get their heads out of their asses and stop complaining about literally everything. I have yet to have anyone come up with an alternative story that doesn't just create new loose ends and completely wreck the plot threads that were foreshadowed/followed up on. Like Jaina burning down hundreds of innocents to frame the Horde? Are you mental??)

What the hell is this even supposed to be? Non-argument defense of writing bingo? "You can't judge X without providing an alternative" fallacious defense? Check. Trying to silence people because don't like BfA's writing, which isn't an argument? Check. Straw-man of people complaining about literally everything? Check. The straw-man being caused by fallacious idea that because you find BfA's moments to be "incredible" it means the story cannot be criticized? Check. Outright ad-hominem directed at those heretics? Check. I think you need five things in bingo, so it pans out.

Weird. In another thread someone pointed out that people seem to hate Baine and Anduin because they are consistently good and want peace and don't go crazy GoT style killing everyone around them. I guess what you're saying is if something you don't like is consistent it's still bad and if something isn't consistent it's bad. You get to win either way.

What you are saying is conflating people's dislike of characters for their traits and people's criticism of the story's quality. Which is an atrocious argument.

[OokOok]

You're talking as if the story was ever good. As if you forget that just a year ago there was a giant golden space ship on a destroyed planet that apparently millions of demons,sargeras and KJ never saw or could ever find.

Or how a handful of humans/orcs managed to stop and defeat the entire iron horde

Deathwing destroys stormwind in a cinematic and then just.....flys randomly around the world blowing up people on flightpaths never actually attacking anything of matter just to get destroyed by green jesus using the dragonsoul

Lich king shows us he's able to attack all the cities with hordes of undead during the pre expansion event, and then during the actual expansion never actually does anything.

[Mehrunes]

I already gave some examples, if you want more there are literally dozens others, I have written down some in another thread if you want to look for that be my guest.I will not repeat myself for something so blatantly obvious.

If memory serves me right, that was also in reply to the same poster.

The expansions systems were fine. The story was completely and utterly preposterous...

So the intergalactic, planet hopping, conquered millions of worlds already, super high-tec Burning Legion can’t even gain a decent foothold on Azeroth... Their idiotic plan was thwarted again, theywere pushed off our planet again, had their home base and planet so easily invaded by a fairly primitive (in comparison) militia, even had their asses kicked on OTHER worlds by us, and then we imprisoned their leader that is literally the size of planets... Even when our planet is a hop, skip, and a jump away from theirs they STILL can’t even do anything...

This was a good story?

Screw Azeroth. They didn't even have their own capital world in order.

[Steelangel]

To everyone who says that the story of BfA is bad: I hear you.

I also raise: Every other expansion's story. They are all trash, going back to at least WC3. If you're playing WoW and expecting Tolkein or even Margaret Weis you're an idiot.

[TheRagebear]

To everyone who says that the story of BfA is bad: I hear you.

I also raise: Every other expansion's story. They are all trash, going back to at least WC3. If you're playing WoW and expecting Tolkein or even Margaret Weis you're an idiot.

"X is for children therefore they don't need to put in effort." "X has always had bad writing therefore they don't need to show even marginal improvement." "X is just a dumb story about elves and orcs therefore it doesn't need to be good."

"Please think of the multi-billion dollar company. "

[Syegfryed]

The expansions systems were fine. The story was completely and utterly preposterous...

So the intergalactic, planet hopping, conquered millions of worlds already, super high-tec Burning Legion can’t even gain a decent foothold on Azeroth... Their idiotic plan was thwarted again, theywere pushed off our planet again, had their home base and planet so easily invaded by a fairly primitive (in comparison) militia, even had their asses kicked on OTHER worlds by us, and then we imprisoned their leader that is literally the size of planets... Even when our planet is a hop, skip, and a jump away from theirs they STILL can’t even do anything...

This was a good story?

gladly someone can notice how dumbshit that expansion was, moved just by the rule of cool

everything after mop seems to be just a spiral down to the garbage with this new team

[Steelangel]

"X is for children therefore they don't need to put in effort." "X has always had bad writing therefore they don't need to show even marginal improvement." "X is just a dumb story about elves and orcs therefore it doesn't need to be good."

"Please think of the multi-billion dollar company. "

Not sure what you're getting at here. Blizzard is a game company and their games have storylines designed to drive the gameplay forward, not be an epically cross-referenced labor of love that takes 6 years to get out after the TV series based on the stories ends.

[therealstegblob]

Not sure what you're getting at here. Blizzard is a game company and their games have storylines designed to drive the gameplay forward, not be an epically cross-referenced labor of love that takes 6 years to get out after the TV series based on the stories ends.

They don't have to try because they never tried that hard before!

[TheRagebear]

Not sure what you're getting at here. Blizzard is a game company and their games have storylines designed to drive the gameplay forward, not be an epically cross-referenced labor of love that takes 6 years to get out after the TV series based on the stories ends.

Because no video game ever, not even an MMO has ever had a compelling or even passable story.

[sillag]

embarrassed blizzard sycophants will make fun of u but its because they know u are right. bfa isn't just bad it is the worst written mmo there has ever been. probably the worst rpg writing and quite possibly the worst written game in the world so far. its absolutely a travesty that they made this story they have salted the earth of their entire setting and achieved the opposite of every goal they had. every character who featured in this expansion was ruined in some way. some more than others. and the worst part is that the fanbase will never move past discussing bfa because blizzard are too cowardly to address teldrassil in a satisfying way.

we would literally have been better off with 2 more years on argus. everyone involved in bfa's writing should be ashamed and will be going to writers' hell after they die.

Infracted.

[MrLachyG]

Alliance didnt lose a single character while the horde lost 3, what a suprise

what 3? we lost Saurfang, that is 1 - who else did we lose?

[Khaza-R]

what 3? we lost Saurfang, that is 1 - who else did we lose?

I assume they are referring to Rastakhan as one. But technically he was never apart of the Horde

[Mirishka]

We begin with «Who attacked first» at blizzcon. They’ve villain batted the horde since the beginning of time, what a suprise they also attacked first... AGAIN. We could have had Jaina burning it down to frame the horde or have the alliance attack first for once but nooo...

No matter how much the Horde beat the Alliance they always just won anyway. Lordaeron plaguebombed and lost their entire army? Just summon jaina. She can suddenly remove blight and blast walls with a magic ship and teleport them anywhere.

Then they realised that their writers couldnt fucking write a morally grey story so they give the alliance straight up Purge squads to kill the Vulpera. Totally not out of character

Alliance didnt lose a single character while the horde lost 3, what a suprise

Sylvanas literally having the support of 99% of the horde and wins the mak’gora but they make her throw it the last minute because «We kinda writed outselves into a corner, time for plan B»

Fuck even Game of Thrones Season 8 is a literary masterpiece compared to this

You complain about the writing, and in the same breath toss out Jaina genociding the elves to frame Sylvanas, which is literally the dumbing fucking fan-story suggestion I have ever read for this game. Seriously, someone's got their work cut out for them if they want to top that absolute failure of an idea.

Good lord.

[Combatbutler]

If memory serves me right, that was also in reply to the same poster.

Nope that one was dear old Benett

[Akibaboy]

I guess that he meant 99% of horde players, not NPCs.

Well he'd still be wrong then. There were several polls done on here and reddit that asked if people on the Horde had supported Saurfang or Sylvanas in their questlines. It was pretty much 50/50 depending on which options were available (some had support for Baine as well). So I'd say the narrative achieved its goal in game and out.

[ioabo]

What really ruined the story for me was both Sylvanas' actions and arc, but also that the rest of the Horde allowed her to go through with it.

I'll explain myself: I've always followed Sylvanas unconditionally ever since I learned about her and her story, and will continue to do so even after the events of BfA and 8.2.5. It's a personal preference, her story captivated my soul like a drug, and I understand that she's repulsive for other players. I guess moving forward it's gonna be a trip to an even darker and dirtier place for her, and I'm willing to go there. It's absolutely not what I would prefer for her, after Legion I had hoped that her arc would be about trying to balance her ruthless pragmatism and her desperate (and sometimes distorted) perception of reality with the inherent hope and the humanitarian values of the living. It's a topic that could create many interesting story lines and a really diverse Horde.

But then BtS and BfA came and it felt like the writers were trying to enforce a simplistic villain image on her, with her killing her people indiscriminately in BtS and having even Nathanos question that action, forbidding books in Undercity - dictatorship style - and of course the burning of Teldrassil. I realized then that the path she was written to take was an irredeemable one. But what felt wrong was watching the rest of the Horde, already having gone through MoP and Garrosh story line, essentially just letting her do her thing. Sure, in A Good War Saurfang admits there was a sound motivation for her to burn the tree, but other than that no one in the Horde tries to actively stop her. Which gives the feeling that they themselves aren't sure if her actions really are hideous.

At the same time, I feel a bit "baited" by the writers, because during that whole time they've been hinting about surprises and revelations and "things aren't how they look like". And giving Horde players the possibility to actively side with Sylvanas saying that she isn't a Garrosh 2.0, just does things in another way and that we should wait and see. But up to this point it's been pretty much how players thought it would be since BfA was announced, where we have a warchief that turns out to be harmful for the Horde, and we once again have to get Alliance's help to depose said warchief because we once again failed to prevent the whole thing from happening. And even after the events of 8.2.5 Sylvanas followers get a questline that essentially tells them that "this is all part of a grand plan, just wait and you will understand - wink wink".

We're now more than halfway through the expansion, and I'm still waiting to see how Sylvanas isn't following Garrosh's footsteps and how the Horde didn't go through a rehashed MoP storyline. I've practically given up hope. Maybe that was the real Sylvanas' intent with her war on hope?

PS. In regards to "you can't write an exciting and morally grey story in an MMO", all I can say is that the story of FFXIV's Shadowbringers expansion completely disproves that. Say what you want about the game itself and how "cat-girly" it is (or whatever), but Shadowbringers' story is like the definition of a well done, morally grey MMO-story. Where there's no "good" and "bad", just different perspectives and motivations, and where you can empathize with your antagonist and their point of view that you are the one that must be stopped.

[dekal]

Not liking the writing direction is not "bad writing", you can obviously dislike it and that's fine, but that statement is just wrong. I'm sorry to say that what you listed cannot be counted as good writing either. And you seem to have only experienced the story from the horde's perspective, hence your statement of "No matter how much the Horde beat the Alliance they always just won anyway". And you seem to just want tit for tat exchanges to count this as a good story.

I'm not sure if you've seen the latest cinematic if you claim that 99% of the horde support Sylvanas. It was heavily implied that the tauren, highmountain tauren, nightborne, pandaren and blood elves as a majority sided with Varok, in addition to a decent number of orcs and trolls, with the other races comprising the rest. It is also implied that the majority of undead and goblins still supported Sylvanas.

Also Sylvanas did not win the mak'gora. I actually believe that because: a) she got what she needed out of the horde and did not need them anymore. b) she did not want to risk getting killed, even if the chance was small. c) she wanted revenge against the orc that betrayed her and got in her way so many times. She just cheated by using magic to kill him and then escaped to continue on with her plans.

Also, if you genuinely think GoT's S8 was a masterpiece compared to BFA's story, then I really don't know what else to say.

[WinningOne]

We begin with «Who attacked first» at blizzcon. They’ve villain batted the horde since the beginning of time, what a suprise they also attacked first... AGAIN. We could have had Jaina burning it down to frame the horde or have the alliance attack first for once but nooo...

No matter how much the Horde beat the Alliance they always just won anyway. Lordaeron plaguebombed and lost their entire army? Just summon jaina. She can suddenly remove blight and blast walls with a magic ship and teleport them anywhere.

Then they realised that their writers couldnt fucking write a morally grey story so they give the alliance straight up Purge squads to kill the Vulpera. Totally not out of character

Alliance didnt lose a single character while the horde lost 3, what a suprise

Sylvanas literally having the support of 99% of the horde and wins the mak’gora but they make her throw it the last minute because «We kinda writed outselves into a corner, time for plan B»

Fuck even Game of Thrones Season 8 is a literary masterpiece compared to this

Assuming the title of your thread is honest the real problem here is you've lost all sense of perspective.