Question to the Lore People out there

[TayFarr]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions?

[Niwes]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

nothing. i do not want a position where my final „creative output“ is only allowed to be cheap shit, because share holders slaves want me to do so.

[derpkitteh]

i read over every single ounce of previous lore relevant to what i'm attempting to write for currently and avoid retconning anything for the foreseeable future.

make my underlings join me for a sermon each morning, where they all have to chant "internal consistency is good and needed" over and over for an hour.

[Combatbutler]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

Be driven mad by red tape, that is what would happen. As much as I give the writers a hard time for their shitty narrative, much of it is most likely the result of corporate doctrine.

[Seylene]

Id write a narrative for each race at least one questline dealing with the conflict de jour of the day. The majority of the issues i see and experience rise from someone writing "The Alliance or The Horde" without the nuance in races which makes it all boring monolith. That being said I would be a horrible hire I wouldn't write anything satisfactory for the red team. And that being said there would be a LOT more Alliance aggression.

[Aucald]

I think my main focus in such a role would be reinforcing the importance of narrative continuity as well as reining the use of "rule of cool" in a bit in favor of narrative cohesion and flow.

[SirKickBan]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

Get the rest of the lore team together, and hammer out a 'lore bible'. A comprehensive document that makes sure each and every writer for the franchise is working from the same material.

[Wangming]

Oh god no. Would it be really my job to unfuck the lore? Okay.

- Sylvanas dies and is looted for legendaries, but not before she kills Bane. He is succeeded by Magatha Grimtotem
- The Horde holds a council to decide on their future. Realizing that a WarChief is important for the Horde's identity, Nazgrim is appointed to fill that position. He stays in position for more than two expansion. Calia wants to be more political, so the Forsaken make an example of her and appoint Dark Ranger Velonara.
- Anduin steps down as High King after one of his decisions lead to countless innocents dying. The Alliance becomes an alliance of equal nations yet again.
- Xal'atath helps Vanessa rebuild the Defias into a secret society that provide intrigue and sabotage all over Azeroth.
- Bolvar is given a new helm.

Let's start with this setup.

[Temp1on2]

Get the rest of the lore team together, and hammer out a 'lore bible'. A comprehensive document that makes sure each and every writer for the franchise is working from the same material.

That was meant to be chronicle. That lasted about... a year? lol.

[Thage]

Be driven mad by red tape, that is what would happen. As much as I give the writers a hard time for their shitty narrative, much of it is most likely the result of corporate doctrine.

More or less this. Blizz has been open and frank that they twist the story to suit the whims of the development team. If Alex Afrasiabi or Ion Hazzikostas get some master plan in their head, the lore team has to bullshit up some way to make it happen. I imagine alcoholism is a big problem on that team. But for all the shit left up to the lore team, I would enforce three basic rules:
1) Internal consistency is not a swear word. You can go from big moment to big moment without just swerving the car as hard as possible.
2) If you have to retcon, keep it simple and keep it small. Players are much more likely to give you a pass on small concessions to necessity versus large-scale rewrites because you think the new idea is cooler without putting down extensive groundwork beforehand.
3) Just because something's dark and gritty doesn't make it good. A burger rolled in fresh dirt is dark and gritty, would you eat it?

[Sting]

unfuck the lore

-succeeded by Magatha Grimtotem

???????????????

[Thage]

Get the rest of the lore team together, and hammer out a 'lore bible'. A comprehensive document that makes sure each and every writer for the franchise is working from the same material.

They tried that with Chronicle. They didn't even make it to Volume 3 before retconning Volume 1.

[Rafoel]

I completely understand that writers themselves have little to say about direction of the story. Like... its total coincidence that WoD happened at the same time WoW movie was released. In case somebody watched movie and decided to try the game... so he could see familiar characters.

However, I think the main problem is that the "suspense", common in literature, where character does something suprising that requires later explanation or elaboration, doesn't work too well in video game. While reading book, you can always read next chapter to get your answers. While playing a game, you often need to wait months to get something resembling an answer. It also makes intent indistinguishable from retcon.

So, the most important thing is to make characters acts because it makes sense to act from their point of view, not because "the story demands it". Players ultimately just want to see cool shit happen. Patches in old expansions made more sense than now - somebody takes action, and the story is about our reaction. Next patch happens, essentially, because another entity takes action.

Unfortunately, since WoD they are taking this approach of "long continous chain of events" which isn't even realistic. What's more, because you can only plan so many years to the future, when you try to incorporate new events to the chain you need to add new stuff to old lore. For example, now we are told that Sylvanas already made pact with Jailer when she killed herself in Icecrown. That was in WotLK! That's 10 years ago!

[SirKickBan]

That was meant to be chronicle. That lasted about... a year? lol.

They tried that with Chronicle. They didn't even make it to Volume 3 before retconning Volume 1.

Chronicle was made by an outside team, for sale to the public. I'm talking about an internal document that every writer works from.

[Temp1on2]

Chronicle was made by an outside team, for sale to the public. I'm talking about an internal document that every writer works from.

I mean it had heavy involvement from the Blizz team and they touted it as the comprehensive lore guide (presumably it could also have formed the basis for an internal reference - even a basic one).

I think ultimately the problem is, and they've always said: gameplay > all (including lore). So if the devs say they want to do X the lore/story guys just have to make it work and sometimes there is no way but to retcon stuff.

[rayvio]

I'd begin work on a new IP and assemble a small team to work on the backstory and worldbuilding, purposefully leaving room for further development and clarification later. I'd then work with designers to chose or create a game engine capable of allowing a flexible and innovative interface and then suffer a nervous breakdown from overworking

[Thage]

Chronicle was made by an outside team, for sale to the public. I'm talking about an internal document that every writer works from.

As Temp said, it was billed as an out-of-character reference guide, which is as close to a lore bible as you get short of the setting creator him/herself writing a 300-page document (which is unlikely considering Metzen's retired and only comes back to do VA sessions). It wasn't until this past Blizzcon that they hamfistedly claimed after the fact that it was an in-character collection told from a Watsonian POV as an excuse for how quickly retcons were shoehorned in even from book to book.

[Balrog]

Oh god no. Would it be really my job to unfuck the lore? Okay.
- The Horde holds a council to decide on their future. Realizing that a WarChief is important for the Horde's identity, Nazgrim is appointed to fill that position. He stays in position for more than two expansion. Calia wants to be more political, so the Forsaken make an example of her and appoint Dark Ranger Velonara.

Hate to break it to ya but Nazgrim died in Siege of Orgrimmar... "lore people" indeed.

He's a Horseman now, he wouldn't take sides in the conflict.

[Soeroah]

I'd make a time travel-centric expansion that taught the "WoD was time travel" crowd what a real time travel story looks like.

It'd involve Murozond and Nozdormu, and would tie several expansions and dropped threads together with an invasion-style feature where alternate versions of characters from other timelines invade Azeroth through portals in the first patch, then the next patch gets Argus portal style scenarios where we step into the portals and go to small alternate timeline versions of famous places in Warcraft, like a Stormwind controlled by Blackhand's Horde or a Grimtotem-controlled Mulgore.

But mostly I'd explain exactly how the timelines are supposed to work and make sure they stuck to it for the future.

[Kyphael]

Make AU Grom Hellscream Horde Warchief, and bring him back to form, re-introducing Orc clans to the Horde with AU Rend Blackhand, Jorin Deadeye from Nagrand, Mauhur Bladefist, Gey'arah, and whatever Orcs of note Blizzard hasn't yet slaughtered. Goblins and Trolls go get their own faction city, and Orgrimmar is split into the most notable clans; Blackrock (The Valley of Strength), Frostwolf (Valley of Honor), Shadowmoon (The Cleft), Shattered Hand (The Drag), Laughing Skull Clan, Mok'nathal Clan (The Valley of Spirits) etc. Being part of a particular Clan in Orgrimmar will have as much importance to your character as the 4 Covenants do in Shadowlands.

Integrate the Shadowspear Trolls into the Amani, and revive Zul'aman and Zul'gurub into their capital cities, putting them in direct conflict with the Sin'dorei who remain Horde but in an uneasy alliance they may begin to question given the new Horde Warchief's decision.

Worgen re-claim Gilneas, and Anduin has Lordaeron re-built to its former glory as a foothold in Silverpine in his bid to try to sway the Sin'dorei to re-join the Alliance given their new issues with the Amani/Darkspear alliance and new Horde leadership (won't work.)