Does warcraft writing butcher or honor lovecrafts works?

[Trassk]

Its no secret to anyone looking into it that world of warcraft lore has taken a lot of concept from the works of H.P Lovecraft, and not just the old gods but many other concepts in the games story that bears similarities to stories from lovecrafts stories.

I figure this is a good time to ask this since old god themed patch we're in now, ideas like being driven mad by whispers and things you see, incomprehensible creatures, concepts in the waking world and in the dream world, being beyond the scope of mortal understanding in the universe itself.



However the problem with these interpretations in a game like warcraft, is it kind of doesn't do a service to the original concepts lovecraft created. Anyone whos read his works of brief summaries of it, would know the concepts in his writing stem from the perspective of the people in them, how they see these things and their reactions to them. You could argue much of the horrors in lovecrafts cthulhu mythos comes from the minds of people in the time of which lovecraft wrote them, their more limited understanding of existential concepts, given over to why people were driven mad so easily in his works of horror.
Basically because its horror and things beyond comprehension, you take that angle from the narrators perspective of the horror. (also the less said about the more racist elements of lovecrafts work the better, but it also was a product of its time).

Many genres today take the concepts of lovecrafts work and use them freely now to make their own versions of this kind of existential horror, other writers like Junji Ito or the makers of silent hill used these concepts to make in-explainable horrors.

However, in something like world of warcraft, it begs the question, is the way these writers use the lovecraft inspired concepts here paying homage to his works, or are they butchering the concepts, by making it into these tangible things we can beat up and defeat? The early days of wow might have made the old god concept interesting, but even then, when they have been made into a boss we can fight and throw fireballs and axes at and kill, doesn't this lose some of the grandiose horror that you'd find in a story by lovecraft himself?

[Arrashi]

Butcher isn't the proper word. Warcraft gives the lovecraftian influences a very "goblin slayer" treatment.

Its actually hilarious when you realise that FPS games like Dusk or even Quake menaged to give lovecraftian ideas much more justice.
Not to mention things like Darkest Dungeon.

Blizzard straight up removes idea of "cosmic horror" from genre based on cosmic horror.

[Aeula]

Butcher.

Lovecraftian horror plays on the fear of the unknown. But what's unknown about N'zoth the grandiose loot pinata that has a physical, describable form? Most games based on his themes don't work because of this. Lovecraft isn't really something that can be portrayed well visually since the second you know what these things actually are they immediately lose their horror.

We know what Old Gods are, we know they're henchmen, we know we'll win and that the world won't end. There's no threat, no fear. Just certainty.

[Nathreim]

The current writers have butchered everything they have touched. The last decently written expansion was MoP.

[Wyrt]

The current writers have butchered everything they have touched. The last decently written expansion was MoP.

A Little Patience and C4T say Hi.

[Nathreim]

A Little Patience and C4T say Hi.

I said decent not great or amazing. The War part of MoP was a mixed bag some good some shit.

[Zimpoli]

Considering Lovecraft's works were already butchered by fans that got included into the mythos, it's really hard to say : V

[Wyrt]

I said decent not great or amazing. The War part of MoP was a mixed bag some good some shit.

I don't really remember any good parts of the War story. Most of it was pretty bad. Especially things like "We're stronger because we slaughter each other!"

The panda related stuff was alright at least.

[Aucald]

Lovecraft is difficult to do justice using your standard video game formula, which is why there are relatively few games that do the trick (and most of them more in the hack n' slash vein as opposed to true cosmic horror). I'd say WoW's writing pays some homage to the works of Lovecraft - mostly in broader themes, but not really trying to tell a quintessential cosmic horror story in which mankind is a bit player in a universe of monstrous and implacable alien gods whose true forms can't even be completely perceived. WoW's tone is far more heroic than that.

[NatePsy]

Feels more like homage to them, you can tell that the earliest story devs were super fans of it. Not sure about the story devs they have today but that's how it started at least.

[Feanoro]

It was done decently well in vanilla, with rumors, strange sites that seemed to attract loons, cultists hiding in forgotten ruins shrieking nonsense when they attacked us, always building up to C'Thun. Wrath tried to repeat that buildup for Yogg, but didn't do it nearly as well. N'Zoth has been a joke drawn out until no longer funny.

[Piamonte]

i think they can do it more justice if they ever explore the void lords, i think they represent better the "fear of the unknown" aspect.

[Soon-TM]

We know what Old Gods are, we know they're henchmen, we know we'll win and that the world won't end. There's no threat, no fear. Just certainty.

Basically this. These Old God guys worked much better when they were enigmatic, detached beings who were "just there" for reasons unfathomable. For all its limitations, Vanilla made the Old Gods part a lot better than anything that came later. The whole Silithid arc (first, some weird eggs in the Barrens), then the little hives in Feralas/1k Needles to end in the massive hives of Tanaris and (especially) Silithus, was imo far more impressive than say, Yoggy in WotLK or the Twilight Hammer in Cata.

Devs, especially in BfA, seem to think that an Old God expansion needs to have those Faceless-like mobs everywhere, ready to be turned into loot pinatas - and it doesn't work that way with Lovecraft, not to mention that turning them into mere planetary-sized tumours sent by the asspull that are Void Lords was lame af. While proper Lovecraftian horror is difficult to convey in an MMO, I still think there was/is a lot of room for improvement. Hell, even in very old games such as the first Alone in the Dark (from !@#$ing 1993!) managed to do a lot better in the horror aspect; for example, you needed to find clues on a lot of books you gathered during your adventures. At a certain point, you found a book (in Latin, nonetheless) and if you read it, you got insta killed - because if you had paid attention at other clues first, such book was forbidden knowledge.

But the worst part, as far as WoW is concerned, is making Old Gods killable. That's a real dealbreaker when it comes to horror, since one of the cornerstones of the genre is that you can't possibly beat an eldritch abomination. At most, you can resist it for a limited time, before madness overwhelms you. The "sanity" mechanic in visions is thus welcome in my book, but it's too little, too late.

[TheFirstOnes]

It's both a homage, as well as their own take on the Lovecraftian horrors, that's it.

[WraithKingOstarion]

i wouldn't say they are "butchering" or "honoring" at all. they are taking influences from that medium, and other various mediums, and making their own story/characters/themes.

sure most of it isn't too original when you are taking influences or straight up jacking concepts, but it's still their (Blizzard's) creation of it. it's a form of paying homage mostly.

so no and no to both.

[Vampyrr]

The current writers have butchered everything they have touched. The last decently written expansion was MoP.

Except MoP was a dumpster fire

[Hellobolis]

everybody knows the name lovecraft but almost nobody has actually read his stuff, just stuff inspired by.

[Lodreh]

Neither. WoW may barrow various concepts from Lovecraft but they are not trying to replicate those works. They are putting their own spin on it... which is what they do with everything. I suppose you could call it a homage but even that's inaccurate... more like a parody. It is it's own thing.

[Aucald]

everybody knows the name lovecraft but almost nobody has actually read his stuff, just stuff inspired by.

That's likely because works and authors inspired by Lovecraft vastly outnumber Lovecraft's actual published works, mostly by Lovecraft's own doing. "The Colour Out of Space" remains one of my favorite stories, though; and perhaps the ur-example of writing the quintessential cosmic horror story.

[kranur]

Not really butcher. Not really homage either. In wrath they sis better with having the slaves insane, jumping off cliffs and such.
They should have focused a little more on insanity effects.