The Story Is Utter Garbage Now

[TheFirstOnes]

Nothing will ever top the WC3 cinematics.

[tommyhil622]

Ah, yes. The famous "I don't think you actually believe what you say so I win" argument.




Can you point out to me which part seems like comedy or satire to you?

I can do that with any satire/comic medium. There's always a moment or moments of seriousness you can pick out. But 90% or more of warcraft isn't about a son killing his father in his own thrown room. Should i post every moment of satire/comic value ? would probably take over the thread

[Samuraijake]

You guys sounds like you wake up just to whine about something everyday.

[Nerovar]

I can do that with any satire/comic medium. There's always a moment or moments of seriousness you can pick out. But 90% or more of warcraft isn't about a son killing his father in his own thrown room. Should i post every moment of satire/comic value ? would probably take over the thread

Ah, of course - you're absolutely right. Warcraft is about the meme lines you get when you spam click the same unit 10 times. It's weird though that none of those comical elements make it into the expensive rendered story cinematics. It's almost as if the narrative focus of these games doesn't rely on comedy at all.

You guys sounds like you wake up just to whine about something everyday.

Great, valuable insight.

[tommyhil622]

Ah, of course - you're absolutely right. Warcraft is about the meme lines you get when you spam click the same unit 10 times. It's weird though that none of those comical elements make it into the expensive rendered story cinematics. It's almost as if the narrative focus of these games doesn't rely on comedy at all.



Great, valuable insight.

Not sure what that even means. Hey if you think warcraft is a super serious narrative with incredible depth i won't deter you in thinking otherwise.

[Verdugo]

It's weird though that none of those comical elements make it into the expensive rendered story cinematics.

Are you talking about the Sadfang trilogy. That was some B-grade meme material.

[Nerovar]

Not sure what that even means. Hey if you think warcraft is a super serious narrative with incredible depth i won't deter you in thinking otherwise.

Never claimed it had "incredible depth". But feel free to point out where the actual narrative is not serious in WC3.

Are you talking about the Sadfang trilogy. That was some B-grade meme material.

I was talking about WC3.

[VinceVega]

Why is everyone looking at the WC3 story with such rose tinted glasses?

Was it good? Sure but no Masterpiece like people seem to remember. Was it deep? No not at all. Definetly not. KT wasn't much of a fleshed out deep character either. And he did not get much more in classic and WOTLK either.

Storytelling in wow did not change much over the years. It was always shallow fun. Nothing more. Nothing less. Never seemed to be super serious either. The moment the story of WC3 was finished with WOTLK people could not be satisfied no matter what they did. And now poeple just dislike everything just cause

[guisadop]

this kind of lore telling is a consequence of WoW being an MMO I think. In Wacraft 3 there was no problem in portraying characters are having a good side, since you were actually playing with them for a lot of missions. In WoW they're all enemies, so the easy way is to just write them as mustache-twirling villains.

[tommyhil622]

Why is everyone looking at the WC3 story with such rose tinted glasses?

Was it good? Sure but no Masterpiece like people seem to remember. Was it deep? No not at all. Definetly not. KT wasn't much of a fleshed out deep character either. And he did not get much more in classic and WOTLK either.

Storytelling in wow did not change much over the years. It was always shallow fun. Nothing more. Nothing less. Never seemed to be super serious either. The moment the story of WC3 was finished with WOTLK people could not be satisfied no matter what they did. And now poeple just dislike everything just cause

agreed, not sure what the deal is. It's like some sort of reminiscent ownership of some kind that changes the reality.

[Zenfoldor]

Why is everyone looking at the WC3 story with such rose tinted glasses?

Was it good? Sure but no Masterpiece like people seem to remember. Was it deep? No not at all. Definetly not. KT wasn't much of a fleshed out deep character either. And he did not get much more in classic and WOTLK either.

Storytelling in wow did not change much over the years. It was always shallow fun. Nothing more. Nothing less. Never seemed to be super serious either. The moment the story of WC3 was finished with WOTLK people could not be satisfied no matter what they did. And now poeple just dislike everything just cause

IMO, quality vs flavor is the difference. Sure, WC3 had problems with the story. Sure the current story has some solid things going for it. WC3 had flavor closer to D&D, D2 or even LOTR or other high fantasy products. Current WoW has more like the flavor of Pixar or Frozen animations. Quality is a different matter, but the flavor of the narrative and world definitely is a lot different than back in WC3 imo. DOS2 has great high fantasy flavor for a current game, so it still does exist.

[Aucald]

agreed, not sure what the deal is.

Nostalgia, mostly. A lot of people here played WC3 and WC3: TFT back in the day when they were young themselves - and so the story seemed a lot more serious and fully fleshed out than it actually was. It's easy to forget that WC3 was nearly 20 years ago.

[tommyhil622]

Nostalgia, mostly. A lot of people here played WC3 and WC3: TFT back in the day when they were young themselves - and so the story seemed a lot more serious and fully fleshed out than it actually was. It's easy to forget that WC3 was nearly 20 years ago.

Yea I can definitely see that. I was a lot younger back then when i consumed the content so I could see some of those feelings can seem different back then. But even then I used to laugh at how corny even the lines uttered by Arthas were. The inherent comedy in WC3 and the cartoony look is what drew me in the first place. It was the sort of escapism I craved at the time and even till this day is what draws me in. But i'm fully aware of its nature i guess others not so much. I guess learning to separate our personal feelings from the actual content would be the only way to judge it dispassionately.

[msdos]

I cared more about the story around TBC, because I wanted to know what the Old Gods were all about. The Old God stuff and the stuff that preceded Azeroth was interesting. The Argus lore interested me. Then you just had WotlK and Yogg was epic, not just because of Ulduar, but because of the lore.

They realized how under the radar captivating the Old God stuff was, so they tried bringing it back and milking it several times (mop, BFA), but it was all really ugly and stupid and the build up wasn't there.

[sil3ntearth]

IDK, I've read a good amount of fantasy books and don't agree with the current WoW story being garbage. One thing people tend to overlook when comparing the story of WoW to other mediums is that WoW has to write a story and keep a lot of stuff open ended as it doesn't have an end in sight. I'd imagine all they're trying to do is create an interesting narrative every time a new expansion comes out while adhering to some of the rules they've created from past content.

My only complaint about current WoW lore is that some of it is in books I've never read so when something comes out in an expansion I'm sitting there saying, "wait, when did that happen". Perhaps it's time for me to read the books.

[Kokolums]

The trouble is players actually CARE about KT to some degree. That alone makes him worthy of being the main villain of his own xpac. Players don't care about the Jailer or the First Ones or any of the current story. But they take KT and throw him away as a miniboss. Its like if the WWE took a main event wrestler and put him deep in the undercard while 2 jobbers main evented Wrestlemania.

[Josyel]

Nostalgia, mostly. A lot of people here played WC3 and WC3: TFT back in the day when they were young themselves - and so the story seemed a lot more serious and fully fleshed out than it actually was. It's easy to forget that WC3 was nearly 20 years ago.

I dont agree. I can go back and read all WC3 plot and it just got a more darker tone. We follow the history of a Human Prince going down a path of vengeance, killing his own father and his master paladin and purging an entire city of innocents. We follow an orc slave trying to survive in a harsh desolate place and being chased by a Human Racist. We play an elven prince that gets his population decimated by a racist human general and to survive he needs to make his people doomed with a demons pact. Illidan going against his brother and beloved, getting into dark powers. Where is the comical plotline that i dont see?

Instead, in Shadowlands, we are trying to save a bunch of people that are already dead from a Dragon Ball-esque super giant that moves slowly just because hes super evil. Theres a human prince that gets mind controlled by the super evil giant.

Thats the point, there is no human emotion, no greater intention in their actions. Its just: big guy is evil doing evil things you can kill him.

[TheFirstOnes]

The trouble is players actually CARE about KT to some degree. That alone makes him worthy of being the main villain of his own xpac. Players don't care about the Jailer or the First Ones or any of the current story. But they take KT and throw him away as a miniboss. Its like if the WWE took a main event wrestler and put him deep in the undercard while 2 jobbers main evented Wrestlemania.

Kel'thuzad is weak as fuck. What are you talking about?

- - - Updated - - -

Y'all are talkin bout WC3, yet I know the TRUE Warcraft.

[Kallisto]

Warcraft 3 was about as deep as a Saturday morning cartoon, and that's totally OK. For a mostly-action focused series, that's all it needed and needs to be. Notice how cutscenes in Warcraft are never all that long, how motivations and dialogue are typically pretty basic and straightforward. I'd say a majority of people's love of characters and their stories revolve around the gaps and subtext we fill in for them, and that's perfect for this format.

Saturday morning cartoon is essentially what Blizzard has said at best is what they're going for with the story anyway. Anyone looking for anything deeper, more meaningful or even to make any kind of sense have been in the wrong games and genre since someone at Blizz HQ went "What if we made an RTS about orcs and humans fighting each other and we are not using the Warhammer IP."

[Aucald]

I dont agree. I can go back and read all WC3 plot and it just got a more darker tone. We follow the history of a Human Prince going down a path of vengeance, killing his own father and his master paladin and purging an entire city of innocents. We follow an orc slave trying to survive in a harsh desolate place and being chased by a Human Racist. We play an elven prince that gets his population decimated by a racist human general and to survive he needs to make his people doomed with a demons pact. Illidan going against his brother and beloved, getting into dark powers. Where is the comical plotline that i dont see?

Instead, in Shadowlands, we are trying to save a bunch of people that are already dead from a Dragon Ball-esque super giant that moves slowly just because hes super evil. Theres a human prince that gets mind controlled by the super evil giant.

Thats the point, there is no human emotion, no greater intention in their actions. Its just: big guy is evil doing evil things you can kill him.

Sounds like you're trying to minimalize Shadowlands by stripping it of detail while simultaneously fleshing out WC3 in comparison? The Jailer's entire arc is a revenge plot on his part - you can't really get more human than that at the end of the day. He was imprisoned for eons in the Maw, turned the method of his imprisonment into the source of his power and now seeks to overturn Death itself in a bid for freedom, while killing his brother and sisters (the ones who originally imprisoned him) to boot.

That's a pretty human and relatable story - and it goes well beyond "big guy is evil doing evil things so you can kill him."