Warcraft needs a TV series or Anime!

[jellmoo]

There's not a ton of places to take a WoW story though. It's already narrative driven, so we already know what the story is. The only way to fo would be to zoom in on obscure characters, which wouldn't be all that fulfilling. Plus, well, there's no easy way to say this, but overall the Warcraft story is hot garbage. The fact that the game has gone on for so long and has been built like layers on top of one another plays a huge part of it, but the story is largely shit.

They'd do better to take a property with a lot less established narrative like Overwatch or Diablo and tell a story in one of those universes. They would actually have a lot more narrative freedom, and they would be able to work with a property where so much detail hasn't already been established.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

There's not a ton of places to take a WoW story though. It's already narrative driven, so we already know what the story is.

The same can be said for book to film adaptations. "The fans already read the books and know what the story is, why bother making a movie for general audiences?"

[jellmoo]

The same can be said for book to film adaptations. "The fans already read the books and know what the story is, why bother making a movie for general audiences?"

In which case you handcuff yourself as it's an ongoing MMO. Altering events is going to have it conflict with the main property. This is unlike something like The Witcher where they have the ability to retell existing stories or craft new ones.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

In which case you handcuff yourself as it's an ongoing MMO. Altering events is going to have it conflict with the main property. This is unlike something like The Witcher where they have the ability to retell existing stories or craft new ones.

Then the same can be said for comic books films and cartoons. Comics are a constant ongoing thing. They still make films with their own continuity that changes many things from the comics. Hell, there was an avengers cartoon with its own continuity and characters going on the same time as the MCU.
It's an adaptation. People know there will be changes.

[Al Gorefiend]

American cartoon artists compete for most ugly looking characters. OR its all just the same superhero crap. Oh look another batman/superman. How creative.

American cartoons aim to not take themselves seriously and go for comedy. Something Anime tries too hard to do is drama... in a cartoon.

I swear a brooding anime antagonist who goes "hmph" before a sly grin would be perfect for Denathrius, except in Anime that is the only villain that can be written.

and yes the DC comic superheroes made into cartoons by Warner Bros. DO all look the same

[Orby]

Blizzard needs to sort its workplace out right now, then if it survives maybe they can do something like an animated show.

[Relapses]

Blizzard needs to sort its workplace out right now, then if it survives maybe they can do something like an animated show.

A show would almost assuredly be outsourced to another studio. The current turmoil at Blizzard would have no tangible impact.

[Orby]

A show would almost assuredly be outsourced to another studio. The current turmoil at Blizzard would have no tangible impact.

I mean for the sake of a PR perspective. Not sure any marketing would touch anything Blizzard related, outsourced or not right now :P

But when things do clear up and say maybe in 4 years, then sure, go ape. I'd watch a warcraft animated series.

[Pakheth]

American cartoons aim to not take themselves seriously and go for comedy. Something Anime tries too hard to do is drama... in a cartoon.

I swear a brooding anime antagonist who goes "hmph" before a sly grin would be perfect for Denathrius, except in Anime that is the only villain that can be written.

I don't know what kind of anime you have watched, but you have not seen any good ones. And the fact you think there is only one sort of anime style makes me believe you have barely seen any at all.
There are thousands of anime, all with different art styles, humor levels, themes and levels of seriousness. Anime is just as diverse as western animation.

And what is wrong with drama in a cartoon? Ever watched Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood? Neon Genesis Evangelion? Akira? The Castlevania show? The last one there is produced by a western company and is dramatic as fuck. Animators like Genndy Tartakovsky has range and has made stuff like Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Primal(the latter being a very adult cartoon about surviving in an unforgiving world). There is nothing comedic about that one.
If you think cartoon only equivalents to comedy then you need to educate yourself. You and so many others, especially in the US, cannot imagine animation being used to tell compelling stories for an adult audience which holds it back while in Japan they have been making adult animation for years with great success.

[Relapses]

I mean for the sake of a PR perspective. Not sure any marketing would touch anything Blizzard related, outsourced or not right now :P

But when things do clear up and say maybe in 4 years, then sure, go ape. I'd watch a warcraft animated series.

I mean, Arcane's development technically started all the way back in 2013 with Get Jinxed! -- these types of things take a long ass time to get off the ground.

[Bakis]

Personally as one that never cared shit about lore, just to understand that after playing the game since 2007 lore was part of my experience even if I were not aware of it.
Which brings me to my point against it. I dont think BLZ got the lore in a good place to even begin with. In my view, BLZ cant even pull off an expansion worthwhile, right? Shadowlands to sum it up is Sylvanas = bad, but bad = cos mindcontrolled, so bad = not really bad. Well thats 20 years of lore down the drain in one patch.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizzard needs to sort its workplace out right now, then if it survives maybe they can do something like an animated show.

So many people who don't understand how Hollywood works. Blizzard won't be "doing" an animated show. They may be one of a dozen executive producers but the decision to produce and distribute a show is largely out of their hands. They can make the IP available but someone needs to pick it up, produce it, hire writers and a showrunner, and then run with it.

As for the call to fire CEO's because there isn't a show that's just stupid. It's not how it works.

The fact is you don't want Blizzard doing this as it would affect their primary business which is making games.

[VideoGamePlayer]

There are hundreds of fleshed out stories that are already written in the warcraft universe, just need to be voiced and animated with added details. The bigwigs have to be convinced that doing something like this is worth the money and effort. Arcane probably helped a lot with that.

[jellmoo]

Then the same can be said for comic books films and cartoons. Comics are a constant ongoing thing. They still make films with their own continuity that changes many things from the comics. Hell, there was an avengers cartoon with its own continuity and characters going on the same time as the MCU.
It's an adaptation. People know there will be changes.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I also don't think this is an apples to apples comparison. There are some key differences when it comes to an interactive medium where the story is as detailed as WoW is when compared to something like a MCU movie.

Is it impossible? Of course not. They could absolutely recreate a story from WoW and change a lot of the details. But I would argue that Blizzard wouldn't be terribly on board with such a choice. And because there is just so much WoW story in so much detail, it would be hard to tell a compelling story using the known characters and have it jive with the Blizzard narrative.

This is why I think that Diablo and Overwatch would work better. There is less room for that story conflict, and less likelihood of Blizzard getting uppity when the creators want to branch out in a direction other than the main story that has been built.

[Lahis]

Blizzard doesn't have the writing talent to pull it off.

[Magnagarde]

Blizzard doesn't have the writing talent to pull it off.

They don't have the writing talent and overall working vision necessary either.

They draw inspiration from the wrong trends too. It went from a LOTR/Warhammer/mythology inspired franchise to the present deal.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizzard doesn't have the writing talent to pull it off.

Blizzard wouldn't write it. That's not how TV and movies work.

[beratish]

I recall the mange short stories being rather good with many of them reshaping in game lore around them. That said they stopped doing them from losing creative control and not wanting alternative plot lines. I would imagine a tv show would creative the same issues and I do not want to trust blizzards in house writing team to make the script.

[MakeMeLaugh]

Blizz is not competent enough to pull something like Arcane. If they tried, it would be some shit Overwatch disney shit full of forced diversity.

Watching Arcane made me realize how bad the Warcraft movie was, my goodness...

[Al Gorefiend]

I don't know what kind of anime you have watched, but you have not seen any good ones. And the fact you think there is only one sort of anime style makes me believe you have barely seen any at all.
There are thousands of anime, all with different art styles, humor levels, themes and levels of seriousness. Anime is just as diverse as western animation.

And what is wrong with drama in a cartoon? Ever watched Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood? Neon Genesis Evangelion? Akira? The Castlevania show? The last one there is produced by a western company and is dramatic as fuck. Animators like Genndy Tartakovsky has range and has made stuff like Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Primal(the latter being a very adult cartoon about surviving in an unforgiving world). There is nothing comedic about that one.
If you think cartoon only equivalents to comedy then you need to educate yourself. You and so many others, especially in the US, cannot imagine animation being used to tell compelling stories for an adult audience which holds it back while in Japan they have been making adult animation for years with great success.

Genndy Tartakovsky is Russian. I've seen primal and I'd be okay with Warcraft being like Primal.

Primal succeeds where others fail because it avoids the horrible dialogue/subtitles of anime by having none.