Ion's PCGamer interview

[Archmage Alodi]

So... No Garrosh 2.0?

[Verdugo]

So... No Garrosh 2.0?

Of course there will be Garrosh 2.0, Ion is a known liar and admits that he likes to troll the community.

[Zerach8]

Yeah I'm waiting on how they want to redeem Sylvanas.

im waiting to see how we kill off Sylvanas

[Archmage Alodi]

Of course there will be Garrosh 2.0, Ion is a known liar and admits that he likes to troll the community.

inb4 Ion saying by blatantly obvious and repeating story , i meant Anduin turning into Arthas.

[Deleted]

This is the best quote:

"One of the fun things about WoW is that we really can tell episodic stories. It's not like we push out the game and people burn through it and the spoilers are available. We can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise."

lol. Most folks on the forums are playing right into it too.....nice work Blizz

and im blabbering like an idiot that they wont make a garrosh 2.0 voljin said "nobody will understand" the blizz team said themselfs stuff like "hur dur wait until you saw the whole story".

we all know blizzard is a copycat and original content is not their strong side... but garrosh 2.0 is to low even for them. (cmon.. they let everybody at blizzard pitch ideas for storys for quests etc. = "i read this cool thing in this book. lets make so that this character is doing something like that")

Yeah I'm waiting on how they want to redeem Sylvanas.

have you seen the past episodes of world in my warcraft? they could even make a starcraft addon and they would get a connection done (with all the spaceships and different worlds to explore etc) and you think they cant redeem a warmonger? there only need to be 5 seconds of "sentence/event that wasnt shown in the cutscene" to redeem her.

sylvanas is the most beloved character in warcraft... the fanboys and girls will take everything as an redemption. and with blizzard at the wheel.. we are going to get a really disapointing redemption so that we will wish that some of the fanspeculations would be true. (i hope they stick to her becoming a villian..this "hur dur i did everything for a greater purpose" or "omg the devil made me do it! but here i fight for you now" gets boring.)

inb4 Ion saying by blatantly obvious and repeating story , i meant Anduin turning into Arthas.

they already said that they want to explore the light as a bad influence aka make a story / addon about it. (to much light is also bad)
i dont think that anduin will be the holy crusader.. but maybe turalyon.. (maybe alleria dies) or anduin forgives sylvanas/ the horde making turalyon going nuts leading us into World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Light
which could even happen before we deal with the void.. i dont think they jump into "yeah lets kill the void in 2 xpacs"

The biggest issue they are having right now isn't that the story happens across several mediums, its that those mediums carry two completely different narratives.

You can't have your books and short stories say it went down a certain way and then have it appear completely different in the game itself. It doesn't create twists, it creates confused and frustrated consumers.

That's been the problem with War of Thorns, its damn near two different stories. The biggest problem being that the in game version, which gets the most eyes, seems to be the one missing the mark.

so much this.

[Rogalicus]

they already said that they want to explore the light as a bad influence aka make a story / addon about it. (to much light is also bad)

Wow, I wonder how did they come up with that idea, that sounds really original.

[Deleted]

Wow, I wonder how did they come up with that idea, that sounds really original.

yeah... well... blizzard and original ideas....

[Video Games]

Nobody died and nothing happened AND you can reverse time.

[Kallisto]

Someone paying $60+ for the game and $15+ a month for a sub really shouldn't have to go out and buy a $20 dollar book to fill in 99% of the missing story..

Problem is the other way when MMOs do put in the story people bitch about how they are taken away from the game. If you want MMO to have a story you need to find a place for it and something that keeps things flowing, a second medium is a good place for it. Not only that but games are not just games anymore, they are part of different medium telling a full story.

[SirCowdog]

I'm reminded of Afrasiabi's preview of Legion at Gamescon where he pretty clearly implied that they were going to kill off major lore characters and it would be SHOCKING and EPIC! That's the wrong reason to do that. It is my hope that over the long run if Golden teaches them nothing else she teaches the other writers about the value of 'build' leading to a logical but perhap still surprising payoff.

To be fair, Varian's death was reasonably worthy. Sacrificing himself so his troops could escape, and going out in a suitably epic manner by solo-killing that Fel Reaver and fighting his way to Gul'Dan.

But Vol'jin? Died like a chump to a chump demon, for basically nothing, while doing nothing as warchief.
Fordring? Also died doing nothing.
Ysera? Hmm....her story in Valshara was reasonable. But not really shocking. She DID look good in red, though.

And that's about it, honestly. There was little buildup to any of those deaths. And none of them were particularly epic or amazing besides Varian(I'm not even an alliance player and I think he went out like a boss). To me all this really speaks of is hype train bullshit and showing one more example of how divorced from the playerbase Afriasabi is.

I'm not a huge fan of Golden, but at least she's a professional, well-established writer. As you said, hopefully she can bring some quality control to the game. What we've seen out of BfA writing so far isn't promising. Again, hopefully Golden's effect on the writing kicks in soon(tm), because it's not looking good right now.

[Nyel]

im waiting to see how we kill off Sylvanas

Definitely. At this point in time she needs to die. She's evil and doesn't do justice for the Horde. And I say that as Alliance player. I really don't know how Tauren, Trolls and Pandaren could be fine with what Sylvanas is doing.

[CreatureLives]

I don't really see the comparison between the Burning of Teldrassil and the red wedding. Nothing took me off guard. It was a pretty horrific event but nothing in it happened that I didn't already expect would happen.

The Broken Shore was more of the WoW version of that. The green wedding. Seeing Varian & Tirion die like they were nothing and the Alliance & Horde just barely getting away. That was a huge shocker.

The Battle For Lordaeron did remind me of a mix of Hardhome and The Wildfire stuff though.

[Nyel]

they already said that they want to explore the light as a bad influence aka make a story / addon about it. (to much light is also bad)

Do you remember Xe'ra? She's a puzzle now.

[Verdugo]

Definitely. At this point in time she needs to die. She's evil and doesn't do justice for the Horde. And I say that as Alliance player. I really don't know how Tauren, Trolls and Pandaren could be fine with what Sylvanas is doing.

Of course you say that as Alliance player. You want some doormat as a warchief, propably Baine.

[Nyel]

Of course you say that as Alliance player. You want some doormat as a warchief, propably Baine.

I want some reasonable and not over the top mad and brutal Warchief, yes. Like Thrall. Or Vol'jin. Or most likely upcoming Saurfang. Sylvanas actions stand against all that the more peaceful Horde races stand for and Sylvanas even despises those races. And an individual like that should be Warchief of all the Horde?

[Stormbornsham]

This is the best quote:

"One of the fun things about WoW is that we really can tell episodic stories. It's not like we push out the game and people burn through it and the spoilers are available. We can absolutely trick you. If you think that we're doing something that's blatantly obvious and repeating itself, just stay tuned because we're probably setting you up for a surprise."

lol. Most folks on the forums are playing right into it too.....nice work Blizz

Saurfang death confirmed, anduin death confirmed

[Nhodjin]

I don't really see the comparison between the Burning of Teldrassil and the red wedding. Nothing took me off guard. It was a pretty horrific event but nothing in it happened that I didn't already expect would happen.

The Broken Shore was more of the WoW version of that. The green wedding. Seeing Varian & Tirion die like they were nothing and the Alliance & Horde just barely getting away. That was a huge shocker.

The Battle For Lordaeron did remind me of a mix of Hardhome and The Wildfire stuff though.

" think back to the internet the evening after the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones aired. How many people were like, "I'm done with this. I'm never watching this show again! I don't understand how they could do this?" It's because they just watched something they had an emotional investment in struck down before their eyes "

He's comparing the emotional response of those who watched and how players reacted to this whole story. He's not comparing it story wise to the red wedding, why can't people read and understand this. No wonder things are shit for writers when people see ONE word and doesn't read the whole sentence before lashing out.

[Gadzooks]

How many game directors stepped down before Ion got the position? He wasn't first pick for a reason.

None. Ion took over Chilton's job, that Chilton filled since WoW was in alpha.

[Verdugo]

" think back to the internet the evening after the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones aired. How many people were like, "I'm done with this. I'm never watching this show again! I don't understand how they could do this?" It's because they just watched something they had an emotional investment in struck down before their eyes "

He's comparing the emotional response of those who watched and how players reacted to this whole story. He's not comparing it story wise to the red wedding, why can't people read and understand this. No wonder things are shit for writers when people see ONE word and doesn't read the whole sentence before lashing out.

If he seriously thinks that good story is only about triggering emotions then he is nothing more than a dumb troll.

[GreenJesus]

According to some people if Gamon farted and destroyed every capital city in the game that would be good story telling because it got an emotional response from the players.