Should WoW take cues from Game of Thrones S1 on how to write Humans?

[Starter]

Seems like Blizzard struggles to write human beings in a compelling manner.

[Armakus]

Honestly I know "human potential" has become a meme, but it's kind of been a WoW plot point since well before people started hating on it, and it makes sense in a way to me. Humans aren't as long lived as the elves, as hardy as the dwarves, as intelligent as the gnomes, etc., so what in reality do they bring to the table? I like the idea that they are versatile and excel at "speechcraft" and diplomacy. I think they are a bit heavy handed on this at times, but it makes sense too.

[dess]

I like it when things are a fad, and just everything has to be like said thing.

[Starter]

I like it when things are a fad, and just everything has to be like said thing.

If they killed Anduin, noone would expect it.

[Merin]

GoT is pure pulp garbage, I’ll never understand its popularity

[Biomega]

Honestly I know "human potential" has become a meme, but it's kind of been a WoW plot point since well before people started hating on it, and it makes sense in a way to me. Humans aren't as long lived as the elves, as hardy as the dwarves, as intelligent as the gnomes, etc., so what in reality do they bring to the table? I like the idea that they are versatile and excel at "speechcraft" and diplomacy. I think they are a bit heavy handed on this at times, but it makes sense too.

Same as in oh-so-many fantasy works. Surprise surprise, somehow it's always the humans who move the plot, from LotR to D&D. Shocker. I guess it's some kind of unspoken narcissism at work or something that underlies people's expectations - or at least what people think expectations are. Understandable, since it can be hard to identify with characters too far from our own reality; but also lazy writing.

WoW at this point doesn't look like it has any actual rhyme or reason to anything, at least in terms of storylines with a depth beyond that of a plate of water. Humans fill the role the franchise assigned to them from the start: be the counterpart to the orcs (and vice versa). Because WoW started as Orcs vs. Humans, apparently we need to deal with anything and everything eventually circling back to that. For that we need humans at the center, and everyone else at the periphery. That we actually had Sylvanas for a while instead of <insert orc dude> is a minor miracle, and was (naturally) done away with so Marynduin Sue can hug it out with Green Jesus again.

[TwoMana]

Seems like Blizzard struggles to write human beings in a compelling manner.

Cringe.
Game of Thrones (the TV production) was complete mush compared to the source material, which in itself wasn't very good to start with. All of the Song of Ice and Fire characters are rather one sided and black and white caricatures. Especially the females.

If you wanted "gritty" grimdark writing, then turn to something like the First Law series for depth in characters.
But regardless of all that, I think you have waaaay too high expectations of the media itself. The "writing" is done through couple of cinematics and a bunch of 3-4 line quest texts to people who never read them. The franchise has never been about depth, Metzen was a huge comic book guy - WoW is built like that.

[Rendark]

No game of thrones has always sucked.

[Swnem]

Honestly I know "human potential" has become a meme, but it's kind of been a WoW plot point since well before people started hating on it, and it makes sense in a way to me. Humans aren't as long lived as the elves, as hardy as the dwarves, as intelligent as the gnomes, etc., so what in reality do they bring to the table? I like the idea that they are versatile and excel at "speechcraft" and diplomacy. I think they are a bit heavy handed on this at times, but it makes sense too.

Humans in WoW are actually quite strong (you can see how bulk they all are). Just like the dwarves they derived from titan constructs, in this case derived from the Vrykul. But, while weaker than vrykul, they are still stronger than a real life human.
For example, you can deduce this from Varian fighting and how they wear huge heavy gear.

[fikcrim]

Game of Thrones was just a shady excuse for incest porn.

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If they killed Anduin, noone would expect it.

They should just announce the end of WoW and shut down the servers.

No one would expect it

What a plot twist.

[Nemisiscw]

If they killed Anduin, noone would expect it.

And without a plethora of legwork it would also be bad writing.

[Flutterguy]

No. Game of Thrones is a different tone. I do think they should let humans experience more emotions than peace and love though. Jaina was in a really good balance after you finish her storyline at the beginning of the expansion. Less blindly angry, but also firm in her resolve. It was progress for her character she needed, but then they rolled it back for some reason. There's still hope in Genn providing variety at least.

[LilSaihah]

And without a plethora of legwork it would also be bad writing.

A succession crisis could be a fantastic story. Not a good story for Warcraft, but still a good story.

[Dellis0991]

Seems like Blizzard struggles to write human beings in a compelling manner.

In lore humans already had those GoT moments with the founding of the first human kingdom....Thoradin was a warlord, a wise and more than likely very brutal individual, also nobles throughout human history on Azeroth were similar to GoT and real life nobles..... a bunch of backstabbing sumbitches.

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Maybe flesh out more noble houses and introduce them to the game.

[rowaasr13]

No. They already took cues from GoT (their own words) and turned heroic fantasy I loved since WC3 into bleak "everyone stabs everyone in the back and kills thousands left and right just to be edgy" emo-fest. When I'll want GoT - I'll go read GoT.

[LilSaihah]

No. They already took cues from GoT (their own words) and turned heroic fantasy I loved since WC3 into bleak "everyone stabs everyone in the back and kills thousands left and right just to be edgy" emo-fest. When I'll want GoT - I'll go read GoT.

The most memorable part of WC3 is when Arthas kills thousands left and right just to be edgy, though.

[Lochton]

If they killed Anduin, noone would expect it.

That isn't really good writing either to kill off a character right out of no planning, Anduin has a weaved in standing at the moment.

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Seems like Blizzard struggles to write human beings in a compelling manner.

What? in Classic we had lords fucking over lords and people, isn't that just what GoT basically is?

[rowaasr13]

The most memorable part of WC3 is when Arthas kills thousands left and right just to be edgy, though.

No. There was solid and logical explanation why he was forced to do that: he kills them because he has no choice - they were doomed anyway. If Uther and Jaina understood it better (and of course if it wasn't pre-scripted story) - we wouldn't have Lich King, because his start of darkness is not the killing itself, but obsessive revenge against Dreadlord when his friends abandoned him. I'd say that's probably the best executed dark moment by Blizzard ever.

[melzas]

How can you even compare computer MMO game storytelling to a book/TV series? You realise that in WoW they need to make the story give room to a gameplay, so they write a story with a huge limitations to what they can do compared to a book. It's such an obvious thing, yet so many people fail to comprehend it.

Also, humans in GoT are literally the only meaningful race in the story, so they need vary. In WoW, humans are only part of plethora of races, so they can be more one-dimensional.

[rowaasr13]

The problem still is - Blizz seems to be disconnected from their audience. I'm very glad to see so much replies along "fuck GoT" lines and know that people think like me, but Blizz already said in their interview something about that they consider GoT "mature" story and they want to bring WoW standards up to it. Implying that WoW was somehow inferior before all this emo shit.

Hello, guys, you had top MMO in the world and people came to your franchise for YOUR story. Why the fuck you feel the need to follow someone's else lead? Why do you want to morph it into clone? (yeah, I know they're not reading)