Shadowlands Dev Interview - Steve Danuser

[SinR]

There were some stumbles with the story in Battle for Azeroth, and some things weren’t executed as well as they should have. The team is trying to address that in Shadowlands.

I read that as "we didn't have enough chance to shove Sylvanas down your throats. We're fixing that in Shadowlands"

[Darknessvamp]

There was nothing in the new customization options that went against the story or narrative. These customization options were more about giving the players many ways to express their character.

lol if you've seen some of the new customizations options then you know that's some bull. So I expect we can see some pale Orcs next expansion then? After all more ways to express your character.

"The team likes to see what stories players gravitate toward and change plans for future stories accordingly."

Hoo boy

I like how people were saying I was stupid for pointing out that certain story developments seemed reactionary and only recently decided upon for the last two expansions and we've got one of the lead writers at the start of development for their next major expansion spilling spaghetti everywhere. Though I don't feel particularly elated at that fact just sad that they bs all the time on their "several years planned out story" shtick.

[Scratches]

imagine an actual put together, long arcing story line that covered several expansions intelligently

I can imagine 2, actually, at the very least.

1) So there's this prince of a kingdom wherein horrible, unexplained shit is happening. He goes out, assembles a team, and thinks he's doing good things but is actually being manipulated and corrupted along the way, which culminates in him razing a city, traveling to unknown corners of the world, stealing a pretty sword, leaving the brother of an ally's royal family to die, assassinating his father, and leaving nothing alive as he marched on an allied capital just to resurrect a new companion. After causing all this ruckus, he goes to a ski resort where he puts a magical bucket on his head.
The previous owner of the bucket didn't like this very much though, so he bribes a broke, salty elf that was kicked out of druid college to kill the new wearer of his bucket. What the previous owner didn't seem to realize before making this offer is that salty elf has a history of running away from his problems, trying to take the easy way out whenever possible, and doing the right thing (whenever that aligns with his own goals, at least).

And this story spans 2 base games and 3 expansions in total; or 3 base games and 8 expansions, if we want to look at it from 30,000'

2) We met our snotty, depressed little sort of a hero where he spent most of his days laying in the bright green pastures. The son of a mighty warrior whom he did not know, he was doomed to follow in like footsteps. He was told of his lineage, warned of his potential, but upon learning this he only wanted more. He wanted to lead his people to victory -- to domination -- but with every conflict he only grew more brazen and gluttonous. He went to the same ski resort as our last hero, emerged victorious, and still he was not satisfied. He came home and redecorated a city -- changed architecture for a generation -- and still he was not satisfied. He almost became a(n old) god, and traveled through time and space (and probably more) and forever altered the future for at least two entire civilizations. Yet still... satisfied, he was not.
He was not satisfied until he laid lifeless on the field of battle; defeated by his closest friend, ally, and mentor....

And that one spans 5 expansions


The quality of their stories and writers is questionable/debatable of course, but in hindsight, and with a little perspective, they did on multiple occasions exactly what you're claiming they never do

[scvd]

"Going forward, the team wants to have a unified story. Everyone playing Shadowlands will know what Sylvanas is up to and working towards. Choice in the story doesn’t make sense anymore."

Is this trolling? There has never been choice in the story, bar 1 thing in BFA that didn't afffect anything.

[zlygork]

Well
https://imgur.com/r/wow/FX4poT6

Cringey af that people would take such obvious jokes and references to literature he wrote as anything more than that tbh.

[Very rare pepe]

Ugh, there's something cringy about "Taliesin & Evitel"... I've never liked that channel...

Yeah it's a hard watch, Taliesin is a well known narcissist. I don't know much about this danuser guy nor do I care who he is if he is involved in the 'lore' that we currently get as it is beyond a shambles at this point.

[FelPlague]

Is the self-insert real? I thought it was just a rumor

its just a rumor that people say its true cause we said it is so it must be true.

[zlygork]

I must say, MMO-champion does a terrible, terrible job of summarizing interviews. They make a lot of points in their summaries seem way worse, or give them with a serious lack of context from the question asked or such, making it all look twice as bad as it is.

Feel free to hate on the interview answers as much as you guys want, there's quite a bit I wasn't a fan of myself, but really don't base your understanding on the terrible summary that the homepage gives us.

[FelPlague]

Well
https://imgur.com/r/wow/FX4poT6

"its like looking into a dark mirror"
yes... the book title...
also nathanos was always a charecter, they just brought him back, even back in vanilla before he got nathanos there was hints of him and sylvanas being involved.

i will tell ya now, if christie golden cant get her white haired warlock in, steven cant make his charecter a major part of the story.
no 1 person writes, its a massive team.
one of the things he, and many others at blizz has pointed out, they dont write the books. they WRITE them.
blizzard comes up with what they want to happen, what they want to do, and etc in the books.
the writer is actually only in charge with well... making it written, and readable.
he did not choose anything of what happened in that book, he was just the one who had to make it a book, and not a long list of what needs to happen.

- - - Updated - - -

Please watch this: https://youtu.be/2pKPlvWTyrI

Hey I know that channel >->
But yeah, this is a pretty great video on why people saying hes a self insert is bullshit, even back in vanilla he was super powerful, super special, and sylvanas was super interested in him. it was not some "oh hey welcome to BFA now nathanos is important!"

- - - Updated - - -

Nathanos Blightcaller's glow-up and sudden growth in importance to Sylvanas is the result of Danuser allegedly reshaping the character in his own image. He is a self admitted Slyvanas fanboy and did write the Dark Mirror short story, so it's not much of a stretch.

1. he never had a growth in importance. he was always important.
2. glow up? i mean, he got a new body i guess
3. where did he self admit? also they dont write them, as in like decide whats going to happen, they just change bullet points into actual readable text.

- - - Updated - - -

Thats literally what every interview about an upcoming big major product always ends with. A Fanboi or the alternative to the usual social media influencers, with massive views and clicks. Getting in to those EXECLUSIVE BEFORE ANYONE ELSE events and digital conventions. Talisin is a massive huge blizzard fanboi, and he rarely ever has anything bad to say about blizz. He also constantly over uses his cringe af humor to make anything bad anyone else has to say about WoW. Look like hello kitty islands in comparison.

"Rarely has something bad to say about blizz" i mean not true but go ahead.

- - - Updated - - -

Called out Asmongold saying that big youtubers need to be responsible on who else they highlight because they can't control their audience. Asmon reacted to it in a stream and disagreed he had to take any responsibility because he couldn't control his audience anyway. His audience then started harassing Tali. Tali fought back, people started calling him a hypocrite/toxic even though he was basically just treating people the way they were treating him. It was apparently a different side of him than the YouTube channel reflects, and turned some fans off.

The entire thing was overblown and Tali's point got proven fairly well, but as far as I've seen he and Asmon personally don't have any residual beef with each other.

They didnt care about them harrasing him, its when they started harrasing his wife that he got mad. but yeah. remember seeing some of the hate live, it was bad.
"Hope your wife gets **** by a group of immigrants ****"

- - - Updated - - -

Isn't there just a really good chance of the Jailor being Arthas? Like, he was the Jailor of the Damned, and Torghast is Tower of the Damned....

that would be cool, but they already said "its not arthas" only charecter they have confirmed it isnt.
also well yeah the leaked concept art...

- - - Updated - - -

No it didn't, he basically lied and said that whenever Asmon reacts to anything they do their social media, emails, and everything are just filled with hate.
people went to their social media from days Asmon reacted to it and found almost nothing.

not even close to true, it was there, but people loved to ignore it, asmon even on stream at one point scrolls to some, sees it, and quicky scrolls up to hide it.
also we cant see their email or their dms, and their dms were open, but they had to close them, and then asmon checked their twitter, saw it was closed and "lol their dms arnt even open" yes, they were, but they closed them...

- - - Updated - - -

who cares LOL.

anyone understood this (demon part)



demons are from Shadowlands incoming.

beings of pure magic can enter and exit the shadowlands, the ethereals actually do so, it is also possible some demons may be able to too.
also like any other race, it seems likely when a demon is "killed" and their soul is PERMANTLY destroyed, its actually cause they are finally being sent to the shadowlands.

- - - Updated - - -

they did admit that they go to WoWpedia for guidance xd

dont you?
are you saying you can 100% by no doubt remember every single bit of lore in the game, every quest, every npc?
Nah mate, they are gunna need a refresher sometimes, and a wiki is the best place to do so.

- - - Updated - - -

ya, this just screams that they have no idea what the story is and are just making shit up patch to patch.
while i have actually thought this for the past several years, it made me pretty sad to see it spelled out.

imagine an actual put together, long arcing story line that covered several expansions intelligently... ya i cant either

their 'chronicles' are a fucking joke and i hope they stop making them. biggest bullshit blizz has released to date, and that is including WoD.
they went from the history of the wow universe to some story a titan is incorrectly telling. STUPID

speaking that their stories are planned atleast a year and a bit in advance? nah.
legion and wod were actually both candidates for "Expansion after mop" and both got a fair bit of work in before deciding to put wod first.

- - - Updated - - -

"Going forward, the team wants to have a unified story. Everyone playing Shadowlands will know what Sylvanas is up to and working towards. Choice in the story doesn’t make sense anymore."

Is this trolling? There has never been choice in the story, bar 1 thing in BFA that didn't afffect anything.

yes there was. you did different things, and got different interactions and cutscenes depending on if you chose sylvanas or not. it did effect a fair few things, hell even the eye did a bit.

what did you except, a secret third faction? its an mmo.

[GrimReaper673]

Isn't there just a really good chance of the Jailor being Arthas? Like, he was the Jailor of the Damned, and Torghast is Tower of the Damned....

I can't find the Blizzcon quote, but they stated explicitly during the Q&A that the Jailer is not Arthas.

[Absintheminded]

I can't find the Blizzcon quote, but they stated explicitly during the Q&A that the Jailer is not Arthas.

I hear ya. But I mean it's not like they haven't mislead us before.

[Gasparde]

'Player choice when it mages sense again'

As in there has been player choice before? I seriously hope they don't mean that joke of there being like 4 different quests for people who were not pro Hitler Sylvanas, that still ead to the same end results, meaning that all of your 'choice' meant jack shit.

The contrast in choice between questing and picking your Covenants is actually insulting.

[ravenmoon]

I love how Taliesin asked if there were any characters he was routing for in to comeback that didn't quite make the cut...

His answer "no, i'm pretty satisfied with the roster we had"

Ofc he is Taliesin, silly question, he decides who is gonna show up, all the ones he wants are going to be there... d'uh.

Anyway enjoyed the interview. Danuser doesn't seem that bad now, does he

[Felrane]

real demons in Shadowlands

I am hoping its hinting at the real Demon Lords that were either imprisoned or hideing from Sargaras/Legion. Now that he is gone are starting to reclaim the Nether could make some fun lore down the road. Perhaps have the real Demons fighting the artificial Legion Demons. Future Demon allied races need to help the Eredar survive the real masters of the Nether!

[Djaye]

I can imagine 2, actually, at the very least.

1) So there's this prince of a kingdom wherein horrible, unexplained shit is happening. He goes out, assembles a team, and thinks he's doing good things but is actually being manipulated and corrupted along the way, which culminates in him razing a city, traveling to unknown corners of the world, stealing a pretty sword, leaving the brother of an ally's royal family to die, assassinating his father, and leaving nothing alive as he marched on an allied capital just to resurrect a new companion. After causing all this ruckus, he goes to a ski resort where he puts a magical bucket on his head.
The previous owner of the bucket didn't like this very much though, so he bribes a broke, salty elf that was kicked out of druid college to kill the new wearer of his bucket. What the previous owner didn't seem to realize before making this offer is that salty elf has a history of running away from his problems, trying to take the easy way out whenever possible, and doing the right thing (whenever that aligns with his own goals, at least).

And this story spans 2 base games and 3 expansions in total; or 3 base games and 8 expansions, if we want to look at it from 30,000'

2) We met our snotty, depressed little sort of a hero where he spent most of his days laying in the bright green pastures. The son of a mighty warrior whom he did not know, he was doomed to follow in like footsteps. He was told of his lineage, warned of his potential, but upon learning this he only wanted more. He wanted to lead his people to victory -- to domination -- but with every conflict he only grew more brazen and gluttonous. He went to the same ski resort as our last hero, emerged victorious, and still he was not satisfied. He came home and redecorated a city -- changed architecture for a generation -- and still he was not satisfied. He almost became a(n old) god, and traveled through time and space (and probably more) and forever altered the future for at least two entire civilizations. Yet still... satisfied, he was not.
He was not satisfied until he laid lifeless on the field of battle; defeated by his closest friend, ally, and mentor....

And that one spans 5 expansions


The quality of their stories and writers is questionable/debatable of course, but in hindsight, and with a little perspective, they did on multiple occasions exactly what you're claiming they never do

arthus? was WC3 and WOTLK. one expansion and two different games. his story was dropped almost entirely for vanilla and TBC.

Thrall? a failed story that took 4 expansions to finally become boring and irrelevant.

whatever story they had was over by the end of Cata is was apparent. it has been terrible fan fic every since

[Ianus]

arthus? was WC3 and WOTLK. one expansion and two different games. his story was dropped almost entirely for vanilla and TBC.

Thrall? a failed story that took 4 expansions to finally become boring and irrelevant.

whatever story they had was over by the end of Cata is was apparent. it has been terrible fan fic every since

pls just pls its Arthas! Dont desecrate his name, one off best antagonists ever

[Tarba]

The War Campaign in Battle for Azeroth was nice, but only having two stories didn’t feel like enough.

Translatation :
We really don't give a shit about player feedback and the Smell of our own fart is absolutely outstanding.

[Scratches]

arthus? was WC3 and WOTLK. one expansion and two different games. his story was dropped almost entirely for vanilla and TBC.

Thrall? a failed story that took 4 expansions to finally become boring and irrelevant.

If you can only see it when it's shoved in your face and landing right on your nose, then sure, yeah, Arthas' story is only in WC3, its TFT expansion, and WoW's Wrath expansion.

Unfortunately though, since that does seem to be true then it's also a waste of time trying to show how wrong you actually are, because you'll just refuse to see it. So, good day.

Also, not Thrall.

[Zeons]

This comment section went from discussing the interview to bashing the host rather quickly. Typical mmo-champion community. This is why blizzard employs read reddit and ignore this website.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Are you blind or deaf? How can you say all that and pretend Taliesin didn't act like a complete idiot? Maybe you didn't watch his stream?

Jesus dude, stop making a fool of yourself.

what parts do you count as being a complete idiot? Is saying to not blast Individual people when you know your audience will be toxic towards them really that extreme of a view?