What do you think of Steve Danuser's lore work as Lead Narrative Designer?

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

From late Legion [I believe], he's been in control of the WoW lore. I am intrigued to hear after 3 years how people critique his writing and handling of the WoW lore. Do you like it? What do you not like about it and why? Keep it civil.

[TheFirstOnes]

Idk. I just like killing things.

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Hard to talk shit about the lore now when WC3 fucked with almost everything from WC’s 1 and 2.

[Skirdus]

I've literally never heard a single person say even one positive thing about Danuser or his work. Pretty self-explanatory imo

[shoc]

He's a hack with no respect for the foundation left by those before him

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

I've literally never heard a single person say even one positive thing about Danuser or his work. Pretty self-explanatory imo

his co-workers lol

[Chickat]

WoW lore hasn't been good since MoP IMO, and it started going downhill in Cata with the whole Dragons great purpose thing, but it's been terrible since BFA. So he has 2 bad expansions. I'm willing to give him one more chance, but if it were up to me he would be demoted to a senior quest designer or something if 10.0 ends up being bad too. Narratively of course.

[Kayb]

BFA and Shadowlands have been insanely boring and uninteresting from a story perspective. Add in various nonsense retcons and contradictions and yeah, not a fan.

[Kallisto]

Considering Bfa and shadowlands are pretty much Alex's stuff ask again in first expansion that's released 2+ years after his sacking.

[Jester Joe]

He's a hack with no respect for the foundation left by those before him

More like he was left an absolute mess of a story that had no foundation at all.

The story was not built to go for this long, and everything was made to just be cool for the expansion that it was in. Has the story been great recently, no, but the hate he gets is pretty ridiculous for someone who was probably told "Hey, wrap everything up so we can have a fresh start".

[Nosnogard]

I think the poll is a bit too black and white. I wouldn't say it's the best writing in Warcrafts history, but it certainly beats TBC by a longshot. I started my interest in Warcraft back when WC3 was launched and when I arrived in Netherstorm in TBC and saw the Tempest Keep I got immensely disappointed by the additions of space ships in a world I had so far percieved as somewhat steampunk'ish.

I might not be as interested in Warcraft as I was 15 years ago but I still follow the story and I find it interesting. Certainly not on the level with Legion or perhaps WotLK or Cataclysm, but I'd still give it a 6.5/10

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Considering Bfa and shadowlands are pretty much Alex's stuff ask again in first expansion that's released 2+ years after his sacking.

alex left early during BFA. he wrote legion not bfa

[qwerty123456]

TBH I'm not sure how much of the story is his fault or not. Like back in the day hell even in bfa mechanics like fire resist for MC or sanity in BFA were related to the story of the area it was related to but now in Shadowlands we have shit like the Primus losing his memories all over the place or the Jailer tossing them all over for absolutely no reason.

[Chromeshellking]

Danuser is to Wow as Chibnall is to Dr who now.

[vilememory]

I keep screaming but God won't answer me.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Awful.

More like he was left an absolute mess of a story that had no foundation at all.

The story was not built to go for this long, and everything was made to just be cool for the expansion that it was in. Has the story been great recently, no, but the hate he gets is pretty ridiculous for someone who was probably told "Hey, wrap everything up so we can have a fresh start".

If we had gotten an expansion where we - adventurers - just sailed to the other side of the world and went exploring, it could have been good. We didn't need retcons about the LK or the Dreadlords or the religious cosmology of the setting being trampled or characters like Thrall being dragged out of retirement and humiliated, stuff that would alienate the playerbase. Simply going exploring would have been fun.

[Khaza-R]

Just judging from the direction of the story in Shadowlands, I would say his work is pretty awful. There's some okay elements here and there but its all overshadowed by this very unnecessary push to essentially try to re-write the story from WC3. And its all to shoehorn in the most underwhelming villain imaginable.

At this point the story is full of plot holes and inconsistencies that you can't even take it seriously anymore.

[Jester Joe]

If we had gotten an expansion where we - adventurers - just sailed to the other side of the world and went exploring, it could have been good. We didn't need retcons about the LK or the Dreadlords or the religious cosmology of the setting being trampled or characters like Thrall being dragged out of retirement and humiliated, stuff that would alienate the playerbase. Simply going exploring would have been fun.

Retcon is the most overused term on these forum that doesn't tend to actually apply half the time.

Nor would suddenly abandoning the story to make an entire new one help fix the shambles the story was.

[Hobbidaggy]

Don’t forget that expansions we get now are 3 or more years in planning and development. So sure he has been the lead for the last 2 expansions but those stories weren’t his. They were already underway before he came into the position. 10 is probably his own story from his position he has basically just been keeping the lights on for the current stories and working on new ones we have not seen yet (10.0)

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Retcon is the most overused term on these forum that doesn't tend to actually apply half the time.

Nor would suddenly abandoning the story to make an entire new one help fix the shambles the story was.

Yeah everything is a retcon. It’s not a retcon if the information is new and we didn’t have an explanation before. It’s simply the whole story not a retcon

[Souflikar]

Since writing usually starts well before an expansion release, I’m not sure Steve is solely responsible for all of BFA. So, I’ll stick with what I think is his doing or undoing which is Shadowlands. The writing is horrid, uninteresting and a slap in the face to the lore. I don’t understand how any writer can expect interesting or immersive storylines when the backstory of the main character is lacking. It’s a lazy attempt to reset.

[SinR]

Jailer: HAHA IVE BEEN THERE SINCE THE BEGINNING!

Players: Who are you again?

That's quality build up of a character right there