They needed to put this there especially to emphasise how easily one can be influenced by the Dark Side. This in turn makes the effort of his discipline seem much greater, it has much more of an impact than if he were to remain stoic throughout everything. It’s brilliant in a way.
But Star Wars is an amazing example in this case. My father used to say “Star Wars is less sci-fi and more a fairy tale in space”, and this is a very important distinction. Fairy tales ultimately are moral stories. They are meant to teach morals to children, which is why they are always about the struggle of good against evil, and good will usually triumph, while evil will always meet a very gruesome fate. It’s meant to teach children to not go down the evil path.
Star Wars is about the value of friendship and family in a very meaningful way. It is never said directly, but rather portrayed through actions. Han coming back to help with the assault on the Death Star. Han staying behind on Hoth to make sure Leia gets out of there. Luke leaving Dagobah to save his friends from Vader - even if it was a fool’s action and he was punished for it. Both Vader and Luke wanting to get the other to join them rather than just kill them outright. Luke overcoming the lure of the Dark Side to still stand as an example for his father. Vader ultimately overcoming the pull of the Dark Side and saving Luke from the Emperor. It is never told, always shown.
Modern Star Wars, or almost all of modern media, has lost this quality. It is always about the power of the individual. Everything is told to us because the actions of the protagonists are predictable and more often than not outright deplorable. So the audience need to be told how amazing the protagonists are. The latest example being the Acolyte, which is just pure evil morality pressed into a Star Wars shaped mould.
It’s wild how far we’ve fallen.
The questline I remember most fondly from Ashenvale is the one where we’re saving Relara, the nightmare-slumbering child, helping his father find a cure.
Sure, we’ve slain some nasty satyr and demons, and that silly undead embracing the elementals and what not. We also did a bit of orcs vs elves racial killing.
The Tower of Althalaxx story was also easier to process until it was about enslaving and siphoning power, and less so when it went into some hulky “there is power, there is thunder, there is danger, slay them oh champi-- wanderer”.
And I’m one extremely analysing and rationalizing everything.
(sing or zing, dear spell checker, decide please)
I kind of see the point of OP, my line of work is technical so my escape is into a world of humans which is defined by emotions. I can understand that other people might be escaping psychology, coaching and family drama, hoping to just zerg-swing their way through. Arguably some shooter or full-on ARPG like D3 is better for that.
Emotional stories are not bad on its own, but its the way its badly done nowadays.
Like you said the examples you gave i doubt nobody disliked a dad trying to find a cure for his kid. But he was just asking for help and did not give you some emotional trauma dump.
Most people liked stuff like mankriks wifes quest as well. But the story is told by an orc asking for help to look for her. They ask for help but do not start an emotional trauma dump to complete strangers.
People dont do that irl either. It just feels just so out of place, if complete strangers irl suddenly starts trauma dumping then most people would avoid them after that because its abnormal. Its the same in game our characters themselves dont hold any emotional connection to the people trauma dumping. we basicly act like mercenaries
And when they’re at it they should also get rid of the over the top, epic, full of echo voice acting we’ve seen in dragonflinght, its extremely annoying.
Havent seen any like vol’jin killed and teldrassil burn type writing in while, tbf shadowlands was so bad I paid no attention to it at all and df had nothing that spoke to me so even tho didnt dislike it storywise also didnt pay much attention to anything except the anduin cinematic with thrall that was cool and well made cinematic to lay us grounding for a setting of the expansions story. Im not interested of the dragons of df either so havent paid much attention on their storys either.
And this dark story also ended up being resolved by friendship and forgivingness. As if its somehow very normal to forgive the enemy wich burned your homeland and genocided your people. Singing kumbaya around a newly grown tree with the enemies just feels so wrong.
why can’t we have nice things like wrathgate anymore
Do you mean Sylvanas? Atleast on community many seem to hate her still but tbh Im no expert on lore or know how she is writen in game now. I think she is one of the characters that were interesting atleast, Im not much into too goody goody, rather neutral for me to balance out the overly goody. One aspect alone would just be boring anyways, no light without dark type of thing etc we just need to find good balance from the middle to please all
With the wrathgate for the longest time it wasnt even stated sylvanas was behind it, at first it was supposed to be a splinter faction. But i must say atleast for this one the retcon where sylvanas is behind it fits.
But the event itself was interesting and dark as well and came out of nowhere. Now the story is just so predictable they wont do stuff like that. If the wrathgate happened nowadays we would have attacked the undercity together and then befriended the splinter faction because they are sorry
Ive definitely noticed downfall on writing story that would interest myself atleast. I just pay even less attention to anything lorewise in game as result. I like warcraft and how it began with the original protagonists, I might be too old to like too radical change aswell. Half the time I dont even know who all the new characters in the expansions are.
Just how compelling do you think the story will be without these very important aspects of the human condition. If your argument is that they should be better conveyed then I can get that but you do not offer any suggestions of how to tell a better story within the confines of quests in an MMO game.
Sounds more like you are dragging your feelings into the game.
It’s a game. Why are you taking it seriously?
All writing devolves into feelings. Every movie, every series, every romance.
You are expecting storytelling in games to somehow be something else? We are all about our feelings. You yourself prove that. It’s time to accept it. So, just ignore the narrative if you want and enjoy the gameplay. It’s not like this game is dripping with storytelling. Most of it is delivered through text boxes no one reads.
I didn’t say anything about completely removing those aspects. I said:
And I don’t need to. I’m criticizing the things I have an issue with. I’m no writer who can give concrete solutions, and I don’t need to be one to understand I dislike this writing and believe it to be bad storytelling.
I barely played Dragonflight partly because of this type of writing (first expansion since BC I basically skipped beyond levelling 1 char to max). I’ve come back for War Within as the storyline looks a lot more interesting, but now I’m giving my criticism on this writing having just had a bad experience with it in the Night Elf Heritage Questline, in the hopes they might rethink their approach to this sort of writing in the future.
While doing Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms during the turn of BC to WLK as this blood elf, I was under the firm impression through Tirisfal, Silverpine and culminating at Tarren Mill, that the aim of the Royal Apothecary Society was to develop a “smart” plague, eradicating all life but those of sentient undead.
Point being, in my eyes it’s not a retcon but a coming out.
Cata has replaced those storylines.
Absolutely yes on my end.
I know a lot of people who don’t. Either because language, or because they are really just here for the first person ARPG.
(Not to defeat our point, just adding shades.)
After some clarifications to my response, I generally agree.
It’s one thing to be emotional and have a human story (saving your sick child, or Malfurion, Ysera) and another to go into too much detail and in a whiny way I guess.
I didn’t much encounter it yet because I stopped before Legion and at that point we had really dry quests. But the events of the last few years exposed a more frustrated side of the staff and I can see that being vented.
I feel the same. I used to excitedly follow storylines, fantasize about the backstory of characters and how they survive etc now I have to skip everything because how cringe the writing is. They’ve even turned Khadgar into a whimp, this is a guy who has survived multiple apocalyptic scenarios and been pivotal in saving the world.
Its obvious that the writers have been replaced by people who hate fantasy, hate wow and make it a point to make fun of the people who do.
Sir Alec Guinness said the same thing, thats partly why he was only in half of ‘A New Hope’ then odd scenes as a ghost in the others. Lived pretty well off the royalties from them…
Champion the world is in danger . Mysterious visions are seen . It might be just the end of the world .
Come to Dalaran to investigate and battle the evil dark forces . BUT FIRST .
