Campaign Creations

Hercanic wrote:The voiceover monologue, yeah, kind of stale. Here's an idea, Blizzard writers: ban the word revenge. Just throw it out of your vocabulary. This goes back to the classic literary rule of, "Show, don't tell." Language is broad and full of possibilities, so when all a character ever says is "Revenge! Vengeance! Avenge!" you've pretty much whittled their personality down to a single, boring feature. You could, maybe, I don't know, imply revenge is a motivation with clever, descriptive, and varied dialogue, rather than outright stating it. Blizzard writers just love this word too much, it's become their own personal cliché.

Man, Blizzard NEVER had a writing. The only reason it was good was because the actors made the difference, as Iskatu can clearly state. And we're talking about ever since Diablo I.

Metzen has a drawboard of buzzwords that, when they need to write anything, tony throws dicks at and they choose words at random. Words include, "fel, shadow, chaos, void, twilight, revenge, dark, evil, ancient, prophecy, arthas".

It would be funny if their "writers" weren't getting paid so much for what basically equates to 12 year old DBZ fanfic.

IskatuMesk wrote:Metzen has a drawboard of buzzwords that, when they need to write anything, tony throws dicks at and they choose words at random. Words include, "fel, shadow, chaos, void, twilight, revenge, dark, evil, ancient, prophecy, arthas".

It would be funny if their "writers" weren't getting paid so much for what basically equates to 12 year old DBZ fanfic.

I don't know if I was just too immature to notice when I was 12 years old playing StarCraft 1, but if I think back to those days I don't even recall half those tacky words being used during iconic lines in those scripts.

Lavarinth wrote: I don't know if I was just too immature to notice when I was 12 years old playing StarCraft 1, but if I think back to those days I don't even recall half those tacky words being used during iconic lines in those scripts.

Explainable since the SC2 are made by totally different people... Team changes are also one of the reasons why sequels just don't work...

Lavarinth wrote:

IskatuMesk wrote:Metzen has a drawboard of buzzwords that, when they need to write anything, tony throws dicks at and they choose words at random. Words include, "fel, shadow, chaos, void, twilight, revenge, dark, evil, ancient, prophecy, arthas".

It would be funny if their "writers" weren't getting paid so much for what basically equates to 12 year old DBZ fanfic.

I don't know if I was just too immature to notice when I was 12 years old playing StarCraft 1, but if I think back to those days I don't even recall half those tacky words being used during iconic lines in those scripts.

Sc1 wasn't as bad as wc3+ stuff, it's just the overarching story was really weak. That's more preferable than current material, but not really the kind of standards I would hope to have in gaming. It would seem that's the best you could hope for, though, since companies don't take writing seriously, and those that do don't understand how to take it seriously. The industry really doesn't have real writers for the most part, and they're too busy trying to appeal to some kind of demographic that doesn't exist.

IskatuMesk wrote:Sc1 wasn't as bad as wc3+ stuff, it's just the overarching story was really weak. That's more preferable than current material, but not really the kind of standards I would hope to have in gaming. It would seem that's the best you could hope for, though, since companies don't take writing seriously, and those that do don't understand how to take it seriously. The industry really doesn't have real writers for the most part, and they're too busy trying to appeal to some kind of demographic that doesn't exist.

No, the writing in gaming world these days is virtually non-existant. Planescape: Torment was practically the last straw of decent writing the West has ever seen. And Darksiders doesn't count as writing because it's more of a comic book than an actual game. And you and I both know it.

Writing in general is awful nowadays. Long gone are the days people made master pieces like Solaris...

Falchion wrote:No, the writing in gaming world these days is virtually non-existant. Planescape: Torment was practically the last straw of decent writing the West has ever seen. And Darksiders doesn't count as writing because it's more of a comic book than an actual game. And you and I both know it.

mark_009_vn wrote:Writing in general is awful nowadays. Long gone are the days people made master pieces like Solaris...

You guys sound like a buncha old men complaining about today's music and skateboarding kids. =oP We could probably apply Moore's Law to gamers with regard to the onset of their crotchety years. Kinda like dog years or something. Every generation of games has had its share of terrible writing, along with a few gems scattered about, and every generation henceforth will follow. Just like movies, television shows, music, and pretty much all types of entertainment. They cater to different demographics and their expectations, the Peter Principle is successively renewed, and we're a species that tends to judge by comparison rather than independent merit. To illustrate that last point, take a look:
If we judge by comparison, how can anything today compete with nostalgia?

Bullshit, Herc, get the hell off my board with your witchcraft.

Falchion wrote:

IskatuMesk wrote:Sc1 wasn't as bad as wc3+ stuff, it's just the overarching story was really weak. That's more preferable than current material, but not really the kind of standards I would hope to have in gaming. It would seem that's the best you could hope for, though, since companies don't take writing seriously, and those that do don't understand how to take it seriously. The industry really doesn't have real writers for the most part, and they're too busy trying to appeal to some kind of demographic that doesn't exist.

No, the writing in gaming world these days is virtually non-existant. Planescape: Torment was practically the last straw of decent writing the West has ever seen. And Darksiders doesn't count as writing because it's more of a comic book than an actual game. And you and I both know it.

Torment is not good writing because the majority of its writing is tortuously overdrawn for no other reason than to be that way.

Alternatively Torment doesn't count as writing because it's more of a bad fantasy book than an actual game.

wibod wrote:Alternatively Torment doesn't count as writing because it's more of a bad fantasy book than an actual game.

A book isn't writing?

I think we may need to step back and define what "writing" means if this is an actual argument you wanna make.

Hercanic wrote:You guys sound like a buncha old men complaining about today's music and skateboarding kids. =oP We could probably apply Moore's Law to gamers with regard to the onset of their crotchety years. Kinda like dog years or something. Every generation of games has had its share of terrible writing, along with a few gems scattered about, and every generation henceforth will follow. Just like movies, television shows, music, and pretty much all types of entertainment. They cater to different demographics and their expectations, the Peter Principle is successively renewed, and we're a species that tends to judge by comparison rather than independent merit. To illustrate that last point, take a look:

It's really not even just "today". Writing has almost always been terrible and gamers keep passing it off as "it's a game" or start calling everyone entitled. I find it amusing how fast everyone is to call someone entitled because they want more than the bare minimum for the core game. Same goes for the Piracy/DRM witch hunt, they want their game regardless if it has computer destroying rootkits included free of charge. I won't be surprised if Ubisoft is the next to fall.

The entire industry is heading in the direction to repeat history, games are getting extremely disposable. Majority of the developers are getting less and less about making a game that is designed to be enjoyed for years and more about how much you can gouge your players for and then go F2P because "it's where the market is going HURR HURR!" -Every MMO that went F2P ever. Like it excuses them for the suicidal decisions they made beforehand. Sort of like catering to players that just want to unlock everything and quit, never to be seen again.

There's very few games out there that make me genuinely interested in the characters, world and background.

Hercanic wrote:If we judge by comparison, how can anything today compete with nostalgia?

I actually have almost no nostalgia as far as writing is concerned. Game writing has always been shit, really. There's a few exceptions, but they get much less excusable as time goes on and people begin trying to sell story more and more.

Hercanic wrote:If we judge by comparison, how can anything today compete with nostalgia?

Super 8 competed with my nostalgia and won. It really is about writing and directing. There absolutely is a difference between talent and hack work. And I am fucking sick and tired of watching the Terrans get their shit served. But since Blizzard gave the Terran's one shot to a non-Terran "human avatar" while simultaneously serving their shit, it looks like I'll just have to get used to it. Why? Because fuck me, that's why.

Hercanic wrote:

wibod wrote:Alternatively Torment doesn't count as writing because it's more of a bad fantasy book than an actual game.

A book isn't writing?

I think we may need to step back and define what "writing" means if this is an actual argument you wanna make.

You should read the post I quoted, and then the part about Darksiders writing.