StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
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Enkidu
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StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
Just curious, is the lore in StarCraft original and Brood War good enough to maintain while making a campaign and telling a story? I heard something about the original StarCraft Storyline being awful and most of that, I heard from you guys. If not, does that refer to the StarCraft 2 games? I am not sure which, so that's why I am asking.
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Rawflesh0615
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Re: StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
I don't think the Starcraft 1 story wasn't that bad.
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Revolta
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Re: StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
Your double-negative makes me agree with you rawflesh
SC's story relied a lot on its presentation, since it really falls apart when you consider its individual elements. Rebel Yell is actually alright in my opinion, though I would have liked more characterisation when it comes to Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal, as well as some more backstory on where the Confederates even came from to begin with (how they got to K-sec from Earth). That last bit becomes even more important when you consider that the UED come directly from Earth in brood war and that opens up a huge can of worms because from a narrative point of view it shrinks the distance between Earth and K-Sec (now they can apparently just warp between the two areas at will!). There were a lot of great stories you could have told without including the UED.
I also think Kerrigan should have just been killed rather than infested. Once she becomes infested, she basically serves as the 'face' of the zerg, removing the nightmarish, limitless, and FACEless characterisation of that race as seen in Rebel Yell. The Overmind (vanilla zerg campaign) basically removes all that by making Kerrigan infested, when they should have just killed her off to give Raynor the motive he needed to fight against Mengsk while also showing that Mengsk is a megalomaniac. Mengsk's character was also pretty shit - the lack of dialogue makes it really difficult to see his transformation from 'freedom fighter' to 'power hungry psychopath with a fleet of loyal soldiers at his disposal'. Instead of showing us the transition, Blizzard basically just jumps us from one to the other, which is really regrettable since he becomes a much more 2-dimensional character than he otherwise could have been.
Protoss also just fight each other during The Fall (super advanced alien race that communicates their thoughts directly are somehow also xenophobic and hate each other over petty differences and have a super strict religious code) and then it's kind of glossed over during The Stand (especially when Aldaris orchestrates an insurgency against the Nerazim... after the Nerazim saved them by bringing them to Shakuras???). Then the UED arrive and it's all downhill from there, even though it was heading in that direction beforehand (see the above rant). Could have been a much cooler story if Kerrigan died and they kept the storytelling focused in K-sec. As a plus, we would have missed out on the SC2 disaster that focused on prophecy and Raynor's secret tentacle fetish.
Anyways, that's basically why SC and BW have pretty sub-par stories, but the whole single player mode relies on the story unfolding around the player, and having a nameless, faceless character as the player's viewport. Important to note that SC:BW is plot-driven, and the characters are more important as mechanisms to advance the plot. Their development as characters is secondary to make them more likable, but ultimately they are small chess pieces in a larger plot that they merely participate in, rather than directly impact on a large scale. That's mostly how they hid their poor storytelling skills - through presentation.
SC's story relied a lot on its presentation, since it really falls apart when you consider its individual elements. Rebel Yell is actually alright in my opinion, though I would have liked more characterisation when it comes to Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal, as well as some more backstory on where the Confederates even came from to begin with (how they got to K-sec from Earth). That last bit becomes even more important when you consider that the UED come directly from Earth in brood war and that opens up a huge can of worms because from a narrative point of view it shrinks the distance between Earth and K-Sec (now they can apparently just warp between the two areas at will!). There were a lot of great stories you could have told without including the UED.
I also think Kerrigan should have just been killed rather than infested. Once she becomes infested, she basically serves as the 'face' of the zerg, removing the nightmarish, limitless, and FACEless characterisation of that race as seen in Rebel Yell. The Overmind (vanilla zerg campaign) basically removes all that by making Kerrigan infested, when they should have just killed her off to give Raynor the motive he needed to fight against Mengsk while also showing that Mengsk is a megalomaniac. Mengsk's character was also pretty shit - the lack of dialogue makes it really difficult to see his transformation from 'freedom fighter' to 'power hungry psychopath with a fleet of loyal soldiers at his disposal'. Instead of showing us the transition, Blizzard basically just jumps us from one to the other, which is really regrettable since he becomes a much more 2-dimensional character than he otherwise could have been.
Protoss also just fight each other during The Fall (super advanced alien race that communicates their thoughts directly are somehow also xenophobic and hate each other over petty differences and have a super strict religious code) and then it's kind of glossed over during The Stand (especially when Aldaris orchestrates an insurgency against the Nerazim... after the Nerazim saved them by bringing them to Shakuras???). Then the UED arrive and it's all downhill from there, even though it was heading in that direction beforehand (see the above rant). Could have been a much cooler story if Kerrigan died and they kept the storytelling focused in K-sec. As a plus, we would have missed out on the SC2 disaster that focused on prophecy and Raynor's secret tentacle fetish.
Anyways, that's basically why SC and BW have pretty sub-par stories, but the whole single player mode relies on the story unfolding around the player, and having a nameless, faceless character as the player's viewport. Important to note that SC:BW is plot-driven, and the characters are more important as mechanisms to advance the plot. Their development as characters is secondary to make them more likable, but ultimately they are small chess pieces in a larger plot that they merely participate in, rather than directly impact on a large scale. That's mostly how they hid their poor storytelling skills - through presentation.
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Enkidu
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Re: StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
But all in all, The lore in StarCraft was some good at least, right?
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MattTygore
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Re: StarCraft Campaign's Story and Writing
Starcraft 1's story is actually really good.
Brood war is where things get stupid and StarCraft 2 is when all hope for decency DIES A BRUTAL DEATH.
"(super advanced alien race that communicates their thoughts directly are somehow also xenophobic and hate each other over petty differences and have a super strict religious code"
Bad argument, we are a "super advanced species" as far as every other species on earth is concerned and we're still mired in that kind of silliness.
that doesn't go away with a shiny coat of gold paint.
"As a plus, we would have missed out on the SC2 disaster that focused on prophecy and Raynor's secret tentacle fetish."
This I agree with, I kind of wish Kerrigan died as well because she's the consistent thread of "terrible" throughout the storyline.
Brood war is where things get stupid and StarCraft 2 is when all hope for decency DIES A BRUTAL DEATH.
"(super advanced alien race that communicates their thoughts directly are somehow also xenophobic and hate each other over petty differences and have a super strict religious code"
Bad argument, we are a "super advanced species" as far as every other species on earth is concerned and we're still mired in that kind of silliness.
that doesn't go away with a shiny coat of gold paint.
"As a plus, we would have missed out on the SC2 disaster that focused on prophecy and Raynor's secret tentacle fetish."
This I agree with, I kind of wish Kerrigan died as well because she's the consistent thread of "terrible" throughout the storyline.