Ofc attacking people is &*!@ and should never be done. But i understand people being upset with the Burning of Teldrassil, i'm one of them. It was $%^& writing, there is no excuse for it. They made Sylvanas stupid emotional evil, just to move the story forward. Not to speak of the nonsensical nature of the whole thing. Regular catapults shooting at the tree ~50 miles away....It was also the most boring answer available they could have given. Even the weather would have been a better story. Then the Horde could still say: we didn't burn it down, we wanted it captured. While the Alliance would still blame the Horde and retaliate.
The story was told fine, Perculia. They did that on purpose. They left the player unfulfilled the same way movies can lead into sequels or how you're left without an answer at the end of a chapter. They wanted the player to not have the complete picture. We live in such a netflix binge, instant gratification culture now that I think people forget how a good story is actually told.
I miss that dude cause he's so absolutely honest about the toxicity of players but I'm glad he retired for his sake. I cannot imagine what it's like to deal with that as a creator. Yes, there are always haters whenever you create something and anonymous voices who just want to make others feel bad because they can but with a game like WoW that is SO big, the hate must get pretty intense and real. I also feel like illiteracy and ignorance and just ANY lack of deduction skills play a large part in the hate (in regards to the burning of the world tree and the current story arc and some previous ones that later, people loved). Maybe people should read more and think for themselves rather than jumping on the bandwagon with the majority. Things like plot aren't revealed all at once - THAT would show bad writing. WoW isn't perfect, it messes up sometimes - everyone does - but despite some retcons and other things that I can see reasons for, one thing the writers involved with the game can never be accused of is bad writing. Just because YOU don't see it and don't understand doesn't make it bad. Read more. Even if it's just quest texts, ffs.
There is nothing wrong with players being critical of a storyline they do not like or feel is badly done. Plenty of the 'nerd herd' can do that without crossing the line. People are naturally going to form opinions on things. So tarring everyone with the same brush is wrong. The whole community is not toxic and to imply it is, isn't really any better than what they are claiming creators face themselves. People who break the law and send death threats, harrass creators etc should be dealt with accordingly, but you can't fault a community for sharing it's opinions about something that is happening when it's not in your favour.
"some players cannot differentiate between being mad at an upsetting character within a work of fiction, and being mad at creators tasked to bring a story to life."I am not entirely sure how is this meant.Because I do agree that "targeting" individual writers to the point of "harassing them" is of course wrong. I never do that and will always argue against it.But let's talk about concepts. Not individual cases.Is there something like a bad writing? That is a serious question. And there are two possible answers:- No, there is not.-- In that case, no story-writing criticism needs to exist, all writing is good.- Yes, there is.-- In that case, story-writing criticism is aimed at the writer by its very definition. Fictional story doesn't write itself.So if criticizing the writer is not allowed, then it implicitly means that either bad writing doesn't exist (In which case I must jovially ask Blizzard why am I not hired as a writer), or that criticism is wrong in general and that we should all just learn to love things we can't stand... or leave.I myself go to the extreme lengths of not caring about the actual names of the writers. I never tried to investigate which plot point was devised by whom, which character or story-arc was conceived by what writer. I barely know the names. I don't know if most people do it like that, I don't know if it's good practice while criticizing story... but that's how I roll.The problem is, even I will get labeled as a hater who "targets" specific writers just by the virtue of me criticizing certain plot points alone. Despite I have seriously no idea who devised them and don't care. And that's seriously unfair.Can I criticize a plot and not be called toxic? How do I do that? If the answer is to act calmly and reasonably, then I agree.So, let's go for specific examples now. I propose Blizzard makes a brain exercise and think of a specific example of a calm and reasonable criticism of Sylvanas's character and her decision to burn the Tree. And another example of a calm and reasonable criticism of the Horde warriors not protesting this war effort, especially Tauren and druids.I am sure that whatever example of a good criticism you came up with, Blizzard, it was already made by someone and ignored by you.And if you couldn't come up with any criticism even for a hypothetical example, then it's because you, Blizzard, believe that your work shouldn't be criticized. And that's wrong.
Yes, let's all turn "give us what we want" into "guys stop harassing Blizzard". This isn't helpful either. I get it. It's their game, they can do whatever they want to it. But we play it, would it be so bad to throw us a bone?
This thread is indicative of the reason I have lost my faith in humanity.
I get how he could have been affected at a very personnal level by that ... "toxicity". I get how criticism can not only be seen as toxic, but also can actually BE toxic, when presented raw and/or without arguments.However, while I respected Metzen for all his hard work during the golden age of Blizzard, I can't, bluntly put, give a crap about his opinion now. Maybe he is salty because of how things turned out. Maybe he is sad and angry that the compagny he went with for so long isn't what it used to be anymore . But the fact remains that the storylines of the various IP have become ultimate crap since WotLK and the "association" with Activision. To be fair, the Blizzard spirit has vanished since that dreadful merging partnership. I can understand it would affect Metzen, sure, but he should understand it affected the long time Blizzard afficionados too. The so-called toxicity he accuses, well, he was a big part of its creation. The writing of the games are awful. Arthas was incompetent and didn't make any sense all expac long and when he dies, it turns out he is more dangerous dead than he was alive. Tychus in Starcraft 2? Raynor, Horner? They all act dumb and/or incoherent, with plot twists making no sense at all. I didn't play Diablo3, can't comment here. Overall, it's like the whole writing direction shifted from B-movie style to try hard. I can believe a clear line was drawn years in advance about where they wanted the plot to go in WoW, but heck, they don't care about continuity when it comes to the characters, which makes the whole enterprise sound awkward and clunky.Ah well it can be summed up pretty easily : the writing is just bad. I could calmly expose why I think so, but if my criticism is seen as toxicity, I don't see the point?
Thinking the storyline was good is fine.Telling the writers why you thought the storyline was good is fine.Thinking the storyline was bad is fine.Telling the writers why you thought the storyline was bad is fine.Threatening the writers because you thought the storyline was bad is not fine.Do you people not understand that Metzen isn't talking about the constructive criticism, but the explicit threats of violence?
Don’t make $%^& decision and people won’t be toxic
Hating Blizzard or anybody for the story is just a sign of very, very poor intelligence. People might not like the story (I actually love it, Sylvannas is finally the Forsaken queen I wanted her to be), but spitting hate? Very low.There are other departments at Blizzard that deserve hate, it is those, who support and implement the timegating model in storylines. Those employees should be hated by everyone, especially by the story department, because they ruin their work.
I like where the story is currently going. It feels more real and more in touch with exactly how a world of... WARcraft should probably be.Yeah, the burning was a huge thing, and yes, Sylvanas is doing some terrible things, great terrible things, but you shouldnt write off the story or the creators for doing something a touch more emotional and powerful than "oh theres a bad guy we need to kill him"Frankly..every expansion we've had has been "theres a bad guy, lets band together and kill it"BC: Illidan, Kael'thas... etc etcLK: Luch King, obviouslyCata: DeathwingMop: Garrosh (eventually)Legion: Sargeras, and companyI can see this expansion settings Sylvanas up as the big bad, but what if it doesnt? Will they drop her story like they did with her arc in Stormheim? Or was there more to Stormheim than we got to see in game?