How do you approach tie-in media for video games?

Do you read or watch tie-in media? As an example, did you go to the Warcraft movie, or read any of the novels, or watch any of the special Warbringers or Harbingers shorts? Have you read the Sin War novels for Diablo or did you just play the games? This is one of those issues where I waffle back and forth. As a lore fiend, I hunt down any and all sources of game story and backstory I can get my hands on — I’m totally down for reading a comic book about the life story of the Headless Horseman, for example. But even as I sift through War Crimes for the sixth time looking for juicy details, or find myself utterly stoked at the idea of Christie Golden’s upcoming Sylvanas novel, I do know I’m not always representative of the player base.

Some folks aren’t big readers, and others don’t like the idea that the story of the game can be completely missed if you just play the game and don’t read tie-in stories you could miss a lot. This is quite understandable, although I feel like the game has gotten better about presenting what you need in game — even things like the Harbingers shorts you could watch in game, so you wouldn’t have to worry about missing the story.

Plus guys if you really need to get all the story in game, that’s understandable, but then you can’t complain that there’s too much quest text — they’re giving it to you in game, man.

But enough about me, the guy who reads the quest text or at least he did before his eyes got bad and still tries to even if it means squinting a lot — what about you? How do you feel about all these books and shorts and so on? Did you buy the old World of Warcraft RPG just for the lore details, some of which even made it into the game? How do you interact with tie-in media?