Narrative
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Discussion
Do you play video games for the game or the character?
I realized recently that I don’t play games as much as I use games to imagine various characters experiencing the storylines. Whether it’s World of Warcraft or Baldur’s…
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Discussion
How do you view gameplay as a story element?
One of my favorite phrases is “ludonarrative dissonance” and I often find myself musing on it. The idea of the constant push/pull of gameplay elements and…
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Video Games
When does story detract from — or enhance — your gameplay experience?
I can become more or less interested in a game based entirely on its story. With World of Warcraft for example, my interest varies wildly depending…
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The Queue
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Discussion
How do you prefer the lore of a game relate to the player experience? How much of it should come from outside the game itself?
Games approach their storytelling in different ways for different reasons. For example, Overwatch has experimented with various ways to tell the story of the game — background…
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Editorial
A well-told story I do not like: My feelings about Battle for Azeroth and the War Campaign
Warning: This post contains spoilers involving patch 8.2.5 and the War Campaign In the creation of narrative art, there is always the difficulty that not all…
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Editorial
If you meet the lore on the road, you must kill it
The lore of any game is there to help the game be fun and engaging. It is not a straitjacket. It is not a sacred and…
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WoW
The challenge of narrative design in MMOs — and why you can hate good writing
This was originally published just for our supporters, but is now available for everyone. Enjoy! Writing a large MMO like World of Warcraft is a collaborative…
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WoW
WoW is the work of many storytellers, and that’s what makes it great
Recently, I saw a person talking about World of Warcraft and Blizzard’s storytelling who was not particularly complimentary. And they had some merit to their position: Blizzard…
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Discussion
How important is a game’s story?
Each of Blizzard’s games approaches story differently. Diablo 3 uses story as a scaffolding from which it hangs monster-murdering dungeon crawls. Overwatch treats story as the…
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