ScienceAlert's Interview with Alex Afrasiabi: Warcraft Storytelling

Posted 2018/08/03 at 12:15 PM by Neryssa

ScienceAlert

Part 1 - How World of Warcraft Keeps Evolving its Epic Storytelling

Part One of the interview focuses on Alex giving us a walk through the history of the tools quest designers use to tell stories in the game.

On the Game Tools Initially Available for Quest Designers

The process of making quests and putting them in the game was very different than today, as they weren't an overarching narrative, and the quest system itself was very new to the MMORPG genre. Older games like Everquest did not have a whole lot of quests or even guided gameplay.

Quests were first created simply as ways to guide players to different parts of the map, see all the locations and do that while telling a story.

Tools were much more limited for us creating quests because, for example, they needed to create a story while adding as an objective, "Gotta kill eight bears". The bears were already spawned in the world, so they had to write a short story around those bears.

It was very inefficient for quest designers to not be able to control spawns, so it became a part of the process for quest design. The story became a lot more clear when they gained control of spawns, because they didn't have to deal with a world already spawned to someone else's specification. It looked fine, but what if they didn't necessarily want the bears there?

This was one of the bigger change from Classic to Burning Crusade, because this change allowed us to tell more concise and direct stories, since they now are in control of what the world looks like.

One of their bigger milestones thanks to this was back in Wrath of the Lich King, where a young Alex had this crazy idea about "Hey, why don't we start putting moves in our games? We already have a team that does machinima, but can we incorporate that into the game?", and because of this, the Wrathgate cinematic was born.

Click here for the full Part 1 Interview!

Part 2 - How Warcraft Builds Toward Stories Players Care About

In Part Two, Alex speaks to the maturing of the story development itself, and how the game has worked to thread epic narratives through the game over multiple expansions.

On the Evolution of Story Arcs Across Expansions

Prior to Mists of Pandaria, the quest team only planned an expansion ahead of time, and that didn't necessarily have anything to do with the prior expansions. Starting in MOP, we attempt to seed storylines across expansions to the point where it still makes sense. A good benefit from that is you get a lot more world-building, story building, and character building, as you see their evolution across expansions.

If you think about characters like Garrosh Hellscream, he was unknown to the player base and took a couple expansions to make him a mega raid boss.

Meanwhile, Varok Saurfang was first added in the game for a single purpose - To have someone to return the Head of Onyxia to. When they were planning his dialog gossip, they wanted him to be pictured as this prototypical, hard-as-nails orc that was all about honor and duty. To be interpreted as "Damn, this guy's no joke!". That little snipped that Alex developed at 3 in the morning in a random development day became the mythos of what Saurfang is built upon, with his character roots still held in that one statement.

The point of new expansions and content, in general, is to create new heroes, and new villains for us to face. There has to be some equity in those characters, so they're not just random bosses that show up and you don't really care about.

Like what you're reading? Check here for the full Part 2 interview!

On Lorekeepers, Chief Historians and how they fit into the Process

Blizzard's Lore Keepers are invaluable. This is a story touched by so many individuals telling stories, there's only so much a single person can process at a time. They're there to assist with fact-checking.

They serve to verify if the quest team is able to turn around necessary information or avoid the dreaded retcons, and they're awesome at that job.

On the Chronicle series and where it fits in the Storytelling

The Chronicle books are a telling of things that happened, so it is an invaluable resource for fact-checking. Looking up things like the origin of the Naaru is fantastic.

Chronicle is really good for fact-checking, especially with the way it's written.

On Blizzard's "Gameplay First" value and Storylines

The story in this game is a motivational factor in the things you do, as it puts emotion into things.

Gnolls are just furry creatures minding their own business. Without a storyline, killing them is meaningless. When you learn they're raiding the nearby orphanage and eating children (which is not necessarily true but let's pretend it's the case here), you suddenly get the urge to stop them at all costs.

Storylines work like that, they explain your actions as a player, and the method you want to proceed about.

The story is the beating heart of the game, it's what continues to push the world and the characters into it into the next great thing, so it's integral to the gameplay.

Like what you're reading? Check here for the full Part 2 interview!

Part 3 - Warcraft Storytelling - What's The Future?

In Part Three, Afrasiabi talks a bit about the future of the storytelling in WoW.

On Warcraft's Coming Years and new Story Arcs

Stories come from many places, and stating one of Blizzard's core values, Every Voice Matters, this is doubly and triply true.

The stories in WoW start from certain places. We discuss, at the start of an expansion's development, what it will be about, what are the primary characters, what's the direction we're heading and the themes.

Once we figure out what big hooks we're following, and what storylines we're finishing, it gets distilled to the team at large, including the story and franchise development teams, which they work very closely with. From there, books, novellas, comics, short stories, etc., it all originates from the game team.

All of the groups working on the story in different aspects are working on the same page and helping advance Warcraft's story in their own way.

Like what you're reading? Click here for the full Part 3 Interview!

On Players blazing through Quests and how to encourage them to Embrace the Story

Alex doesn't believe that's necessarily wrong, because that is what the game to a degree. Designers always get told to try to not depend on quest text to tell the story you're trying to tell, and instead, focus on when the player is able to listen, versus hit accept and move on.

They're aware that telling stories in WoW is very different than telling stories in anything else, and constantly looking for ways to bring the players closer to this world. To improve the storyline so you aren't bound to Wowpedia or quest texts, and play the game and get the stories while just playing.

The best quest text could be written and a massive portion of the players just might never read it. Not the quest team's fault, necessarily, that's just how the way questing works. So there is a constant effort to keep improving our storytelling capabilities.

On the Battle for Azeroth's Storyline

What Alex says is... Be patient.

This is a breathing and living story that is currently in progress. A game like WoW is not like a book where you can just devour in one weekend and get the satisfaction of understanding the whole of it.

We have chapters broken across patches, so as much as the team would love to tell you what will happen, they'd rather have you find out by yourself. Make sure you take note of that. The story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotion. Sometimes it's happiness, sometimes it's sadness, sometimes it's excitement.

The story continues to evolve and the answers you seek will be there, and, hopefully, will satisfy everyone.

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Comment by LostelfThe story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotionComment by nlbaxmasteralex afrasiabi are american - iranian ?Comment by joeboe610I live for the story. I've always been excited about lore, and am so happy to see how important the story is to the developers. I can't wait to see BFA at release, and 8.1, 8.2, etc. I too wish to devour the story in its entirety and all at once, but I'll listen and "Be patient."Comment by jjanchanIt's cool to hear there is an overarcing plan for the long term story. All I hear is people piss and moan when all they've seen is the very beginnings of the BfA storyline. Excited to see what's in store!

The story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotionComment by GigabearHe couldn't get a slot with Polygon? Half the game media reported on the story issues lol.Comment by LautnerWarcraft's story is so bad that I come to a warcraft fansite every single day looking for any crumb of new information I can find.

Also it's a poopy game.

Where's the shaman guide, I wanna start fires like Zappy Boy.

>:)Comment by 1261445Ugh. They keep acting like it's a part of some greater story arc, but the problem is with the Horde leader being the bad guy again, and that's already something they've solidified. Unless Sylvanas becomes Lightforged or something, I don't see how this will be anything other than Mists of Pandaria's "Warchief attacks Alliance on Kalimdor and we team up to take the Warchief down."Comment by XBarbariangood insight. thank you neryssa and wowhead!Comment by ArthustinusI am going to be a doomsayer

Death is one (maybe the only) hope we have got against the most dangerous universe's enemy
Death is grey its not a good thing nor a bad one.

Even in real life (earth) death is the only true thing , in the most cultures and religious death is inevitable and its a passage to a new "better" life even in a specific religion (Christianity) the most important figure of it had to die so that he can defeat the devil.

i do not want to start talking about real life stuff (and debates)yet i think when it comes to storytelling by the blizzard ppl i think their ideas comes from the cultures and religious storytelling... good vs evil - deeper meaning of life etc .

So embrace the DEATH everyone , yes its not a good thing but it's not a bd one either

PS : this does not apply to the atheist players :DComment by 1897048ok a couple things

#1 - why are you posting this blizz. do you srsly want to draw more attention to this.

#2 - anger is an emotion yes, but they shouldnt hate the story because of it.

#3 - a great story is one that has you loving it from the get go until the bitter end. if the ending to this story is blow your ^&*!ing mind good then this whole setup wasnt worth and the story was mediocre at best

#4 - this is a story thats pretty much already been done. so yeah. thats not amazingComment by wovieIt's cool to hear the is an overarcing plan for the long term story. All I hear is people piss and moan when all they've seen is the very beginnings of the BfA storyline. Excited to see what's in store!

The story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotionComment by abris1995Ugh. They keep acting like it's a part of some greater story arc, but the problem is with the Horde leader being the bad guy again, and that's already something they've solidified. Unless Sylvanas becomes Lightforged or something, I don't see how this will be anything other than Mists of Pandaria's "Warchief attacks Alliance on Kalimdor and we team up to take the Warchief down."Comment by 1877141WoW story died at the end of WotLK.Comment by abris1995The story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotionComment by WillbladeProblem is, people don't feel anger or spite towards story characters, people are angered because a lot of characters are not being true to what they stood for in the past for no reason, even NPCs who rebelled in the past do absolutely nothing against all of this.

Inconsistent storytelling ain't supposed to be something you should be aiming for, because that's the only reason you get anger out of me, not because of your !@#$ty plot that came out of a Reddit fanfiction.Comment by abris1995WoW story died at the end of WotLK.Comment by abris1995Problem is, people don't feel anger or spite towards story characters, people are angered because a lot of characters are not being true to what they stood for in the past for no reason, even NPCs who rebelled in the past do absolutely nothing against all of this.

Inconsistent storytelling ain't supposed to be something you should be aiming for, because that's the only reason you get anger out of me, not because of your !@#$ty plot that came out of a Reddit fanfiction.Comment by WillbladeProblem is, people don't feel anger or spite towards story characters, people are angered because a lot of characters are not being true to what they stood for in the past for no reason, even NPCs who rebelled in the past do absolutely nothing against all of this.

Inconsistent storytelling ain't supposed to be something you should be aiming for, because that's the only reason you get anger out of me, not because of your !@#$ty plot that came out of a Reddit fanfiction.Comment by KokoWTFI'm loving this. The idea of episodic fleshing out of conflicts and characters rather than knowing the end since practically the start tickles my brain parts.Comment by DarkAviatorThe story is there to make you feel something, and anger is, too, an emotion

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