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Blizzard: Game Developers Are Not Shakespeare, Need to Stop 'Writing Books' in Games
by Nick Breckon and Chris Faylor, Mar 26, 2009 4:36pm PDTDuring a presentation at this year's Game Developers Conference, former World of Warcraft director Jeffrey Kaplan took a moment to address the lengthy exposition that plagues numerous games, including those developed by Blizzard.
"Basically, and I'm speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it," he explained.
"We need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game," Kaplan, who left WoW to work on Blizzard's next MMO, explained. "We need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are."
However, Kaplan did offer consolation to his fellow developers. "If it makes us feel better, Shakespeare couldn't 3D model his way out of a paper bag," he noted.
Comments
How many of you that have played the Eldar Scrolls series have NOT EVER read one of the books, and not enjoyed them?
The books are there for the lore, to add to the story, and only if they're half assed would they detract from the game. If that's the case though, then don't read them. Blizzard loses on this one.
Besides, all because Blizzard is incapable of pushing a storyline forward without having an entire cinematics department doesn't mean that companies like Bioware or Bethesda are not capable of pulling off something with the same effect, or more so than what Blizzard is capable of by taking a different direction on their methodology.
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