First of all, I greatly enjoy Blizzard games. For the most part.
Something has always bugged me about most of them, though. The story - which usually has the skeletal structure of greatness and is extremely interesting on paper - is shallow coating for whatever game is there. The character design is appealing, but also very in your face and bombastic, like it's meant to appeal to the masses and not hold any depth or artistic merit. And the gameplay - it's not an experience so much as it is a mindless grind, at least after a while.
Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft - in each and every one of these games you find yourself doing the same things over and over again, to fulfill an endless loop of gameplay to improve yourself to... do it again. This wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't seem like the crux of each game is designed specifically around this element of an endless New Game+ mindset. The initial run is the trial run. The first time is meant to prepare you for the second, third, seventy-seventh and hundreth time. Why? Why are we doing any of this?
I suppose it comes from me greatly valuing "the experience" of a game, but I can usually enjoy a gameplay focused game for what it is. It's the fact that there's nothing to these games but an endless, surface-level improvement of oneself, in a way that doesn't feel nearly as self-satisfying as mastering a game like Sekiro, that gets me.
And maybe the reason it gets me is that when Blizzard does it right, they do it right. I love the campaign in Warcraft III. That was good storytelling, integration of gameplay into an overall experience, and left a lasting impression in addition to being a blast to actually play. I think Wings of Liberty in Starcraft II was above average as well. And back in Brood War? That was an excellent experience, too.
Beneath the mindless loop of gameplay at WoW's endgame, there's some great lore buried underneath there. I still love it. But the dialogue is sometimes so dumb that it instantly reminds you - it breaks the veil - they didn't really care about immersing you in this world. This is a zone created to be a zone, a dungeon created to be a dungeon, a boss that exists because he is supposed to. For an MMO, a game that is meant to immerse you in another world, this is a jarring experience.
I am not explaining this as accurately as I would like to at all, but does anyone get what I mean? Does anyone else feel a bit like this, too? There's something about a lot of Blizzard's games that leaves me not all the way satisfied after playing them.
Something has always bugged me about most of them, though. The story - which usually has the skeletal structure of greatness and is extremely interesting on paper - is shallow coating for whatever game is there. The character design is appealing, but also very in your face and bombastic, like it's meant to appeal to the masses and not hold any depth or artistic merit. And the gameplay - it's not an experience so much as it is a mindless grind, at least after a while.
Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft - in each and every one of these games you find yourself doing the same things over and over again, to fulfill an endless loop of gameplay to improve yourself to... do it again. This wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't seem like the crux of each game is designed specifically around this element of an endless New Game+ mindset. The initial run is the trial run. The first time is meant to prepare you for the second, third, seventy-seventh and hundreth time. Why? Why are we doing any of this?
I suppose it comes from me greatly valuing "the experience" of a game, but I can usually enjoy a gameplay focused game for what it is. It's the fact that there's nothing to these games but an endless, surface-level improvement of oneself, in a way that doesn't feel nearly as self-satisfying as mastering a game like Sekiro, that gets me.
And maybe the reason it gets me is that when Blizzard does it right, they do it right. I love the campaign in Warcraft III. That was good storytelling, integration of gameplay into an overall experience, and left a lasting impression in addition to being a blast to actually play. I think Wings of Liberty in Starcraft II was above average as well. And back in Brood War? That was an excellent experience, too.
Beneath the mindless loop of gameplay at WoW's endgame, there's some great lore buried underneath there. I still love it. But the dialogue is sometimes so dumb that it instantly reminds you - it breaks the veil - they didn't really care about immersing you in this world. This is a zone created to be a zone, a dungeon created to be a dungeon, a boss that exists because he is supposed to. For an MMO, a game that is meant to immerse you in another world, this is a jarring experience.
I am not explaining this as accurately as I would like to at all, but does anyone get what I mean? Does anyone else feel a bit like this, too? There's something about a lot of Blizzard's games that leaves me not all the way satisfied after playing them.