Diablo III: Wrath, and Multimedia Storytelling

Valor turns to Wrath:

Yesterday, as the culmination of the pre-release hype for Diablo III, Blizzard released a short animated film, Wrath, set in the game’s universe.

Directed by Peter Chung of Aeon Flux fame, the short depicts a battle between the Heavens’ ruling body, the Angiris Council, and the game’s titular Lord of Terror.

It’s pretty neat. I’m not a huge fan of the art style, but it’s a good way to help set up some of the story elements for Diablo III, and it ties in well with what I read in “The Book of Cain.”

Which got me thinking…

Multimedia storytelling:

Telling stories through multiple mediums is an increasingly popular idea. For example, bestselling fantasy author David Farland has recently produced “Nightingale,” an enhanced novel featuring a soundtrack, animations, and illustrations in addition to traditional prose.

Now, I’m not really a fan of multimedia novels. It feels like turning them into something they’re not. And besides, a novel doesn’t need enhancement. It’s already the richest, deepest, and most versatile* storytelling medium.

*(Note: This does not mean “best.”)

But video games? Ah, that’s a whole other matter.

I think video games are a medium that lends itself well to multimedia storytelling. Video games themselves already blur the line between film, art, audio drama, and prose. Many games’ stories are told through a combination of the above. It’s not much of a leap to start advancing a game’s story outside of the game itself.

This is something Blizzard has become something of a master of, with its years of novel, comic, short story, and manga tie-ins to its games — as well as the World of Warcraft movie, assuming that ever gets made. WoW’s patch trailers also now serve as a way to continue the story outside the game.

A lot of people resent this, feeling they are required to spend extra money on books to experience lore that should have been put in the game.

I think this view is shortsighted. The fact is that the amount of story you can cram into a game is really quite limited. There’s only so many cinematics and so much quest text you can stuff in before it begins to bog down gameplay. Even now, any cinematic or RP event inevitably gets complained about by some people, no matter how little impact it has on their gaming experience.

So novels and other non-game sources for lore allow for worlds and storylines to be fleshed out much more fully than they could ever be in-game.

And frankly, if you view buying a giant book full of lore as something onerous, I question whether you’re really that much of a lore fan. But I digress…

I now come back to Diablo III and Wrath, as this demonstrates an entire new level of cross-platform storytelling from Blizzard. The backstory for Diablo III is the sum of:

• Multiple traditional prose novels published over several years.
• Multiple short stories on their website.
• Two separate comic mini-series.
• “The Book of Cain,” which is as much a physical piece of art as it is a book.
• The Wrath film.
• The previous two games.

All this together culminate to create a rich and immersive story experience before I ever log into Diablo III.

Blizzard is not the only video game developer to experiment with multimedia storytelling, either. I just use them for my example because they’re what I’m most familiar with.

My point? Well, I suppose I don’t have one, except for maybe, “This is really frickin’ cool.” As someone who’s been interested in the art of storytelling for most of his life, I find this all quite fascinating.

I’m curious to see how this trend will continue, both for Blizzard games in particular and for video games in general.

What do you think? Is multimedia storytelling for video games confusing, or a great way to expand the fiction? Do you welcome cross-platforms stories for all mediums, or are you a bit more narrow in where you feel it is appropriate, as I am?

By the way…

Another of my articles has made it onto the WhatMMO: Six Ideas for Your Next Player Hosted Event. I’ve participated in several of these ideas myself. What about you?

Retro Review: Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor

Retro Review: Of Blood and Honor:

“Of Blood and Honor” is a novella included in in the “Warcraft Archive,” which was one of my prizes from the Global Writing Contest. (It’s also available as an ebook, if you’re into that sort of thing.) It’s an interesting insight into the background of some of Warcraft’s more memorable characters, and also an insight into the man behind Warcraft’s lore.

It brings us back to the time before the Third War — or Warcraft III, in real world terms — and focuses on Tirion Fordring, now famous for being the guy who shattered Frostmourne. While hunting, Tirion encounters a fugitive Orc squatting on his land. Naturally, they fight, each finding the other to be a worthy foe.

Without giving too much away, some bad luck leaves Tirion indebted to the Orc, despite their violent meeting. He finds the Orc is far from the savage fiend he thought all Orcs to be.

He swears to protect the Orc from from the rest of the Alliance, but this puts him in direct conflict with his fellow Knights of the Silver Hand. Lordaeron’s policy is to execute all free Orcs, and the rise of a new warchief by the name of Thrall has brought their paranoia to a new peak.

The interesting thing about “Of Blood and Honor” is that it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only piece of Warcraft lore written directly by Chris Metzen, the chief brains behind all of Blizzard’s worlds and storylines. I was very curious to see what his writing was like.

The answer is: inconsistent. His prose is fairly crude, and he’s entirely too fond of adjectives and adverbs. Although to be fair, he’s no worse than Richard Knaak in this regard. His perspective is also sloppy, and while some of the characters in “Of Blood and Honor” are well-crafted, others feel very thin.

On the other hand, his writing does embody a lot of the passion and badassery that defines the Warcraft universe. This is clearly a man who enjoys his work.

I also loved the morality play aspect of the story. It harkened back to the slightly deeper, Warcraft III style of storytelling, and it was surprisingly intelligent for a Warcraft story. I especially liked how there was no clear right answer. Where does Tirion’s loyalty lie? With his nation, with his family, or with what he knows to be right in his heart? Which is the right one to stay faithful to?

I can’t answer that. I doubt anyone really can.

On a more personal note, I enjoyed going back to the earlier days of the Warcraft universe, when things were a bit simpler. Not that I dislike how things have evolved, but sometimes, I yearn for the days when it was just about Orcs and humans, before all the underground tentacle monsters, sparkly angelic squidgoatKlingons from OOOUUUTTEEER SPAAAAACE, samophlanges, and the thirty kazillion Dragonflights.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 A very mixed bag of a story, but worth it.

To the Finalist Go the Spoils

You may remember that, several months ago, I placed as a finalist in Blizzard’s 2011 Global Writing Contest. I earned recognition and a small amount of literary glory, but I also earned lootz.

And now, after many months of hardship and delays on both their end and mine, I have finally received my prizes: five “archive” anthologies, each containing multiple novels from all three major Blizzard franchises. Each is autographed by Chris Metzen, the CDev publishing team, and their respective cover artists.

Despite my rapid need to consume all Blizzard lore, there are actually a few books in these I haven’t read. This is because they were only made available via the archives (or as ebooks, which I am not really a fan of), and I didn’t want to buy the whole anthology for one new story.

And, of course, the Diablo stuff is all new to me, since I had no interest in Diablo up until recently.

Expect a lot of retro reviews in the coming weeks.

But as nice as these books are, it really pales in comparison to the simple fact of Blizzard giving their approval to some of my work. As I said before, having been a Blizzard fan for so long, this is a great thrill.

Hopefully getting the prizes sorted out means they’ll do the official post with the winning story and excerpts from the finalists soon, and I’ll be able to milk the last few drops out of my fifteen minutes of fame.

Looking to the future:

I don’t know if Blizzard will hold another contest this year, as there have been some shake-ups in their lore department, but you can bet I’ll enter it if I do.

I’m already thinking of new potential stories. I had a strategy last time: pick a topical issue relevant to the current expansion and popular among fans. It seemed to work for me, so I’ll do the same thing again next time (if there is a next time). Perhaps something on Garrosh…

Taking It to the (Beta) Max + New Diablo Trailer

Okay, seriously, there are no good puns with “beta”:

Over the past few days, I’ve been continuing to tinker with the Mists of Pandaria beta, despite the constant crashes, DCs, and bugs.

On the plus side, they got template characters working, so I made an 85 warlock to make sure mine being a few levels lower wasn’t giving me an inaccurate impression of things.

I still like destro, though the nerf to fel flame does make it a bit on the simple side. Still, it’s fast and exciting. Also, I can hit for 400,000 damage with a single spell. Gotta love that.

Demonolgy is still too basic. I don’t understand why Blizzard wants us to have fewer abilities in our more powerful form. I don’t want metamorphosis to be the “lol slash spam” stance.

I tried warlock tanking, but it seems that’s finally been nerfed to death. I was eaten alive in record time. Dark apotheosis is now just a ridiculously elaborate way to look cool while AFK in Orgrimmar.

The dream of lock tanking is dead.

I haven’t bothering testing rogues, since there aren’t that many changes, but I don’t like the sound of the few there are. It seems our passive damage sources now contribute an even greater percentage of our total DPS than they do on live, which is the last thing rogues needed.

Also, it turns out our AoE stealth cannot be used in combat and only lasts fifteen seconds. This makes it mostly useless in PvP, and completely useless in PvE.

My reaction:

We’ll throw this on the already massive list of conceptually awesome rogue abilities that do exactly nothing outside of PvP.

Monk impressions:

I also created an 85 Pandaren monk and tested the windwalker (DPS) and mistweaver (healer) specs with a few runs of End Time.

Windwalker was pretty fun considering the rotation is not yet finished. It’s a bit mindless — use rising sun kick and fists of fury on CD, then just bash whichever button is glowing — but it’s fast, and slaying dragons with your bare fists is pretty cool. It didn’t really feel like a new class, though. More like a slightly different rogue.

I did, however, love the utility and mobility. I kept the trash stunlocked through most of the instance with fists of fury and leg sweep, and I prevented at least one wipe with zen meditation.

Roll is just insanely awesome on so many levels, and I was also quite fond of flying serpent kick — which shoots you forward at rapid speed until you choose to land. It’s difficult to target, but it’s incredibly satisfying to land on a target just right.

Between the bugs, the random DCs, and the fact that monk tanks are incredibly squishy right now, my first experience of monk healing was quite a trial by fire — made all the more difficult by the spec itself.

Whereas windwalker feels a bit mindless and unoriginal, mistweaver seemed to opposite extreme. Mistweaver feels totally different from any other healing spec I’ve ever played, and the sheer oddness of it was rather overwhelming. I didn’t even have the courage to try their DPS healing.

I’m sad to say it, but I’m not sure I like monk healing. There are aspects of it that are very neat — being able to cast surging mist while channeling soothing mist, for instance — but there are too many buttons, I’ve never liked HoTs, and the mechanics seem a bit arcane. I appreciate a certain degree of complexity in DPS specs, but healing, by the very nature of the role, should be simple and user-friendly, I feel.

Perhaps things will be improved before the expansion launches. One can hope.

One thing I do love, though, is the mana regeneration mechanic. The concept of pausing to sip tea in mid-fight is just awesome, and totally suits the easy-going Pandaren.

Pretty lights and lack of patience:

I’ve also been taking note of the new lightning effects in MoP. They’re really neat, but they seem oddly inconsistent in what they affect. Maybe they’re not finished yet. I hardly noticed they existed until I saw the lantern-carrying guards in Stormwind.

But my warlock’s offhand scepter did make her look deliciously spooky.

I’m also loving the new spell effects. The animation for glyphed shadowbolt is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in WoW, and the monk spells are just amazing.

To be honest, though, I already find my patience with the beta wearing thin. I guess I’m just not much of a tester, but all the glitches and failures get tiresome fast.

I mean, a dungeon PUG is a risky thing at the best of times. Add constant DCs, no one in your all monk group knowing how to play their class yet, and bugs that can result in people dropping dead for no reason to the usual disorganization and newbery, and you’ve got a recipe for spending some quality time with the spirit healer.

New Diablo III trailer:

Blizzard recently released a new 30 second TV spot for Diablo III, featuring a lot of previously unseen cinematic footage.

I’m glad I read “The Book of Cain” and can thus understand what I’m seeing in this trailer and properly nerdgasm over it:

“OMG, the Diamond Gates are broken! OMG, Tyrael and Imperius beating the holy snot out of each other!”

I still have my doubts about this game, but it should be worth it just for the cinematics. That animation is breathtaking.

Review: Diablo: The Book of Cain

Review: The Book of Cain:

“The Book of Cain” is the latest tie-in book for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo franchise, but it’s not like the others. “The Book of Cain” is not a novel; it has no plot in the traditional sense. It is, instead, a sort of encyclopedia of the entirety of Diablo lore, from Anu and the Dragon, to the creation of Sanctuary, to the Sin War, all the way up to the Dark Wanderer and the destruction of the Worldstone.

The book is presented as something out of the Diablo universe, a record created by the character Deckard Cain. In fact, Barnes and Noble’s website even lists the author as “Deckard Cain.”

The purpose of this book is obvious. It’s way for people like me, who have little or no prior knowledge of the Diablo universe, to get caught up before the upcoming release of Diablo III. It also offers some new details and insights for those who are familiar with Diablo lore.

For a video game lore geek like me, a book like this is nerdgasmic. I absolutely love learning the history and mythology of any fictional universe — it’s one of the main things that keeps me coming back to the fantasy genre — and Diablo turns out to be above average in the quality of its backstory.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the notion that humans are the children of both angels and demons, which explains why they are simultaneously capable of such love and such hate. I was also intrigued by the implication that the High Heavens and the Angiris Council may be just as much of a threat to humanity as the Hells and the seven Evils.

It’s not just the writing that makes “The Book of Cain” interesting, though. The book itself is a work of art, with an embossed cover and rough-cut pages made to resemble parchment. The book is filled with gorgeous artwork depicting all the various lands, monsters, and characters of the Diablo universe. It’s as much a tactile and visual experience as it is a book in the traditional sense.

About the only negative thing I have to say about this book is that it’s almost certainly doomed to have a very limited appeal. Unless you’re a giant Diablo lore geek, a collector, or an aficionado of sepia tone drawings, there’s very little reason for you to pick up “The Book of Cain.”

Overall rating: 8.5/10 “The Book of Cain” won’t appeal to many people, but it’s a must-have for those few who do fit into its targeted demographics.

Review: The Ancient Blades: Den of Thieves + More Beta Thoughts

Review: Den of Thieves

“Den of Thieves” is the first book in a new trilogy by author David Chandler called “The Ancient Blades.” It’s a simplistic but enjoyable romp full of demons, dark wizards, and narrow escapes.

The story focuses on Malden, a silver-tongued and clever young thief living in an over-crowded metropolis called the Free City of Ness. In order to pay his dues to a ruthless crimelord, Malden accepts an almost unthinkably risky assignment at the behest of a shadowy cabal: steal the crown of Ness’s ruler, the burgrave.

Malden faces any number of terrible challenges in his quest to get the crown, but once he does finally steal it, circumstances require him to accomplish an even more monumental feat: stealing the crown back from the people he gave it to.

Other main characters include Sir Croy, a ludicrously cliched fairy tale-style knight, and Cythera, a woman bound to serve a black magician by a terrible curse and a stereotypical damsel in distress.

I never quite figured out if Croy was a joke by accident or by design, but I lean towards the latter. In either case, he’s amusing in his dunderheaded insistence on living as if everyone follows the same code of chivalry he does. Cythera is not quite so much a cliche as Croy is, but she’s pretty close.

As you can see, none of the characters in this book have a lot of depth to them. But for what it’s worth, they’re mostly enjoyable, and they bring a lot of good chuckles. Cythera is the only truly weak link, existing as a little more than a prize for Croy and Malden to fight over.

I don’t think David Chandler ever intended for this book to be taken very seriously, and looked at from that perspective, this is a good book. What it lacks in depth or intellect, it makes up for with witty quips, chilling villains, and swashbuckling adventure.

I’m reminded of an interview with Raymond E. Feist that I once read, in which he described his books as “ripping good yarns.” This was his way of saying that he wasn’t trying to be Shakespeare. He intends his books to provide good entertainment — nothing more, nothing less.

That’s exactly what “Den of Thieves” is: a ripping good yarn. It’s fun light reading.

It’s also paced very well, with nary a dull moment from start to finish. I found myself racing through its 400+ pages in record time.

Overall rating: 7.7/10 “Den of Thieves” isn’t going to revolutionize the genre, nor will it earn praise for its intellectual stimulation or powerful emotion, but it is a great way to waste a few hours.

Further beta thoughts:

The Diablo 3 open beta has come to an end, but not before I managed to complete its content, slaying the Skeleton King in an epic and lengthy battle.

I may have come across a bit harsh on D3 in my last post, but I did find the beta got much better by the end. As both your character and the monsters gain more diverse abilities, combat gets much more tactical and interesting. Although I still don’t like the controls.

I also succumbed to temptation and made a wizard. While I was enjoying the monk more by the end, the wizard blew it out of the water in the fun department. Admittedly, it was a bit mindless, as I did nothing but spam arcane orb most of the time, but it was awesome to demolish everything in front of me with raw magical power.

On the Mists of Pandaria beta front, let me just say this to all those of you in the beta: do yourself a favour and do some low level PvP. I had the most absolutely hilarious Warsong Gulch match ever yesterday.

Picture two dozen pandas rolling around and hurling kegs of booze at each other like some demented Donkey Kong game on acid. It was ridiculous. It was glorious. It was — dare I say — pandemonium.

I should have thought to take more screenshots, but things were just too crazy most of the time. And I was having too much fun.

I Don’t Have a Beta Pun

Mists of Pandaria beta:

After much anticipation, Blizzard has sent beta invites to the last 400,000 annual pass holders, including yours truly, and I’ve set to work testing the new changes.

As I planned, I have largely avoided the new zones, aside from five minutes spent checking out Pandaren emotes and animations on the Wandering Isle. I won’t post a screenshot for fear of spoiling those who haven’t seen it, but the Pandaren male sleep animation is almost certainly the Best Thing Ever.

I then left, as the crowds in that zone were making it virtually unplayable.

I did, however, make an Undead monk. It’s too early for me to form a strong opinion of the class, but I do like how fast and dynamic it feels. And roll is amazingly fun.

Otherwise, I’ve mostly been trying out the changes to the classes I currently play, especially warlock.

The new destruction spec is insanely fun. It reminds me of playing a combat rogue — never a dull moment — but with lots of fire and blood sacrifice and craziness.

There are still some parts of it that need tweaks (like how hard it is to build an infernal ember in short fights, like trash and questing), but I’m honestly dreading going back to the live version of destro. The new version is just that much better.

Demonology has not fared so well, but it’s still a work in progress, so I won’t worry too much. As of now, though, it’s buggy, clunky, and just all kinds of awkward. Ground target AoEs have no place in a single target rotation, and why the hell does metamorphosis — my big, bad, beast mode ability — leave me with fewer abilities to deal damage with?

Aside from that, I’ve been trying some new things. I was always curious how hunters played at high levels, so I got myself a premade Troll huntard. Marksmanship spec put me to sleep, but survival is decently fun, though I still think using cast time abilities to regenerate focus is completely back asswards.

I’ve also tried retribution spec on my paladin for the first time, since I’ve heard it’s been improved in Mists of Pandaria. The rotation is a little counter-intuitive (especially the way you want to bank holy power instead of spending as you get it), but it’s not too bad.

But PandaLand is not the only beta I’m playing this weekend…

Dios mio! El Diablo!

Funny, just a few days ago, I’d never played a beta test in my life. Now I’m juggling two.

For this weekend only, Blizzard is holding a “stress test” of the Diablo III servers, allowing anyone to join in the beta. “Why not?” I figured.

So a surprisingly short download later, I was back in the world of Sanctuary for the first time in what must be a decade. I didn’t want to spoil myself for live too much, so I made a monk — a class that interested me enough to want to play it, but not enough that it’s likely to be what I play when the game is released.

Based on initial impressions, I like D3, but I don’t love it.

My main thought so far is that this really feels like Diablo, which is both a positive and a negative. It does have the dark, haunting ambiance I remember fondly from Diablo II, but on the other hand, it’s still a game where virtually everything can be accomplished by left-clicking.

The combat is a little more varied and dynamic than in Diablo II… but that doesn’t really say much. It’s still quite mindless, and not nearly as fluid or exciting as Dungeon Siege III’s combat system.

Although to be fair, it will probably improve once I can use more than two offensive abilities at a time.

It also still contains mind-bogglingly stupid mechanics, like the need to sacrifice stats on your gear to make it easier to pick up gold (which is a surprisingly annoying process for a game so focused on loot). I’m reminded of the +illumination gear from Diablo II. Needing gear for quality of life improvements sucked then, and it sucks now.

Between things like that and the oddly crude graphics, I can’t escape the feeling that I’m playing a game that’s several years old, not due for release next month.

But I’m being too harsh. The game’s simplicity is addictive, and the absurd gore and ragdoll physics making tearing through the hordes of zombies plenty entertaining. Every time I literally kick an enemy out of its skin, my heart smiles.

Honestly, the thing that most impresses me so far is the story. Not so much for the story itself (although it is good thus far), but because of the way it’s told.

As with past Diablo games, you can talk to characters in town for more info on lore and events, but in Diablo III, you can also find a lot of lore from books scavenged in the field or just random pop-ups that appear as you fight.

The cool thing, though, is that this lore is presented in the form of audio that continues to play as you fight. You can absorb a huge amount of lore without interrupting your adventuring for a second.

This is one of those brilliantly simple ideas I can’t believe no one’s thought of before.

New writing:

Weird Worm has posted yet another of my articles, Five Odd Sports. I know I said this last time, but I’m pretty sure this is the last one I did for them.