How to Tell a Good Story

Back when I first started writing The Immortal Chiitsu (the first time, before I stopped for over a year and restarted it), the question I had on my mind is, "How do I make this something someone would want to read?"  So I got into the PD-mobile and went in search of answers.  (The PD-mobile is a digital fabrication, of course, since my answers required a journey into the Internet.)

A lot of people have opinions about what makes a good story, but one point that is repeated more than any other is that you have to make...ok, stop.  Perhaps make isn't the correct word.  You have to LET your audience care about your characters.  That's better.  And the reason that this is so important is because then, your audience becomes emotionally involved in the story, and let's face it -- that's what separates the good ones from the bad ones.

There are many ways to go about this -- you can simply make your character likable.  You can make them sympathetic.  You can make them a badass.  You can make something tragic happen to them.  You can make them easily accessible so a vast majority of your audience can relate to them.  Or you can do a combination of any of these things.  I sort of used one on top of the other when it came to Chiitsu.  I made him a bit cynical but friendly individual, which created a foundation.  Then, I did something horrible to him.  Since my audience was already invested in him and cared about him, this made that event all the more shocking and emotional.  I think that's one of the keys to great story telling:  Pull your audience in, and then use their emotions against them.

This brings me around to the new quest line added into WoW with patch 4.2.  And don't worry, there will be no spoilers in this post.  This is a pristine example of excellent storytelling.  Blizzard has taken a character that everyone knows, that everyone is, in some way, emotionally invested in, and they've used those emotions against us.

And here's the thing:  (I didn't say "the thing is"!)  Even if you're a pansy-ass Alliance player and don't like Thrall, there was still plenty to enjoy in the experience.  I would totally understand if someone would say to me, "You know, I'm an Alliance player and really never cared much about Thrall, so the story of that questline didn't really do much for me."  That's fine.  Good argument.  But you still got the journey itself, you got to experience a lot of great lore that WASN'T centered on Thrall, you got to see at least one character you've only HEARD about before, and you got some incredible visuals.  Therefore, I *do not* understand how anyone could think that the entire experience was bad.  I'm not saying that the people who don't like the questline are wrong, because this is all subjective.  I'm saying that after doing it for myself, I just cannot understand how anyone could say that.

I have my own opinions about the self-entitled "haters" of WoW.  This is what I think:  There is only one thing that human beings love more than a champion.  And that is seeing a champion fall.  Humans have this morbid, uncontrollable desire to see something perfect whittled down piece by piece until there's nothing left but a shell.  This has always been true, with the earliest example of the mightiest empire in the world, Rome, getting sacked by tribal barbarians.

That is why, in my opinion, I think that these "haters" hate on WoW not because they THINK there's something going wrong with the game, but because they WANT there to be something wrong with the game.  They want to see it fall from grace, and perhaps some of them even think it already has.  You can't rationalize with those kinds of people, because all they'll tell you is that you're wrong and they're right.

So, you just have to shrug your shoulders, and continue playing the beautiful and engaging game that you still enjoy.  It's their loss, anyway, not ours.  We're still having the incredible experience that Blizzard has created for us.

One final note about Blizzard's storytelling.  And I'm going to make a direct jab at Rift now.  When you start a new character in WoW, there's someone there, and they basically say, "I'm your leader and this is what I do.  Also, there's a big dragon made of lava that is going to blow up the world, we should do something about that."  Then, a few quests later, that leader shows up and either saves your life or aids you in battle.  Before you're level 10, you've got a major character that you know and are familiar with, and you've got a major villain that you're kind of afraid of.  That's good storytelling.

In Rift, there are all these people standing around.  Who are they?  Then you never seem them again.  What do they do?  You know that there are these Rifts that open up sometimes.  Why do they do that?  You close them with the help of NPCs, sometimes.  Who are they?  Bad guys come out of the Rifts.  What are they?

This is bad storytelling.  I'm sure all of this is revealed to you eventually, and you may even be able to find it out right away by looking around for in-game books or stuff.  But the way its presented to me doesn't give me any emotional attachment, and therefore I have no desire whatsoever to continue playing.

And do you know what else I think?  Again, this is purely my opinion.  I think that most people who say they love Rift, only love Rift because they want to see it destroy WoW, and not because they actually think it's good enough to do so.

And my final thought:  I love 4.2.  If you don't, that's okay.  But if you say I'm wrong for loving 4.2, you can go fuck a sea cucumber.