Ok, seems some people are missing some points in story telling in this game. BTW and this is first and foremost, if you don't like the way a story ends, that doesn't mean it is a bad story. Just that you don't agree with the direction of the writers. I've heard this SC2 shtick way to many times and frankly it is slightly irksome. Just to say it, I saw the ending coming in SC2, it had to because there are two more expansions and Kerrigan would have to be a focal point in the series. That said, lets look at Diablo 3 and the lore as a whole shall we.
Diablo is the Lord of Terror, demons in general are massive powerful creatures with a set focus on how their strength is handed out to them. Not saying anything we don't know, but the best leaders are more than just physical powerhouses. If anyone is confused with how Diablo is so powerful, he breads discord and fear, he terrorizes his enemies. He is all about mind games, planting seeds is what he does best.
The Angiris Council is all about order through consensus. They know they don't agree but their strength has always been in putting them aside in order to find common ground and to support it. Heaven is order, and Hell is chaos, that is a very old principle to how these two sides work no matter what the story.
Now lets look at subtext shall we, not to read into things, but most stories relate to the outside world. So let us see, we have a Lord of Terror who seeks out the weakest link in the Council in order to plant the seed of discord. If you can't see how this relates to our present day world then, seriously you've missed the point some where in New Guinea.
I'm not sure where the Star Wars or DBZ (WTF???) comes in, but since both Spawn and Diablo spins a tale of angels versus demons, there's bound to be similarities. And I don't know why you're nitpicking over voice actors, it's far from game breaking, and Tyrael's voice is even further from cringe worthy.
I like the fact that they refer to one another as brother and sister, though I'm not sure who Cowboy is. This is in line with a holy title, as in monks or priests referring to one another as brothers. It sort of makes sense.
Moreover, I don't know why you're going off on the story. SC2 was made by a different team, and the Diablo lore has never been this strong, which is proof that there isn't a lot to worry about. Just look at the Book of Cain. In the past the lore was there behind the scenes, a backdrop more than an anchor of the series, but I really think Blizzard has gone far to fill in the gaps and turn the lore into a broad, cohesive setting to drive the series onward.
SC2 has little to no need for a driving story arc. The point of that game is not to be immersed in the sprawling lore, it is pure RTS.
Blizzard has also noted that one of the dominant requests from players has a strong plot/story arc in D3. Diablo 2 is much more story oriented than Diablo, but to be fair I have a hard time remembering much about Diablo :\
The players characters are given actual personalities, at least in all the promotional website stuff, that along with the beta really made me feel that they are striving for a story-telling experience. This is a PvE game, they have stated resolutely in the face of all this esports crap. This is NOT SC2, or WoW, which are designed for different markets.
Also, the topic header of this thread is pure trollish-nonsense.
I believe the OP and others are confusing story with dialog. Everything seems to be about a few voiceactors and some lines that are uttered and not the overall plot. This is what has me confused. There was no point in which I was playing SC2 where I said, "this story is sub-par and has little to do with the original game." Not even close. Terrans we've been dealing with since day one are westerny-rednecky-doofuses who build their things from scrap and barely scrape by. Wings of Liberty is all about the terran. Drawling accents, goofy lines, and odd-ball characters should have been expected. Everything they did with that game made sense in terms of STORY. I'll agree some... SOME... of the dialog was weak but there hasn't been a script in history thats perfect.
I believe the OP and others are confusing story with dialog. Everything seems to be about a few voiceactors and some lines that are uttered and not the overall plot. This is what has me confused. There was no point in which I was playing SC2 where I said, "this story is sub-par and has little to do with the original game." Not even close. Terrans we've been dealing with since day one are westerny-rednecky-doofuses who build their things from scrap and barely scrape by. Wings of Liberty is all about the terran. Drawling accents, goofy lines, and odd-ball characters should have been expected. Everything they did with that game made sense in terms of STORY. I'll agree some... SOME... of the dialog was weak but there hasn't been a script in history thats perfect.
You know what, you are right. The Story is fine, it IS the dialogue that bothers me. Sorry I should have made it more clear
I'm really worried about the lore. Anyone who has played SC2 knows it was a complete bastardization of the franchise. With the New Blizzard all about Style over substance I fear the worst.
Glad you can make that judgement after seeing 33% of said story.
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
I'll agree with you that some of the voiceovers are suspect... and some of the dialog is down right bad. But that comes with voice acting a story out especially in video games where you can't:
A. Hire the best script writers that have honed their craft over many many years.
B. Get those top notch voice actors that have had experience in a rather strange environment
Script writing is one of the hardest things to do. Its a horribly tough job to get lines down that don't sound downright stupid, cheesy, or contrived. On top of that you have to rely on voice actors to properly convey what you are going for. Lets take an example from SC2. Kerrigan. Interesting character and lore there. I think they chose Tricia Helfer for a variety of reasons but one is definitely she has that slow almost bored sounding voice down pat. She did very well with the level to level speak but really lacked actual emotion and believable rage when she had to show it. On top of that the scripting is not even close to A+ writing so you end up with something a little meh.
Lets be honest though. In terms of video games the voice acting and scripting in SC2 is NOT horrible. Its still an improving field in video games. I'd give it a solid B- and call it a day.
On the other hand I truly believe that D3 will only be an improvement on where they got with SC2. I know theres a lot of hate spreading around lately on Blizzard but they do improve over time.
I'd say that I liked the SC2 story but I'm sure that would provoke some bully to come by and call me an ignorant mindless coolaid drinking Blizzard fanboi that eats whatever crap they spew.
And I'm scared of bullies.
i'm fine with the story so far. the wrath thing was an entertaining little distraction. it takes place long before the game and has no bearing on events in the game, other than to show us that the angiris council doesn't always agree - something we already knew about.
i didn't find the dialog that bad or contrived, tbh. being a writer myself i respect script writers over all others - writing dialog is a tough business.
seriously, sit down and try and write dialog for something that happens in your every day life and see what you come up with. now imagine doing that for something completely made up and imaginary. it's not easy.
Unless you got the Brutal Campaign achievement, then you can't talk shit about the SC2 story.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
i'm fine with the story so far. the wrath thing was an entertaining little distraction. it takes place long before the game and has no bearing on events in the game, other than to show us that the angiris council doesn't always agree - something we already knew about.
i didn't find the dialog that bad or contrived, tbh. being a writer myself i respect script writers over all others - writing dialog is a tough business.
seriously, sit down and try and write dialog for something that happens in your every day life and see what you come up with. now imagine doing that for something completely made up and imaginary. it's not easy.
Is this a reply to me? Or am I just paranoid? Haha
Also, its ok to be a Blizzard fanboi Afkalmighty. They are one of the few video game companies that deserves our admiration as gamers. Bethesda, Valve, Blizzard... The holy trinity of big developers worthy of note. All have their flaws but each gives us a product worthy of our money.
I can't say I'm particularly impressed with the script myself from the beta so far...
When you first meet Leah, she says something along the lines of 'We are doomed unless someone saves us'. PlayerChar says 'I will save the day', Leah say 'Thank you'...
Then there was the skeleton king which went something like 'In case you were wondering, the dark fallen star awakened me. I am evil muahahahahah...guards, kill Cain'. That's not exactly word for word of course, but it was pretty much to that effect.
Lastly and possibly the worst was the blacksmith who says something like 'Oh my beloved wife, forgive me'. Then after you kill her with him, he's like 'Right...on to business' in a totally normal matter of fact voice lol...
Pretty much the in-game script all seems a little basic and not particularly deep so far.
The book of Cain started off GREAT and continued to be great until it came to recounting the events of the first and second games. Throughout that section, the quality dived off a cliff imo...it was more of a just a list of 'and then then did this and then they did this and then...'.
It also seems a little convenient/cheap to make the warrior from Diablo 1 suddenly the crown prince Aidan...it kind of lessens the impact of the original story where it was the then crown prince Albrecht that was kidnpapped and possessed. Similarly I prefer having the dark wanderer as a normal humble warrior who tried to take on Diablo and failed (eventually)...
All in all not exactly feeling confident over what's to come.
In my opinion, Blizzard always creates very good lore, but they're actual "story-telling" has never been their strong point. I suppose I judge them this way too since my other company of choice for games is Bioware and they obliterate just about everyone on story-telling. But I think Blizz always has the flair - and alot of cheese, which is fine.
I've always come to expect Blizz games to have a decent/passable story, with alot of random humor mixed in - and some great lore backing it up. The graphics will always generally be a bit behind the curve, but the gameplay will pretty much own anything and everything in the face.
So while I hope they've improved the story-telling for D3, if it ends up being like D1/D2, I'm not gonna be upset. As long as the game plays like I expect it to, I'll be quite happy
Responding to the OP's concerns, you can basically blame Chris Metzen. Mail him some poop in the mail as a prank if you feel so strongly about it.
If i'm not mistaken, Metzen and another guy did the dialogue for the animated short Diablo 3:Wrath. So yeah, great director, great studio, sub-par dialogue and writing....
I don't have anything against the guy really. Him and Samwize (along with a handful of others) did a great job when it came to help crafting the original three Blizzard universes, but Metzen as of late comes off as a big sellout. If you are pro-Metzen, you could chalk it all up to having him slave over WoW the past several years. If you're anti-Metzen, you can blame him for being into blondes, seeing as that he felt it was more important to have Tricia Helfer as Kerrigan instead of Glynnis Talken. I mean really? Just because Metzen wanted to hit that after watching a few BSG episodes, he gave the original Queen of Blades the boot? FFS, even Glynnis' daughter has an amazing voice. They couldn't hire her? She voiced Kerrigan in this fan-made cinematic for SC2.
Anyways, yeah... you can't really change what they will do with the story. The way Blizzard makes great lore and great cinematics and then ruins it with some awful dialogue and story-arcs lately is pretty underwhelming to me. It's a classic case of shit on spaghetti if you ask me. A case-and-point example is the Wrath animated short, like I mentioned above.
"You are Azeroth's true guardians... and the future of this world... is in your hands... for the dawning of the age of mortals... has begun..."
Two words: Pretty corny! I mean, you can make a brief few words pretty epic without having them come off as cheesy. It's not like Blizzard hasn't done that before right?
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
Diablo is the Lord of Terror, demons in general are massive powerful creatures with a set focus on how their strength is handed out to them. Not saying anything we don't know, but the best leaders are more than just physical powerhouses. If anyone is confused with how Diablo is so powerful, he breads discord and fear, he terrorizes his enemies. He is all about mind games, planting seeds is what he does best.
The Angiris Council is all about order through consensus. They know they don't agree but their strength has always been in putting them aside in order to find common ground and to support it. Heaven is order, and Hell is chaos, that is a very old principle to how these two sides work no matter what the story.
Now lets look at subtext shall we, not to read into things, but most stories relate to the outside world. So let us see, we have a Lord of Terror who seeks out the weakest link in the Council in order to plant the seed of discord. If you can't see how this relates to our present day world then, seriously you've missed the point some where in New Guinea.
I'm not sure where the Star Wars or DBZ (WTF???) comes in, but since both Spawn and Diablo spins a tale of angels versus demons, there's bound to be similarities. And I don't know why you're nitpicking over voice actors, it's far from game breaking, and Tyrael's voice is even further from cringe worthy.
I like the fact that they refer to one another as brother and sister, though I'm not sure who Cowboy is. This is in line with a holy title, as in monks or priests referring to one another as brothers. It sort of makes sense.
Moreover, I don't know why you're going off on the story. SC2 was made by a different team, and the Diablo lore has never been this strong, which is proof that there isn't a lot to worry about. Just look at the Book of Cain. In the past the lore was there behind the scenes, a backdrop more than an anchor of the series, but I really think Blizzard has gone far to fill in the gaps and turn the lore into a broad, cohesive setting to drive the series onward.
Blizzard has also noted that one of the dominant requests from players has a strong plot/story arc in D3. Diablo 2 is much more story oriented than Diablo, but to be fair I have a hard time remembering much about Diablo :\
The players characters are given actual personalities, at least in all the promotional website stuff, that along with the beta really made me feel that they are striving for a story-telling experience. This is a PvE game, they have stated resolutely in the face of all this esports crap. This is NOT SC2, or WoW, which are designed for different markets.
Also, the topic header of this thread is pure trollish-nonsense.
You know what, you are right. The Story is fine, it IS the dialogue that bothers me. Sorry I should have made it more clear
Glad you can make that judgement after seeing 33% of said story.
Oh wait...
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Epicurus
No your just part of the Silent Minority. Just go back to happy land and let the Vocal Minority keep on yammering.
A. Hire the best script writers that have honed their craft over many many years.
B. Get those top notch voice actors that have had experience in a rather strange environment
Script writing is one of the hardest things to do. Its a horribly tough job to get lines down that don't sound downright stupid, cheesy, or contrived. On top of that you have to rely on voice actors to properly convey what you are going for. Lets take an example from SC2. Kerrigan. Interesting character and lore there. I think they chose Tricia Helfer for a variety of reasons but one is definitely she has that slow almost bored sounding voice down pat. She did very well with the level to level speak but really lacked actual emotion and believable rage when she had to show it. On top of that the scripting is not even close to A+ writing so you end up with something a little meh.
Lets be honest though. In terms of video games the voice acting and scripting in SC2 is NOT horrible. Its still an improving field in video games. I'd give it a solid B- and call it a day.
On the other hand I truly believe that D3 will only be an improvement on where they got with SC2. I know theres a lot of hate spreading around lately on Blizzard but they do improve over time.
And I'm scared of bullies.
i didn't find the dialog that bad or contrived, tbh. being a writer myself i respect script writers over all others - writing dialog is a tough business.
seriously, sit down and try and write dialog for something that happens in your every day life and see what you come up with. now imagine doing that for something completely made up and imaginary. it's not easy.
Unless you got the Brutal Campaign achievement, then you can't talk shit about the SC2 story.
Epicurus
Is this a reply to me? Or am I just paranoid? Haha
Also, its ok to be a Blizzard fanboi Afkalmighty. They are one of the few video game companies that deserves our admiration as gamers. Bethesda, Valve, Blizzard... The holy trinity of big developers worthy of note. All have their flaws but each gives us a product worthy of our money.
When you first meet Leah, she says something along the lines of 'We are doomed unless someone saves us'. PlayerChar says 'I will save the day', Leah say 'Thank you'...
Then there was the skeleton king which went something like 'In case you were wondering, the dark fallen star awakened me. I am evil muahahahahah...guards, kill Cain'. That's not exactly word for word of course, but it was pretty much to that effect.
Lastly and possibly the worst was the blacksmith who says something like 'Oh my beloved wife, forgive me'. Then after you kill her with him, he's like 'Right...on to business' in a totally normal matter of fact voice lol...
Pretty much the in-game script all seems a little basic and not particularly deep so far.
The book of Cain started off GREAT and continued to be great until it came to recounting the events of the first and second games. Throughout that section, the quality dived off a cliff imo...it was more of a just a list of 'and then then did this and then they did this and then...'.
It also seems a little convenient/cheap to make the warrior from Diablo 1 suddenly the crown prince Aidan...it kind of lessens the impact of the original story where it was the then crown prince Albrecht that was kidnpapped and possessed. Similarly I prefer having the dark wanderer as a normal humble warrior who tried to take on Diablo and failed (eventually)...
All in all not exactly feeling confident over what's to come.
I've always come to expect Blizz games to have a decent/passable story, with alot of random humor mixed in - and some great lore backing it up. The graphics will always generally be a bit behind the curve, but the gameplay will pretty much own anything and everything in the face.
So while I hope they've improved the story-telling for D3, if it ends up being like D1/D2, I'm not gonna be upset. As long as the game plays like I expect it to, I'll be quite happy
If i'm not mistaken, Metzen and another guy did the dialogue for the animated short Diablo 3:Wrath. So yeah, great director, great studio, sub-par dialogue and writing....
I don't have anything against the guy really. Him and Samwize (along with a handful of others) did a great job when it came to help crafting the original three Blizzard universes, but Metzen as of late comes off as a big sellout. If you are pro-Metzen, you could chalk it all up to having him slave over WoW the past several years. If you're anti-Metzen, you can blame him for being into blondes, seeing as that he felt it was more important to have Tricia Helfer as Kerrigan instead of Glynnis Talken. I mean really? Just because Metzen wanted to hit that after watching a few BSG episodes, he gave the original Queen of Blades the boot? FFS, even Glynnis' daughter has an amazing voice. They couldn't hire her? She voiced Kerrigan in this fan-made cinematic for SC2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_kAJSswZPvI
Anyways, yeah... you can't really change what they will do with the story. The way Blizzard makes great lore and great cinematics and then ruins it with some awful dialogue and story-arcs lately is pretty underwhelming to me. It's a classic case of shit on spaghetti if you ask me. A case-and-point example is the Wrath animated short, like I mentioned above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeervV8lN0Y
"You are Azeroth's true guardians... and the future of this world... is in your hands... for the dawning of the age of mortals... has begun..."
Two words: Pretty corny! I mean, you can make a brief few words pretty epic without having them come off as cheesy. It's not like Blizzard hasn't done that before right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubD5wkCG07g
"From that moment... we traveled together... East. Always... into the east."
Two words: Friggen' Epic! Where's Marius when we need him!? 1st person perspective from a supporting character ftw!
Paul Eiding is THE most awesome voice actor ever, period.