Creative Development Q&A 6

[Hawki]

Why Turalyon, I never thought you were a connisuer of schadenfreude.

[TcheQuevara]

Best one so far. Communicates and informs. Clean, straight to the point, with a high calorie value.

Agreed. More like these please.

And once again Brian Kindragen continues to twist the knife in my gut. Ugh.

Are we in Bizarro Universe or is this just a sign of the end of times?


I'm thinking if the Dark Voice can be saved as a villain. His objectives are lame and there is no fix to that, but maybe he's got a good background and his plans after Galaxy Domination have something less corny and more well-thought.

For example, IMO the Overmind is a great villain because it isn't all about doing evil and twisting its moustache - but this diversity of character doesn't happen because he has a good side or has redeeming qualities. It has an evil side (doesn't care about destroying and torturing sentient beings) and a neutral side (brave, poetic, admires its adversaries, searches for perfection like an idealist or an artist).

The problem with the DV is that he was shown literally twisting his mustache. Being a brat and bragging about how smart he was. IMO the only way to make me respect this character is "retcon" him in a way that he get a better personality when he is finally revealed.

All the theories you guys are presenting could be interesting backgrounds for him. But I don't know... without a better "present" (personality) and "future" (objectives) it is very hard to accept it as a good villain.

[Quirel]

Glad the Tal'darim will be back, at least in LotV. But the question...well, aside from the fact that we already knew the Tal'darim were around long before the DTS, I find it iffy that the protoss actively chose the name and the Shel'na Kyras never mentioned it. I'd assumed Ulrezaj applied the name, but no, we're trying to tie stuff together and making it needlessly complicated.

Why wouldn't Ulrezaj apply that name? Wasn't his goal to corrupt the Auir Protoss and make them Dark Templar in all but name?

...Seriously? Someone asked that? I mean, it's nice to have confirmation but I'd have assumed it was self-explanatory.

Still nice to know.
If you're upset with some of these things being self-explanatory, what would you like to have answered?

Lore snafu is right. It was one back at WoL. Yet the question is answerred...and in over two years, all we get is "well, we don't know how to solve the issue?" Gah.

Simple: Swan didn't invent the Thor, he just made a cheap version of the Odin that could be mass-produced by the Hyperion. The Dominion already had Thors, from which Swan probably borrowed from.

That's it. Where's my rifle?

Easy, Hawki, I don't think you're thinking this through.
For one thing, rifles are somewhat impractical for performing assassinations. Not only are they big and hard to conceal, but Australia heavily regulates their ownership. You'd have more luck buying a Saturday Night Special and cornering that certain someone in a stairwell.
Have you planned out the angle of attack? What vehicle do you plan to use to escape the scene of the crime?

[Gradius]

I've been thinking of hiring a bodyguard. Anyone? :P

[solidsamurai]

Wait! Maybe that particular Thor fell through a mini-time warp and… No, no, we just messed up.

Thanks Blizz. Thaaaaanks...

This can be quite unwieldy; someone may have made a decision 12 years ago that was a well-reasoned, smart choice back then, but boxes us in today… but that's the hazard of game writing. We have to find a way to live with it and still tell our story.

What a hard and unrewarding job, eh? What I'd give for a job like yours.

[Pr0nogo]

I find that particular quote hilarious, solid, seeing as how they've had such an easy time retconning everything else.

[Kimera757]

Our knowledge of the Dark Voice is very miniscule. I'm thinking we just won't appreciate it until Legacy of the Void.

[Sheliek]

I think the dark voice is a run of the mill Xel'Naga. He isn't evil by their standards, he's perfectly normal. Think about it, what source do we have that the Xel'Naga are benevolent? The protoss, created by them? It may turn out they only viewed them as benevolent because they viewed them as the gods themselves.

Hm. Would that make the protoss atheists in the human sense? They believe that physical entities are gods, not actual deities themselves.

[Hawki]

Are we in Bizarro Universe or is this just a sign of the end of times?

Ask again in a month. We'll get to find out.

If you're upset with some of these things being self-explanatory, what would you like to have answered?

How many questions do I get?

Have you planned out the angle of attack? What vehicle do you plan to use to escape the scene of the crime?

I'd tell you, but ASIS is already onto me.

I think the dark voice is a run of the mill Xel'Naga. He isn't evil by their standards, he's perfectly normal. Think about it, what source do we have that the Xel'Naga are benevolent? The protoss, created by them? It may turn out they only viewed them as benevolent because they viewed them as the gods themselves.

Hm. Would that make the protoss atheists in the human sense? They believe that physical entities are gods, not actual deities themselves.

Taking a leaf from D&D, I'd called the xel'naga "chaotic neutral." Not evil, but there's many examples where they don't care about who gets hurt. Protoss? Get them ready, let them fight for centuries till the Khala is discovered. Xil? Yeah, just pack up shop after the catastrophe hits. Zerg? Well, I'm sure all the other life on Zerus will die happily knowing it's all for the cause of purity of essence.

...jackasses.

[Sheliek]

How many questions do I get?

As many as you want. List 'em out, it might make for some good discussion.