My issue with this UR was that it crammed way too much into one article, which felt especially awkward because of the slow pacing we've been used to.
The concept of "failure -> receive advice -> succeed" didn't have an impact on me because it went by so quickly. And I agree with those who said Gideon shouldn't have been so stupid; he had just spent a considerable amount of time gathering forces for this attack, so I doubt he would think "Alright, I think that's everyone, let's charge now!". Also, I agree with the issue of the story being too Gideon-centric. I was hoping it would be a more epic battle with full-scale preparation, and more interactions between Noyan, Kiora, Drana etc. rather than turning it into Gideon's personal mini-arc.
I did enjoy the two previous URs of Ugin and Noyan Dar though, as the characters came across well with unique personalities. The interaction between Jace and Ugin was cool to see and Noyan Dar was a nice dose of comic relief.
*I mean, we don't know it's from an angel, but everything else would be odd. The only thing that would make a tiny bit of sense would be a heron's feather, but even that seems weird.
As others have said, very entertaining read. Felt slightly awkward with the big battle at Sea Gate coming up but hopefully it transitions smoothly. The writing style would get bland after a while but this is one aspect where the UR method of story-telling shines; we can get different perspectives to keep it interesting.
The entire Weatherlight Saga was awesome- except for Commodore Guff. And that chapter in Apocalypse written from Yawgmoth's POV. That was... no.
As far as current storytelling, I kind of miss the books, and the ability to get the entire main plot all at once, and maybe online stories for various offshoots, since most sets contain a world that expands just beyond the main plot. That said, I'm really enjoying the Battle for Zendikar stories. And yes, there's spoilers, but at the same time, how many movies do we go into knowing what's going to happen? Sometimes its watching it all play out that's the fun part, and I really enjoyed reading Nissa's fight with Ob Nixilis today.
I'm comfortable blaming every storyline issue and/or complaint on Commodore Guff. Every single one, past or future.
Edit: For instance, in the Uncharted Realms thread, we get around 47 views for every post, but it's the same 5-10 people posting all the time. I can't help but feel if we kept the discussion more focused we could bring in new people, and the way the current discussion is going it discourages new people from participating.
I've for the most part stopped posting in Storyline because of the negativity, and I'm a freaking Mod. That's how bad it is. Every thread that goes up I know is just going to be the same five or six people complaining about how "creative sux" "this was stupid" "I hate creative" "Raaa retcons" etc. I read every thread in Storyline, because that's my job, but there's no point in responding to most things because these posts don't want to encourage discussion. They just want to complain.
Most people don't "just want to complain", and most people are not exclaiming "creative sux". You're making it sound like we're constantly flaming how bad the story and creative are, when usually there is constructive criticism and suggestions/ideas for what people would like to see as an improvement. Yes, there are more criticisms than compliments, but that is the nature of any discussion board. Yet there are still articles that are widely regarded as good, such as the recent Drana one, which prompted more positive and intriguing discussion than complaints. If the quality of URs goes up, there will be a lot less complaining - it's typically not just for the sake of it.
I don't see how complaining about the complaints in the forum and insulting the users is going to help decrease negativity at all, especially when you've indicated you don't even attempt to contribute more positive discussion. It's nothing personal, but it's sad to see a mod essentially give up on a section and bemoan its users.
Although I too am pretty confused about this "power" they kept mentioning that she was repressing.
Right. Somebody mentioned the "show don't tell" thing, and it's absolutely true. People who are newer to the story are not going to know what the author is referring to, and because of the retcons it's nearly impossible to know what is canon and what isn't; this makes actually finding out about this past very difficult.
Nissa's character is confusing, yet bland at the same time.
Again, disappointed to see that Nissa is 'more powerful' than Ob, even when she's not feeling her connection to Zendikar. They even explicitly stated it, but I was hoping that was just unfounded arrogance on Nissa's behalf. Oh well.
Simple solution that leaves ALL parties happy. And contrary to what some might believe, it won't require hiring freelance writers, or even asking your current team of writers to do more than they currently are.
Yeah, they'd still be writing 1 article per week, not sure how this would amount to more work. If it means that they have to do moresearch planning in advance, then maybe we'd see less retcons and more continuity.
I've said it a few times but I am in the same camp. Give us the story first, conclude it around set release, and then everybody's happy.
I liked absolutely none of the stories. All of them were either superfluous (Gideon, come on man), trying too hard to be artsy (Drana), or were just faux-philosophical drivel (Nissa, anyone?).
In fact, I'll talk more about the Drana one. They have this big reveal in the text about Eldrazi and vampires, but it is written so confusingly that nobody can even determine what the reveal was. That's not good writing. It's no different from when Tasigur confronted Silumgar in the swamp and everyone thought Tasigur got eaten until he showed up in the Khanfall story. The writing just isn't clear because these writers don't seem to understand they're not writing for a visual medium.
I'd also like to add that I've stopped talking to people about the story as a way to get them interested in Magic. I just link them MaRo's blog, say "This guy is the coolest" and call it a day. The story's just gotten so bad. At this point it's barely better than the story for Japanese card gam— okay, it's not THAT bad, but compared to the story we got in Theros, and even M15, this is all just amateurish.
I think you're going against the grain here but I do agree to an extent. I found the Drana story refreshing, but I did get confused when reading the section when she was with the Eldrazi. I'm somebody that has to read things several times for it to stick but that passage was still unclear for me. I had to read comments here to know fully what happened, but I do think there was an intentional shroud of mystery; I don't think that article was supposed to be some clear revelation for us.
I also don't recommended the story to anyone. I have a friend who plays casually and likes reading fantasy novel series, yet it's rare for me to actually link them a UR because very few are interesting or develop much.
I won't go so far to say I didn't like any stories, but I agree with the sentiment that the majority of stories are superfluous (lumping Nissa in that category). I don't think the story is 'so bad', and I do have reasonable hope for the meat of this story arc, but the past couple of months have definitely been a low point in my view.
The concept of "failure -> receive advice -> succeed" didn't have an impact on me because it went by so quickly. And I agree with those who said Gideon shouldn't have been so stupid; he had just spent a considerable amount of time gathering forces for this attack, so I doubt he would think "Alright, I think that's everyone, let's charge now!". Also, I agree with the issue of the story being too Gideon-centric. I was hoping it would be a more epic battle with full-scale preparation, and more interactions between Noyan, Kiora, Drana etc. rather than turning it into Gideon's personal mini-arc.
I did enjoy the two previous URs of Ugin and Noyan Dar though, as the characters came across well with unique personalities. The interaction between Jace and Ugin was cool to see and Noyan Dar was a nice dose of comic relief.
Raven Man reference?
Snow permanents confirmed!!!!!
Man, I hate speculation season.
You know who's to blame.
I'm comfortable blaming every storyline issue and/or complaint on Commodore Guff. Every single one, past or future.
Most people don't "just want to complain", and most people are not exclaiming "creative sux". You're making it sound like we're constantly flaming how bad the story and creative are, when usually there is constructive criticism and suggestions/ideas for what people would like to see as an improvement. Yes, there are more criticisms than compliments, but that is the nature of any discussion board. Yet there are still articles that are widely regarded as good, such as the recent Drana one, which prompted more positive and intriguing discussion than complaints. If the quality of URs goes up, there will be a lot less complaining - it's typically not just for the sake of it.
I don't see how complaining about the complaints in the forum and insulting the users is going to help decrease negativity at all, especially when you've indicated you don't even attempt to contribute more positive discussion. It's nothing personal, but it's sad to see a mod essentially give up on a section and bemoan its users.
Right. Somebody mentioned the "show don't tell" thing, and it's absolutely true. People who are newer to the story are not going to know what the author is referring to, and because of the retcons it's nearly impossible to know what is canon and what isn't; this makes actually finding out about this past very difficult.
Nissa's character is confusing, yet bland at the same time.
I personally started commenting to join the complaints.
Just explaining that I do agree to a certain point.
Yeah, they'd still be writing 1 article per week, not sure how this would amount to more work. If it means that they have to do moresearch planning in advance, then maybe we'd see less retcons and more continuity.
I've said it a few times but I am in the same camp. Give us the story first, conclude it around set release, and then everybody's happy.
I think you're going against the grain here but I do agree to an extent. I found the Drana story refreshing, but I did get confused when reading the section when she was with the Eldrazi. I'm somebody that has to read things several times for it to stick but that passage was still unclear for me. I had to read comments here to know fully what happened, but I do think there was an intentional shroud of mystery; I don't think that article was supposed to be some clear revelation for us.
I also don't recommended the story to anyone. I have a friend who plays casually and likes reading fantasy novel series, yet it's rare for me to actually link them a UR because very few are interesting or develop much.
I won't go so far to say I didn't like any stories, but I agree with the sentiment that the majority of stories are superfluous (lumping Nissa in that category). I don't think the story is 'so bad', and I do have reasonable hope for the meat of this story arc, but the past couple of months have definitely been a low point in my view.