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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzCon 2010: WoW Insider interviews author Richard A. Knaak
by Anne Stickney 
Oct 23rd 2010 at 7:00PM
WoW Insider: Richard, thank you for joining us, it's great to meet you! Obviously you did Stormrage earlier this year -- how closely did you work with Blizzard on the book?
Richard A. Knaak: Everything was back and forth with them. I've been very fortunate from the beginning to work with a group of really fantastic people and I've been able to immerse myself in the game. Mick Neilson, who's the publishing lead right now and Evelyn the lore mistress, between those two especially every one of my questions would be answered quickly and efficiently, with a lot of graphics in case there was something that wasn't visible for me to see on the game.
They sent you screenshots?
I get lots of screenshots -- I see lots of things you won't be able to see for awhile! There's other people like James who works with Mick, he's one of the top publishing people too. And of course Chris [Metzen] has been there from the beginning -- he basically grew up reading my Dragonlance work, that's fantastic to me. Everyone's been great at Blizzard.
The book Stormrage covers a lot of material originally introduced in World of Warcraft. Did you play through the game?
I had been through elements of it, but there were so many things they kept coming to me with that were new. I've been well immersed in it. And god, the graphics get better and better all the time. It's been really fun. And I do as they ask of me for the storylines. So if something disgruntles someone about how the outcome of the story is, you can know that this was discussed thoroughly with myself and the people at Blizzard. They felt that these were the directions to go with things. I know that people would have liked to see more of the Emerald Dream in the game -- I myself was begging for it! They were very happy with how the novel turned out and how it explained quite a bit of what they wanted to do, which I'm very grateful for. They asked me to bring certain characters into the situation that I had not considered they would want to be using, but once they asked about them I said "Okay, that makes perfect sense." They wanted people to recognize a lot of what was going on.
Stormrage overall has been one of the most in-depth experiences yet. Although that will obviously change as time goes on, because every time the new stuff comes out -- I mean Cataclysm, let's face it, everything you knew is no longer what you knew – so there's going to be quite a bit of fun going back to places that are not quite the same anymore.
So far your focus has mostly been on Alliance -- you've had Broxigar, you've had Thura and of course all the tauren druids. Would you like to write more from the Horde perspective?
Oh I enjoy both sides -- if you've noticed the manga series, I have Trag, the first tauren deathknight as he turned out to be. I was very happy to see him in game -- I love Rhonin and Vereesa and all those characters but I've always had this thing for minotaurs. And when I came up with Trag for the second volume of the Sunwell Trilogy, I couldn't let go of him!
That's the thing -- I told them I needed to do another story and I told them what I wanted to do and they were fascinated by that. Tauren alone is a reason for me to do horde. I play a tauren, they're my favorites. I do like a lot of the more traditional aspects of the orcs. Broxigar was a terrific character for me, he was my creation and he just took on a life of his own. He had that essence about him, I was surprised at how much I got out of him. And when it came for him to do what he had to do at the end of War of the Ancients, it just made perfect sense that he be doing it.
Speaking of Thura -- she's Broxigar's niece. Who's her father?
That's something that we haven't fully -- we can't answer that right now. That was decided.
Was that deliberately omitted?
That was deliberately omitted, yes. But that doesn't mean you'll see something about it -- I think it was more omitted because we may decide to do something or we may not decide to do something. Unfortunately we have to leave a lot of things open, we can't put anything in stone. Unless it's a statue of Broxigar!
We heard that in Cataclysm there's going to be a Caverns of Time: War of the Ancients instance. How do you feel about that -- are they going to bring in characters from your books?
I would certainly enjoy anything that reflects back on the storyline that I did. So if anybody shows up, be it Malfurion or Tyrande or characters like Shandris or Jarod Shadowsong, if any of them would show up in there, I'd be very happy about that.
The War of the Ancients trilogy was a huge undertaking that covered a major war in Warcraft history. Would you like to cover the original War of the Shifting Sands with Fandral and his son?
There is nothing that I have on hand in that direction, but yeah, the Shifting Sands was always a really fun time. Blizzard is usually the one who comes and says we've got an idea that we'd like to propose to you, we'd like you to write about this. Sometimes I'll suggest things to them, and we'll go back and forth on it. It's really a two way process that works very well -- and let's face it, most everything they suggest is something that's certainly going to be of interest to most people.
I believe she read my book and the people at Blizzard helped her with it. She's so busy with things and I'm so busy with stuff -- if there's any questions she would have, I'd be happy to answer them and vice versa, but with people like Evelyn and the other people at Blizzard that know the background better than anybody, I think she's in safe hands. I'm sure they send her any relevant material or the book if she needed it. I get material all the time from them.
Fan reaction to you is notoriously polarized.
I've noticed that!
What do you say to that? What do you think about that?
First of all, A.) you're not going to please everybody. B.) I've had to do some things that they haven't necessarily liked, even if it wasn't necessarily my decision on that. C.) I seem to be enjoyed by the majority of the fans. I'm sorry that some people don't like what I do -- I know some people don't like what Christie or Aaron Rosenberg or others have done. I'm doing what Blizzard asked me to do and I'm trying to do it the best I can, for the most part I think I've done well with it. Some people make judgments based on things that are totally irrelevant to the book. And there's people who seem to think I've never played the game, which I did. I just tell them "When you're writing the books, you have to write the books!" So you can't go in the game as often as they do.
When you're writing about the game, you step away from playing it.
You have to! I'm a freelancer, we aren't paid to do this 24 hours a day unfortunately. Although I'd love to!
Thank you for your time Richard!
BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!Filed under: Interviews, BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
roseclown Oct 24th 2010 12:59PM
@Boobah
Dude, chill.
@Anteia
Nah, you're doing nothing wrong, just..../holds up hand
/swallows down benedril, pain meds, and antibiotics
Ok, so I have a head cold and sinus infection, and so I am mostly skimming your wall of texts. No offense meant, but when I am blearily blinking at the screen to have more than 2 paragraphs is... eurgh. Also do not expect thoughts to be in order.
The biggest complaint I am hearing from you is that you and Golden hear the characters differently. This is how it should be. If I did Thrall, it would be different. If you did Thrall, it would be different from how both me and Golden did it. This is because we all bring in our own experiences to the characters we listen to, and either spawn fully or spawn partially.
Thrall was not created by Golden, no. But there are still many takes on him and many takes on the way to write it. Blizzard created a frame, whoever writes in fills him in. Golden is writing him, not us. And Blizzard has chosen her for a reason. Not to mention; Metzen and others have debunked the Jaina and him thing beforehand. More than likely she listened to the ones who originally created Thrall in this matter, so that is why we have no Jaina/Thrall.
To be honest, as I have dabbled in writing some fanfiction concerning Thrall, I cannot find him fitting with Jaina. Too many obstacles which would cause a romantic relationship to fall apart. Would detract from the plot. I still shipped Jaina/Thrall, but I knew it would never happen as it didn't fit either character's ideas about duty. Even if there was a spark there, I could not see in catching flame. But this is all my perspective and how I hear Thrall. This is influenced by my own ideas about relationships and love.
I think we agree on the whole perceiving characters differently part.
I do think that Blizzard sometimes concentrates on what would be 'cool' too much, and not on character development. (See, Thrall appointing Gallywix trade prince after the whole slave fiasco. OOC much?). I think this is to be expected from MMO's where gameplay takes precedence instead of story and character. I suppose I just brush this stuff off a lot because I am not looking for a overarching story by one author, I am looking at something with many hands in the pot, many of which are not writers and are more concerned with other things. So I judge a lot of plot points based on this. Quite a few I know are not from Golden, so I brush it off and don't count it as her writing. Because really she had no other options. /shrug
Then again, I think that my approach is that I am really kinda chill about lore changes. Some of my friends rage, but I tend to just roll my eyes and go 'whelp, too many cooks in the kitchen again'. However, if we were talking about something with one author (say, J.K. Rowling) who then made a major plot hole or did something wonky with the characters, well, I would rage. I hold them to different standards.
My main point in the first one was just talking about the two authors and their differences, not really going on beyond that at all, which is why I am still a little confused about your point (could also be the meds + walls of text. /blows nose). But I think we have many areas of agreement, just divert on a couple key points in how we view lore and how much one should expect from the world of warcraft. /shrug
Batmunkh Oct 23rd 2010 7:47PM
So, after hearing about Knaak supposedly being this god awful writer, i sat down and read a couple of his books. To be honest, i was surprised to see so much rage come from them. they really aren't that bad unless you're just getting knit-picky over the WOW lore. BUT if that's your problem then i say take it up with Blizz, cause they change the lore ALL THE TIME.
As for the quality of writing? it's not LOTR , but they're fun reads and enjoyable. He's not my favorite author or anything either. I guess i'm just saying that if you haven't read the books and still are raging, give 'em a try. Maybe you'll find they aren't half as bad. And if you read them and are still raging, oh well? Be happy that Blizz is branching out their authors i guess.
Zanathos Oct 24th 2010 12:30AM
I've always found people complaining about him playing hard and fast with lore is kind of stupid. He doesn't write these things and then give them to blizzard to work into their world. He gets directives from Blizzard, bounces ideas off Metzen, and then writes a book. If you don't like what he does with lore, it's not his fault, at least not entirely.
He's also responsible for a good deal of the lore in the game. The different dragonflights and the aspects that have been such a big part of the WoW storyline was an idea at least partly came from him, and was entirely fleshed out by him. Before Day of the Dragon, Alexstrasza was simply the Queen of the Dragons, and Deathwing was just some douchey dragon.
Pyromelter Oct 23rd 2010 8:13PM
"Fan reaction to you is notoriously polarized.
I've noticed that!
What do you say to that? What do you think about that?"
Just wanted to say that those questions are a mark of a great reporter. We were all thinking on those same lines, and that was about as perfect as you can get to ask about Knaak's... shall we say less-than-stellar reviews.
D Clone Oct 23rd 2010 8:19PM
I still don't understand all the Knaak hate. When the lore was "originally" wrote, it was just bits and pieces of unfinished story. Like what Knaak said, he does what Blizzard tells him to do for the most part, and he had to devolop, and yes, change stuff. I mean, I don't hate Golden either, but I hated the Arthas book, to me it made me feel as if Arthas was a wimp, or like Tom Cruise or something. heheh. I haven't finished reading The Shattering yet, but I was a bugged when Jaina was talking to Wrynn about what happened to Bolvar, which, no one except for Bolvar and Tiron were supposed to know about it. Remember the cinematic? I don't see anyone go off about her flaws like I hear people complain about Richard.
Maybe if Richard threw a random love story in every book, or adopted a cow and named it Inedible, maybe people will like his books more. Also in Rise of the Horde, she described most areas (zones) the exact same way as it appears in the game, which was disappointing. I would've preferred hearing more about Draenor before it fell apart. I mean, there would've been landscapes that don't exist anymore right? Places like in between Hellfire and Shadowmoon? Oceans? She's not the perfect writer either. Leave Knaak alone.
Shrike Oct 23rd 2010 8:48PM
"Maybe if Richard threw a random love story in every book"
Oh, like, say, creating a random extra Windrunner sister from whole cloth just to shoot out annoying little half-elf babies for his author-insert ubermage who's accomplished everything there is to accomplish, has Alexstrazsa's consort as his mentor and friend, and TAUGHT MAGIC TO ILLIDAN?
We hate Knaak because he's a poor writer with weak literary skills, and a bad habit to just handwave when it comes to Rhonin.
ioncat Oct 23rd 2010 9:36PM
@Shrike
Seriously?
Thrall and Varian are the same character.
Garona is a massive 'wtf' of a character.
The Old Gods are obviously lovecraftian.
Arthas, Kael'thas, and Illidan are all roughly the same character with various motives.
Tirion is as Mary Sue as they come.
Don't even get me started on Med'an, who was created by Walt Simonson and Louise Simonson. Nobody jumps on their backs for creating ridiculous characters.
Knaak is a writer who is payed to write what BLIZZARD tells him to write, and his Mary Sue characters are completely evident of that. Blizzard has absolutely NAILED the Mary Sue Character department. To blame Knaak for that is ridiculous. It's like people FORGET that he isn't allowed to make this stuff up, everything he does is the work of Blizzard. The dude even said it himself.
People hate Knaak because he created a NEW Uber character to interact with the already created Uber characters, and for some reason that bothers them.
I strongly dislike Knaaks writing on a technical level. I refuse to jump on the Rhonin hatewagon just because he's a Mary Sue when 95% of all Warcraft characters are special snowflakes in their own rights.
MusedMoose Oct 23rd 2010 8:26PM
After reading this interview and the interview with Ms. Golden, I noticed a major difference, related to what roseclown said above: the two authors have vastly different ways of seeing the characters they're working with.
I've both read and written enough fanfic to know that, to tell a truly good story in a world that's not your own, you have to love that world and the characters who live there. You have to respect the existing canon and treat what's come before you as set in stone, not something you can twist to fit your plot.
In the interview with Ms. Golden, it was easy to tell how much she loves Azeroth and its denizens, and she seemed to enjoy exploring the characters and all that they went through, seemed like she was thrilled to be able to work in Blizzard's world. Just the way she talked about writing Anduin really made that clear to me. Mr. Knaak displays none of that love for the world, and the only characters he mentions (save for a few in passing) are his own. I know it was a joke, but the bit about a statue of his own uber-character being the only thing they could set in stone really rubbed me the wrong way.
I know this really doesn't amount to much, since clearly Blizzard wants them both to continue their WoW work. It's just a shame that, as someone who gets to bring to life major aspects of the game's lore, Mr. Knaak doesn't have the love for the game that Ms. Golden has.
roseclown Oct 23rd 2010 9:34PM
Yeah, as a person who works crazy hard on my novel and loves characters, and have paid attention to what other writers have said about characters, what Knaack said about his...well...
Is it bad that I want to kidnap his characters and give them safe homes? Seriously, the way he talks about them makes it seem as if he is sucking all their potential without really listening to them, or letting them form. I know it sounds crazy, but for writers our character's really feel like our babies. We have to let them grow up and make mistakes for the good of the story, and to see where they are going. But to just not even listen to them and use them without letting them grow....
/shudders
Sorry. Just... poor dears.
Archboomkin Oct 25th 2010 1:49AM
"The moment that it had even appeared that the human had been about to find fault with the grand design, Stareye had politely suggested that the council would manage its own efforts and that the wizard had other duties to which he should be attending."
-Taken from the War of the Ancients Trilogy, book three, The Sundering
In the context of writing, Knaak's name is ironic. He is simply a hack. His work often neglects basic grammar, his characters are cardboard cutouts, and his sentences.... Oh, his sentences. Knaak's prententious, Tolkien-wannabe disposition produces the most convluted, unreadable sentences in fiction. I think the above quote showcases nearly all of these things beautifully.
I doubt many will come to his defense; so, to make my argument as succint as possible...
KNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK
Tim Oct 23rd 2010 9:12PM
WoW nerds are like Comic book nerds. Of which I am both. When "hip" hollywood directors start messing with our characters in movies and change things way too much we get pissed.
Although I've never read a Knaak book I don't plan to. Maybe I should. Anyway, when you don't feel the respect for the lore and characters like we do, it shows. And the results are not pretty.
I do like Broxigar myself but if I'm gonna read a book with him and others in it, I want all the characters to be fleshed out. Not just I'm Broxigar! Knaak made me! It's all about ME!! Not cool. Write what Blizz wants you to write but know your stuff dammit. Manage your time and do what we all do. Play the game. Know your lore. That's all we ask.
Léona Oct 23rd 2010 9:14PM
"I seem to be enjoyed by the majority of fans."
Haha! HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!
Oh Knaak...so deluded.
Zanathos Oct 24th 2010 12:36AM
You're deluded, if you think internet commentators are a majority of the fans. Take a look at Amazon. Even day of the dragon, which I'd consider his weakest book and while not deserving it, has a 4 out of 5 star rating. And they all do, other than Stormrage (which I haven't read, so I donno about that one).
If Blizzard wants him to keep writing books, there's one reason why. He's popular and he sells, vocal internet commentators notwithstanding.
Mr. Tastix Oct 23rd 2010 9:19PM
I dislike the fact that he pushes his own characters onto us, rather than strengthening the lore behind already existing characters. That, in my eyes, is what Blizzard -should- be paying him for.
As it stands, whilst his books aren't horrible, they just seem like the type of fan-fiction that has been constructed and published a bit better than a fan's work. He introduces his own characters into an environment created by someone else: That's what many fan-fiction authors do, the difference is they don't get paid for it nor label themselves as a "professional writer".
That's my problem with Knaak, and why I prefer Christie Golden.
Zanathos Oct 25th 2010 3:40AM
His characters are all throughout wow, so that's kind of a grey area. I do think there's a place for side stories of unknown heroes doing great deeds, the campaign heroes can't have done everything. I've definitely had my fill of Rhonin in main roles. I was quite fond of the sunwell characters and glad to see them popping in and out of the game.
Moff Oct 23rd 2010 9:27PM
Hardhitting journalism, right there.
Dankie Oct 23rd 2010 10:12PM
I've been going through the warcraft lore books recently, starting with the warcraft archive... I enjoyed every author in there, including knaak. Some parts were a little drier than I would have liked, I skimmed parts of knaak's stuff because it was just uninteresting. However it wasn't completely horrible. Day of the dragon was decent (except the dry bits), and I found the characters likable, even Rhonin. However, hitting up the war of the ancients trilogy... it's like chewing thick paste. It's like.. wtf happened? All these exciting and awesome characters and situations are in there... but you have to wade through this thick forest of 'omg my characters are awesome'.
Christine Golden's treatment of Arthas was pretty decent, very quick read but half the time felt like a wowwiki entry, especially if one's gone through WC3. Despite that, she's still a lot easier to read than Knaak, and I'm looking forward to reading the shattering soon because I trust her as an author.
Maybe that's what it comes down to, I don't trust Knaak's characterization or character creation. I don't trust his writing. Franchise writing is tough though. Look at the star trek books.. I only like one author out of the thousands (Peter David) and he's polarized fans also - I guess it boils down to taste and trust. I don't trust knaak, so I don't enjoy his writing... others may, so they do.
BladedDingo Oct 23rd 2010 11:02PM
I've read most of the warcraft books, some of Knacks writing I enjoyed, War of the Ancients I actually enjoyed reading it because it gave a lot of information on what night elf society was like before we even knew NE's existed in WC3.
Sure, they are not the most impressive peices of writing ever, and I doubt anyone will ever agree they are. I don't really think any of his books are targeted at the wow population as a whole, he's a fantasy writer and the types of books he writes I think are generally aimed at kids/teens to be honest.
When I was in high school, myself and all my friends would read the flavor of the week fantasy books from the library, and we enjoyed them, yeah. But now I don't really care for them, I don't care for the writing style of many of those books that have a huge franchise, I kidna grew out of them.
I think the same thing is what people are critising, a lot of the people who read these wow books are teens who very much enjoyed them, and I'm sure a majority of the haters are older players of the game, people who've got jobs, their own places and are people who've outgrown that style of writing.
If you sit down and watch your favorite child hood show, say for instance Power Rangers, or hell, Pokemon and think "What they hell, I actually WATCHED this crap?".
your looking at these books and trying to get more meaning then they are actually giving, it's a cash grab, pure and simple and at best a few hours of entertainment.
that being said, I enjoyed most of his books for what they were, until Night of the Dragon. I had to force myself to finish that one.
Vrykerion Oct 24th 2010 1:23AM
While I haven't enjoyed Knaak's writing, I wouldn't call it terrible. His stories really feel like you're reading an elaborate story crafted from a D&D/WoW Homebrew game rather than a dramatic narrative at times, but that's not terrible if that's your thing (and it is many people's things).
All I can say for certain is that he's doing terrible in the election: http://oddcraft.net/wordpress/warchief-electionvote-here/ Heck, Garrosh has more votes than he does. :(
NighttimeApparition Oct 24th 2010 2:40AM
I haven't read any of the Warcraft novels. (Though, I intend to.) A lot of what has been said is a dislike about one writing style over another, that's to be expected. I'll make a comparison: Some people like Terry Brooks (Sword of Shannara) and revere his Shannara series, while I find them terribly badly written. That's not to say his books are all horrible, or that people are 'wrong' for liking them. It means, it's not my thing, and I can't make myself like them just because other people do.
People will tell you that 'Lord of the Rings' is very dry, and I'd agree that it can be long winded. But, I think that it was a. well written, b. an excellently portrayed story, c. probably better than anything I'll ever write. Again these are my opinions. Much like the fact that I'll never finish the 'Wheel of Time' series because I couldn't get past the 7th or 8th book because I was tired of Mat Cauthon wandering around with a traveling show doing practically NOTHINGfor like 70+ percent of one of the books. Again this is just my opinion. (Talk about long winded, how many times do we NEED to hear the description of Whitebridge or some not-so-subtle reference to Arthurian legend?)
You are all entitled to your opinion, whether it's love Golden/hate Knaak or vice versa. What that doesn't make you is RIGHT about anything other than your own opinion. Blizzard gets to decide canon, tell it's writers how much play they have with that canon, and they can change it at anytime. (Eredar, anyone?)
As a fan, sometimes you will /facepalm at some of the decisions writers make. At one time, Wolverine didn't have claws before the adamantium was put into his body (I'm thinking of something he said when fighting 'Sabertooth' in the Wolverine comics, oh so long ago), then Magneto removed it and he still had claws.
From the way people talk, Knaak seems to be a 'epic story' kind of writer- he creates his characters to help the story he knows is going to happen, because he's got the outline. Those characters HAVE to be as uber as the established lore characters to be able to stand with them and be important.
Christie Golden appears to be a 'the characters write themselves' sort of writer from the comments I hear. She also has to fit them into the story they outlined for her.
Other than technical flaws in either books, it seems to come down to which writing style you like more. Either way, they sound far better than the crappy Robotech novellas I read as a kid. (Until I 'discovered' Heinlein I thought they were good.) Which means kids today are getting better stuff to read. (Eragon not withstanding. Ugh.)
My point? Get better at making a reasoned argument if you want people to listen to what you have to say. For the record, I did see a lot more reasonable arguments both for and against Knaak and Golden here than I expected. But impassioned screaming with no real point or thought seems to be a problem with society at large, let alone we the geeks and nerds of Fantasy, Sci-fi, and video game land.
Take the time to learn what a good argument is, then make one. It's selfish of me, but I want to see better debate, not impassioned hate.
If you got this far, thanks for reading.
Nighttime