Project Lore

An interesting post cropped up over on the video game journalist social network a few weeks back and it got me thinking. In said post, the OP innocently asked what his peers thought about novels based on video games properties. While most gamers know that a movie based on a game equals a waste of two hours, the threat of a book, let alone a series of novels, on one's free time can be far more detrimental. The best example would be the epically bad Doom novels, and to a lesser extent, the long-running Resident Evil franchise.

The consensus ended up being the same as with movie tie ins. Generally speaking, the idea of a video game branching out into movies or novels was branded as a bad idea, with the Doom series being an example of a failure on both ends. Yet there is always the exception that proves the rule.

For Blizzard's part, the novels based on their properties were mentioned as some of the best out there. The Warcraft-inspired series of novels will be hitting book 12 (although not all in a single series) with Christie Golden's upcoming Arthas-based novel coming in April 2009. It is probably worth mentioning that some people believe the book will coincide with the release of Icecrown Citadel.

Wrath of the Lich King has really got me back into the whole “lore nerd” routine and as such, I just had to pick up the newest novels when I came across them while doing some holiday shopping. What? You never get gifts for yourself?

For those who haven't read anything from Blizzard, there is a nice little spoiler-less Novel Guide over on WoWWiki, although it has not been updated recently (which I may take care of later today). For starters, Night of the Dragon came out alongside Wrath, so that is no longer unreleased. This is especially awesome because Richard A. Knaak has done the best novelization work in the Warcraft universe, in my humble opinion. Pick up the Warcraft: War of the Ancients Archive (containing the entire second series) for proof.

Fun facts on the Warcraft novels:

• None of the World of Warcraft-branded novels actually tie directly to events in the MMORPG.  They come before, after or are entirely new events.
• All of the cover art is done by Blizzard artists.
• Much of the lore to be incorporated in the canceled Warcraft Adventures was reworked by Metzen and the writers for the novels. Most notably Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden, which is titled after the video game's subtitle.
• Richard A. Knaak has written five of the eleven published novels, all of them linking to each other. This includes a book from the original series, the three book run of the second series and the just published Night of the Dragon.
• The original series spoils much of the earlier RTS games, the second series spoils some of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, while the World of Warcraft series has spoilers all over the place.

During my shopping spree I picked up three novels, the latest pair in the World of Warcraft series, Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg and Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenberg & Christie Golden and Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak. The stack of literature will come in handy for my vacation at the end of the year. I just have to read them slow enough to grasp all of their plotlines separately, rather than having them meld into a single entity in my pea-sized brain, like the numbered StarCraft series did.

Anyone else enjoy the Warcraft/StarCraft/Diablo novels?  The Warcraft universe has the best novels with Knaak's numerous contributions standing out.  However, the single best adapatation of the universe would have to be Lord of the Clans.  In fairness to the other writers, Golden had a huge advantage due to the help from Metzen and the other writers who penned the adventure game.

What about other franchises?  Halo?  Mass Effect?  I saw a Gears of War book while I was browsing, surely that has to have a more fleshed-out plot than both 360 titles combined.

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