To some extent I think that the writing became weaker as the story became more explicit. In Starcraft, you were a character as well --- people advised you and a

To some extent I think that the writing became weaker as the story became more explicit. In Starcraft, you were a character as well --- people advised you and argued with you. Ultimately, although you take orders you were free to interpret the characters and events on your own. In contrast, Starcraft 2 has you play as established characters. From the promotional material[0]: > You are Jim Raynor, a marshal-turned-rebel on a vigilante crusade to bring down the Dominion and its nefarious leader, Arcturus Mengsk. Haunted by betrayal and remorse, some believe you may have given up the fight. This writing task is much harder --- they need you to have a matching experience with the character they are portraying and yet still force you into what their predetermined plot points are. Consider the case of Raynor rescuing Kerrigan at the end of Starcraft 2, after swearing eternal vengeance against her in Brood War. If the player were another participant in the world it might be reasonable to watch Raynor evolve to that position. However, because I as the player explicitly am Raynor and his choices are mine, Blizzard needed to convince me that saving Kerrigan made sense --- which they did not even come close to doing. A similar thing happened in the shift from Warcraft II to Warcraft III --- you went from being a character/commander on your own to explicitly controlling another hero. [0]: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/sc2/ http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/sc2/