I don't like that the main emotional currency video game writers lean on involves killing off characters. Whenever I start to care about a character in a game, especially this one, I have to curb my investment because they're probably going to die. Or, if there is a big conflict, like with Ul'dah in 2.55, I have to remember that MMOs need to "continue" at all times even for players who aren't caught up in the MSQ, so they couldn't just have the city go up in flames. Things are too scripted; they also have to face the constraints from feedback that the quests were too long, so they pared down quests and streamlined them.

I doubt that the writers have as much freedom as, say, novelists who can do their own thing creatively, since they need to have things set in stone several patches ahead of time. I wish the creative leads overseeing the writers could stray away from these tropes entirely. There are more compelling and intelligent emotional beats to hit instead of killing people off or giving the illusion of mass murders and backstabbing for the sake of drama.