The problem I have with stories like WoW and GoT is that they're simply doomed stories. It's in the damn names: World of Warcraft, Game of Thrones. For the story to exist, there must be war. The war must go on! For the story about the game to exist it must go on. The game must go on!
That is to say, you could think: but that's just - that's just what the story is about, that's why it's the title. But the story is endless, they won't let it die and if they do let it, for what? What could be as good as the game and the war in the first place? There's no vision because it wasn't made for an end. There's only excuses for it to last, and if it ends it end shittily because what was appealing about the story in the first place was the game, and if the game ends (or rather doesn't end, but we are no longer allowed to look in on it) without vision, it's no longer appealing.
We can easily stomach meaninglessness over vision for as long as the thrills keep coming. If the thrills fall away, and there's no vision then you're only left with meaninglessness.
And the meaninglessness is extra extreme because its all about suffering. But the suffering is meaningless. That's not a reflection of reality because reality is purely what we experience, and we give meaning to EVERYTHING. The stories' deliberate or accidental insistence of meaninglessness is a marked choice.
In other words I can't take the stories seriously. Because there's no reason for the suffering. It'll just keep going. Ok. The whole point of a story is that there's a reason to tell it. But WoW doesn't really have anything to say about war, and GoT never had anything to say about suffering or power.
