It’s true the simple tack on of the word “again” would have worked wonders.
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yes, all of it, writing is atrocious
So my problem with this is that they do try to tell a complex narrative, but don’t provide enough context in the game itself. It used to be exactly how you describe - just sort of a world where you explore and do quests. But now it’s very much an overarching narrative, but it’s very shallow in-game.
Blizzard either needs to bolster in-game cinematics and quest lines to be closer to the story, or step back completely and let players build their own narrative.
The “lorewalker” problem is a problem, because it contradicts itself. They want the story to be propelled forward, but they don’t reflect the changes in characters well enough to indicate that. If they want us to feel a part of the story, then they need to make other characters build bonds with our characters. Right now it’s very very plot-driven, but drama remains underdeveloped.
Not once has the wow story ever made me feel emotions like ff14 has. Its not bad exactly, more like a gas station best selling novel, it gets in, does a passable job and gets out.
I remember the Aggramar cutscene in legion that finally featured our characters. It was cool. I finally felt included. In FF it’s like that the whole time. You are the warrior of light, the strongest most influential person on the planet. It feels good. It would be nice if we could capture that feeling in wow too.
But it the best of a bunch of bad options. You can’t start them next to the cradle with Baby Thrall in it and expect them to wade through the entirety of history before they got to play the current content.
It’s a game. A game about bonking monsters and getting loot. THEN it’s a storytelling medium. It’s not that the designers “force” people in to the latest expansion, it just happens to be where all the people are, where all of the action is, where all of the playing is happening. The rest of the world: Kalimdor, EK, Outland, Northrend, Cata zones, Pandaria, Draenor, Broken Isles, Kul Tiras, Zandalar. They’re all vacant, with occasional wandering players.
Meanwhile Oribos is crowded and busy, current dungeons, current M+, current raids, current WBs, developing storyline.
To be blunt, “for their own good”, new players need to come to the latest expansion zones. Only a niche few will enjoy Dead WoW when Live WoW is hopping and bouncing.
Could they have started in Howling Fjord and then jumped in to Shadowlands? Sure, it’s as discontinuous as anything else. BfA to SL is less of a cognitive leap. Honestly ANYWHERE they start is “the deep end”. Starting in Coldridge Valley has just as much “untold” backlore as jumping in to BfA, so may as well start them closer to the new content, give them a small shred of continuity rather dragging them through ALL of it, or worse a fraction of it and then skipping the rest, before they can get to where the people are.
Yeah, the other thing though is that they have to also acknowledge that we’re not alone in the world like that. It was a bit jarring in Legion to be assigned as a class leader, and seeing other players just phase out into their own “continuities”. I think the story should treat our characters as a group rather than individually.
Continuity can be excused in a world where time and reality itself is mutable. You can literally go back in time and fix it. Behaviors on the other hand I have a problem with. The recent one of Sylvanas after years of scheming suddenly realizing the Jailer is in it for himself is a great example.
I don’t know, I don’t care about lore 
BUT
Ion (or the person summarizing) does mention something about this in his latest interview
At this point, your characters are heroes and there is no way that they can go back to being anonymous adventurers, but the team also wants to go back to simple core fantasy and not so much more escalating cosmic adventures.
So I think it’s safe to say we won’t be an anonymous adventurer any time soon.
Title asks if lore criticisms are justified. Post blames newer players who don’t enjoy or understand the story for not investing OOG real-world time chasing down, consuming, and reconciling lore spread across a variety of OOG mediums.
IMO, the criticism is justified. People aren’t expecting to be babysat through 8 expansions. Folk are criticizing Blizzard for straight up removing quests that actively make the game’s story incoherent.
As for the novels… Well, I don’t have anything against accompanying novels, but I don’t recall them having quite so much significant game-relevant plot in, say, BC/Wrath/Cata as they have in recent years. I love that there’s so much LORE available to the world of Warcraft, but lore is different from story. The in-game story should be coherent in its own right. People shouldn’t have a reaction of, “Wait, where did this come from?” because plot points happened outside the game.
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Why not?
When I start a book series, I start at the beginning. When I start a TV series, I start at the beginning. When I start a movie series, I start at the beginning.
Even with having exposure to the game thru my son and screwing around in it occasionally, it was disconcerting and disappointing when I got into Cata and discovered I could not start at the beginning of the story, that it was gone and that I had to play thru the old world with Cata updates (so a fourth book experience) before I could even get to go to Outland (a second book experience), the earliest expansion available.
There were other, better options like creating a questline out of available quests that tell the most important stories of each expansion or creating a starter zone that taught both mechanics and the past story.
I strongly disagree.
I think it is a game that gives the player an immersive adventure in a fantastical World. (Or, at least, it used to be.) And the story is the why, as in the motivation, while the gameplay is the how.
And I am continual disappointed on these boards when people don’t see how amazing the experience is because they are so focused on the treadmill. I just don’t get it. Even just riding thru one of the environments can be magical (except the Dustwallow Marsh, that’s just ugly and annoying 
).
Why would anyone discard the opportunity for that?
They do force them. No other choice equals force.
And yet there are druids everywhere stealing my resources!
But more seriously, that gives a new player time to experience the World on their own at their own pace and soak it all up. Enjoy the fantasy and magic before stepping into the social cesspool aspect.
In your opinion. Personally, I am not a fan of ‘throw then in the deep end and see what happens’.
And the rest of WoW is not dead. It is quiet, but there are other players around whom you can interact with if they are willing (and stealing your resources because I was not actually kidding about the druids).
It is a MMORPG. How is a new player suppose to understand the role they are playing without the stories that got them to the status of ‘champion’ with everyone fawning all over them?
I am passionate about this because my new player experience was so amazing and I feel sorry for the people coming in who are missing out on so much organic game design and content and fun that makes the game that amazing experience. You can say they can go back but first impressions are said to be important for a reason.
The whole thing is badly done.
It was pretty bad. No one leaves the maw ever, then within 15 minutes of quests, you are out.
Then the whole “maw-walker”, “champion”, snowflake mentality.
All they had to do was say, “living mortals don’t belong in the realm of death, that is why we were able to escape”. Thrall, Baine, Jaina, Anduin got caught holding back the enemy while a bunch of us escaped through … or the Jailor just trapped them as we were escaping. … but nope. “Maw walker”, who leaves the inescapable zone at will, periodically throughout the campaign. Then the covenant’s join us and can seemingly come and go too.
The biggest issue is that the story makes no sense. I shouldn’t need the book to understand what is happening in game.
I agree they shouldn’t need 15 years of history for new players, but the expansion should stand on it’s own, and explain what is going on…in-game.
Sure, as is most everything in the forums. Just like your post. Opinion.
But that’s what they choose to do. There’s a lot to appreciate in this game, and many appreciate different things.
Most players I think treat the World of WoW like Clark Griswold.
They’re here for the endorphin hit of bonking the monsters, getting gear, coming back and bonking them harder. There’s visceral joy in leveling up and going back to beat the tar out of Mor’ladim…repeatedly…to the chants and cheers of the folks leveling nearby who inevitably get clobbered by him.
No doubt some want to just wander around, picnic on a floating rock in Nagrand or do whatever. But I don’t think that’s the majority of the players. Disneyland visitors enjoy the buildings, the sets, the ambiance of the environments, IF they notice them at all, but mostly they’re there for the rides.
That’s why the new players start at the “end”. So that they can ride those rides with the other players. This game is MUCH better with a bunch of other people, whether you group with them or not. Wandering around an empty Ironforge is not what the game is about, no matter how majestic it is.
That’s so sad.
But I also think it is false otherwise there would not be dedicated RP servers.
That is not even close to what I said.
The initial experience includes questing gameplay.
Anyone who goes to a park mainly for the rides goes to an amusement park, not a theme park.
But this is a good analogy because folks who choose Disneyland at their significantly higher prices over, say, Knott’s Berry Farm, do it for the whole package including the themeing and unique experiences it provides as well as the rides.
No, it isn’t.
They start as the end because Blizzard forces them into it because the current regime does not care about immersion, role-play, lore, ect.
I love having other people in the world because it makes it more alive and leads to some pretty entertaining interactions.
It is not an either/or situation.
I have never seen an empty Ironforge. And I play at all hours due to sleep issues.
But regardless, that experience is a part of what the game is all about.
I am not advocating throwing out BfA, Shadowland, and end game experiences, I am just saying it is not the whole package, and they are cheating new payer out of that whole package with their current design for them.
So many contradictions and plotholes I could write a book on them…
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The basic plot of BFA: starting a world war after literally signing a peace agreement; all over a rock… this could be solved by making N’zoth and his madness responsible… but nope, it was just Azerite that drove both factions previously at peace to just throw ALL their finances into a war… bonus points if you actually MADE Azerite secretly the Old god’s blood.
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Half or more of SL’s lore which contradicts WotLK and Cata and Legion events (like Ardenweald showing Ursoc as a Wild seed when we last saw him at peace in the Emerald Dream, which IS the afterlife for Wild gods and Azerothian animals as dictated by several old sources and Legion).
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Characters flip-flopping personality, morality, and motivations as the plot DEEMS it necessary… prime example: Sylvanas flipping from a complete narcissist to a caring anti-hero of sorts every half expansion…
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I still chuckle at Thalyssra saying they don’t want to make the same mistake they did with Elisande and proceeds to follow Sylvanas and assist in the faction conflict. After the burning of Teldrassil she should have been…
Also annoying were the Highmountain Tauren getting involved despite everything that had transpired being the antithesis of their culture. It was only recently they started using claws from the animals they killed because they believed the animals needed them in the afterlife. I don’t recall the exact details, but it was part of the leatherworking quest and it was pretty interesting and good incite to who they were as a people. Oh, and a culture/race blessed by Cenarius is going to support the person who just tried to kill his star pupil? 
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Personally, I don’t like the idea of monetizing an understanding of the lore behind books and other outside-of-game outlets.
The story will feel fragmented if important moments in it are reserved behind another paywall that isn’t already included in the monthly sub.
I might consider reading the books if they were available for free for people with an active subscription. But, alas, they’re not.
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