BfA taking your character for Cringe animations

We clearly have different ideas about whether or not this method of story telling ‘works’.

I will continue to argue that because the story is telling the player something that is fundamentally untrue, it is not convincing, and therefore does not work. If the only way for the fantasy to persist is to pretend that you truly are the only person Magni is referring to as the Champion of Azeroth and that no other person, player, or character is experiencing it, then this the story is attempting to do something that is impossible.

If it’s your stance that it works because you can simply pretend that your story is unique when it obviously isn’t, then I can’t change your mind.

I bring up the scale of what it means to be the Chosen One in comparison to the much more mundane murder mystery story because the scale is what matters. One player leveling from beginning to end may not have gone through the same zones. It’s possibly they don’t go through zones at all. Not every player experiences Westfall because it’s not necessary. But every player experiences being given the Heart of Azeroth because that is necessary.

You cannot tell the player they are alone among millions for doing the same thing the other millions of players are doing. That is why his method of story telling does not work. It can never truly be delivered.

So when you kill a specific target in a quest and then you see another player coming in obviously about to do the same thing, do you not realize that your story has to be different from that other player’s story or do you think the guy you just killed canonically revived in order to be killed by that other player?

If you’re ok with that because of the scale, then I think that’s just “cherry picking.” If my story is unique when killing a specific target and saving a village, then it can be unique when handling the most powerful one-of-a-kind weapon in the universe and saving the universe.

This word is very overused. It makes me wince.

If you’re willing to place killing some named Quillboar champion in the Barrens on the same level as wielding the one-and-only Heart of Azeroth, that’s fine. You can call it cherry picking if that satisfies you.

Me in Legion: Systematically raising dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of beings into undeath and assaulting Light’s Hope Chapel

Magi in BfA: Ohh Champion! I love ye! Yer a child of Azeroth!

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It’s about continuity. It starts with the quillboar champion and moves on to heart of Azeroth. That quillboar champion is also one of a kind.

If your story is unique at the beginning, then it cannot suddenly become not unique in the end.

The continuity you’re trying to argue for is not at all vital.

I couldn’t be less interested in arguing the difference between battling a named Quillboar and being the Champion of Azeroth as far as what impact that has on the game, narrative, and player experience or how one leads into the other, though.

The continuity is part of the story. If that’s not vital, then the story is not vital and your complaint is meaningless as there is no reason to care if someone else has heart of azeroth when there is no meaning to it.

To be fair, that’s my complaint with WoW’s story, especially with how much freedom you have in doing the order of the quests, making the story less meaningful.

One of them I saw was my character with a bored look on her face. I forget the one but seriously, it was can we hurry this up look. Seems whenever I see her face close up it looks like she is depressed. Like she has seen way too much and is just tired of it all.

Except when I do those idiotic selfi missions. Then she does that fake laugh… like she is forcing herself to laugh. I swear she gets no joy in things anymore… other than cooking gnomes.

The continuity isn’t at all vital outside of an expansion’s life. The game doesn’t bother to fill you in if you weren’t there for it. If continuity were vital, Blizzard wouldn’t offer catch-up character boosts for new players signing up to play the latest expansion and skip all of those events that made up your character’s “rise to power”.

So when I say the continuity isn’t vital, that’s what I mean. Anything before Battle for Azeroth is absolutely frivolous to the present story. Characters can get right into the game without having done any of the prior content, and so none of that continuity exists at all. The story is still there, and it’s still awful.

My problem isn’t that the Heart of Azeroth exists or that someone has it. My problem is that everyone has it.

One adventurer’s story might take them through the Barrens, then into Ashenvale, and then hop over to the Eastern Kingdoms and go into the Plaguelands. Another might have started in Brill, progressed into SIlverpine, all the way through Arathi Highlands before catching a boat to the Thousand Needles and into Silithus.

So, sure, maybe more than one character can have that confrontation with a Quilboar warlord in the Barrens, but a lot of players didn’t, and many still haven’t. Another player might’ve had the same zone progression as you did, but you wouldn’t know. What you did, who you helped, wrongs you righted and enemies fought could be entirely different.

But we don’t have that. We have every character railroaded through the same narrative. You are the Garrison Commander. You are the Order Hall leader. You are the Champion of Azeroth. I don’t have to consider whether or not another player did the same things as me because I already know this is the same narrative laid upon everyone.

A “Chosen One” narrative in a shared world does not work if you have to pretend the overall narrative doesn’t apply to everyone else around you.

And it would be meaningless in the next expansion if the continuity doesn’t mean anything. Do you see what I mean? Sooner or later, you can boost past the HoA and you will have player characters who never had that HoA. If continuity doesn’t matter, then nothing matters.

But if continuity matters, then it makes sense why when you boost a character, the story treats you like you’ve done something even though in game play your character is just a brand new character.

We already know the Heart of Azeroth will be meaningless next expansion so it sounds like you’re already asserting that the story is pointless and I don’t agree with that.

The world itself can have its story. It doesn’t need to revolve around the player character.

I don’t understand the continued disconnect with this point. We’re in the weeds, so it might be faster if I pose this question to you:

Is the Chosen One style of player-centric narrative the only type of story Warcraft can tell?

No, but that has nothing to do with whether it works or not. If you don’t like it, then you don’t like it and I won’t argue with you on your preference.

But if you’re going to assert whether something works as a narrative, then you have to be consistent throughout the narrative. If it’s a unique story from the beginning, then it can (and should) continue to be unique, so it does not matter if you’re “the chosen one” or not.

I miss the story back in MoP where the player character was just some random adventurer, not a demigod that all of the major lore characters worship.

I kind of liked when Illidan spoke to your character after finishing Legion, but that’s about it.

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oh my friend…thats not cringe, do u wanna know what true cringe is? is when you are a dk that for some really dumb reason its affected by jaina last phase mechanic, dks dying by getting cold? really? this sounds as dumb as ragnaros getting killed by fire magic

We don’t agree on what works and what doesn’t so at this point the only thing we can do is try and find what we do agree on.

As I’ve said, the Chosen One narrative falls apart when it asks the player to pretend that they aren’t sharing the same space with other Chosen Ones. I can’t make it more clear than that.

And as I’ve said, you’re already pretending from the beginning. You’d have to be ignorant if you don’t think another player can do the same quest you’re doing.

Your story is unique, so the other players don’t have to be the chosen ones in your story regardless of what gear they have.

I don’t understand how you think one player’s story is unique from another’s when everyone gets the same experience.

Magni calls you Champion, you are bestowed the one-and-only Heart of Azeroth, you kamehameha N’zoth in the end.

This is the narrative for each and every player.

Where is the uniqueness?

At least you didn’t spend that entire cinematic in ghost wolf form :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

The WoW story isn’t a ‘Power Fantasy’. I am powerless. My character has no control whatsoever and makes no meaningful plot choices. They call me the ‘Champion’, but I am really nothing but an ‘Indentured Servant’.

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