One of the many topics I see posted on GD is complaints about how Blizzard has handled the game’s story. And it got me wondering how important that is to WoW as a game.
It seems to be divided into two aspects - the lore/story and the gameplay, and those aspects are often quite separate. There is no real story in content that consists of “go kill X or go do y and return for reward”. Likewise there’s no content involved in being told the story of game, which is often done either in cutscenes, cinematics or even in outside sources such as novels and reference books.
We are offered quests with a small amount of information attached but how many of us just grab the quest and close it down without really bothering to read it? And while some other games have been lauded for how much storytelling they contain, I also wonder how often some people get a bit tired of being forcefed story when all they want to do is actually play. So my question probably is - how important is the story behind the game, especially relating to playing the game itself.
And sure, you can try for both but lets just assume for the moment that its an actual philosophical question. Does a logical, detailed and indepth story improve the actual gameplay? Is some degree of immersion in the game’s story important to give the content more depth? And if WoW did have more of that, more immersive story that required you to listen to NPCs as they told you of events, would you take it in or just skip on buy to get that reward?
Me personally, I think that if its handled right, it certainly does improve the gaming experience. I recall playing in Wrath and the thing that has stuck with me through all those years is how I wanted to learn more about the story of WoW, how Arthas figured in it, how he got to where he was, etc. And there was no real hidden agenda in that expansion’s story, no things to figure out - just work through the content and get to the end to face him, defeat him and bring the expansion to a satisfying conclusion.
Again, imo, WoW should not be treated like a novel. We shouldn’t be fed titbits little by little; we should know our ultimate enemy, should know the whys and wherefores and have a clear story path ahead of us leading to that ultimate showdown. Why Blizzard’s writers feel the need to drip feed us the story like they are now is beyond me. I would say to them, learn from the good and the bad, and rethink what you are doing. Because what you are doing isnt working out very well.
She says all the dialog puts her to sleep.
I’ve been rewatching Punisher on Netflix so probably watch that instead.