Pretty much what the title says, there are so many characters in lore that are super juiced up, like Malfurion, Jaina, Thrall, Sylvanas, Tyrande, Anduin … and the list goes on, that it’s actually difficult to get into the story with these characters, but even more difficult to include them and also go like ‘‘Hey, why isn’t Jaina helping us beat Razsageth?’’
Honestly, all these characters listed above, and more, can just form the ‘‘Super Pals™’’ and stomp any threat that goes their way, and that has definitely been my feeling towards the story as of late. It’s great that we have quests about their backstories, what keeps them up at night, and the stuff that makes them ‘‘human’’, but they’re not your average Joe who swings their sword.
What the story needs, are more ‘‘normal’’ characters like Shandris, Venessa Van Cleef, Shaw, Captain Taylor, and the like. Characters who don’t have this ‘‘god’’ power to them but are recognizable, and like us, the players… We are ‘‘exceptional’’ at our class in the story, but we’re nowhere near the level of the ‘‘Super Pals™’’.
Having more of these ‘‘normal’’ characters allows for easier ways to integrate them in the current story as supporting role.
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I concurr.
If you’ve been in LARPing there is this bad trope when you see all powerfull NPCs do the whole thing, and you’re just fanboys/spectators. I sometime has this feeling in World of Warcraft (especially about Sylvanas, who really did not care much about player agency…).
It would be better if major character stand down, and let “us and lesser heroes/npc” do the heavy lifting more often.
We don’t need to be babysit by Thrall or Wrathion every two quests. We can deal with simpler characters too.
Also on a narrative point, it feels better when we see a big character we see rarely. At this point i’m sometimes bothered “oh come on, Thrall and Baine Again ?!” it does’nt feel that good.
Shadowlands and BFA were really too much centered about the big guns. Let’s give them some rest, and put others to shine.
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I would argue that featuring then more prominently even has the opposite effect, where they come across as absolutely powerless in the most menial tasks. The intro to Shadowlands in the maw is the best example of this, where the characters come off as weak, but not in a way that makes the enemy look strong in turn, because we, the player, can dispatch them easily. More than that, it makes them prone to inconsistent spikes, like how Thrall magically becomes powerful enough in Torghast, just like Jaina, and it strips them of any illusion that someone like Baine is a chieftain when he’s the one handling everything for the sake of familiarity.
So yes, definitely bring on more low power characters that can grow along with the player.
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That’s why I think Saurfang/Zappy Boys/Captain Taylor/Shaw’s of the world stood out. They are just regular powered folks. Pretty relatable.
What was Saurfang’s magic boost power? Anger. It wasn’t old god juice or Jailer magic. He was pissed. That’s relatable. Zappy Boy was just a rank and file noob shaman. Just another piece of meat. That’s relatable. Shaw? He’s just a damn good spy. Taylor? A great leader.
Being the most powerful super juiced up demigod magic powered ultra leader? We got like a half dozen of them walking around at any given moment and we end up having to make excuses why they aren’t just obliterating anything that’s even remotely threatening to the player character or Azeroth in general.
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I really feel the same way about this, although it’s cool to have a super villain from time to time (e.g. Garrosh), the game would be much more relatable with stories of normal people with normal problems.
Let’s take the Defias Brotherhood for example - everyone remembers them when leveling through Westfall - this simple side story developed over the years into a memorable experience.
Even if something might not be epic at first glance, good storywriting can make it epic later on (that means building a character over years and giving them sensible motives).
These sorts of larger-than-life heroes are what made the circumstances so difficult for roleplayers to engage in Shadowlands.
Why would a character of ours, who is not a hero or champion, ever be summoned to such an ethereal place amongst the world’s greatest and most notable heroes? Those in which our character may not even be aware of.
I wish for a more evergreen narrative where every character feels welcome and allows us to integrate the content into our storylines. “Normal” heroes woud help heaps. This is from a RPer’s perspective and why the community had such an issue even trying to entertain the integration of SL. We were stuck in BFA from BFA->DF launch as a result.
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It’s funny because this was made even more complicated with the inclusion of some random NPC’s like Ol’ Emma and her daughter/drag daughter, as well as a handful of other characters – and then later on, the forsaken and blood elf questlines that send you over to the Shadowlands as if it was nothing. The dissonance in how it’s meant to be perceived and what actually happens is insane, and just cheapens the entire setting.
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This is exactly what the zone quest lines should be for, more grounded stories. Then, have the big expansion story line quests be for the powerful characters and happenings.
It would feel out of place though a little. At this point, player characters are all powerful beings who have beaten and bested gods.
I don’t think we’ve ever killed something like Gods with just our own power
Having overall more stories that are relatable can be good at certain points of the story. We have to remember that this isn’t a world of soft cushions, amazon, humanities knowledge at your fingertips.
The world of Azeroth is harder than most people have experienced most of their life. Death, strife, pain, torment. Magics, weapons, beasts and creatures of proportions that would enslave entire societies.
The ascent of the powers that be on this world is the narrative of this world. It’s all been building, eventually coming to a head in way that far exceed the scopes given in the past.
If it’s purely immersion for you as a player to envision yourself in. Without jest, there are plenty of RP options available to enjoy those points of view.
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Nothing saying that we can’t help normal people in the world with their issues. I think the point is that we as a player don’t need to follow the “big guys” around, there are so many other problems in the world that are more resonable for one “in-universe character” to help with.
Modern WoW has blown the power of the player character out of proportions but continues to ignore what they’ve done every chance they get. “Oh you helped defeat god/titan. We don’t even recognize you.” From my point of view, either do one or the other.
I’m happy for those who interact with RP and always cool to see the events and histories they come up with. It’s just not for me and I shouldn’t have to resort to player created content in an MMO-RPG in order to see the world from the eyes of the many.
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I shouldnt have to limit myself to my own imagination to enjoy the story. All kinds of stories can coexist in the same game, told by the developers.
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Is the issue that there should be more average Joe quests to collect water from the river, herd cattle, or run errands as any normal citizen of this world may do.
Is it that you want that to be the focus point of current content?
There are so many 1000s of quests in the game to be the hero that collects the farmers daily routine. The bankers errand runner. The smithies collection.
The game has provided and does provide every single patch multitudes of all sorts of varied content.
How do you even make the entirety of a patch or expansion so casual that it embodies what this thread was started over. My projections don’t allow for the masses enjoying that.
It’s worth not misconstruing asking for lower stakes stories with wanting only average farmer quests. The setting is personally at its most interesting when it explores its foundations – things like the recent Forsaken vs Scarlet dynamic, or the current state of Westfall and the defias (and how it relates to Stormwind). You can make an entire expansion around it: it’s what comprised most of vanilla and some of cataclysm’s Kalimdor and EK quests. It IS doable, but the last few expansions have been rapidly increasing the stakes we deal with, with the Legion, then Azshara AND Nzoth, then all of Shadowlands.
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I don’t think I have to repeat what I wrote in the OP, right?
My statements have evolved with the rest of the threads opinions and comments. I wasn’t directly relating what I said to your original post.
To be clear. I was replying to Safeguards last comments and Yumuros.
I share the sentiment of OP, I want to view the world from the many and the every day hero. Shadowlands was in an entirely different world, with no real connection to let’s say the “Average Joe” of Stormwind/Orgrimmar/Thunderbluff.
Same goes for the main story of Dragonflight, it’s isolated from the rest of the world. We follow the main characters around killing bad guys, that’s always the main story but the it hasn’t been “relatable” for the “Average Joe” since maybe the start of BfA.
I’m not saying the entire expansion should be dedicated fetching water for peoples crops, Dragonflight has proven many times over that the Blizzard team is fully capable of writing GOOD side stories. But that’s my point, they’re side stories and the main story is so detached from them.
- Helping the Tauren reconnect with Centaur clans (despite previous history). Good, affects the Tauren regardless of where they are.
- Having Fyrakk embrace shadowflame and “burn down” Dragon Isles, could have been good but it has no meaningful impact on the rest of the story.
- Trying to understand the Winterpelt Furbolg tribe on the isles. Good, connects to previously established races that we have helped before and we have a good relation with. There’s reason for us to care.
- Assisting in the “activation” of the Oathstones. Seemingly irrelevant outside the MSQ of .0 = bad
tldr; The main story is the issue, many of the side quests are good (except SL)
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