Also Golden seems to really want Anduin to be a good role model for her kids which is sweet and all but sorta highlights the disconnect here.
In general I think the hero characters being so relevant has marked a decline in organic narrative. I’ll argue that the vast majority of changes between Vanillia and BFA were for the best.
But one thing it did very well was just letting the player roam around the world and figure it out. For example you’ll hear all about the Warchief and be pointed in Thrall’s direction but it’s on you to find him. He never walks up and calls you a very special boy like hero characters seem to do all the time now. You’re some mook, he’s the Warchief busy doing Warchief stuff.
And I think WoW works better that way. Hell when’s the last time we’ve seen someone who’s supposed to represent a player character in the cutscenes? It’s all about their hero characters. And that’s demonstrably silly since Warcraft is a decades old franchise- any big name has had several different writers with different story directives in mind. They all come off as dumb to schizophrenic as a result.
Keep the hero characters as vague archetypes in the background. Have them direct the story but don’t make them the focal point since they’re not - our characters are.
But your character personally didn’t kill the Lich King. You were part of a unit who did. In Lore the Ashen Verdict is credited for taking out Arthas. It mentions the Argents rallied some champions in the tournament to help do so but it doesn’t name any names.
Now some may think that’s just so the lore can be consistent in everyone’s playthrough and frankly it kinda is. But in world history the great and terrible deeds of nations and organizations are typically attributed to said nations and organizations. The individual participants, for better and for worse, often slip through the cracks of recorded history.
And that’s where your dude or dudette is. Was anyone there to photograph Arthas dying? Sure, maybe some Argents and Ebons know your character did it but any drunk soldier in Stormwind or Orgrimmar could claim they did the same.
No the heroes did, we also took out the old gods, I dunno about horde, but the alliance story treats the alliance like this, anduin and wrymbane treat us like one man armies, I feel like a spartan from halo, We have multple missions where we are the stars, my favorite one is the vault in zandalar, shaw just opens the doors for us and flyn is the comic relief anduin and the other alliance leaders praise us, throught our missions with people like maiev saying that it was better that anduin send us rather than a army that we are more effective anyways, during 8.1
You really cant say we are nameless, the pc is literally the ashbringer, odins champion and in bfa we are high tier commanders.
That is impossible because at some point your character has to be recognocided for what they have done over the years, we are talking about 8 expansions now.
in vainilla it worked because no one knew who was your character, but after defeating big bad after big bad it is inevitable that things escalate into this point.
don’t get me wrong, i hate that the PC is now this big hero of their faction while everyone sucks your feet, that is why i hated legion, we had legendary heros giving you a bigger role than even themselves.
the PC being even more important than tirion himself.
So, where we can go from there?
You can’t be the leader of your class order for the rest of the game.
that is why now i enjoy that we now have to follow bigger names than ours. we aren’t the protagonist, they are. and we can’t pretend that our characters are when we have millions and millions of different players.
And the narrative has suffered immensely for treating the player like that. I can’t be the High Priest, wielder of the legendary Light’s Wrath when there are six to ten people in the room who are the same thing.
Any MMO that tries to make the player the CHOSEN HERO OF THE LAND has lost it’s mind. Because there’s 30 other destined heroes wielding literal legends just idling with me in Dalaran.
Every mmo does this, and I feel the story is better because of it, the story has improved cause it pretends the other players dont exist for the duration of questing.
Personally, I think the success of Classic reveals how wrong you are. Speaking for myself at least, I much rather be the nameless adventurer, like how it is in classic.
I really doubt people like amonsgold and the rest of the playerbase play classic for the story, they play classic cause of the gameplay its vastly different and its “Harder.”
A mix would be nice. I like our character’s having a lot of cache within the main and amongst certain factions.
But I think it should be reserved for certain players that achieve difficult things. That was my issue with Legion everyone had to get the Legendary Weapons. And in BFA everyone is the Commander or Champion. Including my allied race character I just got to 120.
You shouldn’t remain nameless adventurer but you shouldn’t be Commander Legendslayer just for turning up at role call either.
I honestly value my Crusader title and Argent Hippogyph more than any legendary thing I was handed. Because that took actual time and effort to earn. The game doesn’t even need to refer to my toon as some Crusade legend I just feel like he is because I can show he is. Which will always be better than the game just telling me I’m something.
Personally, I think the issue isn’t that these Main Characters are active, it’s that their personal plots are superseding local plots.
While I like Classic’s storytelling and prefer it in most respects, I think there’s space for a middle ground where big lore characters do get to go out into the world and act, but while making it clear that the main plot at hand is still the zone plot.
I remember back in BC hearing about how Tyrande herself appeared in a quest to cleanse Eranikus, and I thought that was so cool. Or the old unmasking Onyxia quest, which was awesome because it involved big lore characters doing important things - but it was clear that -they- were responding to the -story- and the world that was already happening, rather than the story being paved in front of them specifically for them to walk over. I think more situations like that would help both WoW’s setting and those characters.
Now a’days, like how weird is it I regard Khadgar like a bothersome co-worker? It’s the greatest living spellcaster and one of the top time heroes of creation and I don’t care anymore. Yeah Khad evil’s afloot we all know - I’ll get to it not sure why this had to be an email.
We are talking about the story, which blizzard writes as a single player experiance, if they wanted to do a ashbriger story, they would have to gate it wouldn’t they, its literally what you are suggesting.
And Blizzard writing it as a single player experience has made it’s world an incoherent mess with player’s stories contradicting eachothers.
Back when Black Temple got assaulted even if no one on your server managed it. Presumably the Aldors and Scryers got it done. Nothing should hinge on me the player as I may have stopped playing or broke my computer or perhaps died.
But yet Blizzard knows this so the story is simultaneously all about and not at all about your character. Hence why actually being the High Priest or Deathlord or Archdruid didn’t actually matter at all in Legion’s story.
It’s the same now. Hilariously, in the Horde War Campaign you march with Anduin, Thrall and Saurfang to the gates - then it cuts to the animation where your toon is nowhere to be seen. For obvious reasons.
You’re not really important. They just pretend you are. And I prefer the game being honest I suppose.
Thats not how the lore works, if no one on your server got black temple done, that didnt mean no one got it done what, the canon is based on the whole game, not per server, it never was. Lol its like saying mass effect 2 didnt happen cause I only played 1 and 3, thats not how stories work.
Blizzard cant waste money on cinematics like that? Like do you even know how much money it would take and time to add every single possible combo for player models for cinematics? You are asking the impossible now