I always come back to WoW, I just like the aesthetic, the mechanics, and the overall theme of the world. But one area it really lacks behind more modern MMOs is the questing/story experience.
The idea of a WoW 2 has been on the forum for years, but the overall consensus is that it is very unlikely. But what are your thoughts on the idea of a complete questing overhaul? It would likely cost an expansions worth of new content, but they could revamp the questing to be fully voice acted, perhaps add more cutscenes at key moments. Overhaul everything pre-MoP as far as story goes to make things more concise. Give each zone a strong and engaging story that would give people a reason to want to do every quest in the game. Maybe with rewards for fully completing each zone, like mini pathfinder achievements with pets/mounts/mog rewards that fit the theme of each zone. I think it would give people more to do as well when waiting on dungeon queues or the like.
They tried this in Cataclysm. Personally, I think they failed but others may have different opinions.
I will say that I don’t care one way or another about voice acting. Usually have to read the chat because there are many times I can’t understand what they are saying anyway. Cutscenes can be useful but I think they overdid this back in Cataclysm as well.
I don’t think Cataclysm is really what I mean. They did improve some things. There was a whole lot of running around all the way across the zones several times, and they brought a lot of stuff together in hubs. There were some improvements in that regard. And they’ve improved the questing in most expansions since then. I think a lot has been learned since Cata and that’s worth taking into consideration. People learn, grow, and get better. Just because Cata wasn’t the best success doesn’t mean they didn’t learn and can do better next time.
Personally I’d like to see them progress the story in those zones ahead to the current timeline.
Phase them (so people can do the old stuff if they want) and then put some more zone specific questlines in place with modern standards that are less dependent on current events so they age better. Put some newer simple appearances in the quest rewards to give us a reason to check them out.
I’d love that, but it would be a lot of work and I doubt they’ll ever do it.
Maybe blizzard could start a community sourced initiative for story and quest writing as a starting point. They could reuse established assets even (like they just did with the siren isle)
And yet, we get event after event with the same issues. Issues that get hotfixed within a few days to make the event more enjoyable to players. If you need examples, the Dreamsurge, Plunderstorm, MOP Remix, TWW pre-expansion event, Anniversary Event, Siren Isle Ring…
WoW In A Nutshell: A Proposed Leveling Experience For New Players
Goal: Familiarize players with the story and with their class in a quick, fun, educational manner.
Structure:
Each segment of WoW In A Nutshell contains five scenarios (each with a companion selected from the lore of the expansion), capped off by a final boss fight with a group of AI-powered lead characters from the expansion.
Talents are explained at the start of the leveling process, and at the end of each scenario, players can choose their own talents or have their talents selected for them.
New abilities are highlighted, explained, and the key binding process is laid out tutorial-style.
No worrying about grinding mobs or purchasing gear – each scenario (plus end boss fight) rewards an appropriate amount of experience and gear, plus some gold and transmog.
By the end of each expansion, you automatically reach the target level.
Expansions:
1-10: Exile’s Reach
11-20: Artificial Vanilla Flavor
21-30: The Learning Crusade
31-40: Lich King Nostalgia Tour
41-45: Cataclysm Mini ™
46-50: Checklists of Pandaria
51-55: Legion Express: A Tale of Two Dans (Illidan, Gul’dan)
The extent to which Blizzard has let the old world rot is actually really funny.
Like I can go to the Undercity to see it destroyed, covered in plague. Then take a quick run down the road to Silverpine and watch Sylvanas argue with Warchief Garrosh about how to wage war on the Worgen. And then take another quick jog down south and help the Worgen reclaim Gilneas from the scarlet crusade (Still dont really understand this one.) All without changing time lines or anything.
While leveling you can see three warchiefs at once in grommash hold. It really is funny how they don’t even pretend to keep the whole world current and updated.
Keeping the whole world current and updated would come at the cost of being able to play any of the previous expansions. Anything related to Nazgrim, Saurfang, Garrosh, or Sylvanas wouldn’t be in the game. Anything with Varian or Bolvar wouldn’t be in the game. That’d not be worthwhile in the least.
If this is really necessary, they have already shown they can have different variations of zones. It would just have to be implemented better to provide a living world. It wouldn’t have to be all zones either but high levels could go back to older zones and see that they made a difference. I am just not sure Blizzard wants to accomplish this.
Though, I don’t think it is necessary with the different variants of Classic. People can always go experience older zones within one of those variants.
Voice acting might be nice but only if they’re willing to drop more cash on good talent. Even with the amount of voiced stuff now they very obviously cycle through a small handful of VAs, some of questionable capability and others being legendary veterans which makes the experience a mixed bag - one moment you’re feeling moved by one VA’s performance and the next you’re cringing because of another’s.
As for the quest content itself, I dunno, a lot of modern questing despite being centerpost-narrative driven feels rather hollow and unengaging. I’m not sure that doubling down on that quality would necessarily improve much.
Cata quests had a few gems but it’s largely aged like milk. Vanilla and TBC quests with grindy bits fixed (there’s really no need for so many boars without livers) have somehow generally aged better.
