Story Feedback Meta Thread

Ezekiel-wyrmrest-accord · October 9, 2025, 8:35pm

Hey!

So far the Midnight story has been, in my experience, kind of a mixed bag. Some great, some misses, some confusion. It seems like every other aspect of the game has a meta thread for data/sentiment collection, and it seems like it’d probably be useful to gather story feedback somewhere. I know it’s probably too late to change much, but still, I imagine having somewhere to collate that data could be extremely useful.

Any chance we could get a blue to make a thread?

Ris-draenor · October 14, 2025, 3:11am

1. Narrative Gameplay Feedback
How it felt to play through the story, regardless of plot.

My overall impression after the campaign so far (Quel’Danas through Zul’Aman) is that it felt impersonal.
I don’t feel like an important character in this story. Most of the time I’m just a helpful sidekick with no choice but to do what I’m told.

A lack of impactful decisions (or really any choices at all) made me feel passive and unimportant. It didn’t feel like I had any input on what was happening so I cared less about the outcome and questing became a chore.

I want to be able to express myself through my character’s actions and dialogue.
Wow has done a better job of this in the past.

I want my choices to matter. Even if the outcome stays the same, I want how I arrive at it to feel different based on choices I am able to make.
When I’m given a dialogue choice, I want the NPC to respond in a way that is not an obviously generic, canned response. (Looking at you, Twilight Cult Leader quest.)
I want the choices I have to be interesting. Sometimes there are no good, correct choices. Please put some nuance back in this game. The amount of black and white plot lines makes me feel like the target audience is five year olds and came off as extremely condescending and corny.

I want dialogue options that let me choose who I am and my place in world events.
If I’m a new player this would give me the opportunity to catch up on some of the lore and if I’m a long time player I want my character to feel like they’ve been around a while.

I met Arator in Burning Crusade, but this might be the first time for new players. It would be nice if we could both play our characters as such.
I just finished a whole expansion with his mom. Seems weird no one has anything to say about that.
Do I know the history of the Sunwell or do I need Liadrin to give me an explanation / refresher?
Even something like a character asking: “I take it you know the history of X?”
Affirmative response (skips explanation)
Negative response (brief explanation)
And some more flavorful options that do the same would make a huge difference.

I want NPCs (both quest NPCs and in general) to react to details about my character like class, race, and faction, when relevant.
It feels validating when the choices I made creating my character are acknowledged.

Void elf in Silvermoon? That’s awkward!
Pally or priest talking to Liadrin or Alonsus? Seems relevant!
Druid during the Orwena quest? Nature is my whole deal!
Some Horde NPCs should act a little differently towards Alliance players running around Silvermoon!

These kinds of details make me feel like a character inhabiting the world and not a controllable NPC. I’m sure a lot of this is an Alpha thing but I always seem to find these sorts of missed opportunities in retail as well.

I wish there were more descriptive text.

I really like the, uh, <Ris gestures vaguely to whatever this narrative device is called>. It adds a lot of personality.

I really like quests where the campaign/quest characters talk to me.
If I’m going to be killing X number of mobs, at least help me pass the time by giving me some backstory.

When Arator would talk during the quest to activate the sentinels, it made me want to get to the next one to see what he would say!

2. Campaign Storyline Feedback
What I liked and didn’t like about the plot, regardless of how my character interacts with it.

Quel’Danas Starting Area

I wish there were more backstory on the Sunwell.
I like that Turalyon is kind of unlikable at this point.
I do not like Arator’s new model. The light tattoo things on his head look like nonsense.

Arator Campaign

I mostly liked this but wished it would have gone deeper.
The writing definitely seems to pick up when Alonsus enters the picture. Prior to that it felt kinda trite.
Arator wasn’t raised by his parents but we don’t really get a sense of that, just that he and Turalyon are distant. I feel like we could sort of use a refresher on what the situation with him is. How does he feel about his parents leaving him for Draenor? Why is he in Silvermoon again? Large chunks of his arc could be replaced with any generic young adult Paladin and read much the same.
He mentions his mom once? Twice?
I just spent a whole expansion killing a Void Lord with Alleria and don’t have anything to say to her son who seems very worried about her absence?
I really loved the part collecting the relics in Light’s Hope Chapel. Good character development and insight. Lots of lore. 10/10 more of this please.
Arcantina was likewise a fav. It was nice to see Kurdan and the others mentoring Arator in a more casual environment.
As a half-elf, how does he feel about the Arathi? We’re led to believe half-elves are somewhat rare and here’s a whole race of them.

Lightbloom Arc

The seed Orwena finds that turns out to be the key to solving the mystery just so happens to drop from the mob attacking Arator. Not from anything the player did. This felt very contrived.
The ruttani explanation seemed a little glossed over. They’re plant people that Orwena knows about but these ones are evil? More nameless, faceless villains with no backstory. Got it.
I don’t usually play a blood-elf - what’s the deal with the Runestones? They got no explanation except that they were important.

Cult Arc

This storyline was a chore. Every point from start to finish was predictable and unsatisfying. It was condescendingly simplistic.
Who is the cult leader? The very person we knew it would be from the start!
The cult is cartoonishly evil and not in a humorous self-aware way. “They’re killing innocent children!” Are they going to start tying damsels to train tracks next? Come on. The writing came off as corny. Again, not in a self-aware way.
What is their motivation? Did Xal’Atath promise them something? Are they just being mind controlled? How long have they been around? They just appear out of nowhere as this one dimensional evil cult that I’ve never heard of but other characters seem to know about and assure me are very very bad.
But also don’t worry because the leader dies in a cut scene.
This arc felt the weakest by far.

Amani Arc

I liked this arc overall but it seemed fairly surface level.
I was expecting more conflict between Liadrin and Zul’Jarra given their people’s history and their differing personalities. Liadrin especially seemed more passive than I remember her.
Liadrin mentions being tortured and losing friends to the Amani and thus having trouble empathizing fully with them. That sounds pretty traumatic but that’s all we hear of it and she otherwise acts unbothered. It felt like there should have been more friction or her help should have been more begrudging at first. If she was intended to work through it over the story arc then she got over it so quickly I didn’t notice she had a problem to begin with.
When the highborne/high elves left Kalimdor they were exiles and refugees that became colonizers. That’s a really interesting bit of context that wasn’t mentioned at all.
At the end of the arc Liadrin says she’s staying in Zul’Aman. I hope this isn’t permanent? I just spent all this time questing with her and it seems like she’s now being written out of the main story.

I like the overall plot but the execution of some of the arcs vary in quality pretty noticeably.

I don’t feel like I’m getting much insight into these characters that I didn’t already have. I got the most with Arator but the ending fell short of an emotional payoff because I wasn’t fully invested.