I think it would be great to have a dedicated story tracking UI. Something similar to renown UI in design and prominence. A “tree” with “nodes” of story beats in order that gets filled in as you experience them. When you click a node, you can see a brief summary of that piece of the story (e.g a summary of a group of campaign quests). Major nodes with cinematics and cutscenes have further interaction that will allow you to replay them. For content you haven’t done yet, the immediate next node at the end of each “branch” should appear greyed out, and clicking on that can tell you where to go, what to do, or who to talk to in order to unlock or progress the story (e.g. defeat the end boss of the current raid). Any nodes after a greyed out node should appear blacked out and not be interactable. This would help avoid spoilers while also showing the promise of what’s to come. For upcoming time-gated content, it could show a greyed out node with a timer counting down. Like the current renown UI, it should be prominently accessible within the UI and should have notifications analogous to “you just leveled up in renown, click here to see what rewards are available to you” in case someone is unfamiliar with the system and missed the initial tutorial because they were distracted or overwhelmed (especially in the case of new players). Also like the current renown UI, when opened it should remember the last time you opened it and light up the new nodes you’ve unlocked since then (although not necessarily one by one in order since it’s a tree and also there’s no rewards you need to surface associated with each node).
Current methods of nudging players in the right direction are easy to miss if you’re busy or just get distracted. The quest log has limitations in what information is displayed and how. It’s also cluttered with side quests, profession quests, etc., which makes it not quite the right fit for delivering a continuous story experience.
Of course, there is something to be said for undirected exploration and community engagement, which I’d guess are currently the main avenues for discovery of story. However, I suspect reliance on those casues a lot of people to “fall through the gaps”, particularly new players, solo players, casual players, players who start an expansion or a patch late, and players who take a break.
I suggest this because I have enjoyed Dragonflight so much I am introducing a friend to World of Warcraft via Dragonflight. Essentially, I have become this UI for her as we play together casually. I can’t imagine what her experience would be without me there to guide her. I also think back to my own experiences throughout the years as I’ve taken breaks and come back to WoW, where I felt disconnected and confused and would have definitely loved something like this.
I hope Blizzard keeps moving in the direction that Dragonflight is going; investing in evergreen systems, creating better experiences for new/returning players, providing content and progression at all levels of play. <3