The Problem With WoW's Storytelling

Community General Discussion
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There is one major problem with the way that the story is told in World of Warcraft, and that is the linearity of the story. Each expansion is a progression forward in not only space, but also time, becoming a fully isolated experience that only serves to further disconnect you from what should be the main point of the game: The WORLD of Warcraft. You are simply dumped on an island that you know nothing about and given some busy work for characters you have never met. Half the time, the quest givers don’t even bother to tell you WHY you are doing these mundane tasks, so it must not be that important. You might as well not even bother to read the quest text, and most players don’t. The irony is that you are supposedly the legendary grand champion of ages, hero of Azeroth, the literal god himself, and here you are picking daisies for NPCs who are too busy standing around doing nothing to do it themselves. Why? Maybe it’s just REALLY important to this NPC that you never met 5 minutes ago. I don’t feel any kind of emotional attachment to the setting or any of these characters. The game simultaneously makes you feel unimportant, while giving the important roles to NPCs you are not emotionally invested in.

Maybe it is just a Dragonflight problem, as prior expansions at least pretended to care about the world you are supposedly inhabiting by giving you a reason to explore the actual world of Warcraft. Cataclysm was a perfect example of this, albeit not executed in the best possible way. It took you back to Azeroth, and showed actual world-changing events happening. So not only did we have a familiar setting, but we also had a clear progression of events. The problem, of course, was that it was implemented in such a way that we had no way of experiencing the world before those world changing events. Meaning that for new players, you experienced the aftermath of those events, without having anything to compare it to what it was before. This becomes a huge problem when you realize that if you want to truly explore the “World of Warcraft”, you have to go back in time. And it should also be pointed out that these world-changing events happened not during the game as you play, but in a quick 30 second cinematic outside of the game and by extension outside of player input. This is a problem that has persisted until now, especially through Battle for Azeroth, which although it again gave you reason to revisit the world of Warcraft, took all player agency out of the equation as you merely sat back and watched events unfold through cinematics. Instead of you being the main character, you were merely a spectator to the actual actors in the game, the NPC characters.

Dragonflight continues this trend of uninteresting storytelling. Why should my character, an Orc from Durotar, care at all what happens on some remote dragon island? It sort of makes sense if you choose the route of making a Dracthyr character, since you want to know more about the history and land of the Dracthyr. But if you didn’t opt into that, you have virtually no investment into what happens on the Dragon Isles, outside of a kind of morbid curiosity. The island itself feels entirely disconnected from the rest of Azeroth. Storywise, up until a few minutes ago, nobody even knew this island existed. Are there some kind of untold riches to be gained? Some kind of mythical artifact of mass destruction? Some unknown existential threat? No? Just some dragons having a petty beef with other dragons? Ok. I guess I’ll tag along and watch it unfold, because why not?

TL;DR: The “World” of Warcraft feels empty, devoid of life, and stuck in time.

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This in this 3 expansions is what the stupid Danuser answered the same crap in various interviews with content creators.

It really is worse, and bad in the case that it seeks to lengthen the same villain and enemy that only at the end you will only listen, what is to come.

From Old gods, Sargeras and Zooval the Jailer, and the next villain to come is already too long to go on and be in the same mystery that is losing meaning, something like they did with the zombie threat that ruined the Walking Dead series.

By the way characters with edgie or dark lore like Demon Hunters ends something that is already out of context in Azeroth, it becomes ridiculous to classes that some loved for his style.

That’s why no, I don’t give it hope, but at the same time because of the bad state of WoW I just hope that 10.1 and 10.2 don’t make the same mistake as 9.1, otherwise, let’s hope that Blizzard still has the strength to achieve something good in the next expansion.

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Yeah the whole “what is to come” thing is wearing thin at this point. Like there will eventually be a real threat. Soon. But not this expansion. Or the next one… Or the next one… :sleeping:

It is also quite revealing that they place player choice as being secondary to the Multiplayer aspect of the game because they fear other players abusing the storytelling mechanics. The simple work-around to this is that you have a singleplayer-ish campaign with real choices that do not affect other players. There is no reason why one player’s story progression should have to affect another player, and they already have systems in the game which avoid this problem, like Chromie time.

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It is that here the problem is the setback and rejection of a content that Blizzard was doing well in the case of lore and history.

a point as I mentioned since the Cataclysm was turning dark and serious as a part of our character’s advancement in each expansion and the conflict of the war, and each quest leads us to that feeling of sadness, tears and joy as it was with MoP and Legion.

All good for the classes, gameplay, lore, style everything was an evolution given something that was equal to what Final Fantasy XIV gave in our classes, lore and gameplay, but then he saw before the refusal that there was from Sylvanas and the burning of Teldrassil in BfA, the stupid news devs began to backtrack little by little from what they wanted to be a pointless vanilla and worse development than what would be reflected in oldschool runescape, only that Runescape is a server classic, and WoW is in the Real.

So, arriving at Dragonflight, all that evolution was lost, being another vanilla but with a lack of faction warfare in the lore that lost the essence of the game, something like Wokecraft.

Like the gameplay where the RPG in a Dungeon really got lost becoming worse than Shadowlands World quest, that like the one where the Springans put into a shrinking sack and make it eat one of the birds in Ardenweald, and for To top it off it gets impossible to do if you have high ilvl like the first quest for venomhide ravasaur mount.

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Patch 10.05. We haven’t even got into the story yet.

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I have heard this same exact excuse being used for the last 19 years.

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The idea that the expansions main plot isn’t part of the initial expansion launch is in large part the problem.

It means that the story is very likely not finished and they are just making it up as they go.

Making it up as they go is how we had to endure somewhere along the lines of 6 years of terrible night elf stories as they tried and mostly failed at wrapping up the Teldrassil disaster, which was another thing that was likely poorly thought out.

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The illusion of a living breathing world has been shattered by time as development cycles are not quick enough to keep the game feeling fresh.

I think it feels disjointed, the story is no longer a hook that immerses you into the world… the focus for years has been “repeat social interactions”… aka raid/M+ or quit.

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Well that and Blizzard has become a revolving door when it comes staff including writers and designers. You had all the remaining core people jump ship with Morhaime, then there was the circus of all the recent controversies leading up to worker strikes and lawsuits (which is why MSFT stepped in with a buy offer)

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Here’s an actual AI generated TL;DR:

The main problem with World of Warcraft’s storytelling is its linearity, with each expansion being an isolated experience that disconnects players from the game’s world. Quests often lack context, and players feel unimportant and emotionally detached from the setting and characters. The recent expansion, Dragonflight, continues this trend with an uninteresting story that lacks investment from players. The world feels empty, devoid of life, and stuck in time. Past expansions like Cataclysm tried to give players a reason to explore Azeroth, but it was implemented poorly, leaving new players with no way to experience the world before world-changing events. Battle for Azeroth also took player agency out of the equation, making players mere spectators to NPC characters’ actions.

I agree with OP’s take.

My own preference is that I wish the world was more of a true sandbox like Vanilla (so, basically, no xpac length story). I liked major NPCs just being figureheads chilling in Theramore or Stormwind Keep.

Anyway, here’s the AI’s take on how to spice things up:

  1. More dynamic quests: While World of Warcraft has a lot of quests that are given to players by NPCs, most of these quests are fairly basic and don’t provide much depth in terms of story or gameplay. By making quests more dynamic and varied, with branching paths and different outcomes, players could feel more engaged with the game world and have a greater sense of agency over their character’s actions. Quests that are affected by player choices and that have consequences would also make the game world feel more alive and responsive.
  2. More meaningful interactions with NPCs: Currently, most NPCs in World of Warcraft are little more than quest givers and vendors. While some NPCs do have more depth and backstory, they are often few and far between. By giving NPCs more meaningful roles in the game world, with more complex personalities, motivations, and relationships, players could feel more invested in the game’s characters and story. For example, imagine if players could form friendships or rivalries with NPCs, or if they could choose to side with different factions or characters in the game world.
  3. More player-driven events: While World of Warcraft does have some player-driven events, such as player-run guilds and player-vs-player battles, there is room for more of these kinds of events. By giving players more tools to create their own events and storylines within the game world, the game could feel more dynamic and alive. For example, imagine if players could create their own quests and share them with other players, or if they could create their own events that affect the game world and its characters. This could also help to create a stronger sense of community within the game.
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Actually the AI goes further and suggests adding branching scenarios, with partial success or failure states for quests, with world content and reputation consequences. Personally, I’d make those last somewhere between a day and a week. It gave an exemple of disabling a weapons smuggling operation, with a choice to sneak in without getting caught, or go in guns blazing but under a timer:

Sure, here’s an example of a dynamic quest that includes branching paths and different outcomes in the style of World of Warcraft:

Quest Name: Sabotage the Smuggling Ring

Objective: Infiltrate the secret warehouse of the smuggling ring and sabotage their operations.

Quest Description: You receive intelligence that a notorious smuggling ring is operating in the area and supplying weapons to enemy forces. Your mission is to infiltrate their secret warehouse and disrupt their operations. However, you have a choice on how to approach this mission.

Branching Paths:

Option 1: Stealth Infiltration
You can choose to sneak into the warehouse undetected, avoiding any guards or traps. You must pick the lock to the warehouse and then plant explosives on the weapons cache. Once completed, you must escape without being caught.

Option 2: Direct Assault
You can choose to storm the warehouse directly and eliminate all guards. This will alert the smugglers and they will start destroying the weapons cache. You must fight your way through the guards and prevent them from destroying the weapons cache.

Different Outcomes:

Success:
If you successfully sabotage the weapons cache, you will cripple the smuggling ring’s operations and weaken their supply chain. You will receive a large reward and a reputation boost with the local faction.

Partial Success:
If you only partially succeed, either by destroying some but not all of the weapons, or by getting caught and having to fight your way out, you will still receive a small reward, but with no reputation boost.

Failure:
If you fail to sabotage the weapons cache or are captured, you will not receive any reward and your reputation with the local faction will decrease. The smuggling ring will continue to supply weapons to enemy forces, making future missions more difficult.

I think that style of content could end up being pretty cool if implemented in a world content weekly cycle that impacts how things unfold over the course of a week. Lots more replay value as you try all paths over several weeks, especially if partial failures actually cheat a little by triggering unique opportunities later.

Yeah, playing with ChatGPT is a blast.

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From what I understand (this had to be told to me so it could be wrong, Idk) apparently that dragon Raz wants to kill off all the titans which means that Raz wants Azeroth dead because Azeroth is also a titan.

As for anything else, Idk. There does seem to be some old god kind of presence in Dragon Isles, it gets mentioned here and there so the story will probably unfold as we go along.

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If it wasn’t so late, I would provide a more on-topic response. As it is though, once I read this part:

…all I could think of was this:

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WoWs “story” is similarly design like the content is.

Bread crumbs instead of any real kind of real or substantial, substance.

If you come here RPing for meaning, you won’t find it here anytime soon.

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All stories are made up as they go

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The problem with Wow’s Storytelling -
two words
Steve Danuser

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To be fair Dragonflight is loads better.

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it’s a massively-multiplayer game…

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No kidding? Read the rest of the sentence instead of stopping halfway. The fact that it is an MMO does not necessarily need to conflict with impactful player choice.

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I think the heart and soul of warcraft left with Metzen. There was a reason the orcs were the centre of the franchise; it was the one unique thing wow had going for it… a fresh take on orcs. Not just beastial savage monsters but making them redeemable and giving them a culture… soo much for that idea.

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