Lets not get political.
1 Like
I never cared much for the story honestly. Booted up FF14, gave the story a solid 60 hours to appease me, retried in Endwalker, still couldn’t stand it. Game’s just aren’t meant to tell good stories. At least not when you’re nose deep in good literature.
So yeah, I don’t care if WoW’s story is bad per say. I only really care when they make blatantly awful choices like Sylvanas anything. Like come on. If you’re going to be that bad with the writing, go back to TBC level writing where there’s not even a story and we just roam seeing a series of events.
2 Likes
I disagree with this take, but it’s also as subjective as all art is.
I think if people really and truly care, they can write a game story to be as fulfilling as a good book. But that requires care that people like Danuser seem to lack. That said, 10.0 is apparently the true and proper start of this Danuser saga whereas Shadowlands was his botched attempt at cleaning up after Afrasiabi. So he has 10.0 to really prove if he’s worth his mettle as a writer or if Shadowlands showed us his abilities and he has nothing else to show.
3 Likes
Not that I’ll tell anyone to follow my lead, but FWIW (probably nothing) I’ve never tried to follow the “story” devs are trying to tell, regardless of what MMO I’m playing. I’m too busy telling my own story to myself.
/shrug
3 Likes
when did the game have this
Would like to know the answer to that question too
1 Like
I miss khadgar.
1 Like
IMO the stories in the first few expansions were actually pretty good. The vanilla raid stories were good. Arthas was good. Illidan was good. Cinematics were great, you actually wanted to know what was going on. It wasn’t the best writing ever but it was at least passable high fantasy with the kind of neat spins you’d hope to see - like the elves turning out to be mana addicts for instance, that’s cool. Not just another good guy elves.
Warcraft had a darker feel and sometimes it leaned into it, and maybe that’s partly because they were limited by the technology of their time to stuff that seemed uncanny but it worked.
5 Likes
Did you see the video with Anduin coming to the Maw to talk with Sylvanas? That was a good story. It shows real dilemas, self doubt, hard questions about what lay ahead and of all people he’s talking to Sylvanas.
It’s pretty darn good.
1 Like
I did not play WC3 as a kid. But I am always stunned by people who describe his fall/his storyline as something incredibly compelling. Maybe I’m missing something, and I’m not trying to be rude, but I just… don’t get it.
Like, when I think of Arthas (and the whole plot of WC3, really) “morally ambiguous” and “complex characters” are not phrases that come to mind.
I guess my point is that I just don’t see the downward trend. Like, this game, the whole Warcraft universe, it’s always been campy schlock with one-dimensional characters more famous for one-liners and cool voiceovers than complex motivations.
3 Likes
I’d also argue that the handling of Sylvanas was fairly good, too. The stuff that came in 9.2.5 aren’t as bad as the last two years, which is part of why I have some semblance of hope that Dragonflight will be good.
We’ll see, though…
2 Likes
I still adore everything with Saurfang. He’s maybe one of my favorite characters.
4 Likes
Its not worse than saying “cringe”
1 Like
Sylvannas is part of the reason I made this thread. They did the - oh that didn’t happen - everything is back to the status quo to her because they were afraid to have her out of character actions have real consequences for anyone.
3 Likes
I still think it’s either because they tried to salvage her from Afrasiabi‘a influence, or because the bean counters realized they make a LOT of freaking money selling stuff with her on it.
Either way, her story is a great case study in how not to write a character’s arc. I sincerely hope some kind of lesson has been learned.
5 Likes
Key word being can here, not will.
Can’t say I’ve played many games with fulfilling stories. The world of high fantasy ruined all of that for me. Not a single game writer/designer has come close to what Raymond E. Feist or Robert Jordan have. I’m not expecting them to either.
That’s my point. Games are very likely to have subpar stories compared to brilliant writers. Subjectivity can be whatever point it wants. I admit I don’t personally want to read an anime story, so I can’t judge. What I can judge is something that tries to be high fantasy, and WoW ain’t it.
Even then I just chug along and read anyways. The gameplay in WoW connected me to the story and lore. Not the other way around.
2 Likes
Yeah. Games can have superb stories but I think it’s also totally fine for games - especially MMOs and other games focused more on gameplay than anything else - to just have serviceable plots.
3 Likes
And yeah, that’s perfectly fair. You’re right, most games won’t reach those levels, especially since there is more to a game than just the writing. As with WoW, one team can carry the others when they slack (like the art team) whereas an author needs to be good for their book to hit those levels they need to.
I do think games can get there, which was just the main point I disagreed with. But it’s rare because it feels like writing is the very last thing people think about when making a game. Not a bad thing, but an unfortunate truth often enough.
3 Likes
Tink Tink 
3 Likes
I may have my qualms with BfA, but the entire cinematic arc from the BfA trailer through to “Reckoning” is a genuinely moving story. At least for me! The first time I saw the beginning of “Old Soldier,” with him in Icecrown? Goosebumps.
3 Likes