It’s not paramount to enjoying the game. Those of us who wish to opt out of forced narratives have that opportunity (hint that is the majority of middle class and middle aged people who have full jobs).
If you agree please let me know why. If you disagree please let me know how you find time to engage with Lore, raid, pvp and hold a full time job.
In general my argument is based on the premise that engaging directly with the lore should be entirely optional. In wow it is. I can level at my own pace in my own zones without doing one quest.
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Engaging to the lore may be optional but if you opt to do so it’ll still be garbage forced lore…
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I see games like ff14 that do it and their lore is still garbage so I’m cool with that.
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I mean, raiding is usually two to three times a week unless you run Mythic. So I only put 6 hours into raiding. And most people don’t PvP at a high level and raid; it tends to be one or the other.
As for the Lore…it’s no different than reading a book. Only in this situation, you have to buy half a dozen books to make any sense of the abysmal lore in the game. And what is in the game, especially now, so badly contradicts itself and established lore you have to wonder if the writers at Blizzard even know their own story. They made basic, fundamental mistakes with their narrative in Shadowlands through retconning and poor set up, and they’re likely relying on the book to fix it up.
Yes, it is optional. But that doesn’t make it better than a game where the story is connected from start to finish, and flows naturally and coherently. It just means that the story is so weak and lackluster that you can play and enjoy the game without knowing it. Which some people do like, but it’s also not fun for those who like a good story.
Also the myth of maintaining a full time job while trying to play games isn’t really relevant, and I can’t say it ever has been. People have hobbies, and gaming and lore diving are hobbies.
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I was able to follow WoW’s lore until more recently. This SL thing is just…what is going on?
I had that feeling with FF14 to a much greater degree when I booted up the game and even up to lvl 30.
I have absolutely no idea what in the world is going on, but at least I got my dragoon crystal 
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Interesting take for sure.
Just gonna have to disagree since, in the long run, I feel WoW doesn’t respect your time vs ffxiv
Ya the story is longer and the msq is very long but once it’s done it’s done. You don’t have endless systems to grind out and you can do whatever you want. As someone who works and doesn’t have time to game all day I feel like I can do what I want in ffxiv vs WoW.
WoW might have an opt out story but it doesn’t have opt out systems.
If I want to casually pvp I better be a good ilvl and have the right conduits/legendary/covenant or else I’ll get squashed easily and have no fun.
Want to raid? Gotta grind up the systems and all that jazz and make sure I do enough mythics to get the gear I need to be able to raid.
Want to do mythics? Gotta grind up the systems to get the right dps in order to get pugged over a sea of boosts.
Ffxiv want to pvp? Que for it. As long as ur lvl 30 all gear is equalized and everyone including lvl 80s are the same lvl so you can just jump in and play.
Ffxiv want to dungeon? Que for it, it squashed lvl so you will always find a group even in lower dungeons while still getting a reward.
Ffxiv want to raid? Just que for it. Simple easy hard modes and extreme modes unlock later on for added challenge, want to do one boss and not and entire raid do a trial. Simple easy
Ffxiv has no systems and no complicated gearing. I do thing I get currency I buy gear no rng needed. If I want to do crafting and gathering those systems are a lot better and complicated then wows.
I want to chill out with friends I got player housing.
The list goes on but ffxiv 100% respects your time while WoW does not.
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I get what your saying but your also proving my point. You said you can’t pvp and raid with a full time job. Just like that I want to pvp and raid and I don’t want a singular coherent narrative of why the world exists. That doesn’t seem realistic in the first place. I get stories and stuff but an mmorpg is not a book.
Engaging with the lore or not does not make it better or not. The lore is on its own something to review separately from the requirement to play it all. Your issue is with the requirement and it sounds like you have no standing on the actual merits of each games lore.
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Most people don’t. That’s not to say you can’t, and I’m sure there are people who do and can, along with caring about the lore. If you want to do all three, you’ll find a way.
To the point: there should be a story from start to end. They have a team, supposedly, that should be tracking this. Instead, they’re failing at the most basic levels. And it’s frustrating when other games are leaps, bounds, and jumps better than the WoW story in every way.
As someone who does raid and (tries) to follow the lore, I’m at the point in saying it isn’t worth it. The story is worse than most fan fictions I’ve read.
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I disagree with you. The Lore in itself is only one attribute of lore. The other is the relationship it has to the player. If the lore is of an exceptionally high quality in itself but is implemented in a fashion that the player detests then the lore is not good, since we are discussion lore in the context of an mmorpg all such attributes should be weighed otherwise it is a matter of your subjective opinion.
It’s 100% not. By a long shot. The idea that you can chose not to participate in lore at all, does not make the lore “better.”
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I don’t think there should be one story from beginning to end. That sounds like a single player game with couch coop and breeds elitism.
The story driven game style of ffxiv is appealing to me. I feel like at every quest I am rewarded with a little story, and that I am part of the world. It comes down to personal taste though, I think wow is fun too but can only sustain my interest for a short period of time.
I can work a full time job and play ffxiv, the thing about that game is I don’t feel rushed, I don’t want to get to the end of it as soon as possible. I can go at my own pace, with no feeling of FOMO. With that said, I am helplessly addicted to it and can easily spend four hours a day playing, more if I have the day off.
With WoW, the story doesn’t feel as integrated into the game. I log in, and have a goal, I feel like I want to reach that goal as fast as possible and to do so I have to perform a bunch of tasks that are boring to me. That inevitably leads to me wondering why I am doing it at all, if it feels more like a chore than entertainment - thus I usually unsubscribe after a month of playing.
It is entirely subjective though, what is fun for me is likely to be horrible for others.
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Breeds elitism…? This entire game is a spawning pool of elitism, and the story didn’t cause that.
The world doesn’t make sense, the overarching story doesn’t make sense, the history doesn’t make sense, not a single part of Shadowlands is good for the story except the disconnected zone stories. And even they tread on established lore, and reveal things that you should often not reveal in a story — that being death and the afterlife. Especially now that we have random NPCs basically taking a vacation to Oribos.
If you like the story, more power to you; people can like stories that are fundamentally flawed and unstable at a foundational level. But it’s definitely not a good comparison to FF14 where there’s actual investment in what’s going on, what you’re doing, and what happens to the characters, something WoW severely lacks.
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You should change the title to, “Why WoW lore USED to be better then FF14 lore”.
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With FF14, you are made to play through the story, which it is a good story, and they are not afraid to use bad words. Compared to WoW, where they retroactively go back and delete dialogue, because some dev’s kid might be offended by calling a girl the b word.
In the end your whole argument is dumb in general, as FF14, the story plays a major factor in the game. You are playing for the story. In WoW, who cares? That’s the key difference. FF14 is not for everyone, and so isn’t wow.
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There is no lore in FF14.
Everythings just a cliche and rehashes of previous plot points in their other games over and over again.
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I just can’t get over how much the women’s FF models are overly sexualized.
Do i really need to be in full lingerie at lvl 1?
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None of their games are connected what so ever… they are all separate entities… so idk what rehashing you’re talking about?
Maybe play a Final Fantasy game before commenting.
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Weird take
If you choose to pay attention to lore in both games, then FF14’s lore is better.
If you choose to not partake in lore in either, this doesn’t magically make WoW’s lore better.
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