Scenarios - the biggest missed opportunity of WoWs storytelling ?

[Arrashi]

So i thinking recently, why did blizzard gave up on scenarios so easily ? If you remember when MOP was announced, blizzard was hyping them as both re-imagination of group content and new way of storytelling.

...and they kinda failed. While theramore scenario was definately great way to show us (and let us experience) fall of theramore, the rest of them were underwhelming at best. We got:
-Pandas make beer in rain.
-Pandas make beer in island.
-Pandas get their beer party crashed by yak people.
-Pandas get their beer party crashed by...pissed off forest things ?
-Crypt of forgotten kings, which i guess was ok.

But then in both 7.1 and 7.3 (?) they moved to those "recent events" scenarios that definately gave us at least some spotligh at how garry got his weapons, how did the stabbening of vol'jin occured and who the hell is that dwarf chick. And i think it was move in a good direction.

Yet, in WoD we saw a complete discontinuation of this system and it remains only as glorified solo phasing in things like artifact quests.

So my question is, would you like to see the system return, purely for storytelling purposes ? I think that "solo" scenarios, showing us some events would be great way to make the lore more "show don't tell". It would also open many possibilities, like showing us events our character couldnt experience (possibly letting us control heroes/villains and showing us their PoV) and showing us some events that wouldnt really fit into typical quest flow (for instance taking place in other continents).

Oh and for those asking "whats the point for someone not interested in story", for finishing the related meta achievement you get talking lorewalker cho mount.

So what do you think ?

[Aucald]

I think scenarios unfortunately fell into the gulf between normal questing and dungeons which made it very difficult for the scenario content team to come up with scenario content that didn't either A.) feel required to finish the storyline of a zone and thus not an isolated component, or B.) contain story elements so critical the story that they felt better implemented in a dungeon or a raid. So Scenario content in MoP was envisioned to be self-contained yet not critical to the narrative, either; which made it feel somewhat inconsequential as a matter of course.

If I recall there was also some phasing issues that accompanied the process as it typically reused existing subzones within very active leveling areas. With real estate somewhat limited I think they decided the scenario model was better employed to facilitate what used to be group quests or as more epic-feeling capstones to zone-wide quest chains (as they appear in WoD and Legion).

[Arrashi]

You know i was thinking about using them to create something akin to playable short stories. Like in game versions of stories we had in MoP, that would give more context into characters we encounter. Or give more depth to existing factions, perhaps shows whats going in thunder bluff or loch modan at this time. And also (given the ones we would play as someone else) give us 5 minute break from "hero, champion, <insert tittle here>, bearer of <insert artifact>" that dominated story now.

[Edlarel]

Have you even played this expansion yet? Scenarios are everywhere. Any time you see "stage 1" pop up is the scenario tech. And guess what? It's all for story telling. If you want to queue for something, go talk to the belf to the left of the entrance where khadgar is in Dalaran. She'll queue you for any of the pre-expac scenarios.

Tldr; there are scenarios if you look for them.

[Gurluas]

Have you even played this expansion yet? Scenarios are everywhere. Any time you see "stage 1" pop up is the scenario tech. And guess what? It's all for story telling. If you want to queue for something, go talk to the belf to the left of the entrance where khadgar is in Dalaran. She'll queue you for any of the pre-expac scenarios.

Tldr; there are scenarios if you look for them.

First of all, It's a Dragon, and if it was an elf, it'd be a Helf, she has blue eyes.
Secondly... I think they should use the scenarios to tell story from different character's point of view. Maybe tell some of the major events from books in scenario format?

[Zuben]

I liked them, especially after 5.1 scenarios, which added a lot of story to the game. Blood On The Snow showcased how the game could take us to old areas with updated story content without tampering with the zone itself. The scenario structure also formed the experience into a repeatable event, which allowed devs to add additional stuff, like achievements. Even the panda-stories found some use like that.

[Splenda]

I agree that legion doesn't lack content, but honestly I really do miss scenarios. I loved having them be group based and repeatable. I think its a nice way to have both group content and story driven content.

[Deleted]

Love scenarios, it's a shame they are basically old content apart from the odd few nowadays.
Personally I wish each zone had an intro scenario and an outro scenario to tie up loose ends.