The player character ass kissing this expansion

[Sigxy]

I'm not a huge fan of how 'awesome' we've become. I actually want to have NPC's I can "look up to" and feel I have more to achieve. But since we're pretty much on the top now, I dread what will come after Legion. And even -if- we would somehow become weaker after this (which I doubt), people would still praise us way too much.

[Gaidax]

With amount of shit our character was involved throughout the years, those NPCs not only should do that but better frikkin' make sure to clean that crack with their tongues as well...

I know there are these "adventurer" type aficionados, but dayum son, we are QUITE a bit more advanced now since the times we were some random footpads taking cobold candles in Elwynn and we are actually ranking members in our respective faction's armies.

[Thage]

You can't kill gods like clockwork and remain an anonymous nobody. This has been part and parcel of story progression in RPGs since the days of 2nd edition D&D: if your story continues long enough, if you reach high-enough echelons of power, you are going to overshadow the heroes you once looked up to. This is no different in MMORPGs except that you have to take into account a basic level of gameplay and story segregation, something MMORPGs are hardly unique in (every genre has it to greater or lesser extent). We're being heralded as heroes because, well, we are. We kill gods, ancient dragons, and unspeakable horrors from beyond the void and make it home in time for dinner.

One of the biggest issues lorehound players had with TBC was that their character, the hero of the Shifting Sands and paragon of the Argent Dawn, was treated like a complete nobody who fell ass-first into Outland by the NPCs you meet. Even taking into account that Honor Hold and Thrallmar were just rediscovered, you would think people who've been fighting demons for twenty years would know a powerful hero when they see one. Since WotLK, Blizzard has been developing the story with the understanding that your character's accomplishments aren't magically reset to "random nobody fucktard who stumbled his way here" just because you zone into a new continent.

[Zandalariprelate]

No, the pattern has always been there. When you were exalted with Stormwind in vanilla the citizens there treated you with utmost respect, already far beyond a hero. A pity I cannot find the old quotes, but I remember the children discussing if "he is the hero everyone talks about" when you pass them, and people bowing down when you passed them. Exalted just meant what it meant.

But I also agree that Legion has put it too far. I don't actually care about the lore, but even to me it seems quite dumb after reading some of the order hall quest text. In fact you have been made "class leader", rivaling even the faction leaders in power since you even stand above factions. Legion you could have called an out-of-timeline event, but I wonder how they continue this for the next xpac. What could possibly follow?

You are still under the command the command of the generals of the alliance and horde, this is importan when sylvanas/anduin summon you to go to storheim and nathanos/genn can ordern you around since they are in a high rank in the military than you in the faction

[Trassk]

You are still under the command the command of the generals of the alliance and horde, this is importan when sylvanas/anduin summon you to go to storheim and nathanos/genn can ordern you around since they are in a high rank in the military than you in the faction

Pretty much, in fact I find nathanos' dialog to be kind of refreshing, him really not giving a crap of your so called accomplishments, your characters just another tool in sylvanas' plan.

[Koryn123]

I only dislike when they gut speaking characters with tons of development in order to give their role to a silent protagonist with no personality. It's not even like Red, Link, or Crono. It's just a blank slate that's impossible to assign personality to. Without any speaking roles, being anything but the quiet mercenary behind the scenes is really difficult to do, especially when you give them the most prominent role in the whole game.

Basically, the only personality trait we can be completely certain of is that the leaders of every Order Hall are insanely shy, to the point that they probably shouldn't be leading the charge against a foe so powerful as the Legion. I take control of the new Silver Hand, and Maxwell Tyrosus is like "don't worry, I'll speak for you, here, have your sippy cup and goldfish crackers."

Is it so hard to get Cam Clarke to come do some more lines for the male blood elf player characters (moar Liquid Snake in WoW, pls)? Well, I suppose it would take 10 voice clips for every race/gender combination to replace Maxwell's leader-lines for paladins alone, but if they're not willing to make it unique at all, why not simply make Maxwell in charge anyway? It honestly feels a bit jarring when he, Liadrin, or one of the others are doing stuff, then suddenly progress stops and they're like "hey highlord, what should we do?" And I'm suddenly like "oh yeah, I almost forgot that I'm the guy in charge of this place."

And Maxwell deserves to be in charge. Tirion just hijacked the Argent Dawn out from under him, and he didn't appear in WotLK at all, outside the DK starting zone, with no speaking lines.

It makes more sense than a Blood Knight being so over the moon about the Light that he's actually willing to lead all the other paladin orders. And poor, poor tauren paladins.

And really, none of us are REALLY in charge. We're all just Khadgar's sidekicks. So it just feels hollow anyway.


I think they should have just had Maxwell be in charge of the Silver Hand, since he's someone both Horde and Alliance paladins wouldn't have a problem with. Then he could actually speak powerfully, rather than talk about us like we're this big shot, when we never really feel like that strong leader, because we never speak. I think Blizzard could have fixed that if they got each race/gender combination to do either the same or a slightly altered line for every time one of the lieutenants is saying stuff like they're in charge, rather than say that stuff and have the out of place pause as they look to their leader that's too shy to speak in front of his troops to like, I dunno, give them any confidence that they're following someone capable?


I hope next xpac, we have racial halls that are either in our home cities, or reminiscent of them (i.e., NOT just a BC-model tent for blood elves, while they make ten new variations of crappy spiky metal log mudhut for orcs), and they just let the racial leaders be in charge. That way every race gets guaranteed development.

[iamthedevil]

We're important. It's not a bad thing... It's pretty much the same exact thing in every other game ever made...

[Jujudrood]

To be fair, it is assumed that every player character has been around since WoW started, so we have defeated (in no specific order): Elemental Lords, Dragons, Liches, Bugs, Old Gods, Demon Lords, Lich King, more Old Gods, more Bugs, more Dragons, more Elemental Lords, more Old Gods, more Bugs, more Demons, more Dragons, etc...

I mean, the average Joe NPC might like, kill a boar or two, maybe repel an invasion of, like, large spiders or kobolds or something, but compared to us, we are demigods, so I more or less expect a level of reverence from basically everyone in the game.
You're damn skippy you should grovel at my feet for my help and fall over yourself in appreciation that I took time out of my ass-kicking day to pick some goddamn veggies out of your garden and squash a few bugs, even if my motivations are more for the cache/AP and less about your general safety and well-being...

[Bryntrollian]

That's way overstated in the case of Legion, IMO -- but then again, I haven't played every single class, and for some of the classes I have played, I haven't gotten much farther than grabbing my artifact. Maybe some classes get more of the god-treatment than others.

Edit: I know paladins are practically worshipped!

You wield the mighty Ashbringer, why wouldn't you be worshiped ? The same idea goes for every other class.

[Deleted]

If we want to stop the ass kissing then they should stop allowing us players to kill powerful bosses like deathwing, elemental lords and the old gods which obviously isn't going to happen as it would kind of be boring if the entire game was us spectating 'the real heros' kill the main villains. The problem is that we're the ones taking out the main villains and therefore that makes us the protagonist or main hero. It makes zero sense for us to deal with all these threats and get zero credit for it. This an mmo so there a few problems like characters who haven't killed a single raid boss or multiple leaders of the same faction but that's whats to be expected from an mmo.

I will admit legion went a little over the top but I would prefer it over but playing an average-joe over and over again gets a little stale after a while. If they want to give us a hero to look up just make someone who's genuinely accomplished more than us/is believably just as powerful as we are instead make us seem weaker.

[TickTickTick]

We've been helping to defeat the greatest evils or doing it ourselves. Gotta give credit where credit is due - our characters are veterans with exceptional skills and experience. As long as the biggest lore characters arent worshipping us its good (and sadly some are... Khadgar 'you are our last, best hope' ewwwww)

[Z-Man]

I find it rather amusing when the shittiest of my alts that I have no intention of playing outside of abusing professions / class hall achievement are hailed as the greatest heroes of all time, and get to wield the most amazing stuff ever created.

And they get to share their private super secret pocket universe with a small army of greatest heroes. The Legion dialogue would have sounded a bit more sincere if they didn't repeat the same lines to every hobo that wandered by. It's like being surrounded by escapees from a home for interesting people.

"You're our leader. You're in charge."
"What are all these people doing in my house?"
"They're our leaders. They're in charge."
"I thought I was in charge."
"You are. You're our leader! Champagne?"

[Woop Woop]

It's about time the citizens of Azeroth recognized our awesome deeds.
They should kneel, or faint when I walk past them.

[derpkitteh]

i am better than them, i deserve it.

i like it.

now, i would also like to play a nameless merc, but that's not what wow is now. it kinda never was.

[Koryn123]

I just don't like being called "hero" and "champion" by every single freaking character I talk to. That's why Nathanos is so refreshing. He doesn't care about our title, because we're just another helper monkey to him, which we always have been. And it won't feel any different until Blizz finds a way to make it feel like our player character has some personality, like for instance, having Cam Clarke (who voices the player blood elf male) record for a male Blood Elf paladin giving an inspirational speech at Light's Hope at the founding of the Silver Hand, rather than the HIGHLORD being like "nuuuu i'm too shyyyyy" and Maxwell being like "don't worry, I'll talk for u, highlord, here, have a coloring book and sit in the corner."

And every other voice actor for every race/gender combination for every moment where someone like Tirion or Uther (or [insert notable name for the class in question]) would have given an inspirational speech.

If every no-name nobody in Legion's lines have a voiceover, I can't see why that would be such an unreasonable undertaking, especially since it would go leagues towards giving our character actual significant substance as a part of the story. Rather than just Khadgar's sidekick that never speaks and is going to "fade away into the legends and myths of Azeroth's history" when we all give up our artifacts because the Legion's been defeated, and it's not like we can be bothered to continue leading them against the next big threat that immediately pops up (looks at Tirion who completely ignored Deathwing and the Twilight's Hammer).


If they're not going to do that, and they're just going to have our character hide on the sidelines all the time, why bother making us the leader? That just deprives the organization in question of its leader and really a lot of its identity in the eyes of the player, who'd see Darion as the leader of the Ebon Blade, then when he happily gives it up to be captain of the cheerleading squad.

The Forsaken have little identity without Sylvanas, and it's much the same with other organizations too, so when they make a mute protagonist the new leader, you don't know what to think of the organization, especially when your race shouldn't give a damn about the group. Like a blood elf mage would never want to lead the Tirisgarde, they'd set up their order hall in the Magister's Terrace and lead Quel'thalas' magisters from there.


Really, the only direction the player has on what to think is from their second-in-command, and in Death Knights' case, Darion is suddenly a whiny weasel who doesn't want to lead. Like, I don't want to lead my class. I didn't want to lead my garrison (from a lore perspective, I didn't like the quests as Commander who had to do everything himself while everyone knew Khadgar was the big guy in charge of everything, I liked the game mechanic fine) because I found it dumb that Thrall was suddenly a whiny weasel who didn't wanna lead anyone either.

[Deleted]

And yet you get trolled and scammed by random goblins. Brilliant.

[Verdugo]

Pretty much, in fact I find nathanos' dialog to be kind of refreshing, him really not giving a crap of your so called accomplishments, your characters just another tool in sylvanas' plan.

Even that was toned down compared to vanilla questing. Cant call the champion imbecile now, that would be rude.

[Deleted]

I do miss it when Fandral told my level 8 night elf to beat it and stop bothering him with my stupid little things in Darnassus. Oh those beautiful trips of running 15 minutes for that a-hole. Made me feel like a true adventurer, a bag of trash!

[Queen of Hamsters]

Somehow I feel like this is not really a problem in an RPG...
My character has saved the world on many occasions, it's about time it is treated as such. It's only when I play alts that I pretend it's not happening seeing as how my alts NEVER did anything worthwhile whilst the content was current.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I think you are worrying too much.