The story is putting off people wanting to try WoW

[SirCowdog]

The only thing that a "new" player really needs to understand is that the story of WoW is tied to the CURRENT expansion. As long as you're still slugging through the lower levels, a lot of things aren't going to make sense. Partly because you're coming in halfway through the history of the story, and partly because the speed of leveling(even without heirlooms) means you'll be skipping around the story quite a bit.

I could definitely see how that would be offputting to someone who's looking for more of a linear story. My advice would simply be to tell new players to watch a couple of lore videos that cover the lead-up to Legion, watch the opening cinematics. And if they're REALLY interested in story, to go read the "Illidan" novel. They'll have all the context they need at that point, without having to slog through the 1-100 "experience".

[Toppy]

A good story is a reason to stick around in an MMORPG if only to see what happens next. Blizzard's insistence at prioritizing gameplay over story is one reason why the game doesn't make much sense and lacks an internal coherency.

It's more important than Blizzard thinks and their casual treatment of the lore has hurt the game over the very long run.

They could do much to fix the leveling story without trashing whole zones and continents.

As an aside: Blizzard has put their favorite novelist, Christie Golden, on staff. That may simply be book related but if they put her in charge of cleaning up the game story a bit they could do a lot worse.

Whether it has anything to do with new players being attracted to the game: No, I don't think it's a factor at all. I don't think the game is too big either. It just needs to be organized a little better and thought to future expansions needs to take into account what has come before. Using the entire world in a better way to tell those stories wouldn't hurt the game either.

Well put.

Though Golden themself is often rather inconsistent and uses gameplay = lore from time to time, so we'll see if things get better or worse under their gaze.

Also, didnt the "It'll cost a raid tier" quote come from a dev stating "Story or raid tier", then ended up getting an overwhelming response of "story"?

[Khaza-R]

Can we still call this a story? I mean with all the retcons, revivals, multi dimension and time travel shit you are better off to just ignore it anyway. So I don't think its putting people off. If people cared for it, WOW would have closed down a long time ago. I just hope that if they ever do a WC4 they do one final retcon and declare everything that happened in WoW invalid.

If they ever do a WC4 they need to just skip forward hundreds of years and hopefully start fresh with new characters and settings. There's no way to salvage the damage that's been done since TFT

[Toppy]

If they ever do a WC4 they need to just skip forward hundreds of years and hopefully start fresh with new characters and settings. There's no way to salvage the damage that's been done since TFT

Well I mean, even between the RTS they had constant inconsistencies from one game to the next.

Blizzard as a whole isnt that adept at story telling.

[Khaza-R]

Well I mean, even between the RTS they had constant inconsistencies from one game to the next.

Blizzard as a whole isnt that adept at story telling.

True. I mean, I personally thought the SC2 ending was the worse piece of storytelling I have ever seen. Maybe there isn't hope for any franchise

[Aeluron Lightsong]

True. I mean, I personally thought the SC2 ending was the worse piece of storytelling I have ever seen. Maybe there isn't hope for any franchise

Aside from Kerrigan I enjoyed it as I enjoy most of their franchises. They have their quirks but I enjoy them.

[Ravingmad]

With lvl1-60 following the Cataclysm story-line, we can say that Vanilla is pretty much dead in the current WoW. (Except people still playing at lvl60 max only with OP character which doesnt follow how Vanilla felt at the time... but whatever). Most of the Vanilla raids are now part of the new content from Cataclysm, version 2.0. You get Ragnaros, Neltharion (+Onyxia), Old Gods, Egyptians themed stuff/mobs/bosses. Twilight Hammer being a threat, again. So its confusing. But im not worried. Im sure most new players wants to reach HL content fast to join some friends or do the big stuff if they're experienced MMOs players. Explorers will find a rich yet confusing storyline to have fun with.

[Khaza-R]

Aside from Kerrigan I enjoyed it as I enjoy most of their franchises. They have their quirks but I enjoy them.

The campaign was excellent, I loved the nuisances. The Kerrigan piece is hard to ignore or forgive though.

[hulkgor]

No, it actually isn't.

[Kul Tiras]

Good, WoW needs to die. This cesspit of wasted talent has gone on corrupting the MMO market with its mediocrity far too long.

[Luxeley]

Story/ Lore is one of 5 reasons people play an RPG or MMO. If you want to say the graphics of any pre-WOD content puts people off, I can understand and agree with that. If you want to say some of the older leveling zones are not very engaging or exciting, I'll give you that as well. While I do agree with story is a bit convoluted and branches off here and there like a tree run through a shredder, I don't think people will be turned off by the story. They know the end game is the real game and they are more likely to reserve their opinion until they've raided or pvp'd.

[slime]

I am personally against story elements in MMORPG games, It never ends well.

I assume that would be something like The Matrix where all you see is numbers everywhere.

[clevin]

Whether it has anything to do with new players being attracted to the game: No, I don't think it's a factor at all. I don't think the game is too big either. It just needs to be organized a little better and thought to future expansions needs to take into account what has come before. Using the entire world in a better way to tell those stories wouldn't hurt the game either.

Attracted to? No, the story's not a factor. Getting them to stick around? I can see it being a factor. Some people won't care but others will be put off by the irrationality of the progress.

The thing is, they do a good job in some individual zones. EPL's redo was great for example - you take a journey both metaphorically and for real.

The real problem is the Cata to Outland transition. Before, it kind of made sense - you went from the old world to Outland, came back and Arthas was a threat. But the post-cata old world has events that happen after outland and northrend...... It's odd but I can't see a low effort way to bring it back in line. Cata was a huge mistake in this respect.

[solarfallz]

you want an RPG to have no story elements?
what?

Yes, the idea is that your adventure is your own story. Have you ever played... virtually any MMO made prior to WoW?

[FelPlague]

And honestly I can understand why! Let's look at this from a complete point of view from somebody starting now! First you have the 1-60 experience that doesn't make much sense unless you played Vanilla, TBC and Wrath. 60-70 you're thrust back in time with no indication that the events from here on are set before 1-60 experience (same with 70-80) then your back to the timeline in 1-60 (again not mentioned)

I understand it is kinda inevitable that Cataclysm fucked up the chronological order of the levelling story experience but I have had a few people just quit because the story made no sense without background checking everything

"Story putting off new players"

but... if they are new...
how do they know the story?


i feel like this is made up bullshit.

[Reclaimer]

"Story putting off new players"

but... if they are new...
how do they know the story?


i feel like this is made up bullshit.

Right on the Nail. /Endthread

[Toppy]

True. I mean, I personally thought the SC2 ending was the worse piece of storytelling I have ever seen. Maybe there isn't hope for any franchise

Blizzard devs have a problem with focusing far to much on individual characters who often have little to no personality or are at least hugely 1 dimensional. Garrosh, Kerrigan, Tracer. They are less so setting out to build a story, more so setting out to fellate their favorite hero.

- - - Updated - - -

"Story putting off new players"

but... if they are new...
how do they know the story?


i feel like this is made up bullshit.

Are you kinda ignoring the bit about how the story is all out of order and thus, confusing?

[Deleted]

In fairness I think the overall story is less confusing than it appears to be.

Yeah, the new 1-60 zones happen in the future of 60-70 and 70-80 officially. However, does it overall cause any major inconsistencies for new players?

You are brought somewhat up to date with the new cataclysm intros, but except for forsaken starting zones it doesn’t influence the zones’ story much, really because there are barely any references and going to Outland/Northrend could be a natural transition. Unless you are deeply involved with lore and if you are you will probably understand that the 1-60 zones have their story update just after Northrend. It’s maybe a bit weird that you deal with something interim deathwing (and his twilight hammers) however you could just be too weak.

[StationaryHawk]

Not that I disagree, but what actual information is there that this is problem is putting off a significant number of new players?

[Deleted]

There's basically no new players in wow, only returning players in terms of ratio.