The story is putting off people wanting to try WoW

[Toppy]

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

Not only that their first character skips all the way to Legion.

[Sky High]

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.

totally agree. I think it stems from them trying to make comic book hero like worlds in all of their games. the problem is as you said they have what amounts to archetypes and not actual characters in these games.

[Faldric]

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

I think the SC2 story went completely down the toilet the moment you reach that transdimensional pyramid thing thats supposed to be in every dimension at once where huge tentacle monsters are supposed to sleep. That was the moment where it became obvious that they forgot to lock the WoW story writers out of the SC2 teams rooms. Kerrigan then ascending to godhood and kamehameha-ing a tentacle monster in the face was just icing on the cake.

[Deleted]

"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 high?

My point is if you're new the story doesn't make sense because of the jumping, it's like watching Season 4 first then going to Season 2 & 3 before continuing Season 4. It only makes sense if you already know the story

[Toppy]

totally agree. I think it stems from them trying to make comic book hero like worlds in all of their games. the problem is as you said they have what amounts to archetypes and not actual characters in these games.

Well that and there is some very obvious, blatant favoritism with certain characters just always being focused above others. Anduin for instance was a little shit with mile thick plot armor for years. Kerrigan was just... so much went wrong there. Similar to Tracer I think a dev or two have those characters as their waifu.

In Kerrigan's case her backstory was expanded and she was made even more oh so special, and then in SC2 she's the only character that truly matters.

In Tracer's case, she has the obnoxious personality of a child that no one seems to find annoying, but rather "charming" though in any realistic sense she'd get any room blaring with collective groans. And she appears on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. She has absolutely no personality beyond being loud and wanting to be everyones friend. Honestly she comes off as the games protagonist, the recent event driving that even further home, despite the game supposedly being about all the heroes.

Through it all, its very rare that any character in a blizzard game has any depth of character at all. Even when a character my have a setback, its brief and meaningless. Like Velen and his son. That plotline changed nothing, effected nothing, and was about as cheap as you could get. Artanis had some self doubt, but once more, it went no where and he didnt really suffer or grow for it. At the end he's the same artanis as at the start.

[Phookah]

I literally have known 0 people who have ever wanted to try wow (or any game really) and was held back because the story.

That's not a thing.

[Niwes]

You simply cannot have an RPG without story. That's like having a pool without water; stupid, empty and dangerous.

best. comparisson. ever.

nothing less.

[Deleted]

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

I didn't specify a number just saying some people are put off, whether it is a big number nobody knows but to me the story is important for an RPG

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I literally have known 0 people who have ever wanted to try wow (or any game really) and was held back because the story.

That's not a thing.

Are you suggesting nobody plays games for the story?

[varren]

I think the SC2 story went completely down the toilet the moment you reach that transdimensional pyramid thing thats supposed to be in every dimension at once where huge tentacle monsters are supposed to sleep. That was the moment where it became obvious that they forgot to lock the WoW story writers out of the SC2 teams rooms. Kerrigan then ascending to godhood and kamehameha-ing a tentacle monster in the face was just icing on the cake.

Yeah SC and SCBW were awesome stories. Best lore Blizz has written IMO. I don't even think WoL and HotS were that bad, but the epilogue portion of LotV felt like something straight out of Warcraft (not good). It's a shame what happened with SC2.

[roahn the warlock]

New players...perhaps. Older players, Legion's "story" started to get all MGS levels of convoluted before I quit. Either story threads went nowhere or the resolution was laughably bad.

No what killed any interest in this game for me was endless, gated, boring grinding in dungeons/world missions/raids. Before legion (and WoD to an extent) you did content to your benefit, when you wanted to. Now? You miss a few days and that's the end of progression. I took off in November. There is zero catch-up, an ungodly amount of gated quests and content to do and frankly I don't want to play games that EXPECT me to clock in, everyday and do daily chores just so I can stay afloat.

That kind of gaming is garbage, whether it's wow or not.

Really, I switched toons a month ago and I'm raiding heroic NH

[Deleted]

Nonsense. Every copy comes with a level boost to 100. They start on an airship and get thrown into the broken shore. Background story or understanding of the previous story is not necessary.

[Sky High]

Well that and there is some very obvious, blatant favoritism with certain characters just always being focused above others. Anduin for instance was a little shit with mile thick plot armor for years. Kerrigan was just... so much went wrong there. Similar to Tracer I think a dev or two have those characters as their waifu.

In Kerrigan's case her backstory was expanded and she was made even more oh so special, and then in SC2 she's the only character that truly matters.

In Tracer's case, she has the obnoxious personality of a child that no one seems to find annoying, but rather "charming" though in any realistic sense she'd get any room blaring with collective groans. And she appears on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. She has absolutely no personality beyond being loud and wanting to be everyones friend. Honestly she comes off as the games protagonist, the recent event driving that even further home, despite the game supposedly being about all the heroes.

Through it all, its very rare that any character in a blizzard game has any depth of character at all. Even when a character my have a setback, its brief and meaningless. Like Velen and his son. That plotline changed nothing, effected nothing, and was about as cheap as you could get. Artanis had some self doubt, but once more, it went no where and he didnt really suffer or grow for it. At the end he's the same artanis as at the start.

I can't speak for SC2 since I haven't bothered playing the campaign past wings of liberty, and in the case of Tracer and Overwatch given the nature of that game, I'm more than forgivable with them having favorites. now with WC, oooooooooh boy it that not painfully obvious.

[Toppy]

Yeah SC and SCBW were awesome stories. Best lore Blizz has written IMO. I don't even think WoL and HotS were that bad, but the epilogue portion of LotV felt like something straight out of Warcraft (not good). It's a shame what happened with SC2.

SC2 had some decent bits here and there.

But Wings of Liberty was based on a James Raynor that was not the same Raynor as SC1. Any many of the characters were just terrible. Like Valerian was little more than a Starcraft Anduin. Even looks like him.
Heart of the Swarm rendered WoL's storyline moot while also making the zerg a bit mundane.
LotV was great even if Artanis was poorly done. Just the epilogue was a metric ton of horse shit.

[Evangeliste]

It probably makes zero sense but then again when I started as a Draenei in late TBC, I appeared ignorantly on some weird island with these blue people, crystals everywhere then ran to another island that have mini predator-faced aliens then you run to Darkshore with Night Elves and so on. The storyline prior to Cataclysm made no real fucking sense whatsoever however 12 millions people altogether levelled through that in Wrath of the Lich King without much concern or even phased, put off or disconnected from it.

So I think your hypothesis isn't really justified because when you go from draenei to night elves then further down the line you're in a desert with trolls then back to a jungle area and dinosaurs then off to a bug infested land... That's more confusing and literally no reason to anything, you don't even have a sustained plotline compared to with least with Cataclysm revamp it sent you in a direction of some idiot in thousand needles needs you compared to let's back to this billboard and go where now? Fuck that's a lot of running and I came all the way back here.

I think your statement isn't really reliable because I think the levelling experience for new players can't be phased by anything, they know nothing of the game to really discern stories and such or even dislike it because they will go along with it. That and any new purchases comes with a character boost so any older storylines can't be experienced, and can't become confused thus when they get to making a new character they may not care and go through the motions.

Also what fucked up World of Warcraft when Cataclysm came wasn't the game itself being updated, it's the fact they have to keep older content to progress a character as time passed. What they going to do when they hit 58 to go to Outlands put their characters to sleep and they magically wake up to 80 so they are again relevant in Catclysm to 85? No. That's the fate of any live game. That's more off-putting that players suddenly jump without any understanding or input to a their character like any RPG requires.

[Schattenlied]

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

It would have worked perfectly fine if they didn't do the cataclysm revamp of the old zones... The only, and I do mean only reason shit is fucked up right now is because of the cataclysm revamp of 1-60 fucking up the leveling timeline.

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Dark souls would like a word with you.

If you think there is no story in darksouls you are blind.

Some people may choose to ignore it, but it IS there and the gameworld wouldn't exist without it.

[Toppy]

Dark souls would like a word with you.

Dark Souls has a load of world building if you pay attention.

[ComputerNerd]

You as an experienced player are saying that because YOU do not like the way the story now progresses, that you can speak for new players.
That just seems very wrong, that you can decide that.
Talk to players, rather than using your own experiences to dictate that.

I agree it is disjointed, but to speak for others, on how they feel.
That is where I disagree.

[Kakera]

"I have more posts than you therefore I'm right." - op

[Nerovar]

I don't know what you're talking about.

[FelPlague]

Are you high?

My point is if you're new the story doesn't make sense because of the jumping, it's like watching Season 4 first then going to Season 2 & 3 before continuing Season 4. It only makes sense if you already know the story

most people who join wont care, or will go "wait what?" Then go do research, they cant update the old world EVERY SINGLE PATCH