Requirement for great villains is way too overemphasized

[Ballantines]

When I bought Warcraft 3 Sargeras and Kil'Jaeden were only vague threats in my mind, I had no idea who Arthas or Illidan were either, I bought it because the game looked amazing and the trailers were mind blowing. It's only after I played the game that I realized how cool Arthas was, I didn't care much about him at first though, I was already having too much fun with the game itself. That's what Blizzard seems to forget or purposely ignore these days, how to make good GAMES, not just over-hyped stories of "virgin lands devoid of war and death" or "this expansion is WWAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Raaaaaaawrrrrr". Ok, not impressed, show me amazing new gameplay not Metzen on steroids on stage.

I would have been as happy with WOTLK if Arthas hadn't been present. It brought us Wintergrasp, much more accessibility for raids and dungeons, huge improvements and innovation in quests systems, fresh and cool artwork (Grizzily Hills, Storm Peaks, Howling Fjord etc), it had a kick ass trailer, it made Titans and Old Gods feel really cool before they started getting redundant with Cata and pandaria, PVP resilience started making sense more, talent trees were hugely improved, I could go on.

It's also why I loved a lot of Cataclysm too, even though the villain was total bullshit. A lot of the side stories and improvements to existent systems and removal of fossilized mentalities (raiding should only be available to those who "work" for it, RAWR RAWR RAWR) were great. What pissed me off was endless old god references, not because they're villains, but because it's an aspect of WoW which I feel they're over-milking and losing focus of other things, like battle pets, to a lesser extent.

I remember looking forward to new Blizzard games because the trailers did hype me with story, but so did the game with its gameplay. I think that's what's most important to innovate on in an MMO, not try to build up some amazing villain every time. Christ, just say "Legion did it!" and that's enough for me, as long as you follow up with interesting things to do.

[Alpharius]

When I bought Warcraft 3 Sargeras and Kil'Jaeden were only vague threats in my mind, I had no idea who Arthas or Illidan were either, I bought it because the game looked amazing and the trailers were mind blowing. It's only after I played the game that I realized how cool Arthas was, I didn't care much about him at first though, I was already having too much fun with the game itself. That's what Blizzard seems to forget or purposely ignore these days, how to make good GAMES, not just over-hyped stories of "virgin lands devoid of war and death" or "this expansion is WWAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Raaaaaaawrrrrr". Ok, not impressed, show me amazing new gameplay not Metzen on steroids on stage.

I would have been as happy with WOTLK if Arthas hadn't been present. It brought us Wintergrasp, much more accessibility for raids and dungeons, huge improvements and innovation in quests systems, fresh and cool artwork (Grizzily Hills, Storm Peaks, Howling Fjord etc), it had a kick ass trailer, it made Titans and Old Gods feel really cool before they started getting redundant with Cata and pandaria, PVP resilience started making sense more, talent trees were hugely improved, I could go on.

It's also why I loved a lot of Cataclysm too, even though the villain was total bullshit. A lot of the side stories and improvements to existent systems and removal of fossilized mentalities (raiding should only be available to those who "work" for it, RAWR RAWR RAWR) were great. What pissed me off was endless old god references, not because they're villains, but because it's an aspect of WoW which I feel they're over-milking and losing focus of other things, like battle pets, to a lesser extent.

I remember looking forward to new Blizzard games because the trailers did hype me with story, but so did the game with its gameplay. I think that's what's most important to innovate on in an MMO, not try to build up some amazing villain every time. Christ, just say "Legion did it!" and that's enough for me, as long as you follow up with interesting things to do.

But thats what they do.Everytime a guy goes mad or does anything bad they say "Old Gods Corruption".

[Deleted]

I must confess I prefer the side stories to the cliche bad guy evil destroy bad guy stories.