Why is gameplay > lore?

[bison91]

Because World of Warcraft is at its a core, a game.

Sure as a game, it puts much more weight on lore, and that lore is usually what drives the game in the first place, but what most people have to recognize is that World of Warcraft is fundamentally a game.

All the best lore in the world won't compensate for the fact that your game sucks.

CoD is a good example of a game with no lore that succeeds. World of Warcraft simply incorporates more lore into their gaming experience.

Also, regarding not having lore events, time and resources are vital. Game developers have to decide whether to implement events that have lore or not, so the dimension of acceptability and feasibility is introduced. Sure having more events is nice, but it has to meet the bottom line of whether it enhances the gaming experience or not.

Lore compliments the game; not the other way around. Lore serves the game; not the other way around.

cod does have scenario in all of series...its the battlefield who started lore with bad company-2 and bf3

[Karrosene]

There are blue posts that justify that the reason why certain events aren't shown in game is because Blizz believes that the gamplay is more important than the lore. Therefore, implementing the events in the game, for lore's sake, would mess with the gameplay. However, one of the many things that make videogames such a unique medium is that gameplay is the lore. The way characters act, react, and pretty much all the action establishes progression and characterization. Why bother having books, comics, other mediums that deeply affect the lore instead of just containing them as asides or isolated events that help characterize individuals? Why not focus on the gameplay first and have the lore spring from the encounter design instead of treating them as separate things?

A good example.....Resurrection is very rare in lore, but in game play every adventurer knows how to do it.

[Temp name]

Mostly everyone cares about how the game plays, only a few people care about what random NPC#37 says. It's really that easy.

[Arrashi]

Because great gameplay can carry bad or non-existent story.
But if you have horrible gameplay and even greatest story, most people will just watch let's play.

[Halicia]

A good example.....Resurrection is very rare in lore, but in game play every adventurer knows how to do it.

and to go even broader, 'heroes' are fairly rare populationwise, but every player happens to be one... because noone really wants to play the peasant.

while i'm generally cool with there being little lore or storyline in the game (at least the MMO genre), what they've been doing with the books is silly.

most notably in cata, everyone gets sent on this epic questline to 'save thrall', and then you're left wondering 'who the !#@$ is this chick talking with thrall ?'

they constantly harp on all the resources it takes to create cinematics, etc... but cant spend a line or two of quest text introducing a character that is pivotal to the scene ?

[Eats Compost]

Because between books, film, other media and games, games are traditionally the worst at telling stories, particularly where the story isn't actually interactive. The games with the best stories almost always rely heavily on that interactivity, either through a high level of immersive gameplay or by making player decisions impact the story, or just by forgoing most interactivity outright, as is the case with visual novels (which are arguably not games at all). It's just not a good area of focus for MMOs in general or WoW in particular, because they/it can't realistically afford to do either of those things well.

On top of that, WoW doesn't have a particularly good story by any measure. Good settings and in-game history, yeah, but the story as we see it unfold ranges from "nothing spectacular" to "pretty bad". There's a whole range of reasons for that; too many characters to deal with, two factions to write for with an unwritten rule that neither one of them is allowed to be the villain and yet they must both fight eachother, a requisite to explain anything that appears for gameplay reasons and, of course, the fact that it's an MMO, which bodes poorly in itself. That lack of quality, for reasons that may well be outside of Blizzard's control, makes it a poor area to invest a lot of time in.

There's a good many reasons that lore is secondary, and I wouldn't disagree with any of them. The double whammy is that, generally speaking, less people care about story anyway.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

Because MMORPGs are one of the worst genres for good lore- and storytelling

[The Kao]

There are blue posts that justify that the reason why certain events aren't shown in game is because Blizz believes that the gamplay is more important than the lore. Therefore, implementing the events in the game, for lore's sake, would mess with the gameplay.

Imagine the following. Let's say the Blood Elves had enough of the Horde after SoO and opt to re-join the Alliance. Sylvanas and the Forsaken take that as a pretense to leave the Horde as well, but stay on their own. Would be fine and exciting lore-wise, but what about actual gameplay? All Blood Elf players are suddenly Alliance, can't interact with their Horde guilds and non Blood Elf friends anymore. Forsaken wouldn't be part of Horde or Alliance, and basically be a very weak stand-alone faction that would struggle to get enough players for anything.

See why it doesn't work that way? It's a game. Games work with rules, and lore or story can sometimes go strictly against the logic of these rules, even if it would improve the quality of lore.

[Deleted]

Lore doesn't keep you playing, gameplay does.

[Wildtree]

WoW would have to be similar to the Battle for Middle Earth games, I suppose...
Where you had the option to play campaigns that are directly lore reenactments.Or you play open campaigns where nothing is lore bound other than the races and the lands..
WoW is for that matter the latter......

[cncrules45]

Because that's how Blizzard chose to develop WoW. Gameplay > Lore is one of their core values. They recognize that you can develop different ways, but they chose not to. There was a pretty interesting Blizz post on this a few months back.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Because you play the game, not the lore
I don't even understand people who are interested in the lore, all honestly. It's pretty irrelevant when it comes to how enjoyable your raid or pvp content is.

In YOUR opinion.

Killing the Lich King felt more epic to me than to people like you I guess since I actually know what Arthas went through, his story and everyone affected by his reign of terror. So you saying for a fact that it's irrelevant, is simply wrong. If there's no story that I care about in a game, I will lose interest eventually. WoW strikes a pretty good balance to me and SHOULD value gameplay before lore, but that doesn't mean people are blind and void of interest in it...

I love the Warcraft universe, the lore of other mmos never manages to capture me the same way.

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On top of that, WoW doesn't have a particularly good story by any measure IN MY OPINION..

Fix'd. People need to learn that their opinions aren't facts.

[Gimlix]

Cause people play the game to enjoy it, not to learn something.
But i gotta say i love the Lore of World of Warcraft!

One of the best games with good lore.