Players and Lore

[sam86]

Not sure if I should posted it here or general discussion, but I think it belongs to here more because it talks specifically about players view of Lore

Right now, I didn't play wow since last Feb, I do plan to buy WoD soon but still I played for really long time (I started play wow before the patch that made bgs realm-wide, they were still servers only)
So, in all my time, specially since wrath, people who know lore and play wow are getting less and less, before I stopped playing, in all guild, like only 4-5 people care about lore and was only me who really know wow lore, rest just 'like it', and nothing else, lore wasn't big deal for them

What everyone here see ? When you play, most people you meet care about lore or just loot/xp etc ?
Is Lore a big deal of wow? Or it is just something small for dedicated fans, who are the minority (from my experience) ?

[Deleted]

For me lore is a big deal, but I rarely see people in the game that care about it. Especially most of the dungeon groups want just a fast run. I think folks on the RP servers are more often into the lore and make even their own stories.

[Ciddy]

I'm very much into the lore, but I've noticed that a lot of my friends don't seem to be. They all just want to rush to 100 and gear up for raiding, while I prefer to take my time, read the quest text, and explore. Some people in my guild got to 100 in like 2 days and have alts that are equal or higher level than my main.

Although most of the good stories are told outside the game in novels.

[Jaspias]

ToC was an experiment to answer this question. the answer is yes, players care, but to what extent varies.

[sam86]

Although most of the good stories are told outside the game in novels.

Not really, I'd even go and say 40% or less of good story is from outside the game, the game has tons of good story that people ignore (Nothing but the truth, that quest was legend)

[Aquamonkey]

I keep my gameplay and my lore separate. When I'm in game, I auto-accept/turn in quests and skip all the dialogue. It just gets in the way of me killing shit.

I read the lore when I'm not playing.

[Deleted]

Lore was the only thing that really kept me in WoW. Personally the combat systems and rinse and repeat raids bored me after a month or so at every new launch. The re-made zones in Cata was a huge squee for me, and I personally think we got more lore and intrigue from it, although not much. But it's disappointing to see that it's more a side-thing in wow, the lore that is. The lore has to fit with game-mechanics according to them, not the other way around.

[Haven]

Well I can tell that Blizzard sure as hell doesn't care about lore anymore. Why would they, if the majority of playerbase doesn't?

[Sesto]

The extent most players care about lore is what you can take from face value.

Many people complained about Pandaren and MoP because there were goofy pandas. Do most of them know the history of the Pandaren, or even bother to try and get involved in the actual story of MoP? Chances are, no. They simply look at the face of the expansion, decide it is silly, and that's that.

On the other hand, with WoD, it's much different. People look at WoD and see some badass Orcs and their awesome Orc army ready to wreck shit up. Do they know who these Orcs are? Probably not. But it's the very fact that they're fighting with/against "savage" Orcs instead of Pandas that attracts them. The same holds true with characters like the Lich King -- The Lich King is just plain cool, even to those that don't care about lore.

This is why Blizzard can get away with silly things like the concept of WoD. The large majority doesn't give a shit, they just see cool enemies and decide that the expansion might actually be worth playing. Chances are Blizzard could create an expansion based on the return of the Lich King where he rides on top of a risen Deathwing with his armies led by the undead general Illidan Stormrage, and people would lap that shit up just because it sounds cool.

As for my actual opinion on the lore: it's one of the only reasons I play WoW nowadays. That said, Blizzard has proven time and time again they have very inconsistent and often plain terrible writing, so I don't know why I bother. But I suppose there are the rare times where Blizzard really shines in their storytelling, so it's still worth watching just to see how things pan out.

[Arrashi]

The extent most players care about lore is what you can take from face value.

Many people complained about Pandaren and MoP because there were goofy pandas. Do most of them know the history of the Pandaren, or even bother to try and get involved in the actual story of MoP? Chances are, no. They simply look at the face of the expansion, decide it is silly, and that's that.

What about those who know pandaren lore and realised it was even dumber then they thought on the first glance ?

The real reason why more and more people seem to be ignorant about lore is absurd amount of derp in it nowadays. Like the entire war crimes thing. It was so cringy, dumb and immersion breaking that it really made enjoying wow story difficult for me.

[Haven]

What about those who know pandaren lore and realised it was even dumber then they thought on the first glance ?

You beat me to it.

[Sesto]

What about those who know pandaren lore and realised it was even dumber then they thought on the first glance ?

Okay, I'll concede that Pandaren are not that interesting in the grand scale. But MoP lore as a whole was done well, with stuff like the Klaxxi, Mogu, and the 5.1 and 5.2 questlines. But most players don't care and often say that MoP had a terrible story anyway.

[Sarodan]

I love lore but i don't think it should get in the way for an xpack like wod (timetravel) it gives us a change to see these awesome warlords in action.

[Haven]

Okay, I'll concede that Pandaren are not that interesting in the grand scale. But MoP lore as a whole was done well, with stuff like the Klaxxi, Mogu, and the 5.1 and 5.2 questlines. But most players don't care and often say that MoP had a terrible story anyway.

It did have a terrible story anyway. Admittedly, klaxxi weren't that bad, yeah (barring the fact that they're yet another insect race), but mogu? Another generic evil oppressor race of failures. They managed to fail against literally everything, all the time. All the while chanting megalomaniacal cliche speeches. And overall, MoP told us that Anduin can do whatever the fuck he pleases without the fear of consequence because God personally protects him, it made Garrosh character roulette stop on "orc Hitler", one of the worst possible scenarios, returned Green Jesus into the limelight, and made Jaina finally freak out only to freak back in with no consequences. And then it culminated in a carnival of idiocy called "War crimes", which was bad even by fanfic standarts.

[Arrashi]

Okay, I'll concede that Pandaren are not that interesting in the grand scale. But MoP lore as a whole was done well, with stuff like the Klaxxi, Mogu, and the 5.1 and 5.2 questlines. But most players don't care and often say that MoP had a terrible story anyway.

Probably because those things were a "not entirely bad" isles in the ocean of shit that was MoP story. The main focus was still on:
a) lolbeerpandas making shitbrew out of yak testicles and teaching us lesson of pandaria idiocy.
b) Garrosh going full retard so hard it felt it was anime abridged series.
Add to that, that both klaxxi and mogu were more of wasted potential than anything else (Thunder king literally had no build-up and did literally nothing other than looking constipated in trailer) and yeah, it didn't take much (or any) ill will to consider mop story shit.

Oh and also, "have a brew". This got old after 5 quests in jade forest. And don't forget shit throwing monkeys.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

One of the main reasons that I play WoW is fore the lore, the story.

[sam86]

The extent most players care about lore is what you can take from face value.

Many people complained about Pandaren and MoP because there were goofy pandas. Do most of them know the history of the Pandaren, or even bother to try and get involved in the actual story of MoP? Chances are, no. They simply look at the face of the expansion, decide it is silly, and that's that.

Lot of people didn't like pandas because they were very heavily based on kung fu panda, they didn't know lore or even care about it, they just hated that the game had very childish icon for it

One of the main reasons that I play WoW is fore the lore, the story.

You missing my point here, I'm not asking people who see this forum, this is lore forum, of course everyone here care deeply about lore (more than blizz themselves), I ask what your experience in-game, in wrath i was in one of top raiding guild on server, and no one cared about lore like me, few even cared about any idea of lore, just boss mechanics and loot
My question what your experience from interaction with others in game, my own personal one from hardcore to casual guilds who don't even raid, like 1/30 or even less care about lore, as for lore-nerds like me, 2 or 3 I'd say in all my wow time (excluding vanilla/bc, because I'm a) not really remember them, way old, I was still in college even, b) what I recall, people in that time were into lore as me if I recall right)

[Sesto]

Probably because those things were a "not entirely bad" isles in the ocean of shit that was MoP story. The main focus was still on:
a) lolbeerpandas making shitbrew out of yak testicles and teaching us lesson of pandaria idiocy.
b) Garrosh going full retard so hard it felt it was anime abridged series.
Add to that, that both klaxxi and mogu were more of wasted potential than anything else (Thunder king literally had no build-up and did literally nothing other than looking constipated in trailer) and yeah, it didn't take much (or any) ill will to consider mop story shit.

Oh and also, "have a brew". This got old after 5 quests in jade forest. And don't forget shit throwing monkeys.

Yet somehow it still beats out TBC's total lack of story, Catacylsm's butchering of Deathwing and the rise of green jesus, and (arguably) Wrath's saturday morning cartoon villain Lich King.

Yes, MoP's story wasn't perfect. But literally none of the expansions have had perfect stories. You can't seriously say "MoP had the worst lore in WoW" with a straight face.

[Wildberry]

I love lore but i don't think it should get in the way for an xpack like wod (timetravel) it gives us a change to see these awesome warlords in action.

Yeah, let's just burn the lore to the ground for a shit expansion that alienates Horde players!

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, MoP's story wasn't perfect. But literally none of the expansions have had perfect stories. You can't seriously say "MoP had the worst lore in WoW" with a straight face.

No, you can't. WoD exists; however, MoP is easily second worst in terms of lore.

Just because they've gained the ability to portray a story better in-game, does not mean that the quality of the lore has gone up in turn.

[Cl4nK]

Just because they've gained the ability to portray a story better in-game, does not mean that the quality of the lore has gone up in turn.

Couldn't agree more. From BC to MoP, the way they are able to present the story for us players only got better. The new technology allows them to portray it in-game better than ever. But sadly, the quality of writting didn't evolve with it. We have great ways of exploring the lore and how to show it, but the lore itself has never been this bad and lazy.