Is Blizzard starting to neglect STORY in their games?

[Deleted]

What ho,

The thought struck me the other day.

• Starcraft 2 & Heart of the Swarm - Great story, soon to be concluded with Legacy of the Void.
• World of Warcraft & Warlords of Draenor - A questing-experience which ranges from OK to great depending on zone, but hardly any story at endgame.
• Diablo 3 & Reaper of Souls - Very short campaign, finished in a couple of hours. Decent story, but heavily criticized for being too shallow.
• Hearthstone - Utilizes old lore, but doesn't create lore.
• Heroes of the Storm - Utilizes old lore, but doesn't create lore.
• Overwatch - Has no campaign mode, although it will tell some story via other means, such as environmental storytelling and character bios. Regardless, primarily a multiplayer game using its lore as a loose framework.

It seems to be that right now, Starcraft 2 is the only game that emphasises lore as much as its multi-player aspect - and that trilogy is soon to be concluded with no good chance of additional installations within the next 5 years at least, probably.

I remember back in the day, when games like Starcraft, Warcraft 1/2/3, and Diablo 1/2 were extremely focused on telling great stories. Fun gameplay has always been at the forefront with Blizzard, but it has never gone without an epic journey. Arguably, lore is what made these games popular to begin with.

What do you think - is the Blizzard of the future just an eSports publisher focusing all their resources on compelling multiplayer gaming; are we just hitting a low point by sheer accident; or are there great things to come?

[rda]

Gameplay > lore. Blizzard said that long ago. What else there is to say. Yes, it's dumb that they don't care enough to do both.

[Arpin]

They should focus a little more on lore, me thinks!

[Unholyground]

It just depends, I think the lore is ok for what it is. I would like to see them do a Diablo 3 expansion however that is essentially Diablo 1 remade.

[wariofan1]

Warlords of Draenor I feel does a much better job at presenting its story than past expansions, the cutscenes allow them to tell the story in ways they haven't been able to since the franchise's RTS days. Take this versus Wrath of the Lich King for example, you can say what you will about either expansion's themes and setting, but you knew that everytime The Lich King appeared he wouldn't do any harm at all, because the gameplay wouldn't allow it, therefore he always just appeared to spew some useless threat and he'd leave again. The only time in Wrath that a really big event happened during questing was in, you guessed it, a cutscene - The Wrath Gate one, everything else was just setup for dungeons or raids. Now that they're able to put a lot more of these cutscenes in to tie major plot points together they're no longer under the same restrictions, so I feel WoD has made a big step in the right direction in terms of story presentation. It also has more lore at endgame than past expansions thanks to the so far fantastic legendary quest which is still far from over it seems.

As far as Diablo 3 goes it does try to tell a huge story and take you on a grand adventure, however the story and its execution just sucks. This isn't Blizzard neglecting storytelling, because it's always evolving over the course of the game, the problem is just that they wrote a really shitty story.

Hearthstone was never meant to be much more than a fun little game, and it'd be too hard to write a story around it anyways. Sure, it ended up being huge, but by design the game would never have been able to have a story per say.

Heroes of the Storm is obviously a multiplayer game first, and I'll be very surprised if we'll ever see any kind of story mode in it. Mobas are not that different from fighting games, you don't play Street Fighter or Smash Bros. for their stories either, you play them for the multiplayer experience. Besides, it'd cause all kinds of issues since these characters are already from established universes: Would it be considered canon? What about the characters that are dead in their own universes? Would the story be able to be taken seriously if Diablo and Tyrael could work together? Would the characters be allowed to develop and if so how much? It'd raise too many issues, and I can understand why they're treating it like every other Moba in that regard.

I like that Blizzard decide their games on gameplay first and story second, a game can be great without a story, so there's no reason to neglect a great concept like Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm simply because it's too hard to make a story in them, and neither should a story be forced upon them. Part of why you probably feel that Blizzard don't tell as many great stories anymore is also because they've moved away from being mostly an RTS developer, that genre depends much more on a great story than say MMOs, Mobas and TCGs, and as we've seen with Starcraft 2 they do still try and tell stories to the best of their abilities when they finally make those kind of games again. It's also much easier to tell a great story in an RTS compared to other genres, which is part of why I'm irking for a Warcraft 4, MMOs simply can't tell as high quality stories because of the nature of its gameplay. Make no mistake though, I'm sure they didn't create Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo because they wanted to tell those stories, but instead because they wanted to make RTS and Dungeon Crawler games, the story was then created after they had laid the foundation for those games, that's at least how video game developing works the majority of the time, so I don't think their philosophy has changed much.

With that said, it is a shame that Overwatch won't have a campaign mode, we know that shooters have the potential to tell great stories, and with the unique universe and fun personalities that they're creating I'm sure it could have had a great campaign mode .

[Jessicka]

We just had a WoW expansion built on recycling an old story with old characters and an 'intervention' to have things play out slightly differently. Of course they're out of ideas for a new story, and new characters are just as sparse. That doesn't make WoD's story bad, I enjoyed the levelling, but I am disappointed that the story seemed to end at 100 and ultimately there could have been a lot more to it (and that it is ultimately, still retelling an old story with a new twist).

Blizz though promote themselves as 'gameplay first', but having a reason to keep playing, to see how the story plays out has always been at the core of many video games, their own included. I think they think (and maybe they're right?) that the playerbase has changed and players aren't interested in a plot anymore - certainly you'd get that impression from the visitors to this site who are largely interested in being 'the best'.

Is targetting only that competitive section of the playerbase good for the future of the game? Probably not. We know WoW as an esport is a non-starter. But Heroes and Overwatch are, that's what they're built for and I think they'll do fine. Will they ever have the mass appeal of WoW? I doubt it and it would be folly to try to apply their models to WoW in respect to the detachment of plot from the game.

It's strange because much of the clamour for raid accessibility was about getting players to see the story unfold and how it ends in those raids. We do see that in BRF and Highmaul, but they do still feel a little detached and again, at level cap there isn't any other story progression or anything to remind you why you're there.

[fixx]

What do you think

You're about as wrong as humanly possible and posting meaningless and mindless whinethread. The amount and quality of storytelling hit the peak just in MoP. Dunno about WoD yet since it's not done.

And when it comes to the poll, it's bullshit. Blizzard has always said "gameplay first". Story has never been first priority and never will be.

[quras]

blizzard has always neglected story for game play.

The good thing or at least the way I see it as gamer who used to buy anything blizzard made, blizzard used to do a better job and meshing the two.

Now they barely give a "F". Lore will be changed, manipulated and screwed up beyond anything worth being part of and they will lay the blame on game play as the reason for good or bad lore changes/adjustments.

I look at everything from cataclysm forward in WOW and think WTF!, this is what they came up with as each expansion just gets worse and worse and game play stayed relatively the same.

[Every Pwny]

In WoD you can tell there were a lot of cuts at the expense of story. Doomhammer is the obvious one, having no story, going from someone who is basically eating draenei babies and destroyed cities one minute, to saying that blackhand is evil. Out of nowhere he has the change of heart and doesn't want to destroy Shattrath. Then Gorgrond, you take an artifact to fight the iron horde....then it just gets destroyed by nothing while you have it in your possession. Nagrand obviously Thrall appearing out of nowhere to fight Garrosh. Maraad dying in Talador, they build him up with the lord of war videos, then his story goes absolutely nowhere.

The draenei story had a lot of potential, but it feels really hollow. Yrel is basically the only draenei doing anything, Maladaaar appears from time to time, but Yrel faces no real struggles, just loses a bunch wins some then gets rapidly promoted because there are no competent draenei anywhere it seems. Her story seems very rushed, and this is a character they are pushing hard and really wanting you to like. She isn't even bad, she is just rushed.

Then like Azuka, what was that ending with her, that was really pathetic. Her story had the workings of something interesting, but she was just a poorly executed character, she shows up randomly for us to beat her then run off, except that one time she captures us and then lets us listen to the warlords plans before leaving us to easily escape.

Ashran is a joke for lore.

The WoD story had so much potential (I think the part they did well with was the Arakkoa story pretty good), the cinematics were nice, but they were only a flashy way to show one part of the story. But most of WoD it seems like they cut out a lot of story, it's a shame too as they had so much previous story to work with. Story is definitely something they are neglecting, they cut out capital cities so we don't get to spend time in story locations, just random garrisons that are easily attacked by different factions. WoD had a lot of story potential, but it really seems like it was cut away for time.

[Flurryfang]

Blizzard said that they take gameplay first and story 2nd, but that is still not an excuss to make some of the worst story-telling they have ever done. WOD has, in my opinion, the best potential for good storytelling, where old and well known characters could be taken up again and rewritten into some special. Yet what they have done is killed all the good and interresting characters such as ganaar, orgrim and new world velen, and completly neglected other great characters. Akama and dreak'thar are nowhere to be seen outside of their respective starting zones, and Yriel.... Ohh dont get my started on her. She was supposed to be the leader of the alliance and the enbodiment of the light on dreanor, yet she is nothing more then a character that you follow around talador and shadowmoon valley.

Most of all the stories in WOD are short and uncomplete. Worst of it all is that i dosent have to be that way. The potential for all these story-characters to have a full-fledged story is there, yet blizzard chooses to not use it all..... A shame is what it is.

PS: there is no need to compare how well WOD's story is told compared to the other expansions. It might be a little better in WOD, but thats still no excuss for making shit lore-content.

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You're about as wrong as humanly possible and posting meaningless and mindless whinethread. The amount and quality of storytelling hit the peak just in MoP. Dunno about WoD yet since it's not done.

And when it comes to the poll, it's bullshit. Blizzard has always said "gameplay first". Story has never been first priority and never will be.

TBH do you really think that the gameplay is so good in WOD that it justifies the complete neglecte on the lore side of the game?

[Deleted]

You're about as wrong as humanly possible and posting meaningless and mindless whinethread. The amount and quality of storytelling hit the peak just in MoP. Dunno about WoD yet since it's not done.

And when it comes to the poll, it's bullshit. Blizzard has always said "gameplay first". Story has never been first priority and never will be.

MoP was released 3 years ago, so I'm not sure why you would count that as 'current'. WoD, beyond questing, is almost void of interesting lore so far.

Perhaps in recent years. But if you were around back in the late 90s and early 00, you'd see a completely different Blizzard. For many of the old games, multiplayer was just an afterthought that happened to play out really well.

[Wilian]

No, they are putting too much emphasis on it as long as Metzen is in the lead. That man has been lost to delusions of grandeur.

[Arrashi]

"Starting" is a wrong word. They did it long ago. Now, they also neglect setting and gameplay alike.

[Flurryfang]

No, they are putting too much emphasis on it as long as Metzen is in the lead. That man has been lost to delusions of grandeur.

Metzen has either lost his touch in the last couple of years or as you say, lost his mind to grandeur of him not being able to do anything wrong

[Moozart]

No, they are putting too much emphasis on it as long as Metzen is in the lead. That man has been lost to delusions of grandeur.

People need to realize that WOD is what an anime series would call a "filler arc". It's a side story that uses aspects of the main story that will have no major bearing on future story and is shallow. It serves the purpose of consuming time while the main story is being worked on and also will make the main story seem that much BIGGER when we get back to it.

[Flurryfang]

People need to realize that WOD is what an anime series would call a "filler arc". It's a side story that uses aspects of the main story that will have no major bearing on future story and is shallow. It serves the purpose of consuming time while the main story is being worked on and also will make the main story seem that much BIGGER when we get back to it.

If that was right, then in anime terms, this would be like if WOD(The filler Arc) would have the lengh of an entire season If any loveable anime serie, had an entire season as a filler arc, i would not be surpriced if there were some people losing their shit about it

[Wilian]

People need to realize that WOD is what an anime series would call a "filler arc". It's a side story that uses aspects of the main story that will have no major bearing on future story and is shallow. It serves the purpose of consuming time while the main story is being worked on and also will make the main story seem that much BIGGER when we get back to it.

Irrelevant. When you're constantly rewriting your own backstory to suit your "next grand idea" with no rhyme nor reason you know you're already digging on the deep end, especially when only story-elements you know and push for are "BIGGER MORE AWESOMESAUCE MORE EPIC MORE SAVAGE". That is the structure Metzen follows and he's not particulary good at it.

Also, I vaguely remember Blizzard claiming that MoP was the filler arc while WoD was supposed to be the return to the core of Warcraft.

[Flurryfang]

Irrelevant. When you're constantly rewriting your own backstory to suit your "next grand idea" with no rhyme nor reason you know you're already digging on the deep end, especially when only story-elements you know and push for are "BIGGER MORE AWESOMESAUCE MORE EPIC MORE SAVAGE". That is the structure Metzen follows and he's not particulary good at it.

Also, I vaguely remember Blizzard claiming that MoP was the filler arc while WoD was supposed to be the return to the core of Warcraft.

Yeah, at last years Blizzcon it did not sound like WOD was supposed to be a filler expansion. The things we got told that were going to be in this expansion at last years blizzcon, has not really been met in anyway. We even got promised a bigger boss creature then durn the hungrere

[Nynax]

Honestly, it's the Internets fault. Specifically High Speed.

Before playing online was a standard the single player experience, aka. the campaign and story, was an important part of the gameplay experience. Promising an immersive and engaging campaign used to be a big part of what really sold games off the shelves, it's why older blizzard lore is so detailed and so strong but new lore isn't.

High Speed Internet changed all that. Everything is online now, everything is multiplayer, and the big bucks lay in the masses of COD players that want short, shallow, but fun gameplay sessions as opposed to hours of immersive gameplay they don't have time for.

And so, good story is hard to come by these days...one only has to look at how Final Fantasy is doing today. If the old epitome of storytelling quality has fallen to no ones care but old fans... well, expect good story from any developer to be rare.

[Feel The Power]

I wish there was more in depth lore in game, but I think Blizz realizes a good portion of people give a flying crap less. I can't even tell you how many people I've come across in the last 9-10 years I've played that have basically zero idea what is going on with the story because they care less about reading quest text, or they think caring about the lore is stupid. I've literally had WoW players make fun of me because I knew about the lore and what the hell was going on with a certain expansion. Plus Blizz has already said years ago that they do gameplay before in-game lore.