Do I need to play wc1,2,3 before playing world of Warcraft

[nomorepriest]

I feel like I missed a lot of the lore from wc1-3 while playing wow.. Should I play wc1-3 ?

[AngryCoco]

Most of the lore are in books, and are much more fleshed out there than they ever were in the games. Warcraft 1 and 2 were more or less "orcs bad invade hooman land they lose tho so np", while the books give you the lore you want.

[Fabled]

I only played W3 before playing WoW, played the other two after getting into it. You don't really miss much, you just get caught up with what happened. Do you need to play them? Not really, you can just google the plots to each game, or watch others play it to get a gist of it.

[Vichan]

no /10char

[Klingers]

If you want the condensed game-specific lore your best option is probably this: Read Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb as well as WoW: Tides of Darkness and WoW: Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenburg. Then play Warcraft III.

Warcraft and Warcraft II had some story but it was fairly branching and slapdash and also told by a narrator between missions. The official canon is basically Orcs won Warcraft and the Alliance won Warcraft II.

Your mileage will be much better with Warcraft III as a game. It's a fully-voiced, dense and well-written story with heaps of action unfolding on-screen that ties in far more relevantly to WoW.

Worst-case scenario, have a look for a guy called Nobel87 on Youtube. He does some brilliant lore-based content summarizing all the events of the game and the background history of Azeroth in well-structured and entertaining videos.

You can probably also find some cut-down playthroughs of Warcraft III on Youtube.

[Viikkis]

Warcraft 1 and 2 has lore that is currently considered to be outdated xD So no. I didn't know anything about WoW when I first started playing. Just go with the flow you'll learn lore afterwards

[FelPlague]

if you really want to get the most out of the lore, you can play the game now, you dont need to wait, but i reccomend playing warcraft 3, and read the warcraft chronicals, then the other books, as they have sone things retconned by the chronicals

(highly reccomend reading arthas cause its really good)



but based on legion you should play warcraft 3, and read illidan and the chronicals before legion comes out if you can

[AwkwardSquirtle]

None are necessary to understand the game. There's a lot of backstory to most of what happens but I can't think of anything necessary. I'd agree with the suggestion of Nobbel87's videos as a way to learn the lore.

[Deleted]

Before? No. But yes, it is quite cool to play them. If you are crazy like me - http://wow.gamepedia.com/Portal:Main can help you to read up on the lore as well. Depending on how you like to learn about Lore.

[kurama]

They're not neccesary, in world of warcraft we´re adventurers (well now we´re most important characters than that) so we don´t really need to know everything.

[Deleted]

It's not necessary, but if you are interested in the lore, it can certainly offer much. Especially Warcraft II and III form the basis of World of Warcraft.

[swaggers]

Go to the Orcs & Humans missions page on wowpedia. Those 3-5 sentence mission descriptions was the lore back then (along with the manual). Then do the same for WCII and watch the cutscenes on youtube if you want. Almost every mission is just kill all enemies, on maps that don't reflect current Azeroth. (Loved it back then, dated now).
It wasn't until III that story actually showed up during missions, with characters talking to each other (a bit like the new (old) talking heads at the bottom of the screen in Legion).

[Polarthief]

I feel like I missed a lot of the lore from wc1-3 while playing wow.. Should I play wc1-3 ?

I've never even touched WC1/2 (though I played 3 for years but never really paid attention to the lore/story, mostly played Custom Maps), and I think I know enough of the lore. You really don't need to play the older games for lore reasons.

[Koji2k11]

there is a youtube chanell that sums up all the lore around WoW i think its Nobbel87

[Thelxi]

Nope .

[Deleted]

No the lore from the RTS got completely retconned during the RTS series (wc2->wc3) and even more during WoW.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Not really, but Warcraft 3 is a good one, a really good one.

[darkwarrior42]

No the lore from the RTS got completely retconned during the RTS series (wc2->wc3) and even more during WoW.

This, pretty much; not only do you not need to play the games, it would in fact be detrimental as you would have to ignore large chunks of the story in favor of what WoW and the books have established since.

Edit: Not to say the games aren't worth playing, they're just not worth playing if all you care about is understanding the story of WoW.

[Deleted]

Lol no, the lore and writing in WoW are so incredibly shallow. A bit like a very simplle comic book.
It's all about gameplay, the lore is secondary and a huge mess. It makes no sense most of the time

[khazmodan]

I feel like I missed a lot of the lore from wc1-3 while playing wow.. Should I play wc1-3 ?

Yes, and read all Warcraft novels because there will be a test Monday that will decide whether you will be placed in LFR with the Trolls and bots or in a higher level of raiding with people that actually give a crap. Seriously though, learning the lore for a game that is dying faster than Durotan did in the movie (if you havent seen the movie by now then you dont care about it anyway) is a waste of time.