Blizz should stop telling the story in the game.

[Beloren]

I am convinced they should stop telling the story in the game, and switch it to another medium, like a single player RPG/RTS. With the game's expansion supporting the story of the single player game, and exploring the continent and new areas of the world, new peoples etc that it introduced.

Reason? The story is not being communicated well or possible to be managed decently in this medium. Too many weird changes, often for gameplay mechanics that should not affect the story. at all. It really has hurt what is an otherwise very rich and interesting world you could have built a movie and television empire in adiditon to the gaming one on top off.

They can't even tell a decent story for long without undoing it because people get so distressed and quit before they can even tell the whole thing through because as a game they have to tell into in stages with long breaks in between were people just panic and QQ.

Think of all the special things and nice touches that have been lost because of the format of game the MMO has taken.. remember how warlocks use to only be horde, as well as shaman, only night elven males were druids. Where the entire tauren race didn't have to learn to become priests so race could have more class options.

While most critics say they could have done much better even with this format.. truth is they didn't, and weren't willing to. They made astronomical efforts with the art, the tech, the programming, the game systems even, but didn't care enough to make the same level with the story. And while it did improve, it could have been much better.


Leave wow to exploring the world and the peoples, let the big games tell the huge world events.

[Aeula]

No. They should do the opposite and tell the entire story in-game.

And hire some good writers for a change, writers who've actually worked on video games instead of trashy novels.

[Arrashi]

They definately should. The lore went nosedive around cata, which was when they focused on story and characters more. Just invest all into worldbuilding, and spare us another riveting tale of horde finding its heart or something.

[Nnyco]

We need more story in game, not less.

[Beloren]

We need more story in game, not less.

I think it should go to a new warcraft game, and wow continue as it started off in classic.. not driving the narrative, just telling stories of the peoples and cultures set in the world. Let RPG/RTS games and novels drive the narrative.

[Chromell]

They should tell the story well in the game, MoP is an excellent example of this.

[Powerogue]

They're trying to balance "telling enough of the story in-game that you know what's going on" (so NOT Varian magically appearing in SW one day with no explanation) with "if we tried to cram a novel's worth of story in-game, with all the dialogue necessary, it would get in the way of gameplay" so they try to put that sort of stuff in side-stories (which they, thank goodness, now notify players of with the launcher. Great reads while waiting on patches to finish)

I mainly think they need to take the time to make sure the two stories match. For example the much more epic depiction of the wisp wall, raining terror down on the Horde soldiers who got too close. That could have easily been a chunk of the questline, with you getting hit for constant damage and having to move around entangling vines in the retreat to avoid dying.

[Dadwen]

+1 agree anything with the main story should be in game, any minor side stories are ok outside but nothing that would change the in game story.

[Combatbutler]

Ingame story is superficial and cannot really reach the depths of a book, due to its format alone.

They should at least try to add some depths to their ingame story though

[The Stormbringer]

No. They should do the opposite and tell the entire story in-game.

And hire some good writers for a change, writers who've actually worked on video games instead of trashy novels.

Have you read the short stories they post on their site? Some of them are seriously good.

[Felrane]

Have you read the short stories they post on their site? Some of them are seriously good.

It would be cool if they added them ingame as well like the used to have back in Vanilla in books/diaries all around the world. They did add storys in Mists to help flesh out the expo which was nice. Need more of that.

[Kwento]

They definately should. The lore went nosedive around cata, which was when they focused on story and characters more. Just invest all into worldbuilding, and spare us another riveting tale of horde finding its heart or something.

Pfft... There are only two stories in the world, it’s a known fact! First is about the Horde being torn by the duality of its nature. And the second is about super team Alliance saving the world! Sometimes they come one at a time, sometimes together, but they are always here...

[steelballfc]

No. They should do the opposite and tell the entire story in-game.

And hire some good writers for a change, writers who've actually worked on video games instead of trashy novels.

trashy novels is not the problem

[Zandalariprelate]

trashy novels is not the problem

I think their problem is about they don't think much about the future or work like Toriyama and only works with big highlitsh of the story that can be interpreted in 2 different ways by the team, for example Goku getting UI in the manga only happens just 1 time and in the anime happens every 5 episodes in the tournament, in WoW case we have Nathanos in both Darkshore and Zandalar or Genn doing the same or for worse having 2 separted dimensions where x thing happens in the alliance while the horde sees another thing(seriously the corpse of Derek being using as bait to destroy some Kul'tiran ships should raise a lot of alarms for the Proudmoore)

Also the direction is bad, Alex kinda seems to not care at all and damm Danuser for all of his faults he is actually more enthusiast with his job, Golden probably is in the same ground with her being a fanboy of Anduin and Jaina but probably these characters will end like Thrall being throwed out of the story. I hope the new game from Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk can do something for the next expansion and if we are lucky sementing some rules and helping the writing team to be more harsh with themself and aim higher

[wingweaver84]

You know what they should do?Go back to making RTS and tell the lore through those.(That's not suggesting they quit the MMO,by the way).

[B-Man]

They need to A: fire or let go of their current 'writers' B: actually co-ordinate with the gameplay department on what the fucking story is before one starts developing the game before the other and C: focus primarily on the world and world-building and stop writing awful character dramas and morality plays which they clearly cannot do to save their own skins.

[Khaza-R]

No. They should do the opposite and tell the entire story in-game.

And hire some good writers for a change, writers who've actually worked on video games instead of trashy novels.

This. Its absurd that huge lore moments or recons happen in novels. If you don't read them then it makes for an extremely disjointed experience.

Short online stories are a great medium to elaborate on the nuances of the greater story but not to narrate major events.

[Aucald]

I think the various short stories and novels should be condensed into short-form cut-scenes or even some of those flip-book style animatics (like the Illidan or Warbringers ones) that basically tell the highlights of each novel or short story with some narration. If you want the full details you can read the novel, but if you want the gist and main plot points as its bears on the current content then you can just watch those from some kind of chronicler NPC or what have you.

[Good ol Stroggylos]

Well we are supposed to be prominent figures in the lore nowadays so we get to know the stories of the major characters first hand either by directly witnessing them or being the cogs in their stories or closely following them up through major quest chains. Either way we are always there when something major happens in the world.
Unfortunately we would not need the rts/rpg to tell the story through the quests of the major characters while we champions explore the world, interact with the folklore and the environment and occasionally find ourselves in the spotlight.
Although the quests that legion introduced/expanded on where we visited the lorewalkers (or w/e the trees were called) and get phased into a scenario while taking the place of a prominent char were not that popular and were not utilized again, however i think that they would be a nice tool to properly tell the lore while us champions run around doing chores, exploring and interacting with the population and only getting into the spotlight when something major (raid,dungeon) happened.

[A Chozo]

Yes, let's remove the story from this RPG.

This is a good idea.