Horrible Writing.. but not the one you think!

[faithbane]

Another post on the forum just reminded of a major problem with the current lore that everyone is too busy complaining about other issues to notice. It is about how they insist on writing single player stories in a multiplayer game.

- A lot of people complained about the 1 horrible aspect of the story in legion on everyone suddenly carrying the same major lore weapon and how badly it was affecting immersion.
- Then on BFA they one-upped it a little more by making an individual character <the champion of azeroth> and canonically only one of us defeated nzoth with the death beam since there is only 1 champion..
- Now they are carrying this terrible single player story over with the "maw walker" who is this one super special snowflake that is able to transcend different cosmic realms and return to azeroth.

It became clear that blizz is only capable of writing a generic good vs bad story and is incapable of good twists or "morally grey"/multiple points of views based stories but can they at least go back to writing stories that involves groups of people? Is everyone just too used to this BS that it doesn't bother anymore?

[saixilein]

Im not a lore-player and just know some big points everyone knows, but im tired of thes style of story. Like I am the big super Hero the world needs. It would be much cooler to be a good soldier again, thats doing stuff for the real Lore-Heros. But for some years now I AM the one who safes the world... again and again... and again... and after i saved the world i safe it again.

Boring.

And if the Story would be more authentic and that "simple" i might would wanna learn more about it. But for me it seems like a boring story, where the Next Thing needs to be more Evil, more Explosions, more Gods-Shit, more Damage, add some timetravel/parallel universe/or 100 other realms bla bla bla... like a bad shonen anime like dragonball.

[Bullerick]

It is immersion breaking, I agree. I'm not saying wow classic is better but in vanilla wow it was more about people being random adventurers helping out here and there. There's gotta be a way to tell a story in that sense, surely. How about the Legion intro where we went to that island and it was 40 horde and 40 alliance. That was more treated as an army of people rather than the one chosen one.

[Biske]

For me it's more jarring that I'm the savior of everything, but most npcs just talk down to me (not to the level of Nathanos) or just treat me like they would any other random chud. Like, if you're going to make me this fuckin superhero, at least give me the FFXIV treatment where people know who I am, and not just any old street thug wants to get into a fight with me and I actually feel like a big deal. Either that, or just let me go back to being one of many competent fighters that some npcs might or might not know. Like, I can't be the wielder of Ashbringer and the Heart of Azeroth but still be expected to believe that most random nobodies haven't heard of me and my sword of overcompensation.

Also, I should basically be a celebrity in the Shadowlands with how many nerds I punted into the afterlife. I can just picture showing up and a horde of dudes turn around like "yo, it's that asshole!" and suddenly this ocean of angry dudes comes over the horizon.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

I gave up on the lore after MoP. That was the last well written expansion. If you want lore read the books, don't bother with the game.

[guisadop]

Yes, that is the biggest contradiction in the game IMO and what ultimately keeps pushing the story to retardrdly high power level. They want to pander to people who play alone but this is an mmo..

[Itori]

For me it's more jarring that I'm the savior of everything, but most npcs just talk down to me (not to the level of Nathanos) or just treat me like they would any other random chud. Like, if you're going to make me this fuckin superhero, at least give me the FFXIV treatment where people know who I am, and not just any old street thug wants to get into a fight with me and I actually feel like a big deal. Either that, or just let me go back to being one of many competent fighters that some npcs might or might not know. Like, I can't be the wielder of Ashbringer and the Heart of Azeroth but still be expected to believe that most random nobodies haven't heard of me and my sword of overcompensation.

Also, I should basically be a celebrity in the Shadowlands with how many nerds I punted into the afterlife. I can just picture showing up and a horde of dudes turn around like "yo, it's that asshole!" and suddenly this ocean of angry dudes comes over the horizon.

I imagine they have mass therapy groups there with them screaming in the corner from the trauma of being killed with spicy jesus beams xD

[VinceVega]

Yep. They are or either don't care. Because there are more MMORPGs out there and there's gotta be some with awesome stories. Immediately SWotoR comes to mind that people recommend for the story.

But that game is where it is on the popularity scale, despite having a huge fanbase since 1977 and over 9 movies and several books and series later...so I guess at the end of the day while people like to point out how they hate WoW's writing, they stick to the game and do not give games with a "better" story much of a chance. Or quit it after they experienced the story.

I played Swtor, Eso, FF14... story wise they are good. Swotor better than wow. But all 3 of them fail gameplay wise falt as soon as you are max level.

And a MMORPG is more than just its story. Also people always WANT to become stronger. Every squish people whine that they feel weaker.

OT: I don't think our char did what we did ingame. There is some of it. but most have been other adventurers. Otherwise we would rule azeroth allready. Hell we killed gods. Which they do in other MMORPGs to btw.

[dojichan]

Another post on the forum just reminded of a major problem with the current lore that everyone is too busy complaining about other issues to notice. It is about how they insist on writing single player stories in a multiplayer game.

- A lot of people complained about the 1 horrible aspect of the story in legion on everyone suddenly carrying the same major lore weapon and how badly it was affecting immersion.
- Then on BFA they one-upped it a little more by making an individual character <the champion of azeroth> and canonically only one of us defeated nzoth with the death beam since there is only 1 champion..
- Now they are carrying this terrible single player story over with the "maw walker" who is this one super special snowflake that is able to transcend different cosmic realms and return to azeroth.

It became clear that blizz is only capable of writing a generic good vs bad story and is incapable of good twists or "morally grey"/multiple points of views based stories but can they at least go back to writing stories that involves groups of people? Is everyone just too used to this BS that it doesn't bother anymore?

I pretty much disagree with all of what you say is a problem. But alas. To each their own

[faithbane]

I played Swtor, Eso, FF14... story wise they are good. Swotor better than wow. But all 3 of them fail gameplay wise falt as soon as you are max level.

And a MMORPG is more than just its story. Also people always WANT to become stronger. Every squish people whine that they feel weaker.

OT: I don't think our char did what we did ingame. There is some of it. but most have been other adventurers. Otherwise we would rule azeroth allready. Hell we killed gods. Which they do in other MMORPGs to btw.

I am totally fine with the power jumps and increased threat levels. What I am concerned with is the story being narrated for a single player experience and completely ignoring the mmo spirit of the game. We are thousands of "chosen ONE"s running around next to each other and it is making it really hard for me to get invested in the story or immerse myself in the story.

Over the years we went from adventurers > heroes > champions > commanders > general > class leaders > azeroth's champion > the maw walker. It gradually went from pluralistic to extremely singular.

They can have an extremely hyped villian with immense power levels but it should be "Heroes" who traveled the veil through the ICC that defeats him not <THE MAW WALKER>

[VinceVega]

I am totally fine with the power jumps and increased threat levels. What I am concerned with is the story being narrated for a single player experience and completely ignoring the mmo spirit of the game. We are thousands of "chosen ONE"s running around next to each other and it is making it really hard for me to get invested in the story or immerse myself in the story.

Over the years we went from adventurers > heroes > champions > commanders > general > class leaders > azeroth's champion > the maw walker. It gradually went from pluralistic to extremely singular.

They can have an extremely hyped villian with immense power levels but it should be "Heroes" who traveled the veil through the ICC that defeats him not <THE MAW WALKER>

We haven't been mere adventures after level 60 in vanilla... hell the first thing we did was defeat the elemental lord of fire. Then we verntured forth and killed the leader of the black dragons, and old god, Kaelthas, Illidan, Kiljaeden etc pp.

I don't think we got actually stronger ingame. We have always been strong.

Don't get me wrong i also liked the feeling of leveling in vanille. Of being a nobody. But you can just go so far with before people get bored with killing bandits and low level peons.

[Shedaar]

I am a titan god killing machine and some random lady asks me to chase kids around Zandalar
I mean I should be sitting in my palace and having hordes of servants to do this for me

This is so bad
I would like to be a soldier again and look up to the colonels/generals/heroes
Eh...

[Houle]

For me it's more jarring that I'm the savior of everything, but most npcs just talk down to me (not to the level of Nathanos) or just treat me like they would any other random chud. Like, if you're going to make me this fuckin superhero, at least give me the FFXIV treatment where people know who I am, and not just any old street thug wants to get into a fight with me and I actually feel like a big deal. Either that, or just let me go back to being one of many competent fighters that some npcs might or might not know. Like, I can't be the wielder of Ashbringer and the Heart of Azeroth but still be expected to believe that most random nobodies haven't heard of me and my sword of overcompensation.

Also, I should basically be a celebrity in the Shadowlands with how many nerds I punted into the afterlife. I can just picture showing up and a horde of dudes turn around like "yo, it's that asshole!" and suddenly this ocean of angry dudes comes over the horizon.

ahaha big facts
problem is, our almighty, god-killing, murder-hobo character would just steamroll this ocean of angry dudes, then go to bolvar and ask him if he got some loot for that, otherwise we'll nuke him too
by all accounts, both on azeroth and in the shadowlands, our character should be the most famous (and feared) celebrity of all time, and random dudes should be asking for an autograph, not if we can colllect 6 herbs for them
it sucks, but thats how it should be, at this point

[Grimbold21]

We are the nephalem of WoW

[schwank05]

It has unfortunately been like this since Legion and I doubt that is ever going to change. I agree I am sick of that and Borrowed Power. I should not get weaker every expansion especially if your a spell caster you are not affected by age like say a warrior is you should be Godlike if you are a Vanilla Mage or Warlock.

[StationaryHawk]

The story has revolved around your character since at least Warlords of Draenor, when we were the commander of the Alliance/Horde army on Draenor. It's meant to be told from your perspective with other player characters falling into the "champions" role.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

For me it's more jarring that I'm the savior of everything, but most npcs just talk down to me (not to the level of Nathanos) or just treat me like they would any other random chud. Like, if you're going to make me this fuckin superhero, at least give me the FFXIV treatment where people know who I am, and not just any old street thug wants to get into a fight with me and I actually feel like a big deal. Either that, or just let me go back to being one of many competent fighters that some npcs might or might not know. Like, I can't be the wielder of Ashbringer and the Heart of Azeroth but still be expected to believe that most random nobodies haven't heard of me and my sword of overcompensation.

Also, I should basically be a celebrity in the Shadowlands with how many nerds I punted into the afterlife. I can just picture showing up and a horde of dudes turn around like "yo, it's that asshole!" and suddenly this ocean of angry dudes comes over the horizon.

They did that in Warlords of Draenor, and there were a lot of complaints about everyone calling you Commander.

[Athredas]

Funny how people forgot that everyone was crying and moaning over Thrall taking the spotlight from player characters during Cataclysm. You can probably still find archived threads where people cried over him shooting down Deathwing. Ironically the one story where player character always plays the second fiddle is the faction war, but we all know how those stories always play out.

[Zuben]

That particular element doesn't bother me, as I just consider other players random adventurers, leaving the character I'm playing as the champion of everything. Too bad he's not champion enough to actually have any footing in the story.

[Daevied]

the thing is you are mixing lore with gameplay, in lore you are the champion but gameplay wise you need multiple ppl to play the game since this is a mmorpg....