Poll: You subjective enjoyment of SL

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  1. #1

    [Poll] How engaged are players with the story of SL compared to previous expansions.

    Quite self-explanatory. Disregarding gameplay elements and trying to be objective about your enjoyment of purely the story, how much do you want to see where the story goes, or more importantly ends.

    I have been wondering this considering my genuine excitement about the story of BfA at this juncture. Not that I necessarily thought it was perfect, but by the end of 8.0, leading into 8.1 I was genuinely curious how the story would continue and end.
    Would we go the full MoP and invade a city again? I was hoping for a Siege of Stormwind raid with all that jazz, or better yet one set in the ruins of Teldrassil.

    Now admittedly this might also come down to that I simply liked the aesthetic of BfA more, especially as I love the ocean and maritime culture, and Kul Tiras was right up my alley. This might have slightly colored my view of the expansion in hindsight.


    So just to reiterate, on a scale of 1-10, how engaged are you in the story and world, and how do you feel about this expansion compared to previous ones when it comes to this.


    And of course, please don't bring gameplay issues into this, it has nothing to do with the question, no matter how much anyone wants to claim it does.
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  2. #2
    Titan Al Gorefiend's Avatar
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    Lorewise I find Shadowlands to be very unengaging. Far too much suspension of disbelief and Blizzard telling us to "just go with it". Ultimately by the end of this expansion I fully expect Blizzard to just kinda forget about this one like WoD in the grand scheme.

    I find this to be a great expansion though in terms of gameplay and stuff. But the whole afterlife thing is such a bomb on every race's lore; because the afterlife is the basis of many of their religions and it turns out they are all wrong? Like that's bound to shake up people's faith.
    Last edited by Al Gorefiend; 2021-03-29 at 07:54 PM.

  3. #3
    I voted ten, but a very fragile ten. How they handle Sylvanas will determine my engagement going forward. Everyone around me is basically waiting on that detail to determine if WoW is "a world to live in" or "a game to play." Assuming the story "does the right thing" with Sylvanas, I am very engaged and very much enjoying things, but if they make a wrong turn here, it's just a place to hang with friends and grind out cosmetics in preparation for a potential future when I feel safe to emotionally invest again.

    Beyond that, "WoW Planescape" is SO MUCH my jam and I hope it continues indefinitely... which I predict it just may!
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  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Al Gorefiend View Post
    Lorewise I find Shadowlands to be very unengaging. Far too much suspension of disbelief and Blizzard telling us to "just go with it". Ultimately by the end of this expansion I fully expect Blizzard to just kinda forget about this one like WoD in the grand scheme.

    I find this to be a great expansion though in terms of gameplay and stuff. But the whole afterlife thing is such a bomb on every race's lore; because the afterlife is the basis of many of their religions and it turns out they are all wrong? Like that's bound to shake up people's faith.
    I never considered the implications this should have one the residents of Azeroth, but you are right, this should change them in massive ways the game isnt really equipped the handle.
    We always had some level of knowledge that the afterlife was a real thing in WoW, but we never actually got to see it as anything but a vague place where souls are.
    Going to the Shadowlands as an actual physical place kinda ruins the mystique of it, even more so when we spend so much time here. Similar to WoD I do think this will open up plotholes in the future like what time travel did.
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  5. #5
    I am Murloc! Wangming's Avatar
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    Not really. I don't care about any of these people. Not even the ones we are supposed to rescue. Thrall and Jaina haven't been interesting since WC3. Bain and Anduin were always boring. Sylvanas was ruined in BfA while Tyrande was always badly written cause she is a night elf. They will somehow stop the mystery villain with vague goals and save the realm where everyone is dead anyway. And once that is done we will go back never to return.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sondrelk View Post
    I never considered the implications this should have one the residents of Azeroth, but you are right, this should change them in massive ways the game isnt really equipped the handle.
    We always had some level of knowledge that the afterlife was a real thing in WoW, but we never actually got to see it as anything but a vague place where souls are.
    .
    Problem is, the Shadowlands is a mass of pocket dimensions so all of the afterlife concepts are correct, so nobody is shaken really. Everyone is validated.

  6. #6
    Couldn't be less engaged. "Shadowlands" looks, acts, and sounds like the GOT Season 8 of the Warcraft lore.

  7. #7
    Unmitigated trash without compare. The creators of this world are long gone and we now have authorised fan-fic full of wish fulfillment, waifu simpvalry and generally just mediocre young adult horseshit that makes the MCU writing look like high art. We have gone through a portal to an afterlife that may as well be another outland it feels so disconnected to any death stuff that came before and basically dealt with generic faction jobber horseshit waiting for Bolvar to pull a proffesor X and go "CHAMPION, RETURN TO ORIBOS FOR A SMALL CUTSCENE, BECAUSE EVERYTIME SYLVANAS ISN'T ON SCREEN THE AUDIENCE SHOULD BE ASKING 'HEY, WHERES SYLVANUS' AND HURRY!". Thats it.

    Its no secret WoW has exhausted its story and they are struggling to try and invent a whole new mythology to inject life into its world running on fumes but it just feels like the worst of japanese shounen anime power tier tropes where the villains are all beaten and things should be wrapping up, but the audience is still there to be milked SO HERE IS THE NEW TIER ALL PREVIOUS TIERS WERE BELOW, THEY WERE JUST ALWAYS ABSENT TILL NOW BECAUSE REASONS. SHUT UP THO. THIS IS THE REAL BIG BADS AND THIS TIME ITS FOR REAL.

    I get it. The game still makes enough money to warrant new support. But its been 17 years and every possible villain has been turned into a loot pinata. Even if the continued replacement of rpg systems with shit ripped from mobile games designed to predate on habit forming personalities in the name of retention and boosting MAU's were not a thing the story is abysmal.

    Like does anyone give a single fuck about the large angry bold man? did you do anything but roll your eyes at "A RELIC OF THE FIRST ONES? ACTIVATING FOR A ....MORTAL?!?" like come on. This is sub soap opera storytelling. This is sub local game store dungeons and dragons when the DM has to wing it storytelling.

    This is the worst its ever been and how can it possibly get better at this point? think back to all the quests that you did in WoW. The burnt down inn in Dustwallow Marsh, the Legend of Stalvan, Darrowshire, your order hall or just finding out a creepy little girl brought a town to ruin in drustvar. Good quests stick with you long after they are done through writing as much as gameplay.

    Is there a single Shadowlands quest you will remember? even one?

    and when it is left in the past for chromie time how many of you will look at shadowlands in the list of every wow expansion and go "rather than quest through wrath or mop or whatever i really just want to deal with sylvanus and the covenants again because that was just so memorable and engaging"?

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Wangming View Post
    Not really. I don't care about any of these people. Not even the ones we are supposed to rescue. Thrall and Jaina haven't been interesting since WC3. Bain and Anduin were always boring. Sylvanas was ruined in BfA while Tyrande was always badly written cause she is a night elf. They will somehow stop the mystery villain with vague goals and save the realm where everyone is dead anyway. And once that is done we will go back never to return.

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    Problem is, the Shadowlands is a mass of pocket dimensions so all of the afterlife concepts are correct, so nobody is shaken really. Everyone is validated.
    That is kinda the thing though. Everyone is validated, not that this will change the cohesion of society necessarily, but ti should change everyone knowing that their afterlife choices are completely real.

    People might claim to fuly believe in a life after death, and while I fully believe them I do think that knowing for sure is different form believing.
    This should have a tremendous impact on life on Azeroth, knowing that their loved ones are still alive in a sense somewhere, or that they themselves will have a definite life after death.
    The world revamp dream will never die!

  9. #9
    I gave it a 1 and would probably go lower if it were an option. The direction of the lore is just one reason I quit, but it was a major one. I can suspend my disbelief only so much before I have to walk away and say "this is dumb".

    Quote Originally Posted by Omedon View Post
    I voted ten, but a very fragile ten. How they handle Sylvanas will determine my engagement going forward. Everyone around me is basically waiting on that detail to determine if WoW is "a world to live in" or "a game to play." Assuming the story "does the right thing" with Sylvanas, I am very engaged and very much enjoying things, but if they make a wrong turn here, it's just a place to hang with friends and grind out cosmetics in preparation for a potential future when I feel safe to emotionally invest again.

    Beyond that, "WoW Planescape" is SO MUCH my jam and I hope it continues indefinitely... which I predict it just may!
    Equating Shadowlands to Planescape is an insult to Planescape.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sondrelk View Post
    That is kinda the thing though. Everyone is validated, not that this will change the cohesion of society necessarily, but ti should change everyone knowing that their afterlife choices are completely real.

    People might claim to fuly believe in a life after death, and while I fully believe them I do think that knowing for sure is different form believing.
    This should have a tremendous impact on life on Azeroth, knowing that their loved ones are still alive in a sense somewhere, or that they themselves will have a definite life after death.
    True, but it really won't. Such existencial questions tend to be avoided. There was no great crysis when night elves learned who or what the Naga are. When blood elves learned that Sylvanas didn't stay dead, or when living in fear of the sha was no longer necessary for the pandaren. It might get a passing mention in a tie in novel or comic, but the ingame story will focus on demigods way above the interests or understading of the common people.

  11. #11
    I feel the game ended with the enslavement of Sargeras. For me after he was defeated WOW was done and I no longer really care about the story of the game. Warcraft story was basically the game and I don't care about it after this point.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Omedon View Post
    Assuming the story "does the right thing" with Sylvanas, I am very engaged and very much enjoying things, but if they make a wrong turn here, it's just a place to hang with friends and grind out cosmetics in preparation for a potential future when I feel safe to emotionally invest again.
    You mean have her wake up in Undercity before the Broken Shore assault and realize this was all a dream?

  13. #13
    Hard to keep up with a story when they release 1 page every 3 month

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Wangming View Post
    Problem is, the Shadowlands is a mass of pocket dimensions so all of the afterlife concepts are correct, so nobody is shaken really. Everyone is validated.
    Not really. We haven't seen any afterlife so far that would actually validate any of the faiths we see on Azeroth (except maybe the trolls?) and two very prominent believers in the Holy Light and members of the Church (one of which even has the word 'Light' in his title) ended up in places that were completely unrelated if not even contrary to their belief.

    These are the symptoms of a story that has been hijacked by people with a substantially different vision than its original creators and it puts an enormous strain on the setting.
    The absolute state of Warcraft lore in 2021:
    Kyrians: We need to keep chucking people into the Maw because it's our job.
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  15. #15
    The concepts and occasionally the execution are interesting in a vacuum but far removed from the settings. I've enjoyed most of the zones, but chiefly in the aspects that have nothing to do with the extant characters. The entire main plot and cast, from the bland villains, the newest iteration of Sylvanas and the heroes have nowhere to go. I find it more interesting than Legion since I like those mini-worlds more, but it doesn't have the absolute trainwreck quality of BFA, where every step was worse than the previous and it was engaging to follow how and where it'd fuck up. Everything that's good in Shadowlands is very far removed from the setting, if interesting on its own, whereas everything bad is mostly just boring or so fundamental that any alteration or critique collapses the whole foundation of the expansion. Case in point - everything regarding prior lore about the afterlife or death and what we have now is irreconcilable.
    Last edited by Super Dickmann; 2021-03-29 at 09:17 PM.
    Dickmann's Law: As a discussion on the Lore forums becomes longer, the probability of the topic derailing to become about Sylvanas approaches 1.

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  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Sondrelk View Post
    Quite self-explanatory. Disregarding gameplay elements and trying to be objective about your enjoyment of purely the story, how much do you want to see where the story goes, or more importantly ends.

    I have been wondering this considering my genuine excitement about the story of BfA at this juncture. Not that I necessarily thought it was perfect, but by the end of 8.0, leading into 8.1 I was genuinely curious how the story would continue and end.
    Would we go the full MoP and invade a city again? I was hoping for a Siege of Stormwind raid with all that jazz, or better yet one set in the ruins of Teldrassil.

    Now admittedly this might also come down to that I simply liked the aesthetic of BfA more, especially as I love the ocean and maritime culture, and Kul Tiras was right up my alley. This might have slightly colored my view of the expansion in hindsight.


    So just to reiterate, on a scale of 1-10, how engaged are you in the story and world, and how do you feel about this expansion compared to previous ones when it comes to this.


    And of course, please don't bring gameplay issues into this, it has nothing to do with the question, no matter how much anyone wants to claim it does.
    It feels ...off.
    I can only say it feels like Baradin Island in cataclysm, but then an entire expansion of it.

    Misplaced perhaps?

    I think i need to see more of the story to properly judge it though, Legion too felt off in terms of storytelling until we reached Tomb's patch, it was like "AaaAah the Legion ks invading and imminent doom!!1! Go solve literally everything else first!" but in the end it turned out fine even if it was weird and jarring for the first parts of it in terms of story.
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  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Super Dickmann View Post
    The concepts and occasionally the execution are interesting in a vacuum but far removed from the settings. I've enjoyed most of the zones, but chiefly in the aspects that have nothing to do with the extant characters. The entire main plot and cast, from the bland villains, the newest iteration of Sylvanas and the heroes have nowhere to go. I find it more interesting than Legion since I like those mini-worlds more, but it doesn't have the absolute trainwreck quality of BFA, where every step was worse than the previous and it was engaging to follow how and where it'd fuck up. Everything that's good in Shadowlands is very far removed from the setting, if interesting on its own, whereas everything bad is mostly just boring or so fundamental that any alteration or critique collapses the whole foundation of the expansion. Case in point - everything regarding prior lore about the afterlife or death and what we have now is irreconcilable.
    Yeah this is pretty much my thoguhts as well. There is loads of cool stuff in SL, things like the idea of Maldraxxus or the rebirth in Ardenweald. However it does feel disconnected from the main plot so to speak.
    Compare this to BfA where the story was not good, but it did feel like this was an integral part of the greater WoW story.

    Now this is where I wonder whether my subjective enjoyment of the story comes down to setting instead of objective storytelling. Because on the surface level I absolutely loved BfA and its setting. The maritime city of Boralus and its many tall sips and towns really made me feel immersed and invested in the world, I felt like I wanted to explore it even more and indeed got resentful of the game for abandoning it after the second raid.

    SL meanwhile almost feels like a sidestory. This is a bit of a diversion while we wait for the real story to start back on Azeroth.
    And again, this is a problem of the setting specifically, at least for me. As much as I love Maldraxxus it feels very distinctly removed from whatever happens back in Stormwind or Barrens.
    The world revamp dream will never die!

  18. #18
    I am Murloc! Maljinwo's Avatar
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    I dont care about any of the main characters in Shadowlands

    I find the realms of the Shadowlands boring

    And having characters just walking through oribos like its nothing is so stupid that I cant really take the story seriously.

    I also dislike the constant "This is who/what really was behind that!" that has been retconning established lore
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  19. #19
    Difficult to rate honestly. I would probably put it as the second most engaging story expansion for me, only after Legion, but at the same time, it is still Warcraft, and thus pretty weak compared to games that actually focus on the story. So pretty good by the standards of Warcraft, but overall, still somewhat lackluster.

  20. #20
    I am Murloc! Wangming's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maljinwo View Post
    I also dislike the constant "This is who/what really was behind that!" that has been retconning established lore
    Why? Aren't you glad that the Void Lords (not to be confused with void lords or Void Gods) were just a convenient excuse used by the nathrezim to manipulate Sargeras into creating the Burning Legion cause some sad boy with throat cancer wants the secret of a race on a whole different level compared to the Titans?

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