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

[GreenJesus]

I voted a 3 instead of a 1 only because Denathrius is cool and I thought the quest to help Ysera was well done. Otherwise I just can't suspend my disbelief and I couldn't care less about any of the characters.

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It really, really sucks. Remember when Bwonsamdi was supposed to have his own little realm... somewhere in the Shadowlands? It could've been anywhere, but no, it's in a another afterlife that literally looks like it's for Druids. Ursoc is now gone forever, and now... so is Rezan, who fused into Vol'jin. Lets hope when he comes back he dosen't liook ridiculous I just... am scared that they're going to keep retconning more and more until they literally have to make a WoW 2.

Also the Jailer looks like a dorky bald old dude and I can't take him seriously lol

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They should just pull a Steel Ball Run and restart everything

Wait.. what? Rezan fuzed into Voljin???? When did that happen?? Is it like DBZ where his name is now Volzan or Rezjin or something?

[Soon-TM]

Wait.. what? Rezan fuzed into Voljin???? When did that happen?? Is it like DBZ where his name is now Volzan or Rezjin or something?

I think it takes place during the Night Fae campaign. I'm not really sure though, because the whole thing was soooooo boring that I had to force myself to actually read the damn quest text. Something that had NEVER happened to me, even in xpacs that were an absolute trainwreck in lore terms (namely BC or WoD).

And while the Night Fae campaign was indeed ZZzzZz-worthy (for me) , it was only the most prominent example of my whole problem with SL - I just don't care about any of the major characters. Poor Zovaal boi has the personality of an oyster, and the writers insisting that "HE WAS BEHIND EVERYTHING" is so dumb that the willing suspension of disbelief gets smashed into tiny little pieces... I cared more about DW at the beginning of Cata, at least dat boi had ripped Azeroth a new one in his insanity.

The covenant leaders... I couldn't care less about any of them, except maybe Draka, and that's stretching it. Tal-Inara and her advisors in Oribos are complete non-entities. Revendreth story is passable, but the other zones' are just facepalm-worthy, especially Bastion. I won't go in detail with it, just check @Nerovar 's sig.

Oh, and the two main characters are *deep breath* Andy and Sylv. Seriously, stop with those two, this is the WORLD of Warcraft, not Andy and Sylv's Cosmic Tales.

I didn't vote 1 because Bwonsamdi is cool and because we've got some respite, however brief, of Andy's overwhelming purity and self righteousness.

[VinceVega]

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.

I like the NPCs in SL.
Jailor is still a bit boring but his time will come later. They tried to make him menacing in the background but there is no real stakes in it right now except for 4 lore characters beeing held in the maw.
Story over all is difficult. It is just toooo.... new? Unfamiliar?
Another huge threat destroying azeroth would be kinda redundant after legion.
Exploring? They could have gone all out with the backsite of azeroth.

I hope SL will change something big about the wow universe so they can do something big on Azeroth again in the next expansion.
I think expansions on other planet than azeroth and draenor are to alien to really get immersed into it.
Objectivly the story is not bad... just doesn't fit that much. And all that cosmic stuff makes the whole universe tooo... inconsistent or overexplained.

[Venziir]

Less engaged than I've been for years I think. Never did care about Sylvanas or the afterlife stuff so...

[Nak88]

I hate the lore of this expansion, I don't feel engaged at all, but the gameplay is better than BfA so I'm still playing.

[shise]

Ultimately by the end of this expansion I fully expect Blizzard to just kinda forget about this one like WoD in the grand scheme.

That won´t be easy. Sylvanas is a really big character in Warcraft, easily far more present than Garrosh. And then you have Anduin who will definitely have some sort of major life style change (by the look for it, he might become something more than a man of the light, or maybe this makes him go deeper into it, who knows).

So I really hope that they get their heads cool and think rationally. They are on perfectly good time to make it all end up great.

[Toybox]

No more or less than previous expansions post-Wrath, with Legion perhaps being the anomaly. Playing WoW for the story at this point feels like reading a visual novel for the gameplay.

[Al Gorefiend]

I dont care about any of the main characters in Shadowlands

I also dislike the constant "This is who/what really was behind that!" that has been retconning established lore

You better be a good little nerd and take your medicine, because "the bad guy behind the bad guy" trope never dies across all stories. Behind Darth Vader was the emperor, before Sauron there was Melkor. As long as they need a villain they will always create one stronger than the last one until it becomes a clown car of baddies trying to stab the planet.

[Greengrim]

Hard to relate to something that unfolds SO DARN SLOW!!!

[Alanar]

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

This is so true.

How are we suppose to be engaged, when you almost forget about the story when the pace is soo slow and stretched out. There realy isnt much story at the moment.

At the end of the expansion some will ask for tldr and it will consists out of 4 lines of text, just how they did that with bfa on wowpedia.

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Less engaged than I've been for years I think. Never did care about Sylvanas or the afterlife stuff so...

It also doesnt feel like aftherlife.. rather just another world or dimension we players need to go to for the plot.

If they told me it was a planet I would have believed it as well..

[Mendzia]

I do not give a sht about lore since MoP.

[Venziir]

This is so true.

How are we suppose to be engaged, when you almost forget about the story when the pace is soo slow and stretched out. There realy isnt much story at the moment.

At the end of the expansion some will ask for tldr and it will consists out of 4 lines of text, just how they did that with bfa on wowpedia.

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It also doesnt feel like aftherlife.. rather just another world or dimension we players need to go to for the plot.

If they told me it was a planet I would have believed it as well..

Well that's kinda exactly what an afterlife is supposed to be. Somewhere you to to live after you are done living.

[Alanar]

Well that's kinda exactly what an afterlife is supposed to be. Somewhere you to to live after you are done living.

Idk man.. like I said its just another world. We hop in and out. Maybe it does for you.. not for me.

[Daws001]

I'm curious to see where the story goes given all the new lore and such. What exactly are they trying to break? What are the consequences of the Jailer getting all the keys? I'm curious...but I'm not terribly moved by any of it. Not Anduin or Sylvanas so far. I want to be rocked. Ysera dying in Legion punched me in the heart. Just coming off FF14's latest expansion, I was shook. Such good storytelling.

Hopefully there's some payoff to SL's story that I'm not seeing yet.

[Venziir]

Idk man.. like I said its just another world. We hop in and out. Maybe it does for you.. not for me.

Again that is per definition what the afterlife is supposed to be. Another life on another plane of existance. Heaven, Hell, Nirvana, Valhalla, Fields of Elysium... Whatever you may or may not believe in, those are litterally all "different worlds/dimension". The bit about hoping in and out is not different from greek heroes entering or leaving Hades.

[Niwes]

i voted 1. why? because, for me and my taste, its cheap shit story, more of the same and same bad writing WoW has since years.

but thats just my opinion. i play WoW since 15+ years and read all existing books until the Illidan book released. other or newer players may have other opinions and thats totally fine. but for me and my taste its crap.

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I do not give a sht about lore since MoP.

this is the short version of what i said.

[bloodykiller86]

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.

who says its wrong? there tons of realms in the shadowlands

[BaumanKing]

It's funny, but I'm much more interested in what's currently going on behind the scenes on Azeroth.

[Maljinwo]

You better be a good little nerd and take your medicine, because "the bad guy behind the bad guy" trope never dies across all stories. Behind Darth Vader was the emperor, before Sauron there was Melkor. As long as they need a villain they will always create one stronger than the last one until it becomes a clown car of baddies trying to stab the planet.

The emperor was already established in the first movie (Tarkin explaining the Emperor has already abolished the senate) and so it didn't retcon anything.

Also, comparing Warcraft to Tolkien's writing in any capacity is just... Wrong
Yes, Melkor was the first Dark Lord, but that's in the past. It's not like the Free People defeat Sauron and his armies only to find out Melkor was the real bad guy that was never mentioned in any capacity but now somehow he is the true threat that they have to fight now.

[Sughs]

Maybe 6. It's just boring and it moves forwards so slowly. I would prefer movies or a tv series instead.