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

[Asrialol]

Boredom, mostly. Also trashy things are fun depending on the level of stupidity.



Oh I know plenty of people like this story and it isn't really surprising, many people love cheap shallow entertainment.

Out of curiosity, any games you'd recommend where you find the story to be really, really good?

Oh and, the most popular movies franchise right now is Marvel - so people enjoying such things isn't exactly surprising.

[Combatbutler]

Out of curiosity, any games you'd recommend where you find the story to be really, really good?

Honestly no, all have at least one giant narrative breaking plothole, the overall universes can be fun though. Like the witcher universe, warhammer fantasy incl. 40k, mass effect, the heroes game series etc.

Oh and, the most popular movies franchise right now is Marvel - so people enjoying such things isn't exactly surprising.

Yet those are deeper and more fleshed out than blizz overarching stories.

[Th3Scourge]

It don't even feel like I'm playing wow. It's the least interested I have ever been in the lore. And that's including pandas.

[T-34]

I gave SL a high score (8):
Some new and fresh areas - especially Bastion and Revendreth.
New and fresh personas and societies in these new areas - a breath of fresh air
The geography, colours, fauna and music of each zone corresponds with its theme. Quite interesting I must say.

The dialogue is exactly what WoW has always been and what I expect: Campy one-liners and over-the-top dialogue mixed in with some poo-humour. Good for some lulz.
The depth of the story is exactly what it has always been in WoW: At the level of a Mexican soap opera. So no surprises there. Can be ignored if you want, but doesn't need any deep commitment to understand if you are inclined to engage in the story.
So the story is what it always has been. No surprises there.

And if Sylvanas survives and gets redeemed then SL will get a huge 10 from me, instead of an 8, just because of the apoplectic rage and anger that such redemption will induce in some people

[Divada]

There is a decent idea for a story in the Shadowlands but the execution is undercooked, bland and lacks detail. Still too many questions about motivations and too many important plot details just dropped in out of nowhere. None of this is really a surprise though, Blizzard has always treated the lore in WoW like a punching bag. Lore, immersion and exploration have all been sacrificed at the altar of ESports and rapid gameplay loops.

They can do better but without a shift in perspective/attitude towards story AT THE TOP then nothing will change.

[voidox]

And if Sylvanas survives and gets redeemed then SL will get a huge 10 from me, instead of an 8, just because of the apoplectic rage and anger that such redemption will induce in some people

bait probably, but I'll bite

so you don't care for good writing, well written characters, story that makes sense and so on, you just want shit to happen cause it'll piss people off? wat? -_-

[T-34]

bait probably, but I'll bite

so you don't care for good writing, well written characters, story that makes sense and so on, you just want shit to happen cause it'll piss people off? wat? -_-

I do appreciate a good story, but as I wrote in my original post I consider the story in WoW to be some sort of Soap Opera full of cringy one-liners and over-the-top-acting. It is good and entertaining in its own campy way. And I truly consider that is how it was meant to be from the creators.
And just as in any other good soap opera, then logic and sense will never stand in the way of a good surprise, shocker and return of a be-loved character.

So that in mind then I consider that some people expect far to much from WoW from a literary and story-telling perspective. And that can lead to some unintended funny reactions when reality and expectations clash.

I might of course be wrong about WoW and its story and how it is presented, but that is how I see it.
I personally don't care what happens with Sylvanas either way, so I am neither in one or the other camp.

[Soon-TM]

Asking people on MMO Champion about their thoughts on the story in wow? Have you not realized that most people on this forum are expert writers and that most threads has the term "bad writing" stated somewhere?

Not to forget that this forum is filled with people who hate the game, doesn't play it, but still post about it because reasons. Then there are those who hate the game, still play it, because apparently that's logical?

Polls on this forum only does one thing; make the vocal minority think they're a majority. Sure, it's entertaining, but I've also noticed people using polls like this to 'strengthen' their arguments as to why the game (that they still play???) Is bad.

Ok, now that you have vented your frustration towards players (either current or former) with opinions different to yours, you could elaborate on the thread subject. For example, why do you think the story is so good?

[FarmerEd]

I won't give it a 1, because that's reserved for BfA's 2 expansion long "Tune in ""Next Week"" (next year) to find out more!" approach being far worse, but I'll have to give it a low 2.

Conceptually, I dig the general world building of the shadowlands, however that's all there is. I have learned close to nothing of the story from playing the game, most of what I was told I already knew by reading those paragraph long infographs on the shadowlands website following the blizzcon announcement, and that's really not ok in my book.

[Rendark]

The story has been junk since WoD really. Legion was ok and BfA was the worst thing ever. Shadowlands story is just ok.

[OwenBurton]

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's interesting - at least at first, it was really fascinating to see so many different new characters. But...it also seems a bit not really like Warcraft, or what most of the game was for most of its history, the realms seem too new and perhaps too different and outlandish in a sense. And it also removes the air of mystique and mystery, regarding death and the great unknown. I guess it was the same feeling some people had with Pandaria initially, going from Lich King from one expansion, then Deathwing almost shattering the planet, then pandaren and martial arts on a calm and peaceful continent.

And for example, are the orcs and tauren afterlife beliefs all wrong? Or the human and draenei ones regarding the Light? It's very confusing.

And I also feel that there are so many unresolved issues from the last expansion - that everything feels kind of rushed, or forced, like it's trying to compensate for something.

[Loveliest]

Wrath was my highest interest because i wanted to know what was going to happen to Arthas (having played wc3). A few expansions after, i was not as invested because i had almost no clue on the lore, which i started getting into about a year before the movie came out (I wanted to know the proper lore before seeing it).
Legion was enjoyable because there was a lot of fanservice lore-wise. Loads of know lore figures. Reiteration of the biggest threat we knew at the time.
SL is pretty good. The villain is not as epic as LK felt at the time, ofc, but i quite like the lore (despite changing what was supposedly set in stone in the Chronicles). Again lots of know lore figures and it does touch again on Arthas' story, so it got my interest.

But you know, I tend to enjoy lore a lot. All novels and games and even small things like boss description for boss mechanics. But also, I enjoy things from an outside perspective. I don't truly get invested, I don't think. I don't identify with my character and I don't get angry at events, like Sylvanas burning down the tree. I also do not get hung up on gameplay vs lore discrepancies and gotten used to lore not being super consistet as well. I just enjoy it as a story and I do want to see how it develops.

[Soon-TM]

And I also feel that there are so many unresolved issues from the last expansion - that everything feels kind of rushed, or forced, like it's trying to compensate for something.

I agree. It's especially jarring when you take the different Covenants' stories into account, since Kyrian, Venthyr and NL simply don't mention the events of BfA at all, as if all dat !@#$ had simply never happened. And if you play NF, their story feels like frantically trying to cover the plotholes left from BfA in a pretty inorganic, haphazard fashion. I mean, why should only NF, out of all covenants, have such a special interest in Azeroth? The other ones seemingly don't give a flying !@#$.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The story has been junk since WoD really. Legion was ok and BfA was the worst thing ever. Shadowlands story is just ok.

Stupid and contrived premise aside, I thought that the writing in WoD was okay. It wasn't until 6.2 that it went bad with Mannoroth and Archimonde coming back from the dead, "the Legion transcends all timelines", and Grommash being absolved of all responsibility. Legion was where it started getting awful.

[Eggroll]

In Elegy, it's explained that the draenei are recovering from the Argus Campaign, and what little assistance they could provide was with the force sent to Silithus. Velen is present helping refugees, and appears later in Battle for Azeroth helping to coordinate the war effort from Stormwind Keep.

They could have come down on Teldrassil with the Vindicaar and blow those Horde dirt to smithereens. Instead they did nothing. They can go back to Argus for all I care.

[masterjc]

recently brought SL
did Bastion story + necrotic wake


while I know whole lore and spoilers etc,
I do not enjoy game much
its not I dont care

more like story seems to be pretty uninteresting and generic lame in Bastion
also locking Uther beyond covenant, sucks
and since WoD I hate locking zones/stories for faction exclusivity. it really sucks too

[TragedyAnn]

I didn't vote in the poll, because I enjoy the ongoing story of WoW, and it's difficult for me to put a number on it day to day, patch to patch, year to year...

I'll say this though - Less engaged than I would be if covenants hadn't existed.

I feel like this expansion just has LESS TO DO than previous ones. Less day to day, less story content to keep me paying attention, because 75% of the endgame solo content is locked behind a choice forced on every player.

I'm the type of person that likes to play solo content for the long haul in this game. I read the quests. I follow the story. I learn about the characters. I'm not a "let me get capped and start raiding ASAP" person. I have raided in the past, but my guild kind-of disintegrated during BFA due to medical issues of the guild leader, and I've never sought a new guild or raid team because I honestly don't desire getting back to the demanding schedule of raiding. I'm fine seeing the raid story through LFR and just going w/ the flow now. (And truthfully I've only run the intro raid for Shadowlands in LFR one time to see thus far. That's it.)

I've always more enjoyed questing, rep grinds, cosmetic rewards, chasing the rare mounts, rarespawns, rare drops around the nooks and crannies of the game. Knocking out solo achievements.

SO... In Shadowlands...

The leveling quests and content were extremely streamlined in this expansion. You did one primary story chain in each zone, with a handful of diversionary sidequests along the way. I exhausted that content quickly. It felt like there was much less questing content in this expansion than previous games, and true to that point, alts can now SKIP the majority of that content and just dive right into world quests, for the most part, showing how little the total questing content of Shadowlands impacts the overall flow of the game.

After that, what kept me engaged was the Covenant Campaign and Torghast storylines. I kept up on those regularly week to week, was eager to see where they went. I ran Torghast a few times a week, mostly as quests demanded it. Sometimes just for fun and rewards. I enjoyed it at first, but started to lose interest in it when I reached levels where the difficulty outstripped my gear, and I could no longer progress without improving my gear (Gear has never been something I coveted in WoW, always just a means to an end. I got gear so I could see content. I didn't run content so I could get gear. I don't care what numbers appear on the tooltip for my pants nearly as much as many WoW players.)

And once the covenant campaign ended... honestly, my interest took a hard nosedive. I capped out my rep with the main factions. After that I stopped logging in daily/regularly. About the only content I'm still keeping up on at this point is my Venthyr Ember Court party, which only requires my attention about 1 day a week. I just hit exalted w/ the Court though last week, and once I'm best friends with all the guests, I imagine I won't keep up much on that either.

I'd LIKE to max out my covenant upgrades, but frankly the anima grind is so god-awful slow it isn't keeping me engaged anymore. World Quests feel less rewarding in this expansion so they don't keep me coming back much (though BFA had that problem too if you ask me - I did World Quests WAY more in Legion. They had better rewards I actually wanted to come back for day to day.)

What's felt like my biggest problem with story engagement this expansion - and it was a problem in BFA too, frankly - Is it still feels like I haven't seen 75% of the story. I feel I need to level 3 alts, and play the other 3 covenent campaigns, but I've always been a person who likes to pour EVERYTHING I have into my main, and never got engaged by alts. I have 15 max level (at the end of BFA) alts - But they've always just been there to fuel my main. Extra professions to send my main stuff. Extra attempts at rare cosmetic mount drops to give my main, lol. Extra sources of creating class or profession exclusive pets... to be used by my main. Not because I enjoy play them. I doubt if the other 14 combined have even much more than a small FRACTION of the playtime my main does. So I'd LIKE TO experience the other 3 covenants on my main... but... covenants aren't DESIGNED that way. It would make more sense to start the other 3 on an alt than jump around all 4 on my main. We all know that.

I had the same problem with BFA. 50% of the story content, 3 whole zones worth, was locked behind a system which forced you to play a second character on the other faction. You COULD NOT see 100% of the story content in BFA without having both a Horde and an Alliance main. You essentially missed out on 3 out of 6 zones completely.

In this game, it feels like that's even worse. You get a taste of all four zones, then you commit to one. You get the full story content of the zone you commit to, but are left hanging completely on the three. I WANT TO KNOW... what the hell happened with Drakka, Uther & Ysera - Just as I'm sure non Venthyr players would like to know what the hell is going on with Kael. And I don't want to level 3 more toons to find out - Frankly.

I hate the way the last 2 expansions split up the story content. We used to get to see ALL the stories from ALL the zones in an expansion...

[StationaryHawk]

They could have come down on Teldrassil with the Vindicaar and blow those Horde dirt to smithereens. Instead they did nothing. They can go back to Argus for all I care.

Since it appears you missed it the first time, I'll say again that Elegy claims the draenei were with the army sent to Silithus.

As for the Vindicaar, it seems to be under the Army of the Light's control post-Legion. Turalyon would be the one responsible for sending it to aid Teldrassil, though I suspect Blizzard would rather you forget it exists for now.

[geco]

Since it appears you missed it the first time, I'll say again that Elegy claims the draenei were with the army sent to Silithus.

I'm sure they said they were very legion tired.
But great so they don't look like traitors. Like Anduni.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

I miss the scenery of MoP. I wish there were other games with a continent or place like that.