Recent writing has been dubbed "the worst ever" by the community & mainstream media

[muto]

Plot was okish up to and including MoP, not Tolkien but OK

It has been a hot tub of manure since with the possible exception of Legion which was basically TBC part 2

I would agree. I’d also include WoD as not to terrible lore wise, since we got backstory on the Warlords, and their Clans. And yeah while Cataclysm sucked, the lore was at least good as it dealt with Deathwing and the Elemental Lords.

Shadowlands is such a hot fucking mess though.

1. Sylvanas just casually defeats the Lich King and tears the Helm of Domination in two.
2. Anduin becomes pseudo Lich King for the Jailer
3. Tyrande wants to get even on Sylvanas, but Sylvanas is 100% getting redeemed, so that’s a wasted story arc.
3. Zovaal is Thanos
4. Sylvanas says “I will never serve”, after already have been serving.
5. The Jailer throws Sylvanas soul back at her thinking the others will kill her, and she”ll get sent to the Maw, instead of him just outright killing her.

[Ivarr]

you'd still have taken the genie out of the battle for a story that's disposable and has to spend much of its main story runtime resolving plot threads in different, but equally incompetent ways to BFA.

Suppose everything is restored as normal, then every time a character dies, people would have a legitimate question as to where they are in the Shadowlands right now. Which zone did the Arbiter send them to?

It's an ugly idea in that regard.

- - - Updated - - -

3. Zovaal is Thanos

He wishes he had the stature and wisdom of Thanos.

[scubi666stacy]

I'm not going to claim the writing is good in Shadowlands, but the rose-colored glasses are very strong when it comes to WoW's characters/story. I've also been rather convinced for a long time that there is a not unsizeable portion of the fan base that thinks the story never should have progressed past WC3, and reflexively objects to most lore developments.

This. Story in WoW has never been that deep, has stolen -um - borrowed elements from other franchises here and there, so I don't expect much, anyway.
Sylvanas firing her arrow at the jailer looks to me like a bad copy of the Hunger Games finale.

I know that I would have written the story completely different starting with BfA. And I am only a RPG storyteller and indie fantasy author (German language though, so you surely would not know me).

But there are still some things I do enjoy in this game, they manage to create interesting characters now and then, so for now I am indifferent. I enjoy my small stories and try to ignore the rest as good as I can.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

How surprising, Shadowlands story happened to be as bad and nonsensical as BFA, if not even worse. The writers were clearly not picked with much difficulty nor did they learn their lessons after BFA.

I am so tired of Sylvanas and her story, her being a creator pet alongsise Anduin, and of how little karma she ever suffer for the crimes and atrocities she commited. Zovaal is the blandest and most anticlimatic villain in Warcraft history, and I wasn't by the retcons of him being supposed to be behind the Scourge and the Nathrezims.

And it would have been better if they kept the mystery around Elune or gave a real purpose to the Night Warrior plot.

[Dhrizzle]

The problem with Shadowlands story is how badly it has retroactively fucked the entire story of Warcraft. Sargeras, who was the ultimate evil for the majority of the game, was actually just a bitch. So were the Titans. Lich King was just a pawn. The Warcraft games don't really make sense anymore. The Warcraft 3 scourge campaign is now just all of the Jailer's underlings fighting each other, just because. This is the problem. In a world that was making tenuous sense at best, they've set what little logic there was on fire.

It is nice that they harken back to the original lore before TBC accidentally retconned things from the Dreadlords corrupting Sargeras.

[Romanthony]

I mean I think one of the biggest problems right now, is the lead writers are too used to writing novels and books a Books story is different oa game one which changes each patch.

Another thing they are doing is planning ahead of time, they are planning the next patch or next expansion story thats all well and good but when you leave to many cliffhangers, leading to the nest story its gonna piss people off
But i think the biggest problem and this is a problem thats happened since wod. Is telling the story through external methods.

Okay so we end mop defeating Garrosh and hes going to be on trial great. We go into WoD going back in time,o a alternative dimension and garrosh is there, If you didnt read war crimes youd be so lost.

And yes as someone else pointed out the major problem is it retconns alot of warcraft past so for example it makes the wc3 scourge campaign pretty meaningless, since its all jailers followers fighting one another for no reason.

And it Ruins Kelthzard and Arthas Relationship When i first did the undead campaign i generally saw Kel as his second in command

[Dhrizzle]

I mean I think one of the biggest problems right now, is the lead writers are too used to writing novels and books a Books story is different oa game one which changes each patch.

Another thing they are doing is planning ahead of time, they are planning the next patch or next expansion story thats all well and good but when you leave to many cliffhangers, leading to the nest story its gonna piss people off
But i think the biggest problem and this is a problem thats happened since wod. Is telling the story through external methods.

Okay so we end mop defeating Garrosh and hes going to be on trial great. We go into WoD going back in time,o a alternative dimension and garrosh is there, If you didnt read war crimes youd be so lost.

And yes as someone else pointed out the major problem is it retconns alot of warcraft past so for example it makes the wc3 scourge campaign pretty meaningless, since its all jailers followers fighting one another for no reason.

And it Ruins Kelthzard and Arthas Relationship When i first did the undead campaign i generally saw Kel as his second in command

Biggest problem with WoW's lore is the way it is fed to the community. Recently I've noticed a lot of people arguing about the campaign who have clearly just watched the cut scenes without doing the quests that lead up to them. Also nothing kills my enthusiasm for finishing an expansion quite as much as promotion for the next expansion spoiling all the story beats.

- - - Updated - - -

The story has never been treated so badly and torn to shambles like it has been in recent years don't give me that ''it's always been like this''

Spoken like someone who has never read the War of the Anciengs trilogy.

[Romanthony]

Spoken like someone who has never read the War of the Ancients trilogy.

I loved reading that it but then after awhile I realized richard knaak wasnt that good of a Author he murdered Tyrande in Stormrage turning her into a dotting Housewife.

And he made his characters way to OP, and perfect, which is most likely, why he hasnt written for them since, they killed off his characters Rhoinin died on theramore and Christine killed Korialstrasz

[Eggroll]

One poster in the youtube comments under the "By Our Hands" cinematic put it best



We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!

[KOUNTERPARTS]

One poster in the youtube comments under the "By Our Hands" cinematic put it best



We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!

Just l-o-l at that comment.

[Tekko]

The storytelling in WoW has always sucked, and I never expect it to be good. Is SL the worst, no, but it is certainly bad like every other expansion storytelling.

[Dhrizzle]

I read the trilogy while I was deployed in Iraq, I loved them tbh contrary to how cool it is to hate on them

It's not a matter of me hating them, it's just a very clear case of them ripping the lore to shreds so an author can cram his own creations in the established lore while not entirely making it clear if the time travel adventure is a retcon or alternate universe. Add to that the TBC retcons, sci-fi elements, changes to characters and weird stuff like Naaru and I see a lot of parallels with what you say about SL and how TBC was produced.

[Beloren]

People have been complaining about stupid stories, retcons and poor character development at least since TBC. The only difference nowadays is there is a couple of e-celebs to provide opinions for people to rally around.

We grew up, the writing quality didn’t grow with us.

TBC was the error. Spoiling Illidan and Kael’thas to make a raid boss. Short term high, long term disaster for story telling.


But wow failed to focus and present its story properly enough. It didn’t value it enough to seriously show it.

1. SWTOR - is an MMO with much higher quality in story and the best presentation of. It
2. The Secret World - also an MMO that tells an excellent story too.

Both of these have meaningful player choices too.

3. FFXIV has a very good story but poor presentation, fir westerners, even some of the translations are dodgy. But the story plot is much better than what they did with wow.

It’s funny that fir the RTS the story was one of its strongest suits, but in thenROG where that is usually the best attribute, for wow it’s terrible

[Tanaria]

We grew up, the writing quality didn’t grow with us.

TBC was the error. Spoiling Illidan and Kael’thas to make a raid boss. Short term high, long term disaster for story telling.


But wow failed to focus and present its story properly enough. It didn’t value it enough to seriously show it.

1. SWTOR - is an MMO with much higher quality in story and the best presentation of. It
2. The Secret World - also an MMO that tells an excellent story too.

Both of these have meaningful player choices too.

3. FFXIV has a very good story but poor presentation, fir westerners, even some of the translations are dodgy. But the story plot is much better than what they did with wow.

It’s funny that fir the RTS the story was one of its strongest suits, but in thenROG where that is usually the best attribute, for wow it’s terrible

TBC writing makes SL look good.

That is how bad SL is right now. Honestly, the sooner this expansion is put to bed, the better.

[Graeham]

It bothers me that the writers seem to think we're stupid as an audience and couldn't handle more sophisticated writing.

Most can't.

Same goes for FFXIV's community.

A very vocal portion of the community in each game kicks and screams the moment there's even the slightest hint of depth or grey morality in a story. Or when a character acts within the confines of an agenda of their own making.

There's also a weird purity spiral where disproportionate retribution for reasonable actions is demanded.

[Ivarr]

How surprising, Shadowlands story happened to be as bad and nonsensical as BFA, if not even worse. The writers were clearly not picked with much difficulty nor did they learn their lessons after BFA.

BfA simply had an amazing setting. The setting is what carried the expansion. Get the world right and all the gameplay and lore quirks become more easy to tolerate.

[Syegfryed]

The rest of the characters do reasonably well. Anduin being corrupted like Arthas, though against his will, is a wonderful plotline whose only weakness is being linked to Sylvanas.

I would not say that is good, it is a blatantly Arthas rip-off but with no consequences, in the end we will save him, and he will just be sad about, and that is what they will explore, if they ever care about that, honestly tiresome. It is bad if do not biring any real consequences.

Bolvar is given the most lore since at least WotLK, and it is solid enough.

Nothing will save him the terrible trailler

The base concept of SL is not that great, which might be what constitutes a greater problem in SL that it is likely impossible to untangle from. But compared to the absolute travesty that was the plot pileup in BfA I am willing to give SL the benefit of the doubt and say that SL cannot possibly be as awful.

It would be ok, if they actually write a plot well, without the rule of coll and edgy things.

there is also the fact how they rpetend this shit is being going since wtlk

They have to realize, a plot hanging around for 3 expansions is NOT a "masterpiece" like they think it is, is a bad way to tell the story of a mmo.

BfA will always hold the crown for me on absolute worst plot

that i agre totally

[Jackstraw]

The mainstream media repeats the overall sentiment of whatever journalist overview is applied. That's the point.
We know the writing is the worst it's ever been, we see it standing on shaky legs and wasting its good ideas in loops and contrivancies that actually hurt the good because it all needs to be spectacularized. It's not news.

And although it would be interesting to read a take from some professional storyteller, nobody can be asked to cope with all the things that happened since BfA, and it's a lot - a lot. Maybe more than it ever happened in the history of the game, all cramped from 8.0 to 8.3. We went from arms race fueled faction war to reality bending void invasion, all spliced with some more world ending threats, going through two full blown city incursions with one having a regicide for good measure and the return of the long lost Kaldorei capital city.

BfA managed to burn through:

• the aftermath of Sargeras' final attack
• the destruction of Teldrassil
• the destruction of the Undercity
• some titan facilities
• Zuul, Rastakhan and the Zandalari
• the Loas
• Azshara
• N'zoth
• Saurfang's quest for a good death
• Sylvanas
• Ashvane

This has material for three expansions in their own right. BfA wasted most of them like it was TBC all over again and you faced Kael'thas in space and Vashj in a sewer. WoD wasted the Gronn empire? The comparisons just pale. Nyalotha could have carried alone two years with all the hype it got over the years in a momentous rush much like the one that led us to Argus in Legion. Apparently we had to be led to the equivalent of Azeroth's suburbs because that's all the Void could invade at once.

Shadowlands can't do anything because Dickmann is right, all of the substance has been bitten away. Reconstruction is in order but the overarching narrative is still hostage to old characters holding the spotlight way past their welcome to the point of not resembling themselves.

Elune is the literal hail mary to try and stoke interest in the same trite hype video of obscure quotes and contrived motivations, but the real tragedy is the lack of faith this writing team holds for itself: the audience doesn't trust them to deliver, and is exhilarated at the idea of Elune becoming a quest giver.

[clexecute]

I think most people in the Lore community are find with the storytelling being kinda shitty. Like getting your lore from cinematics, quests, random books you find in the world, and external books/comics/etc is pretty overwhelming for most people, but thats not why people are upset.

People are upset because Shadowlands has retconned a large part of Warcraft's roots. Warcraft 3 has pretty much been retconned. The entire reason Sylvanas had an anger towards Arthas was because he killed her and most the high elves going to res Kel Thuzad under the instruction of dreadlords/Nerzhul. Her entire story arc started with vengeance.

Fast forward 20 years and here we are, what actually happened was the Jailer was controlling the dreadlords who were controlling Nerzhul who was controlling Arthas who was controlling KT. So in actuality the Jailer is responsible for Sylvanas' situation, but she still stands by him in a raid with Nerzhul AND KT in it. She is now allies with the person who orchestrated it, the person who dictated how it would happen, and the person who was resurrected as a result of her death.

Also, Elune is depicted as a diety above the shadowlands, yet she was oblivious to everything going on? She wasnt aware of how the Shadowlands works? "Imma answer the call of my sister by letting all my followers die that way their souls go to Ardeanweald!" too bad the arbiter dictates where souls go...Pretty pathetic showing from the diety that has been around for 20 years.

[Magnagarde]

WoW almost always gets the individual zones right; questing in them usually feels good and makes sense. It is astounding that the people in charge of the main plot can't get the bigger picture together and present it in a meaningful way. It feels as though they don't spend a minute thinking how well something translates onto the playerbase.