Anyone else just apathetic to the story after Shadowlands?

[Candy Cough]

I´ve been with World of Warcraft for many years, played every expansion, what kept me coming back no matter how bad the systems or story was the lore, but even that I have problems finding joy in these days

But this expansion in particular seems unengaging. I think it stems from Shadowlands burn out and the fact that Blizzard just can't seem to create new engaging story/lore

First of all, let us go way back. We had the council of tirisfal that basically protected Azeroth and made sure it didn't all go to hell. Then after Warcraft 3 Medivh pretty much says that Mortals no longer have need for a guardian and can take care for themselves. Fast forward to the Cataclysm and one of the biggest criticisms is the same, We can protect ourselves now, so we don't need the aspects to do it for us. They sacrificed their powers and ushered in what they called the age of mortals... Until it wasn't because they are back again, powered up and apparently we need their help again.

God forbid they actually create any new characters. No recycle. Ysera has a literal daughter but let's instead axe malfurion, nullify Xavius´achievments in legion and bring her back again. If there ever was a time to get a new aspect THIS IS IT. Same goes for Alextrasza, I am so sick of her, and I frankly think she has run her course. We. Need. New. Characters!

Nozdormu is alright, seeing as he hasn't really gotten a "major" "major" role in the story so far, but come on, It's just going to go down the path of "If you could only see what I have seen, you would not try to stop me. I only turned to murozond because I saw something terrible in the future, so I decided to go back in time, and delete the entire time line to start everything over without this "Threat""

I will be surprised if they actually end up going to sabellian instead of Wrathion but those chances are slim to none aren't they? It is outrageous that he is even being considered. Sylvanas was considered irredeemable because of her crimes, and Wrathion has racked up a bodycount she could only dream of having, but I guess that one punch back in BFA was punishment enough right?

It is the same generic "Something terrible has happened. "Darkness stirs" "An ancient evil has been awakened" Yada yada dark ominous message. Even the incarnates are like eeeeeh, we've already defeated the people that pay their paycheck, and secondly, we can defeat the supposed titan+ level villain the jailer by stabbing his toes but god forbid we can defeat an oversized storm chicken without the help of the aspects

Dragons have been reduced to humans that turn into dragons. They are supposed to be incredibly strong yet are generic quest mobs. What exactly sets Warcraft dragons apart from dragons from other mediums like Game of Thrones and Eragon? How and why are they interesting?

Mists of Pandaria was more imaginative come on

What is everyones Thoughts?

[ZazuuPriest]

ive been apathetic since cata.

I only play this game for the homies, raiding, and M+. Giving a shit about the story is a recipe for distress

[Candy Cough]

ive been apathetic since cata.

I only play this game for the homies, raiding, and M+. Giving a shit about the story is a recipe for distress

I mean, that is true, but I think Shadowlands was the final nail that just shattered whatever interested I had left

The Jailer was such a hilariously bad villain It just broke everything

[Shadowferal]

Been apathetic since WoD.
Started rewriting the lore...more like crib notes at first, but I couldn't stop taking notes so...

[Soon-TM]

As a former enthusiast of lore, I can say with certainty that while the story of e.g. BC or WoD were dumpster fires, they weren't nearly as destructive to the lore as a whole, as BfA/SL.

The former was an appetiser: Sylvanas was turned into Garry 2.0 but worse, with the subsequent neutering of the Horde, which has effectively lost its entire raison d'être, the baffling rush to casually throw away expansion-worthy places like Nazjatar and the Black Empire. Oh, and of course the entire Teldrassil drama, which writers were evidently unfit to deal with, if that awful storyline of Tyrande (night warrior kekw) is any hint.

And then SL came forth as the main dish, with the whole "recontextualisation" of one of the most iconic storylines in the franchise, i.e. the Scourge/Arthas arc, the cringe-inducing cosmic mumbo-jumbo, featuring the worst villain ever made in WoW. Of course we were bound to have even MORE Sylvanas (because evidently we hadn't had enough of the screecher in BfA), the horribly failed parallel between Arthas and Anduin... <sigh>. And last but not least, the gall of Danuser claiming that the trainwreck of SL was "the closing of the first Warcraft saga" or something equally moronic.

And now we have DF, with its fuzzy dragons, an additional batch of retcons, and a story that still looks as if it was penned by a 12 yo - and not a particularly talented one, while we are at it. Zero wishes to invest myself any further in this #$&%.

[Accendor]

I mean, that is true, but I think Shadowlands was the final nail that just shattered whatever interested I had left

The Jailer was such a hilariously bad villain It just broke everything

Yes, I completely agree. SL was a terrible expansion overall, but what really killed it for me was the lore. Holy shit, the jailor was the worst villian we ever had and they managed to retrospectively fuck up Arthas ending as well.
However, what really ticket me off was the whole storyline surrounding Tyrande and the Nightelves. Everything about this, including the completely pointless night warrior storyline, was so unbelievably bad that I don't understand how it could have possible been approved in the first place.

[Biomega]

Like many, WoD's time-travel multiverse shenanigans killed any interest in the story for me. The fact that Legion did the Legion a disservice by going completely whacko didn't help, and BFA and SL are for obvious reasons about the very bottom of WoW storytelling and lore. DF's rehashed, generic sort-of-story has not interested me one bit so far, but DF is also the first expansion I haven't played so I can't really comment too much on it.

I mean yeah WoW is a serial entertainment product and so we can't exactly expect novelistic sophistication in the writing, but COME ON. They've really dropped the ball a long time ago, and not only not picked it up but are stubbornly sitting there juggling without a ball pretending it's still in the air.

[Khaza-R]

In short, yes. I don't really see how anyone could be invested in the story after Shadowlands when they casually just re-write major story points to "recontextualize" a new and even worse one.

As for Dragonflight, I feel like WoW's dragons were never interesting once they became overly friendly with the player and factions. But the story is non-offensive at least. It feels like something interesting could happen. But it also feels like they possibly don't know how to write a good or satisfying conclusion and that's why Metzen is being brought in for consultation.

I'm pretty much just watching to see where it all goes like a TV series that went off the rails but you're too invested to not see how it ends. I doubt there's anything they can do outside of total reboot to really make as interested as I was in the lore from WC3 -> MoP.

[Soon-TM]

WoW is a serial entertainment product and so we can't exactly expect novelistic sophistication in the writing, but COME ON. They've really dropped the ball a long time ago, and not only not picked it up but are stubbornly sitting there juggling without a ball pretending it's still in the air.

Can I have this as a signature, good sir? It's all too accurate.

[Biomega]

Can I have this as a signature, good sir? It's all too accurate.

Have at it

[LemonDemonGirl]

I am. I think the *only* DF content I did was the Dracthyr staring zone. Dragons just aren't my thing. I MIGHT be more interested if there's a Time Travel expac in the future.
It's a shame really. I was so excited over SL that I made an account on here. And I hated that expac. Ugh.

[Biomega]

What does this even mean? The Legion being whacky and insane in terms of technology, etc was exactly why I loved them to begin with.

That's fine.

It being a multiversal force that somehow went across realities to wipe out all the Titans but then have a base planet with a whole 50 mobs on it that some random adventurers can dismantle in their spare time? That's not the LEGION. That's... a joke.

[Luck4]

I'm apathetic since BFA.

Everything before that, despite some rubbles here and there that were hard to swallow, was overall either "good" or "okay" IMO.

BFA was the dip, but Shadowlands managed to completely kill all the hype for me, while I think DF is still "okay" the damage caused by Shadowlands doesn't make me hyped or interested in any loose threads. I'm playing DF only because of the improvements in gameplay and the grounded theme, but I don't care if any/all Aspects die or who'll be the next or last boss.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

I think I'm increasingly happy I've never cared about the lore or the wow universe despite playing the game since launch lol

Which isnt to say there aren't better and worse stories - i liked the bfa jaina stuff and cutscenes etc - but for the most part it's just standard genre trash.

And that's fine, it's all it needs to be.

[Luck4]

And I used to be a lore nerd, I still remember reading random Wowpedia pages for hours... =/

[Chromeshellking]

I could melt crayons into paper and it would be more engaging. Alas the thing about keeping a 25+ year old story going with 95 percent of the OG crew for the narrative being gone tends to this path.

[Amagh]

Eh. What's done is done. Warcraft 3 is still there, you can (mostly) still play it. You can still (sorta) go through Wrath of the Lich King (Especially in Classic) so ignoring the cancer that was the jailor's galaxybrain plan is easy.

I suppose my biggest gripe with Dragonflight is how everyone's all buddy buddy besties all of a sudden. Toddy and the blood elf especially are almost gratingly "WOW best friends evers and adventure pal buddy yay!"

[Mysterymask]

ive been apathetic since cata.

I only play this game for the homies, raiding, and M+. Giving a shit about the story is a recipe for distress

I mean it makes sense. Cata was the first time blizzard has to write stories on the MMO

Look at the first 3 expansions

Classic was a small epilogue to Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne designed to flesh out the world that instead of looking through on a commanders chair you're now seeing first hand. Barely any overarching story and more a TON of world building and fleshing out.

BC serves as not only a fleshing out of Outland since the Blood Elf Campaign in WC3:FT but as an epilogue to Illidans story ending in his defeat. There was an overarching narrative but WoW didn't have to tell it. The narrative and direction was already told with a couple of side stories like the blood knights, the Dranaei, and the Mag'Har

Then Wrath finishing off Frozen Thrones story for good. Overarching narrative again but zeroed in on Arthas. Once again not to much story to tell since we just had 3 rts campaigns telling it with a side story in Ulduar and DKs. This fleshed out Northrend and in the end we have finished Warcraft 3 for good.

Now what? Well I guess raise 2 dragons from the dead, retcon another dragon dying and throw in a nostalgia raid in the middle!

This is where Blizz starts to struggle since their style of writing is a little more difficult to do in an MMO. So cata is when they do what I call "roller coaster story telling" where stories are told to get you excited for the next ride.

But then now they have been writing with this formula for years and they are kinda shackled by the mechanics that become more and more painfully obvious with each expansion and Mist REALLY showed this

-Blood Elves consider joining the alliance..shit can't do that would fuck up the game for so many players
-Orc uprising? Shit can't seperate the faction!
-Alliance and Horde working together? It's temporary pvp HAS TO EXIST
-DKs Demon Hunters Pandaran and Dractyr technically all one group...gotta split them into 2 sides so that pvp can exist
Sylvannas saying fuck the horde: well better punish the loyalists because we can't split the story!
Gain ability to be a servant of N'zoth? Nope can't do anything with it cause can't split the story!
Tyrande super pissed at the alliance: she's super angry but we can't have the night elves leave the alliance cause it will fuck with the player base!

And on and on and on and on

[Itisamuh]

I think I'm increasingly happy I've never cared about the lore or the wow universe despite playing the game since launch lol

Which isnt to say there aren't better and worse stories - i liked the bfa jaina stuff and cutscenes etc - but for the most part it's just standard genre trash.

And that's fine, it's all it needs to be.

Pretty much this, the story is fine for what it is and is good enough to enjoy on a shallow level, just better off not thinking too deeply on it.

[Aleksej89]

apathetic since BFA started.

actually actively avoiding it is a more apt description.

dragonflight npcs are waaaaaaay too friendly and annoying, as if it was all written for 8 year olds.