Race focus should lead the story in warcraft

[Beloren]

I really feel both the game and the narrative would be most enjoyable if they instead told the story of he various races meeting new challenges and threas ratehr than individual characters or classes or faction.

Faction is too boring, it just feels like we're two races and hate is the basis of all things - no fun at all
Swtor based theirs on class - but class lore isn't that deeloped in wow, besides, classes are just the program to interact in the game space - Legion class emphasis would have been more meaningful as races.

Now races is where all the fun and depth is. Your tribe, your people - for an anonymous champion, your race represents your identity in a far more meaningful fashion imo.


Sadly there are too many races to carry out meaningful campaign, even if you fold allied races into their main race. However I feel there is a thematic grouping that can work well as mega campaigns which can have minor vraitions and additions for the individual races: I would have 6 majoar campaigns.


Orcs, Trolls, Tauren , Goblins - themed
Humans, Thalassians, Dwarves, Gnomes - themed
Undead of every race, scourge, Ebon blade
Night elves, Nightborne, Worgen, Illidari, naga
Pandaren, Mogu, Jinyu, Hozen
Draenei, Lightforged, Eredar, Broken

Now obviously everyone doesn't need to be friends, and there are interactions across the various campaigns, a race might have it's primary involvement in its native campaign but also have secondary involvements in other campaigns due to its relationship and connecions with a race in another campaign.

But these are the primary world focuses.

Well, however ou divide it, this is what would be best

[Syegfryed]

good old times of cataclysm/mop where races were focused together with factions, today the only focus is in the plot and wherever character they want to bring upfront, and it mostly like elves and humans

Hopefully they go their way in doing "Race campaign" like they did "class campaign" in Legion, the only good way to develop the races in a meaningful and solid way that also willc reate worldbuilding, since we will get a close look to the race society and participate/alter it. The only sad thing is how some races will get the end of stick, but i guess we have to live with that.

[Arrashi]

It already does - the focus on humans that is.

[Rustedsaint]

They can’t even keep a even story together with just two factions. And you want them to write stories for over a dozen races?

[Mirishka]

They can’t even keep a even story together with just two factions. And you want them to write stories for over a dozen races?

To be fair they did well with the order halls in Legion, which was a lot of classes.

I think BFA would have done better if the war was like, the singular focus. There were too many side-stories and things pulling away from it constantly. If you're going to do an expansion about a war, shove all the other stuff to the side until like, the end where something emerges that FORCES the factions to set aside their bullshit to deal with it. That can be the moment of yeah, we can't do this without each other, we have to learn to co-exist, etc.

As for the original post, I happen to agree with this one. I actually posted on the forums a couple years back that I wanted a 'Race Fantasy' expansion, meaning an expansion that focused on races as much as Legion was about/focused on 'Class Fantasy'.

There's like, no difference in dialogue or lore most of the time from quest-givers. Going to Draenor in WoD, the Draenei and Orc NPCs didn't react any differently (that I recall) to a Draenei/Orc player character than they did a Dwarf, Troll, etc.

The allied races are another example. If I'm a Mechagnome doing stuff in Mechagon, they should TREAT me like one. Don't give me the same dialogue you gave Corpselolz the Undead rogue. Mind you, you can get race-specific dialogue from a few NPCs, like Pristy and Erazmin, but that should be the norm, not the exception.

[StationaryHawk]

It sounds like you just want more factions.

Which wouldn't work, of course.

[Vargrik]

I like this idea.

[Tarba]

That would require a little bit of talent from the wow writing team. Don't expect that.

[Nnyco]

Just remove elves, humans and orcs from that list. They can stay in the back for abit, we seen enough of em for now.

[Beloren]

They can’t even keep a even story together with just two factions. And you want them to write stories for over a dozen races?

It’s not complicated. They did for 20 levels of each race and also for every race they introduced.

I think the story problems is precisely because they’ve deviated from that baseline that fits the MMO format which works best at world building. Telling the story of a race and zone local - which can combine to a bigger plot but you are always advancing the story of each group and showing how they progress.

Now this alongside whatever major storyline would be cool.

Wherever the main story goes, the races all have plans and objectives concerning new zone and their ambitions.

Within each racial group category are friends, enemies, coalitions, short term and long term plans, negotiations, betrayals new ambitions etc.

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It sounds like you just want more factions.

Which wouldn't work, of course.

No, just racial stories that can be grouped together for a more manageable way.

[Nuciek]

I totally agree. I'd love to see some race campaigns like we had class campaigns in Legion with unlocking maybe new things in our capital cities. New race mounts, some pets, maybe transmog, additional benefits after completing certain points (like extra teleport to some place, title, weapon transmogs, new neat tabards or whatever). Not something that's connected to our power, not something that makes us the Champion and The Chosen One. Just a story where we are just a member of the race and as we progress we unlock more vanity and "cool" stuff.

[Beloren]

@StationaryHawk Take my Humans, Thalassians, Dwarves, Gnomes - these are all intertwined in the same mega story because they will have a lot of overlap. Not all these member races are friends with each other, the blood elves are on the horde, the dark irons don't like the Bronzebeards even though they're on the same faction.


But the purpose is not about faction, although that ofc has some relevance, it's about how each race is doing, and what they want to do, and yeah, Thalassians whether blood elf or high elf are based in eastern kingdom they will meet and have a lot of politics with humans, Dalaran, dwarves, gnomes etc, as well as Amani and forsaken - however the mega story will involve all these races. but that's not to say blood elves won't feature in some capacity in other racial campaigns, like the Draenei or the find them helping the Nightborne - and you will see a lot of complexity that helps you figure out how the race truly feels.

It's not a simple matter of because blood elves are on the horde they love the orcs and trolls and absolutely despise the humans, i'ts not so simple at all, you will see the nuances, the feelings, the traditions the ambitions and hopefully special things about Thalassians and understand the complexities of their relations, political alliances and the thrust of what they are trying to do. Which is mainly gain as much magical power to stay ahead so that no one will be able to betray or destroy them. They are a lot more suspicious even of each other, yet, they work well together.

You can see things like this.

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To be fair they did well with the order halls in Legion, which was a lot of classes.

I think BFA would have done better if the war was like, the singular focus. There were too many side-stories and things pulling away from it constantly. If you're going to do an expansion about a war, shove all the other stuff to the side until like, the end where something emerges that FORCES the factions to set aside their bullshit to deal with it. That can be the moment of yeah, we can't do this without each other, we have to learn to co-exist, etc.

As for the original post, I happen to agree with this one. I actually posted on the forums a couple years back that I wanted a 'Race Fantasy' expansion, meaning an expansion that focused on races as much as Legion was about/focused on 'Class Fantasy'.

There's like, no difference in dialogue or lore most of the time from quest-givers. Going to Draenor in WoD, the Draenei and Orc NPCs didn't react any differently (that I recall) to a Draenei/Orc player character than they did a Dwarf, Troll, etc.

The allied races are another example. If I'm a Mechagnome doing stuff in Mechagon, they should TREAT me like one. Don't give me the same dialogue you gave Corpselolz the Undead rogue. Mind you, you can get race-specific dialogue from a few NPCs, like Pristy and Erazmin, but that should be the norm, not the exception.

Exactly, and race just happens to be one of the most interesting facets of wow from a lore point of view because they have so much detail and form the basis of what most of us base our fantasies on. Most of our class fantasies are based on race, not the other way round, which is why a race campaign expansion would always be more interesting than a class one like Legion had.

They are the ones that put a lot of effort into race identity, history, lore, set up but then end up actually not utilising a fraction of that stuff, with most races pretty much not advanced beyond their intro story.

Most people are excited to see what their fave race is up to and see more of them, blizz just settles for throwing in a racial hero here and there to rope a group in, but that's usually nowhere near enough.

[Syegfryed]

Just remove elves, humans and orcs from that list. They can stay in the back for abit, we seen enough of em for now.

orcs? the race who don't have development since mop and their characters just die?

[Nnyco]

orcs? the race who don't have development since mop and their characters just die?

You seem the forget a certain expansion after mop.

[Syegfryed]

You seem the forget a certain expansion after mop.

the certain expansion aftr mop gve shit development for orcs of the horde and their characters, only thrall appered a bit

unless you count killing overzised gorillas left and right is good and count as something

[LemonDemonGirl]

Well, there's a bit too much focus on humans and elves right now, so I'd welcome this change with open arms

Also, having 'racial storylines' like GW2 has would be cool but would end up being a lot of work for the current team

[Beloren]

Well, there's a bit too much focus on humans and elves right now, so I'd welcome this change with open arms

Also, having 'racial storylines' like GW2 has would be cool but would end up being a lot of work for the current team

I think they need and should make effort to do those "really cool" things, that people are drawn to.

[username993720]

Would love to see racial stories being told.
That's what makes every race unique - Their Cultures, their struggles and their main characters.

[Beloren]

Would love to see racial stories being told.
That's what makes every race unique - Their Cultures, their struggles and their main characters.

Exactly, we like the main characters because they represent and work on behalf of their races, not just to follow an allstar adventure with them alone.. save that for the films, TV series, in the game where an anonymous adventurer is the hero, it's more appealing to see the progress of the various denizens you are related to and invovled with and see the future of your tribe.

[AngerFork]

Honestly, there's enough races that I'm not sure that doing full quest chains is a solid idea. I think that would be too much and would have to be revisited every time a new race is made. Your grouping idea is interesting, but I do feel that many of the groupings feel a little strange (Tauren & Goblins together, for instance).

What I'd like to see them do for even just a touch of racial development is to have us check in with our Racial Leaders at our race-based city. If I'm a Draenei, I don't want to be talking to Anduin in Stormwind, I'd prefer to hang around Velen in the Exodar. Find out how the repairs are going, why the Draenei are doing this specific fight, stuff like that. It would not only give a certain amount of connection to each race, but it would somewhat force Blizz to work on developing where each race is going in the future, so no race would feel fully lost.

I know it would add a decent amount of work to the writing team, but I'd argue it would be work that they could build on later. It likely won't be anything bigger for them to write than all the island quests.