WoW's story needs to go back to being more like Exile's Reach

[ro9ue]

I found the Exile's Reach story intro to be more compelling than just about any Shadowlands stories outside of maybe Revendreth. Exile's Reach feels grounded and relatable. You're a soldier with a small makeshift camp, rallying some allies and scouting the zone. You then deal with an Ogre problem and uncover some use of necromancy that ends in a fight with a dragon. The whole time I got that old school DND adventure vibe and enjoyed it quite a bit.

When you do something like Shadowlands, the story deals with eternity, ghost people, civilizations that persist in the afterlife on these pocket dimension islands... hard to really give a shit tbh. I like vampire stuff so Revendreth was enjoyable, but everything else is so out there it feels like background noise.

We need to get back to MoP style storytelling imo.

[ONCHEhap]

The issue is that WoW's writing team is convinced that they're true geniuses who can go toe to toe with the best writers out there (they're not),so they want to make some deep intricate story to show their talent.

If they were actually good,it'd still feel off for WoW,but they're not.

Going back to something simpler like Exile's Reach would be better for the game,and would work even with the current writing team honestly

[TigTone]

It’s hard to see how to make it go back to something like that.

The same old world/universal threats still exist in some capacity.

One way I can see it happen is if the add a backside of Azeroth with undiscovered land filled with normal mortals and villains that are not cosmic power levels bad guys.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The issue is that WoW's writing team is convinced that they're true geniuses who can go toe to toe with the best writers out there (they're not),so they want to make some deep intricate story to show their talent.

If they were actually good,it'd still feel off for WoW,but they're not.

Going back to something simpler like Exile's Reach would be better for the game,and would work even with the current writing team honestly

I don't think thats what they believe......like at all. Seems like projection

[Queen of Hamsters]

I wouldn't even need dragons, frankly.
I'd be more than happy with dealing with local threats such as Gnolls, bandits, politics etc. I'm actually taking a break from getting every class to 60 in order to just enjoy some more grounded themes on a Heritage armor character for a couple of days.

Not jumping on the same bandwagon as others in the thread are riding, but I'd be 100% up for less C O S M I C P O W E R stuff come 10.0.

[Darknessvamp]

It’s hard to see how to make it go back to something like that.

The same old world/universal threats still exist in some capacity.

One way I can see it happen is if the add a backside of Azeroth with undiscovered land filled with normal mortals and villains that are not cosmic power levels bad guys.

Or we (the players) could end up stuck on another planet with some notable characters (not the most OP of OP ones) and an expansion or two could be spent there fighting new threats as we try and survive, set and up and somehow figure out how to get back to Azeroth with something that is explained as stopping us from just teleporting back (gameplay portals with bronze drakes outside could explain how we can go back and 'relive' old content from before we ended up stranded). The whole backside of Azeroth idea makes far more problems than fixes them and would be the end of any reason to write anything that makes sense.

[iamthedevil]

You realize the original story of warcraft is an interdimensional alien invasion right?

[Thirtyrock]

I wouldn't even need dragons, frankly.
I'd be more than happy with dealing with local threats such as Gnolls, bandits, politics etc. I'm actually taking a break from getting every class to 60 in order to just enjoy some more grounded themes on a Heritage armor character for a couple of days.

Not jumping on the same bandwagon as others in the thread are riding, but I'd be 100% up for less C O S M I C P O W E R stuff come 10.0.

I think that's fair, a more grounded experience focused on dealing with all the issues that have built up in the homeland for the last 16 years. But for something like that to really work, we might need a 2nd cataclysm type revamp.

[Soon-TM]

for something like that to really work, we might need a 2nd cataclysm type revamp.

And this is the crux of the issue. Maybe I'm wrong, but it really seems as if the dev team doesn't have the budget/manpower/desire for such a massive undertaking.

[hulkgor]

That ship has long sailed.

It happens on every lasting media, be it a game, a tv show, a series of movies. The adversary or threat tends to get to such a high level that there's no turning back.

That's one of the reasons i love earlier WoW, where we're a random adventurer dealing with bandits, marauders, armies, etc... now every threat has to be -world ending-, and that's just gets boring eventually.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I think that's fair, a more grounded experience focused on dealing with all the issues that have built up in the homeland for the last 16 years. But for something like that to really work, we might need a 2nd cataclysm type revamp.

That's why I was so disappointed by them clarifying that time working differently in the Shadowlands, doesn't mean a timejump or such.
Was hoping so hard that we'd get back to Azeroth and find it had aged without us.

- - - Updated - - -

And this is the crux of the issue. Maybe I'm wrong, but it really seems as if the dev team doesn't have the budget/manpower/desire for such a massive undertaking.

They have the budget and the manpower in spades compared to what they had during Cata, having announced to boot that they'll be hiring more developers.

The problem is in the desire to do it. They currently can't even be arsed to fix soloing old content, nevermind going back and revamping the old world.

[Razion]

I miss a bit of the language in old style vanilla where there was that old style DnD RP speak of yore. One culture in WoW should speak like that and it'd be fun, I think. But yeah, Exile's Reach is kinda cute. It'll age well I think in some regards, which was the intent I believe. Makes me kinda want a two core race starting zone experience again. We haven't had that old-style tbc core dual high-fidelity race expac type pair on release since like Cata really. In general story cpuld be future proofed in kind of the way the Exile's Reach was with these neutral persistent threat self contained settings and it might work as long as there's reason to discover a lot of places we haven't seen yet.

[LordVargK]

One word: Boring.

In essence you don't want any cohesive, overarching storyline in WoW, just a bunch of sidequests and small stories. And you know what? Those exist in the game right now. Plenty of them in SL, they are the non main story quests you have to do for your pathfinder achievement.
BfA 8.0 was almost entirely that way. Only the warcampaign and later patches introduced the grand, heroic, overkill worldending threats.

But you can't build your game on sidequests only. I mean, you could, but then Warcraft's lore would stop developing. Eveyone complained about green jesus in cata, because we were only watching as thrall saved the day. But that's the role you propose here: Bystanders at best, no lore at worst.
Look at the best recieved expansion this far: WotLK. You were the champion. The lich king made you his champion, let you get powerful just to recruit you into his army. Yeah, it's somewhat different with orderhalls, the maw or covenants, but those are gameplay concepts that need some kind of backing to make sense. In the raids you're still the no name hero, one of many and you will find many opportunities in the world to be that, too.

Also, a personal tip of mine: get the addon "bequiet". It blocks any "chosen you need to help us.", "Mawwalker you're or only hope", etc talking heads. The game is so much better without that, it's a blessing. I've installed it in BfA, because I just couldn't handle magni anymore and it literally doubled my enjoyment in WoW.

[fatgunn]

This is one place where Blizzard can never win. If they go back to the down to earth grunt work there's a group that starts screaming about how they killed Arthas and Deathwing and they want recognition. Keep as it is now, with big threats and otherworldly craziness and a different crowd complains about feeling disconnected from the story. It's a lose-lose. With a game with this many people no action is gonna satisfy everyone.

[AngerFork]

Personally, I like the out there-ness of Shadowlands. It really helps to build out the Warcraft universe in a way that we otherwise wouldn't get to see. Exile's Reach was kind of fun, but I felt very disconnected throughout the entire zone. The story built up well, but so much of it felt like it was just another example of stuff happening in the world. Why were the Ogres specifically resurrecting that specific dragon? What further purpose did they hope to accomplish with a powerful new dragon at their side? There didn't seem to be any lore or rhyme or reason, just stuff happening on an island.

I don't disagree that WoW perhaps has placed our characters a little too high on a pedestal of late, but I'm not sure I'd want a full expansion of stuff like Exile's Reach in it's place.

[FelPlague]

I found the Exile's Reach story intro to be more compelling than just about any Shadowlands stories outside of maybe Revendreth. Exile's Reach feels grounded and relatable. You're a soldier with a small makeshift camp, rallying some allies and scouting the zone. You then deal with an Ogre problem and uncover some use of necromancy that ends in a fight with a dragon. The whole time I got that old school DND adventure vibe and enjoyed it quite a bit.

When you do something like Shadowlands, the story deals with eternity, ghost people, civilizations that persist in the afterlife on these pocket dimension islands... hard to really give a shit tbh. I like vampire stuff so Revendreth was enjoyable, but everything else is so out there it feels like background noise.

We need to get back to MoP style storytelling imo.

The old DND adventure vibe? dude idk if you know but a lot of D&D campaigns have you killing literal gods so idk mate.

our charecters are people who have been fighting in every war for almost a decade now, we have killed the lich king, multiple demon lords, dragon lords, gods, and more. we cant really just "go back to being normal people" that was literally a major complaint of the community for many years, we went through vanilla and tbc, and most of wotlk with little to no recognition for all we did and people on mass complained we were not being aknowleged for what we did, so with TOC and ICC they did, and from then on they continued.

[deenman]

go back to what exactly?warcraft has been since day 1 about otherwordly threats,orcs invading from a different world,and in warcraft 3 it whent bonkers...even in vanila,sure you had your small gnoll issues and whatnot,and a few dragons,but you also still had old gods and lich king scourge...

the only way to get to a place you desire is if somehow they just change the game completly,azeroth is born....we somehow survive as a planet,the balance in the universe is asured somehow,and we maybe get a timeskip where those gnolls rise to pose the greatest threath the world has ever seen,even if its just a 0.2/10 danger lol

that or play a different game i guess idk

[oldgeezer]

Exile's Reach is pretty great, I agree.

In fact, I'd love to see a spin-off game 'WoW Adventures', say, low level, no world-ending threats, basic, hi-res gear.

(Don't worry, it'll never happen)

- - - Updated - - -

The old DND adventure vibe? dude idk if you know but a lot of D&D campaigns have you killing literal gods so idk mate.

Depends, doesn't it? D&D comes in lots of flavours, and when I was a kid Basic, Red Box D&D was the business. Levels 1-3, and then if you wanted, you'd move up to the Expert Set (4-14). Good times. No Gods there, plenty of kobolds, slimes and spiders. Maybe a ghoul if you were unlucky.

[Utrrabbit]

The issue is that WoW's writing team is convinced that they're true geniuses who can go toe to toe with the best writers out there (they're not),so they want to make some deep intricate story to show their talent.

If they were actually good,it'd still feel off for WoW,but they're not.

Going back to something simpler like Exile's Reach would be better for the game,and would work even with the current writing team honestly

I think you are projecting to much. You and your misguided idea of what good writing is.

[Skorpionss]

I'm all for that but they need to explain it in-game how you could kill literal world-ending gods at one point but the next you can barely kill a group of gnolls. I don't think they can do it without major plot points that alter the entire world, to either make us lose our power or make everything cosmic-level threats.