Another great thing about Classic -- No cutscenes.

[anon5123]

nobody gives a shit about your opinions

You gave enough of a shit to reply.

[mvaliz]

Wow.. you're really reaching to find things to make classic seem better huh.

Absolutely pathetic.

I'm laying bets on what the next one is:

"Another great thing about Classic -- No new content announcement at Blizzcon!"

>_<

[Mirishka]

I'm not a fan of cutscenes. As the joke recently reiterated in Borderlands 3 -- "You never die unless its in a cutscene."

The stories in Classic were mostly emergent. Read the scraps of paper and books; talk to NPCs; listen to the dungeon and raid boss emotes. You experienced everything in the context of gameplay.

The Butcher in Diablo was awesome, because he was unexpected. You're grinding away monsters, then you open a door and a room that looks like a murder scene has a unique mob in it...he yells "FRESH MEAT" then charges right at you. This was 100x more effective than any cutscene or exposition in Diablo 3, as they tried to ingrain MMO mechanics into boss fights (including rage timers and boss pull countdowns).

Classic's story was simple, and directly experienced. This is why players feel connected; its THEIR story, not the one the developers are trying to force down your throat.

Yeah speak for yourself. The cutscenes/storytelling is IMO one of the ways that WoW has massively improved over time. Did you hear any 'back in my day the story was on a piece of tablecloth and you had to right click it' comments about the Wrathgate cinematic back in WOTLK?

There's no 'its OUR story' - that is literally in your head. We have always had defined stories. Dealing with Van Cleef. Dealing with the gates of AQ. Dealing with Naxx and Onyxia and countless others. The difference is that now we sometimes get awesome cinematics along with those stories. But they were always there.

[korijenkins]

I feel like part of the issue stems from not letting the player participate in any capacity anymore. When they DO let the player participate it feels incredibly scripted, to a point of feeling like you're in an amusement park ride waiting for it to be over.

[mvaliz]

I feel like part of the issue stems from not letting the player participate in any capacity anymore. When they DO let the player participate it feels incredibly scripted, to a point of feeling like you're in an amusement park ride waiting for it to be over.

It's been this way since Vanilla. Hell, it was Vanilla-WOW that coined the term "Theme Park gameplay" subset in the MMORPG genre.

[Donald Hellscream]

I get that it is cool to make Classic seem like the second coming of Christ but man you are reaching alot here.

[Alvito]

yes, cutscenes became popular when 12 year olds were allowed to play WoW. Mainly because they're catered towards them.

If the RTS games weren't littered with them you might be on to something.

[Feralheart]

100% agree with you, but it's a very unpopular opinion.

Cutscenes always take me out of the game and away from the immersion - I like experiencing the world through my character, not through passive videos. The same with the story - let the world tell it to us through hints and subtle nudges instead of being forced to participate in boring, on-rails solo missions in a main story questline.

[Frozenbro]

Lol your describing BFA perfectly.

Low skill ceiling, low skill-cap etc..

Classic have high skill cap compared to BFA, in PvP and in general, maybe not mythic raids but anything outside that.

Give me some of that stuff you are smoking, since you are high af while posting.

[Heathy]

I like the cutscenes in the game, the only issue is that a lot of them take place at points where for example, you join an LFR run for the first time and you have a several minute long cutscene, no one is waiting for you to watch that. cutscenes at the end of a raid are great because no one is pulling anything after that.

[Dziubla]

Every single time I think classic players can't get any more self-deluded, another brilliant thread like this appears. You never disappoint, people.

[Paetolus]

Idk, I rather like cutscenes in video games if they're well made, and wow's have always been pretty good since Wrath, and not very intrusive considering they're fairly short and scattered. I also play JRPGs though, some of which can have over 10 hours worth of cutscenes, and I enjoy those as well, so maybe I'm in the minority.

[Saradain]

I love playing Classic, but the lack of cutscenes doesn't make it better at all...And what comes to the Classic story, there isn't a coherent one, just series of mini-storylines that may or may not expand to multiple zones, mostly errand boy quests...

[Feralheart]

Idk, I rather like cutscenes in video games if they're well made, and wow's have always been pretty good since Wrath, and not very intrusive considering they're fairly short and scattered. I also play JRPGs though, some of which can have over 10 hours worth of cutscenes, and I enjoy those as well, so maybe I'm in the minority.

It's funny - I love cutscenes in single player games. Hell, I'm one of the few that adored Metal Gear Solid for it's cinematic nature. But I can't stand them in online games, especially MMORPG's such WoW - from when I press enter world, I want to experience the game world through my character only.

I do enjoy the expansion intro cutscenes, they're cool. Just don't want my gameplay continuously littered with them.

[Shaetha]

I feel like part of the issue stems from not letting the player participate in any capacity anymore. When they DO let the player participate it feels incredibly scripted, to a point of feeling like you're in an amusement park ride waiting for it to be over.

I've got bad news for you, the player character participates as a character in the story exactly 0 until WoD. Up until that point the player's actions are generic "alliance/horde forces" and the real heroes are officially doing all the heavy lifting.

[SirCowdog]

I'm not a fan of cutscenes. As the joke recently reiterated in Borderlands 3 -- "You never die unless its in a cutscene."

The stories in Classic were mostly emergent. Read the scraps of paper and books; talk to NPCs; listen to the dungeon and raid boss emotes. You experienced everything in the context of gameplay.

The Butcher in Diablo was awesome, because he was unexpected. You're grinding away monsters, then you open a door and a room that looks like a murder scene has a unique mob in it...he yells "FRESH MEAT" then charges right at you. This was 100x more effective than any cutscene or exposition in Diablo 3, as they tried to ingrain MMO mechanics into boss fights (including rage timers and boss pull countdowns).

Classic's story was simple, and directly experienced. This is why players feel connected; its THEIR story, not the one the developers are trying to force down your throat.

I don't personally think cutscenes are bad, but I DO very much wish more of them actually included our characters.

This is something that one of the youtube channels I follow brought up about Borderlands 3: The way in which all the cutscenes and story were about the NPCs detracting VERY heavily from the feeling of accomplishment or immersion. It robbed the player of feeling like THEY were the ones being heroic, or having any influence on the outcome of the story.

I feel like this is something Blizzard has done for a long time now. Our characters are there, doing the lion's share of the work. But when it comes time for something epic in the story to happen, our characters aren't even there at all. The full CGI clips I completely understand. Those are laborious works of art that require a LOT of specific work that wouldn't allow for customized player characters to be included. But the clips that use the in-game engine? We absolutely should be getting more of the limelight.

In Vanilla/Classic, this isn't an issue. There are NO cinematic cuts away from the game, and so every piece of story really is kind of about our characters. Everything we do is creating that story.

I don't know how this could be resolved going forward in Modern WoW. Removing all cutscenes isn't a good solution. I think Blizzard is going to have to just get better at including our characters in the in-game scenes as much as possible.

[crakerjack]

I really hope that's not a spoiler for bl3.

[dcc626]

Lol your describing BFA perfectly.

Low skill ceiling, low skill-cap etc..

Classic have high skill cap compared to BFA, in PvP and in general, maybe not mythic raids but anything outside that.

the hardest thing about classic is trying not to fall asleep while playing. high skill cap indeed.

[The Stormbringer]

Instead of cutscenes you have to stand there, waiting for characters to /say and /emote back and forth at each other for minutes at a time before they will let you continue.

[Asrialol]

Classic had the most horrible writing the game has ever seen.