How come blizzard is so incompetent at bigger arching stories?

[Gigantique]

That's such a bad take.

You not remembering anything about WC3 is definitely a "you" problem, because literally everything happening in WoW is based on the things that WC3 set up.

And Arthas is the most popular villain in the Warcraft franchise, one which many people love. He is this universe's Darth Vader.

Yeah but while I loved WotLK at the time as much as the next players the LK/Arthas showing up in every quest zone giving you the "I'll get you next time you!" line made him less badass imo.

Him in Halls of Reflection was kino as hell and THOSE kind of interactions with the end boss is what makes you respect their power, not them shaking their fist at you for the fifth time after ruining their plans for the zone.

[Shadowferal]

The Lich King showing up every now and then was a taunt, and you the player would find out why at the end when you realize you leveled up and became a big deal only to become a high powered servant of the Lich King. (Am I the only one that saw this?)

[Progenitor Aquarius]

The Lich King showing up every now and then was a taunt, and you the player would find out why at the end when you realize you leveled up and became a big deal only to become a high powered servant of the Lich King. (Am I the only one that saw this?)

Haha, yeah. Fortunately it didn’t happen, because Tyrion Fordring and the power of Light saved us. I guess the Jailer was already implementing his master plan back then.

[Iain]

WoW's storytelling was always at its... let's say most compelling... when it wasn't about character drama and vague plans, it was when it was about big baddies and everyone teaming up to fight them. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail, but you always know the stakes and whatever interpersonal drama is going on between the characters is playing behind the efforts on the big bad whom we're racing to stop. The characters are only ever ancillary to the main villain/bad guy.

WoW's storytelling was at it most compelling when you had to go get a dwarf his morning coffee before it gets cold. I still remember the adrenaline of not knowing whether or not I would make it in time.

https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=33...nbrew-delivery

[Th3Scourge]

All the OG Warcraft boys are gone now. Before the stories were cool just because they were, now they have to tell us its cool, or they have to tell us that Maldraxxus is metal, instead of people thinking it is.

It's like blokes that say they are alpha. If you have to say you're an alpha, you're not an alpha

[Myradin]

The Lich King showing up every now and then was a taunt, and you the player would find out why at the end when you realize you leveled up and became a big deal only to become a high powered servant of the Lich King. (Am I the only one that saw this?)

Why not just kill us sooner and make us a high powered servant of the LK. Undead can still get more powerful and improve, just look at DK's (who were among those he taunts to come fight him). Once he conquered the world he could literally make undead fight eachother for supremacy for eternity, not unlike maldraxxus, until he had the finest warriors ever.

According to cutscene, the LK is a hinderance to the scourge. He could literally do nothing and just let his undead go do undead things and he wins. But because he wants some super cool undead dolls to play with, he winds himself up in a vulnerable position where he's defeated.

[Ardenaso]

because literally everything happening in WoW is based on the things that WC3 set up.

so that's why Warcraft 3 purists are a thing, huh

[Verdugo]

I guess the Jailer was already implementing his master plan back then.

Jailer was at most a wet fart inside Danusers brain back when that happened.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Jailer was at most a wet fart inside Danusers brain back when that happened.

Danuser wasn’t even working at Blizzard during the Lich King expansion, was he? Hahahah. I think later they just took the old story and added it, but even in Ulduar, the maw of madness was mentioned by the Iron Council, which is weird.

[Nerovar]

Haha, yeah. Fortunately it didn’t happen, because Tyrion Fordring and the power of Light saved us. I guess the Jailer was already implementing his master plan back then.

The Light? You mean 11.3's main villain?

[Progenitor Aquarius]

The Light? You mean 11.3's main villain?

Light is not a villain! If, as you suggested, Light will be a villain in the next expansion, our corruption has increased since the last Algalon scan, when it was 50%, then the planet needs to be rechecked, reseted or eliminated!

[Verdugo]

Danuser wasn’t even working at Blizzard during the Lich King expansion, was he? Hahahah. I think later they just took the old story and added it, but even in Ulduar, the maw of madness was mentioned by the Iron Council, which is weird.

They were talking about Yogg. Forget about new crap when talking about older expansion.

[Linkedblade]

Yet they sometimes to this day manage to make somewhat immersive quest zones that have good enough storylines?

They have multiple teams that work on alternating expansions and it seems like the story to connect the expansions is written late in the development cycle. So, smaller stories in zones are done by the same group, but the overarching story is done by others.

[Unholyground]

The issue is they expect everyone to read the books to understand the game lore which should be in the fucking game to begin with, but 99.9% of players don't read in the first place.

[The Stormbringer]

They aren't. You may perceive them to be, because it is part of their design to not write long sprawling stories everywhere. The game is meant to be played by and enjoyed by a wide array of people.
If everything was like TV shows taking 10 years to fully play out, it would isolate many of the type of people they are trying to appeal to.

Strange, Final Fantasy 14 doesn't struggle with this. Each expansion is basically a 'season' of a TV show, and then hints towards the next season with the last patch.

- - - Updated - - -

It only made sense in the context of the Scourge being numerous enough to wipe out Azeroth and Arthas was holding it back, which itself wasn't received well from what I recall.

Yeah, it also didn't feel accurate. We'd been fighting and mowing through the Scourge all expansion, and sure they mobs respawn (all mobs do), but we never had the impression they were so numerous as to be completely unbeatable. There were plenty of zones where you and only you takes out hundreds or thousands of them by yourself. So yeah, I get why it wasn't well received.

- - - Updated - - -

They arent. Pretty much anyone reasonable agreed that the sylvannas arc ended well.

And boy howdy did the garosh arc end great. It was fine as is but seeing him turn to dust was cherry on top!

You may think it ended well, but really, it was just better in comparison to how bad it got in BFA and SL. It was never as good as Old Sylvanas.

[VinceVega]

I don't think blizz sucks at big stories.

I think they just put to much focus on certain characters and forget the world surrounding them.
I don't feel like Humans, undead or nightelves are doing anything.

Its always mainly Anduin, Slyvannas and Tyrande. Like a anime in a way. Everything revolves around them. Main story is fine. Juts ONLY the main story gets bland.
Look at the characters in SL that literally just sat around for the complete expansion or who have been on the cover but did next to nothing.

ALso overall story quests are too short with not enough ingame cinematics. Look at the amount of stuff FF14 puts into its MSQ. I don't think the story is good and i always cringe in the cinematics because characters behave so incredibly unnatural *fistpumps-the-air*
But you cannot deny that the story in FF14 is more... involved.

TLDR: Story/Lore is fine just not enough for such a huge game.

[geco]

Its always mainly Anduin, Slyvannas and Tyrande. Like a anime in a way. Everything revolves around them. Main story is fine. Juts ONLY the main story gets bland.
Look at the characters in SL that literally just sat around for the complete expansion or who have been on the cover but did next to nothing.

Tyrande would be the filler character they put in the Anime. Why was the manga so short?

The issue is they expect everyone to read the books to understand the game lore which should be in the fucking game to begin with, but 99.9% of players don't read in the first place.

Did you read his books? When I read them I understand even less the lore

Strange, Final Fantasy 14 doesn't struggle with this. Each expansion is basically a 'season' of a TV show, and then hints towards the next season with the last patch.

The problem is that in WoW. They are a chapter.
Or rather 3 or 4 Chapters of three different series that in the end barely relate to each other.

The theme of Teldrazzil or the Forsaken hardly advanced from the Start of BFA until now. To the point that we can say that nothing happened and more or less we would be fine.

The History of Voljin that at least advances... I think that Legion so far has not become a chapter.

[roboscorcher]

Any sequel written by a different author is essentially a fanfic.

[Biomega]

I think later they just took the old story and added it, but even in Ulduar, the maw of madness was mentioned by the Iron Council, which is weird.

That's not "The Maw" from Shadowlands. "The Maw of Madness" is another name for Yogg-Saron.

[The Stormbringer]

The problem is that in WoW. They are a chapter.
Or rather 3 or 4 Chapters of three different series that in the end barely relate to each other.

The theme of Teldrazzil or the Forsaken hardly advanced from the Start of BFA until now. To the point that we can say that nothing happened and more or less we would be fine.

The History of Voljin that at least advances... I think that Legion so far has not become a chapter.

That's because they love leaving plot threads dangling as a way to get people to come back for the next expansion. "Ooohh, what will happen with Vol'jin? What will Tyrande do? Are the Elves gonna be okay?!" They just can't help themselves, they always drag it out. You never see a solution to anything beyond the Big Bad in the same expansion, and it's so fucking frustrating. At first I didn't mind it, but when they do it for over a decade, you start to just not care anymore.

They really just need to change how they tell stories. Shrink the number of stories told per expansion, and then actually focus on fully telling those stories. Boom, done. Problem fucking solved.