I think a better way to put it is it has become more “comic-book” in that while it’s focused on the characters their strengths and abilities shift to fit whatever the CDEVS have thought to be an “awesome” plot.
Which goes hand in hand with their attitude to continuity and consistancy.
And that made sense in a linear RTS game. But WoW is open world and their ability to tell a character driven plot in general has taken a hit due to bad writing.
Agreed here, but Actur has a point too.
If they can pull of a grand story kudos to them, and this has always invovlved key characters. Farondis and Thalyssra Suramar is one of the best examples of this while combining world stories that really bring out the people of a zone.
The night elves of Suramar is really the scope and level of concentrated story telling they need to repeat blending both character driven stories that bring out the world and environment of the zones and people
I’m just tired of night elves if the long line of lows in their story andhad been waiting for so long for that group to get something amazing, especially part of their racial identity back.
To see Suramar of all the cities, and really doing night elf lore and descriptions justice, come, but swung to the horde, as if to say, if you are alliance or alliance night elves, it just, suffering, loss and getting worse and worse.
This was what annoyed
Why are you still bitter over Suramar? It hasn’t been relevant since 7.1, who cares?
But, when I think about it, all can see that they did indeed give night elves the race a piece of their former civilization in the form of the nightborne and Suramar.
Afterall, Suramar, the nightborne, the broken isle 3 zones, those are ALL night elven, so the night elves did get nice things. They got a powerful arcane group in the nightborne, a kaldorei empire city, they got Illidari and wardens, who by description come off as the elite of the elite in all Azeroth of magical and melee fighting.
So they got stuff, you woukd have to be rather dense or blind or just completely ignorant or easily fooled by the lore to think Suramar or the nightborne are not night elven - just look at it.
And look how honourable Thalyssa behaved, was that not a credit to night elves? Not once does she or any nightborne defame or curse their kaldorei roots, in fact, she and Ly’leth appeal to and rally them on the nobility of their kaldorei nature.
It’s all their, is it right to ignore the night elf they represent just because they allied with the horde and have a unique name, that couldn’t be closer to night elf you tried I.e. night elf and highborne - both kaldorei names.
Because it is the most deserving night elf group that seems to always lose out. 10,000 years and still getting the worst hand despite been written to make some of the greatest sacrifices.
Because the alliance group of night elves, Tyrande, Malfurion that lot, these are the once that should get the biggest rewards cos they are the ones that endured millennia without magic, or civilization , fighting to keep the satyrs, Qiraji, and legion away, sacrificing building new homes and bigger families Tec.
If any night elf group should get amazing stuff or the best turn around of fortunes it is them.
So it is not just about Suramar, but it is the biggest example.
How ungrateful, you should rejoice, as you have the opportunity to tend to the farms of Stormwind, greatest city that the East has ever seen or ever will see.
Clinging to the past is meaningless, embrace the future and build a new home in Stormwind. Or return to what is left of Darnassus, I don’t care.
I am of the Horde, and take great issue with much of it. But…they are our family. Even the genocidal walking corpses……we must defend our family-!
Baine sobs into his warclub
I think that the problem is that Blizzard don’t listen to the player’s feedback where not only people on forum voiced their critique but also praised them for well crafted story and asked to have more stuff like that.
Like Lorewalkers faction, I remember that a lot of people loved this faction and how much it expanded universe while not being demanding for player. Did it got carried to WoD? Nope, To Legion? maybe in artifacts? And I remember leatherworking quests wher you read about tauren history craved on skin.
In BfA? You can find Tales of the Loa.
But everything so far pales in comparision to the Amount of detail and thought put into Lorewalkers faction.
A lot of people loved 5.1 content and story, did it got carried over? Nah! Warcampaign is it’s pale imitation.
People liked a lot Sunsong Ranch, and requested for such a small little fun hub to be carried over with more customization options. (like having racial architechture and place to put your trophies) We’ve received ghost town Garrisons instead.
People loved Nazgrim and Taylor, because they were relatable low tier characters that were going together with player through the story. Blizzard kills them both and puts nobody else like that (don’t get me started on Yyyyyrelll )
Blizzard writers did many things right so it’s kind of mind bogging that how come that people who made captivating stories, like Suramar, Spires of Arak, most of Pandaria content, to also came up with “Draenor is free”, ridiculous and pointless Vol’Jin’s death, and literall rehash of MoP story.
That is a huge mistery to me.
You’re asking for trouble, my love.
Damn you Baine, return to your corner immediately and stick to the plans. The High King shall call upon your services eventually, but your time hasn’t come yet. Make yourself useful by helping the preposterous Kaldorei trash cook the dinner.
Plans? The only plan I see is the destruction of the Kul’Tiran fleet! Even Anduin thinks you went too far in Dazar’alor!
How Anduin allied with people like you, I do not understand. Perhaps a discussion with him in private, can illuminate on such strangeness.
Hush, cow, Hush. The kitcken, NOW.
You can help him with the fish stew, pot-boy. Did you catch those pheasants?
I do think MoP was the pinnacle of in-game story telling, which also didn’t have many ties to a lot of source material from either books or the Warcraft RTS games to work with. It is a shame that just the whole “Panda’s were jokes” thing (whether you agree with them being in the game or not) just gives MoP a bad name.
Ah, but it seems to have worked. Perhaps expressing a desire to not argue was the solution to our problems all along?
But yeah, I’m gonna agree that the Lorewalker, Arak, Suramar and all that were great parts. Most of the region questing of this expansion is nice too, though the slightly dismembered storyline of Zandalar is not helpful to follow. (Scaling is a great concept, I love it, but it needs to be taken into account when you write the story.)
i miss the real horde before they became a bunch of identity crisis hippies lead by the greatest weakling of all time thrall the self insert bring back Warcraft 2’s horde 
Ah yes, the great old fantasy of Orc, Troll, Ogre and what-not berzerkers with nothing but war in their mind.
good times, good times… not.
It’s more than possible to play a Horde character that hates their own faction, especially in this expansion. Garona is a good example, she’s serving the Horde only because she has no other choice in the matter, and is looking to get out at the first proper chance she can get. I imagine there are a fair number of grunts and other low ranking personnel who are veterans of the New Horde’s previous battles, and who utterly hate what Sylvanas has made their faction become. However, they also know that if they abandon the Horde outright they’ll likely be hunted as traitors. It makes for some very interesting RP in my mind, especially if you’re one of those characters that decides to cross the Rubicon and go full traitor!