What made you play WoW: Mechanics/Gameplay or Story?

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I always wondered what is the reason people started playing WoW in the first place, when it comes to STORY VS GAMEPLAY/MECHANICS.

For me, the main reason was the core gameplay and mechanics this game has. The combinations you can do with your character when it comes to movements+abilities+enviorement for me is still unbelivable even after 16 years since I started playing. Sure, some call the combat system “dull/booring/not engaging”, but I think it is a great combination between lets say Diablo and Skyrim. You don’t kill 1000 mobs at once with one swing, but you don’t hit or block your enemy with 1 swing at a time only when you push a button.

The example I always use to underline what I mean by “movements+abilities+enviorement” is: You jump out of your flying mount, bleed the other guy, Hot yourself, glide then stealth or vanish. Comparing this to other games, puts WoW light years ahead. While other games have NO JUMP, or don’t allow you to cast a stun while jumping :confused:

The story behind WC, WC2, WC3 RoC+TFT is great, but since Vanilla until WotlK, WoW was just using that existing story just as a background for the marvellous gameplay their modified WC3 game engine had created.

Me and all my acquaintances started playing WoW for the good gameplay/replay value it had. We never thinked not once about “COOL STORY BRO”.

IMHO a great MULTIPLAYER GAME must be built with this order in mind:

  1. GAMEPLAY/MECHANICS
  2. GRAPHICS
  3. STORY - NOT MANDATORY AT ALL

WoW has great gamplay/mechanics, a niche low demanding but incredible personal-touch cartonish looking graphics and a mediocre-good story.

Story in an MMO helps you build content by giving a direction, but the reason you log in every day … is just the replayability value, the great gameplay, the social experience (if you are lucky to be in a guild or have friends to play with).

Just my 2 long cents.

------ my wow beggninings ----
So when WoW released, I was 18 unemployed and in Highschool, watching news about this game, always wondering how would it be to play it, that massive world/universe etc. Tried myself 1-2 private servers for 1-2 days, but those were were pure disasters/garbage, but I got a feeling of what WoW could be about.

In 2005 I’ve got a job and because I didn’t wanted to spent money on the sub, I’ve bought GuildWars1, forced myself to play it for 2 months just becasue I’ve spent my money on it. I really could not belive and still don’t understand even now why would someone build a game without the simple ability for a character to JUMP ? We had all those atari games that had JUMP, we had nintendo and super nintendo, Mario etc.
How can someone build a game without the natural ability to JUMP for me it is still a mistery.
So I bought WoW and played it since 2005. The feeling I had that the game should/must be good, was so damn rewarded.

TLDR: I personally don’t care about story, it is a nice addition only after the gameplay/mechanics are amazing and polished. Examples of great gameplay without story background at release (Counter-Strike, Dota, Overwatch, TF2, Tetris+Snake :slight_smile: etc. ).

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My classmates. I was 11 when wow first launched and during one of the sleepovers my friend introduced me and another friend to wow. This game spreaded around our school faster than covid around the world. Everyone was playing wow so here I am almost 2 decades later whining about state of this game.

On a side note I was always a big fan of blizzard games. To this day diablo 2 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Warcraft III is also up there.

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I was already 28 and making bonus money out of fighting games match in the arcade and tournaments it wasn’t what it is today but it was an adrenaline pumping experience, want that specific arcade machine, well why don’t you come back later ? Or simply drop some coins and a challenge or should we let the secutity decide.

I had read about wow image that were well advanced on a pc games magazine/book back then there was monthly book about what was inoming in the video game industry and pc industry…

I remember the very article with some pictures in a near release state of Taurens and at the time it looked really impressive you have to remember than in 2000 I like lots of players were playing aracde games and diablo 2 like games, so both mechanisms and story as an avid roleplayer I already knew what char I would make , her gender, professions, look etc… then I bought the standard edition with the official game handling books, I then slowly managed to convert some of my then irl friends to play, we would also play wow tcg card games for hours I used to buy unscratched loot cards to unaware site for parents buying the collectin for their childrens and scammed them a true fortune out f that xD).

Great memories so many of them be it with the card games or online ( one of my best irl friends a sicilian always up to no good and we were traveling when it was during christmas and there is that orcish female avatar trying her luck with a /kiss emote happy holydays, my friend insta charged and killed it happy holydays too ! :slight_smile: ah ah ah ah) since most of those people passed away unfortunately life and even more fun is so fast finished in one’s life.

Today I play in a classic guild where we do pve and rp and some bg and roleplaying via cam and most of the people are 35-55 up to 64.

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All of the options plus I have been fan of warcraft since the WC1.

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I grew up playing WCIII and was always a massive lore addict. I was actually banned from playing WoW as a kid by my super protective parents - little did they know that my interest stayed all those years and I did eventually start playing, so that kinda backfired.

What resulted from their banning was me reading wiki pages and Warcraft books to pick up every aspect of the lore I could, while I waited for the day that I could finally play with my friends. So when I did eventually pick up WoW which was a little late (mid-bfa), the story was my main interest, and true that’s faded a little because of directions in bfa and certain directions SL has headed in, but at the end of the day it has a pretty big impact on my gameplay experience. If the story took a massive, unforgiveable nosedive, I’d probably struggle to keep playing through it.

Mechanics and classes play a big part in keeping me here too, though. I have great fun learning about each class and spec, and creating my own lore for my characters through my actions and the content I choose to do. At the minute I’m really into raiding. Mastering the mechanics for each fight is super enjoyable - but knowing the story behind everything we do while we’re in there was motivation for me to try the raid in the first place.

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I’d say the story, though compared to some games I’ve tried which I believe originated in Korea it’s nice to have more than enough quests to level up or not having to sell your kidneys on the black market just to afford a talent respecc.

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None of the above.

Teldrassil, then Darkshore. The feeling of the zones. That’s what I fell in love with.

Aftterward, the kiting of a Frost mage provided my first gameplay satisfaction.

I try not to think too much about the story, at least the big stories since Mists; that doesn’t end well.

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It depends on what you call ‘graphics’.
WoW for instance doesn’t have the most impressive graphics, BUT its design greatly appeals to me.

Anyway, I agree with your order, but I suspect that I’d rate their importance much closer together than you did. Like… 40% gameplay, 30% graphics, 30% story.

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Story all the way. I used to love the story of Warcraft III. I was skeptical of an MMO, but I liked some single-player RPGs and then Hearthstone got me into the mood again, so I came eventually.

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I played WC III before, and my previous MMO was DAoC (a mediocre game). Me friends started playing WoW but initially I didn’t like the cartoonish graphics. Then I played once, on a friends account, and fell in love with the game. Especially the Forsakens lore.

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Originally, I played it because I was a fan of WC1, 2 and 3. But quite quickly it became mechanics and gameplay that keep me engaged, not story or anything else.

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Back in vanilla? I just wanted a fantasy swords and magic game as a low-effort time filler when I didn’t have anything better to get on with.

Ever since it’s been more the social scene than either gameplay or story.

I just like having stuff to do with people in a game.

(Side effect; I resent nearly all content that expects me to spend time doing solo stuff to unlock other stuff so’s I can be more effective in groups.)

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playing W3 as a 10-11 year old, then seeing a review of WoW on a game review television program (Gammo, for any dutch or belgian players out there).
Me and my brother were instantly sold.
Played on my brothers account for a while that he got in April after the EU launch.
about 3 years later I got my own account, been playing on and off ever since (skipped WoD and currently skipping SL though. Playing a bit of classic every now and then)

Fun little side note:
The review on tv still talked about the plainswalking for Tauren characters, I actually thought it was really cool xD

Started looking for the video, found this instead (the images have it in English)
The first screenshots of WoW:
https://www.4gamers.be/screenshots/46136/1/De-allereerste-screenshots-van-World-of-Warcraft

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