Don’t even know where to begin.
All the constant escalation.
We’ll be reaching Dragon Ball levels which is just dumb.
In two expansions we’ll fight the creators of the universe itself?
Also, as a Banshee loyalist, I’m ultimately insulted.
There was not a sliver of an attempt to explain why my character is now working against her.
I went into the Maw raging about the fact that I could easily stab Thrall, Baine, etc., in the back. Or just leave them rotting in Torghast.
Deciding for Sylvanas at the end of BFA was worth absolutely nothing.
If you implement decisions, go play just an hour of SW:TOR to get a grasp of what it means to have decisions in your MMO.
Battle for Ardenweald was way too predictable and Korthia is brutally boring.
If it wasn’t for my guild I’d have quit this game quite some time ago.
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Don’t worry; we’ll get more of it in 9 months when 9.2 comes out. With an additional 40 covenant renown levels.
At this point even Danuser admitted they’ve got no idea where the story is headed. WoW right now is scraping the barrel for some quick cash so that they can fund the CEO’s bonus.
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Feels like the Star Wars prequels…
If you want any good story in an MMO, you need either Elder scrolls: Online or Final Fantasy 14. The story in SL is just terrible at this point in my book.
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FF14 story is just as bad. It doesn’t deserve the title “Final Fantasy”.
And ESO ist just a bigger version of Oblivion or Skyrim. Extremely short Mainstory with loads of Sidequests which are way more interesting than the Mainplot they force you to play three times.
And being a silent hero just doesn’t do it anymore in 2021.
It just adds to the feeling that my character is nothing more than an NPC there to pave the way for the major characters. An RPG should focus around the Player Character.
I get that Blizzard wants to tell this “epic story”, but they forget the most important part in this — the Player Character.
We’re mere witnesses and “Toysoldiers in tin plate”.
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It still has that “Final Fantasy” flare to it, and at least they managed to write a coherent story from “A realm reborn” up until “Shadowbringer”, where as Blizzard can’t even write a coherent story from start of an expansion to the end of it.
As with ESO. Though I should actually have mentioned “The secret world”, as I think that game has the best story in an MMO period ever. Though I concede it’s not for everyone.
In terms of silent hero, I’m split on that part. On one hand I like that the journey feels “mine”, the decisions are “mine”, but on the other hand it’s difficult to get the immersion when you’re not “participating” in the events unfolding. In WoW I find this last part particularly bad, as you do all these things and kill various things, then suddenly a cinematic appears and you’re gone, vanished. This is the part I really like about the FF14 story telling, you’re part of the cinematic and events unfolding in it. You’re just “an adventurer” and the game tells that quite well, you’re never anything special (as there are MANY adventurers in the worlds). While in WoW you can’t go 2 step before someone confirms you are indeed a “maw walker” or “main lander” or “outsider” or what ever title that is current in this expansion.
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Ah, yes, The Secret World was unique and very enjoyable story-wise. Lack of Endgame made me quit it, though.
I think I’m quite spoiled by SW:TOR’s story-telling.
And aye, FF14 made the PC feel integrated into the world — that you’re a real part of it. While its story-telling and pacing was bad, at least they got that part well done.
About those cinematics in WoW: I simply hate it that lots of times we do all the work and then some major character swoops in and does the rest.
As I said, we’re NPCs here.
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End game killed it for me as well on The secret world, once the story is “told” there isn’t too much to keep me there. Same with ESO really, they tried something with the “trials” but, I just didn’t like it.
The pacing of the story in FF14 has gotten a lot better over the time, and the revamp of the Realm Reborn quests have seen a lot of the filler quests removed and streamlined. I find the pacing in newer expansions quite a lot better, and with very little filler quests in them.
Yeah the cinematics in WoW - while technically well made - just removes the player entirely. Doesn’t help either that you’re always referred to as “The champion” when there’s a line of 10 000 other “champions” behind you. And yes, we’re NPCs, nothing more. Even the uniqueness of classes have been removed from the game. It feels like an on-rail story telling that’s not very good to begin with.
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Couldn’t agree more with what you wrote there.
Blizzard has gotten this idea that they need to constantly up the stakes to keep the story interesting, when all it really does is diminish what we have already accomplished.
It is a shame, because Blizzard’s best stories tend to be the ones with lower stakes.
As for why you are fighting Sylvanas, she betrayed you, wants you dead and you really have no other position in the conflict but to fight her.
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I never got the feeling that she wanted me dead. Or betrayed me.
Sure, she wants loads of people dead for the Maw to have more resources.
And she didn’t tell me the complete plan. But I wouldn’t either since even a loyal follower can be caught and tortured for information. The plan was on a Need-to-know basis which was totally fine.
But she trusted me with some secrets and important missions, especially at the end of BfA.
I’d have gladly joined the Mawsworn.
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Clearly she does not trust you enough to let you join them, and would rather have them kill you, hence the betrayal.
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As I said, no real explanation why I’m now against her.
A simple dialogue option like “I regret now I sided with her…” would have easily solved that.
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Under other circumstances and a different narrative or writers, I would’ve said that it’s all part of an ongoing facade that feeds a narrative arch that will unfold in the future.
But knowing this is WoW, and it’s writers, all this is probably because writers do not care about consistency, and are lazy to deal with the ramifications for the sort of story they started in BfA. You are now supposed to be all onboard about killing Sylvanas.
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I have a very bad feeling that Sylvanas is getting out of 9.1 alive. And an even worse feeling that they will try to heel turn her. Hopefully it’s just my fears, but I have no trust in Blizzard whatsoever at this point.
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She will. They need to milk her some more. IF she dies, it won’t happen sooner than 9.3 or whatever the last patch of the expansion will be.
Expect cliffhanger after cliffhanger until you lose your will to live.
Sincerely, a hopeless Sylvanas loyalist who just wants this story to be over asap.
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They’ve pretty much confirmed that she will survive, in an interview they said this:
" * Ion looks forward to seeing the community discuss and dissect what is next for Sylvanas after the events in Chains of Domination."
Which pretty much confirms that Sylvanas one way or another will continue to be part of this expansion. So no luck getting neither her nor Tyrande out of the picture because “strong female lead is necessary” now a days.
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Wonder how fun it would be when if we had so much escalation that we suddenly plummet off the edge in terms of power and storytelling direction.
Might actually applaud Blizzard at that instance.
Or we break the Fourth Wall and end up in an expansion where our characters suddenly are on Terra, and we have to fight some evil Developers.
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