Zereth Mortis intro more plot holes than swiss cheese

Community General Discussion
41

No, I don’t think so.

Korthia has the problem. We go there to protect the Covenant Sigil from The Jailer. But he gets it. So why do we stick around and do all this stuff for The Archivist and The Covenants which the game presents by the end of the campaign when there’s little story basis for it anymore?

Earlier zones are simpler, so they work out easier as well. Isle of Quel’danas is just us setting up a base, beating Kael’thas, and pushing into The Sunwell to face off against Kil’jaeden. Everything we do is story to that end.

As said, not a thing I lose sleep over, but I do think Blizzard can do better at integrating the zone story with the main campaign story.

42

Some peeps like farming stuff for mounts and toys…some peeps are leveling Alts…some peeps just started the game…etc…not all content, will appeal to all players.
Example: Blizz could literally take Mythic+ Dungeons, Mythic Raiding and PVP Arena out of the game and it would make no difference to my gameplay, at all.
I’m also happy with the story line…its not high literature but it doesn’t need to be…it’s like a Micheal Bay movie (in fact it makes more sense than some of his scripts).

Have you ever noticed how often we have fought chad blokes with a grievance, in Xpacs?
If all you want is chad bloke enemies on Azeroth, I admire your dedication to one repetitive storyline…but lets not pretend it’s in any way original, or Shakespeare… it’s just reskinned Vanilla, except we already have Classic.

So doing a Retail Vanilla Reboot with new storylines (‘different’ chad blokes with a grievance), because ‘NO CHANGES ALLOWED TO CLASSIC!’…will simply mean the Forum says: ‘Wtf Blizz, this is just reskinned Vanilla, why not more (undefined) originality!’

I wish some players would just be honest and state that either:

  1. They want to play Vanilla forever, with occasional new content patches, paid for by a cash shop and no sub… rather than making up lots of faux justifications, why current Retail is not for them.

  2. They want to exclusively play WoW content with entirely one focus: PVP…Mythic+/Raid…Open World…despite the fact the composite format is pretty much what makes WOW special, because lots of other licenses already provide one focus content.

43

I’m not some peeps and I’m not you. I’ve elaborated on my criticism, but it’s not really up for discussion. I feel what I feel about the story. But I can respect if others feel different about it. I’m not claiming to speak for others.

I think that’s going further than what I’ve actually expressed.

I’ve said what I don’t like about the story with regards to the implied timeline, and then I’ve extended it by saying that I’ve seen Blizzard run into this problem before, and I would like them to address it for the future – because I think they can.

Beyond that I don’t really want to tell Blizzard what gameplay ideas to pursue or what story to write. That’s for them to decide. They’re the developers.
I just hand out praise or criticism based on my play experience.

44

Not saying you are.

I am however pointing out the flaws in many of the storyline criticisms…since some players frequently appear to be asking for short, WoD type storyline Xpacs…until the end of time…ie:

World of Warcraft - Warlord XXVIII: Warlord insert random name here
We are back in Azeroth, again…Fighting a Warlord, again… but this Warlord isn’t called the same name as the last Warlord…He has big, oiled muscles and he is angry about different stuff!’

Followed by:

World of Warcraft - Warlord XXIX: llyDaddy is Back
That’s right the anti-hero of the Stormrage family is back, to kick more Burning Legion butt…Strangely, you are still not prepared!

Rinse and Repeat, ad infinitum.

Indeed…However, it’s very easy for players to stand on the sidelines yelling: ‘Entertain me, Blizz!..No!..Not like that!’
While forgetting, that what entertains one gamer, may be absolute poison to other gamers…Yet they can all express an opinion on the Forums.

45

Yeah, I have no clue what I’m doing or why really in Zereth Mortis. In terms of clearly telling a story and having the players understand why and how things are happening, Shadowlands is a total failure.

46

If it helps any I bascially feel the same as you. The story is thin, little more than a pretence to have us explore these new zones throughout the expansion and that’s fine… if all you want to do is loot and grind and maybe get a nice cutscene at some point.

Personally I don’t see why we can’t also have a story that makes more sense, has more connective tissue and gives us more satisfying explanations for why we’re doing what we’re doing in game.

47

Something I was really hoping for in Zereth Mortis was an angle similar to The Talos Principle where it really hits you with philosophy, religion, consciousness, and so on, and works a story around those themes.
But I’m not getting anything from Zereth Mortis. It really just comes off as another generic zone that The Jailer has to go to in order to get something. Like Korthia. Shallow.
And that seems like such a waste since this is basically Blizzard introducing The First Ones into Warcraft lore and story. But it’s not with a lot of fanfare it’s being done. I got more Titan mystery from Uldaman than I get First Ones mystery in all of Zereth Mortis so far.
Maybe it comes later as we get further into the campaign story, but so far it doesn’t blow me away with intrigue or mystery.

48

Jailor wants to escape his ancient banishment in the Maw, he has been manipulating people for eons, you must locate allies and collect stuff, while trying to stop him escaping (hint, you won’t because that would end the story abruptly) and reshaping reality (this may not happen in real time, mortal)… Clearer now.

Also if that is all a problem, consider this:

Change Zovaal for N’Zoth, and the storyline becomes remarkably similar…the major difference being, that you had heard of the Old Gods before, so it didn’t frighten the horses, because lore…except you have to write lore at some point which means at that point it is going to be new.

No-one turned around to Tolkein and said:

This Sauron bloke, how come we have never heard about him before you wrote this book called Lord of the Rings.

Why are you retconning The Necromancer in Mirkwood, from the Hobbit, that’s canon that is… and why are you palming us off with someone who is not the real big bad.

We have to read an enormous book and there is never a fight with Morgoth, who is Sauron’s boss… ‘Lord of Waiting for Morgoth’, more like!..this is clearly a cash grab while you write the next book.

Also why do you keep mentioning people we know almost nothing about, are they going to be in ‘Morgoth First Class’ …maybe we need a Palantir, or some other Gem to understand the storyline better… Well yeah, there is some stuff about them in the Appendices…but of course we have to buy the Epic Three Volume Edition, for that…shameless greed from the author. I shall be reading CS Lewis in future.

49

Well, since Legion, several select NPCs seem to have a telepathetic link with us to give us instructions for WQs etc. Anything we know, they know

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50

Haha, no I get the basic plot, i.e. stop the big bad. But the finer details escape me in game. Like the sigils, we don’t seem to be given any information about what they are, there just a macguffin. And in Zereth Mortis I feel it doesn’t really explain what the Cypher of the First Ones is or what the Zone is.

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51

Forgot to mention regarding your LOTR analogy, I don’t think it works since I’m LOTR you’re basically thrust into the world and the only thing that has come before is a tiny short story.

Wow has had years and years to story, games and expansions that we’re already very familiar with. It’s not the same.

52

It was satire. :wink:

53

Pretty sure satire died sometime between 2016 and now.

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