User:Afell

My biggest gripe with World of Warcraft is that the story got lost. There was little to no motivation to do the quests, and as such I rarely if ever knew why I was being asked to do something other than to kill 10 of these things, kill 10 of those things, and bring back some guy's head! Shortly after I reached level 60, and I achieved this level relatively early, I stopped playing simply because it was boring without any motivation or story. I recently read the lore on the World of Warcraft site, as well as a bunch of stuff on the various instances that have been posted on WOW Wiki, and this shed light on why I did the stuff I did while I was playing. However I don't think seeking external sources to learn what is going on is a very effective way of conveying story. I think it should be done effectively in the game itself while one is playing.

Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Starcraft and Broodwar all revealed the story through missions, mission objectives and cutscenes. This was very effective.

In addition, perhaps Blizzard should take a cue from some all time great RPG's with super storylines such as Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. That game had an epic storyline that the player was fully absorbed in from the very beginning of the game. More of the story was revealed as the game progressed via dialogue from the main antagonists as well as further quests. Side quests, which were important to gain gear and XP also had compelling stories.

In my opinion, the story, and the players role in it, creates the MOTIVATION to do the quest. XP, gear, and money are the rewards, and as such come at the end of the quests, but they are not the primary motivation, and they do not immerse one in the story.

I hope this post is helpful.

Sincerely,

Truthseeker (the original from week two of the release of the game!)