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World of Warcraft: The Up and Down of Shadowland's Linear Storytelling | MMORPG.com
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World of Warcraft: The Up and Down of Shadowland's Linear Storytelling | MMORPG.com
Robin reflects on how the latest expansion for World of Warcraft, Shadowlands, tells its story as she works through the new content.
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To nutshell it i've summed it up this way.
It's like playing an RPG, and then on to the mmorpg.
It's one time too, but yeah at first i thought this has gone to far this is stupid af to force us through this way, i play mmorpg's for freedom ffs.
I imagine at first too it felt like such a long haul, in that omg so far to unlock the game, however at that time i had no idea how immensely enjoyable that journey would be.
I enjoyed the 4 zone's variety a lot. They were starkly different from each other while still very much being part of the whole.
I wasn't around for the past couple of expansions where they ditched the linear zone progression so this just feels normal to me. From the bit I have dabbled in Legion and BfA I felt those stories were just too disjointed. It's like I have t keep reminding myself there's a main story thread around there somewhere and it will all make sense eventually but it doesn't make much sense when you're constantly sidetracked.
Shadowland's story is tighter and IMO linear story telling is the best way to tell stories. Any post One Tamriel ESO player can tell you that the main plot can become very confusing and almost inaccessible if you play it just going where you want when you want in whatever order. You can tune in to the zone's plot and follow that but the popularity of the many player guides out there suggesting the proper order to go through the zones to get the most out of the several main story arcs it now has, makes it pretty clear that those players who care about story - and not all do - want to make it linear even when it isn't. Like I said, for story telling purposes, it's the way to go,
My second 60 BTW is a Vengeance Demon Hunter I've just fallen in love with to the point I'm barely playing the Afflock I thought was my main
I've always loved casual self healing while I focus on doing damage (Warrior Priest in Warhammer Online, Chloromancer in Rift, etc.) and the DH play just like that.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I have stuck 100% to the main story line and twice i was told i need to be level xx to continue.
The first time, i had just flown to a place where there are no mobs, handed in the quest and was told i need to be level xx to proceed, no lie, i only needed 20xp. I had to fly all the way back, kill a mob and then fly all the way back again to continue lmao!
The second time i wasn't so lucky, had about a quarter of a level to fill out, my one son takes it all and was 60 way before he finished the all the story, the other was mainly staying to story, and he had to get a few bars so he ran a dungeon. Me i explored, harvested, mined, and killed mobs, hey i was in Ardenweald, no explanation necessary, was my pleasure.
On discord we talked about it and yeah, take it all or do not take it all, normally i would take it all having a little completionism tendency but here i did not? My reasoning was that if i ever feel like exploring an area/zone i'll have some content to go with it and i know I will be taking alts through so some fresh content to go along with it.
Once i'm done the story then i don't care, i'll be doing dungeons, totally getting into crafting, and yeah i have mythic, and raids on the radar, in a great guild for all that.
I've mastered Affliction again, but... you know when you start playing with someone but don't group you just know each other needs this and that and automatically work together for a bit, well was with a destruction warlock and yeah, omg, prolly going to switch as i drop on my corruption or agony, you know warming up, he/she has noticed i tagged then obliterates the mob before i can even get another spell off lmao.
The term different strokes for different folks comes to mind when I read this. I'll be honest my initial reaction was that you were absolutely crazy (sorry!). I haven't been as impressed with a zone as I had with Bastion in a very long time. It looks incredible and the limited colour palate works fantastic, second in looks imo only to Ardenweald. I agree that Drustvar was the best looking zone of BfA but it doesn't match up to what I see in Bastion and Ardenweald. Maldraxxus was a good contrast to the clean looking Bastion so I enjoyed the completely different look through the story progression. I haven't been to Revendrenth so I can't comment on it but it's the zone I'm looking forward to the most. So far this expansion has blown me away in the looks department. Even Oribos looks amazing and fitting.
As far as the OP, I prefer the linear storytelling for leveling, at least for the first character. I also enjoy having to wait to see what's next and for me that makes each new area special. If you can just go wherever whenever I feel like the progression isn't real or earned. Maybe I'm too old school but I still remember flying over Badlands and the Burning Steps during vanilla and seeing mobs that had red text. Knowing if I went there I'd die. I had to work up to it. Build up my character and earn it.
Different strokes for different folks, i know tons of people love those games, i think you missed some key words in what i'm saying "gets stale af so fast (to me), (other people) love it."
They're just not my thing.
ESO combat is my main dislike, which is the most critical, important component any mmorpg, and xiv the forever story, which i never got through but paid to unlock the rest to play with a friend and what a waste of money that was as we started we both got bored, and no that's not a bad thing many, many , many players love ESO and XIV as they are so story and voice driven, and surprise, surprise 100% why blizz did that in shadowlands.
However why i said it was only a trillion times batter was that becaseu to me it is a trillion times better, it's not overly drawn out to me, it's only one time and comparatively to xiv short af, and all of eso is like that and yeah sometimes too much of a good thing you know and probably why i don't like it as i just like to kill shit cause i love the combat where in eso i don't like the combat, it's focus is more about voiced stories.
I'm not sure what you were expecting. Yet you're still playing. Time to find a new game I guess.
Being an endgame player, i'm not sure anyone is expecting you to enjoy the journey anyway.
you should just dungeon your way to cap level if you hate the leveling process with questing. just a tip
My issues with it are all quest based, level based, class based, talent based. I am so tired of quests, doesn't matter if they are normal quests, daily, world, that just getting through the main game to 60 was a huge slog, even with the story piquing my interest. Without a Class or Alternate talents (not these one off previews of what you can get from covenants that it gives you that you don't know about(without research)).
I slogged (literally) through its quests to 60 to unlock account wide covenants so I wouldn't need to on alts, even though I wanted to play alts more. When I could play alts, I'm already burned out.
mmorpg junkie since 1999
Over week later i'm not even at cap yet. Probably tonight. I think of how much is still in front of me and i'm itching to start in on a alt but i want to have a decent handle on the game first.
I just don't feel like my character is much different moving from BfA into Shadowlands. But I guess this is the Blizzard "Ability Bloat" paranoia they've developed over the last few years.
To compare, FF14 always makes my character feel like they've improved from their journey. That they've progressed in some way. But, to be fair, FF14 has always been better at class fantasy than WoW.
I feel this in bucketloads. The covenant abilities help some, but it's mostly the same playstyle and I want all the same stats as ever. Which I also realize is ironic because there are other classes/specs out there who wish Blizz would stop reinventing them every xpac.
I think this is also made worse since I was so highly geared that I didn't start replacing gear until the end of Ardenweald. Which means until about mid Revendreth I was overgeared still, and near the end of that zone started to feel weak because since I wasn't overgeared anymore things started to hurt me a bit. I know a lot of people hate replacing all the raid gear as soon as an expansion launches, but I feel like that would help with making it feel like our characters are getting stronger throughout leveling rather than weaker.
Also to be fair, I am still salty that even in the unpurgening I still don't have MotW back.
It wasn't until the last zone (where i am now) that i started upgrading gear so yeah wouldn't feel any differnt from start to finish obv.
Hmm never noticed this post which is the same conclusion as mine right after lol, i didn't really start replacing gear until the last zone which hell yeah not going to feel any character progression at all.
Thing is i died tons through out. My sons and i hang on a channel if we all not into something with other players. From the grunts lol i find out that my dedicated wow player son who was even more over geared than i was i mean i was broke, he was full on broken af, well he was dying all the time too. He's a damn good player, aotc, cutting edge all that.
We discussed and what we think is we were to used to playing broken was the real problem, oh go hand this in just run straight for it agro'ing everything along the way and that was ok when broken right, here not so much.
Anyway got me thinking that my warlock, hunter and shaman are all broken, but i never got my pally up there, i'm not even close to il 100, like 80 maybe.
Well to the point i'm thinking i probably would have had even more fun on that character as i'm sure as early as the first zone i'd be starting to replace gear and feeling progression throughout.
So yeah we don't replace gear right away as the masses cheered, only to find out, the only difference was that it was merely postponed a couple zones, as by the very end you did and everyone is 140 anyway.
Reading people feeling the game is the same, i felt that way back in cata and why i stopped playing up until mid bfa, sure was back every xpac and alwasy felt the same, i dunno a decade break i guess but i could not be more enamored atm, i mean my other son stopped playing all together 4/5 years ago and he's back with a f'ing vengeance, they're raiding this coming Tuesday ffs lol. Me i just joined the night fae last night lol.
When i completed the 4 zone story line i had a moment where i'm like that was so f'ing epic, what a journey, what a memory, then i'm sure this isn't a spoiler, and anyone whom joined Night Fae will know what i'm talking about, but the recap play OMFG did i ever enjoy that, brilliant blizz, brilliant! I dunno if that was fae only or all covenants get it, but yeah, that was so awesome!
That's really interesting to hear too. I think the main difference between our experiences are due to the differences between leveling as a tank vs not tank. The only time I died while leveling was when I did something completely crazy. Like falling off a cliff or something. I mostly could pull anything and generally they wouldn't do much damage to me. Halfway through Revendreth that became a bit different and I wold actually need to heal some.
And yea, the play is Night Fae only and really is the best damn thing. Especially if you pay attention to the audience reactions. It's fantabulous
Shadownlands has actually giving me that thought of 'It might be finally time to move on from WoW"..............
At this point I don't know if WoW has anything to offer me anymore with the exception of a large player base which leads to quicker queues than other games.
Only your first run is linear. https://www.wowhead.com/news=317933/the-threads-of-fate-shadowlands-adventure-mode-leveling-for-alts