WoW: Linear storytelling and no decision quests in Shadowlands
In WoW: Legion and Battle for Azeroth, the authors of World of Warcraft experimented a lot. For example, the developers gave players the opportunity to experience the stories of the new areas in any order. No hero was bound to a specific starting and ending zone when leveling anymore. This new way of telling stories only succeeded, however, because the respective main story was told via independent areas such as the class halls or the war campaign. In retrospect, this had its advantages and disadvantages. While the supporting story structure in WoW: Legion worked well on the whole, storytelling chaos broke out in Battle for Azeroth. One of the reasons for this was the decisions that the Horde fighters were allowed to make in the conflict between Saurfang and Sylvanas.
Theidea of "decisions and consequences" was a novelty for WoW, after all, the developers had hardly had any experience with such a component
before.The reactions of the players were rather moderate. The end of the BfA war campaign felt less than satisfying for both Saurfang's rebels and Sylvanas' loyalists. Therefore, in WoW: Shadowlands, the writers and quest designers will return to the original storytelling model and tell the story linearly again, and thus step by step.
In a recent interview with Wowhead, Steve Danuser, Lead Narrative Designer of World of Warcraft (buy now €14.99 ), promised that the upcoming expansion will have a unified storyline for all players. According to Danuser, the authors have learned from the mistakes of BfA, and they now want to make the story of Shadowlands equally available to the heroes of both factions again, so that everyone can follow the story and understand what Sylvanas' goals really are. So for the time being, there will probably no longer be a quest line with decisions for one side or the other.
This also means that we won't be able to freely choose between areas when leveling in WoW: Shadowlands. Our heroes start in the Bastion (50-52) and gradually work their way through other game zones like Maldraxxus (52-54), Ardenwald (55-57) and Revendreth (57-60) until they reach their maximum level. The Maw" alone is available to all players between level 50-60 (keyword: Torghast scenario). The choice of the pact will probably be made at the maximum level - at least for all main characters. Twinks will apparently be allowed to choose the pact much earlier.
Thedevelopers
don't
want to drop the storytelling model with different storylines completely
.
It is possible that we will be allowed to make decisions again in future WoW adventures at some point. For the new expansion, however, the authors have planned a linear story that will be told chapter by chapter.
What do you think of the return to the narrative style roots of World of Warcraft? Do you think linear storytelling makes sense and is exciting? Or did you like Blizzard's experiment with choices in BfA more? Write us in the comments!
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