Hacker News Reader

Comment by Barrin92 | Hacker News Reader

Glance at the thread has me surprised (I think) nobody has brought it up, but by far one of the strongest aspects of WoW's environments is the fact that they tie in with the lore of the game.

WoW environments are not just generic, they reflect and take place in stories that people have loved for many years even before WoW came around. the very first place that came to mind reading that article was the entrance to Undercity where you can hear, if you have the audio loud enough, scenes from Arthas Betrayal in WC3.

Many places in WoW have genuine weight, they feel like real historical places in a way. This is what makes them memorable. You do not have this attachment at all in any modern MMO were most people just click through the cinematics.

View on HN

> You do not have this attachment at all in any modern MMO were most people just click through the cinematics.

I have a bit of the opposite opinion. The story in WoW for me felt very half-baked. I wanted to read the quest text, but usually it was kind of dull. The overarching story was at once overly complicated and a boring mess. Despite putting hundreds of hours into that game, I don’t think I really care about any of the characters in the story.

In comparison, the writing in FFXIV (another, more recent MMO) is a masterpiece. I cried several times through the main story quest. I don’t think I’ve ever cried before in a video game. Unfortunately the best writing is the most recent part of the story - and to get to it you need to play all the previous expansions first.

But World of Warcraft makes much better use of its world. Especially before they added flying, the world really felt like a place you explored and were present in. It has geography, that you need to learn as you play. And it takes time to move from place to place. WoW really invites a sense of wonder and curiosity as you explore the world. There’s always something interesting over the next ridge. And it might be a monster that eats you. It was a delight.

Despite its rough edges, wow is still a work of art. I’d love to work on something like that at some point in my career.

It’s funny you say that. I thought the overarching story was pretty straightforward and simple in the original game, including the RTS games. Warcraft 3 did add some extra elements to it, which were carried over into WoW, but it felt like lots of small stories. There really wasn’t a single, cohesive overarching story in the original WoW. Only now in modern WoW do we have these grandiose, trans-cosmos, overly complicated storylines that retcon everything that’s happened.

I remember playing through Morrowind. It was my first Elder Scrolls game, and I got entranced by the in-game history books about a character called Jagar Tharn. They were deep and convincing in a way I'd never seen in atmosphere-setting content before, it really felt like I was reading about real events.

Turns out, Jagar Tharn was a major character in an earlier game in the series, and the histories more-or-less recounted the plot of that earlier game.

I think you're right that that referencing of earlier stories really carries a lot of weight, but I don't think the player even has to be familiar with those stories to profit from them. The very fact that they are "real" stories and places that exist outside of that game I think allows the designers to treat them more convincingly, more engagingly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com