World of Warcraft

[Smug Chuckler]

I thought Metzen was a Jew since his self insert was literally green Moses.

 

[ZMOT]

In a Legiondary-style system, however, you're right, there's way too much competition for an item with an effect that only reaches its full potential in a group. Destiny 2 had a similar problem with a group of exotic armor items (exotic is their equivalent of legendary) that boosted ability recovery for other players in your group if you used your abilities, with the effect amplified for those who were also using those items. The problem was that the effect was far too weak to really take advantage of them, so nobody ever used them. It took a complete rework of the items to give them new and more powerful effects to make them an actually viable choice, part of which involved allowing players to take on different roles that they could swap as needed. The effects were boosted if you had a different role from your ally, encouraging players to take on different roles instead of stacking the same one. Now they're a good choice for group content without being reliant on having everyone wear them in order to get any effect out of them, but keep in mind that they only got this update after about three years.

the worst part is everyone is now aping that "one exotic" shit from destiny, to the point gear is outright designed around that one piece of OP armor.

A not-insignificant number of women who engage with this fantasy content also enjoy the skimpy armor, and not for any lesbian/sexual reason, something closer to the "wearing skimpy costumes during halloween" vibe. Most women don't have an issue with it, and thus don't talk about it loudly and constantly. Of course it would be a negative attitude that actually addresses it at a Q&A, not a "I like this guys, stay the course" statement.

this, anyone who comes with that shit has never seen a woman create a character.

the simple fact is sex sells, for everyone, that's why you have ripped dudes on romance novel covers, to catch eyeballs and fuel the imagination. if someone has a problem with a partner looking at virtual midriffs the solutions isn't to cover them up.
there's also a difference between a lore character (which has literal plot armor protecting her) and "your toon", if you don't want it there's plenty of options to wear something else (unless you play a kmmo...). there's even a somewhat plausible lore explanation with her being a former ranger from silvermoon, which has a warm climate. can't wait for that lady to run around and tell other women to not wear belly tops in summer...

I remember this being about Alexstrasza: The obvious answer would've been "She's actually a giant scary dragon, and they use magic to look like people, and this is what she chooses to look like, because she thinks she looks coolest that way and is a mommy that wants to have LOTS of babies, HUNDREDS of baby dragons, so this is how she chooses to appear." Not fucking hard, but I'm also not at my party office 18 hours a day strung out on drugs.

it's the same shit with the totally legit story of some dice dude where his super adult 3yo asked him why there are no women in battlefield. you can just say "because she wants to", but then that would trigger the cognitive dissonance that the virtual character isn't real in the first place and thus different rules apply...

 

[Corn Flakes]

All this talk about underdressed females in Warcraft... meanwhile 80% of women (and I mean actual women, not troons) that I know who play FF14 play underdressed males and females, with the occasional bank-vault-on-legs for variety. Why? Because they like how the models look and the game is called Fashion Fantasy 14 for a reason.

 

[Übertroon]

All this talk about underdressed females in Warcraft... meanwhile 80% of women (and I mean actual women, not troons) that I know who play FF14 play underdressed males and females, with the occasional bank-vault-on-legs for variety. Why? Because they like how the models look and the game is called Fashion Fantasy 14 for a reason.

It's absolutely hilarious that warcraft can try to pander with hiring of female developers in diversity quotas. They'll remove Sylvanas being called a bitch and remove as much skin as possible. The plot will be completely consumed by mary sues.
And yet women will still choose to play FF14 over WoW because it lets them run around in thigh high leather boots and mini skirts

 

[Corn Flakes]

It's absolutely hilarious that warcraft can try to pander with hiring of female developers in diversity quotas. They'll remove Sylvanas being called a bitch and remove as much skin as possible. The plot will be completely consumed by mary sues.
And yet women will still choose to play FF14 over WoW because it lets them run around in thigh high leather boots and mini skirts

I think the big difference is that FF14 focuses on the different outfits, while WoW's armor is very limited. Back when I played WoW my guildmates were permanently annoyed that they couldn't find any miniskirts or even knee-length skirts anywhere. The legs slot only had options for battle-panties (sometimes with thigh-highs baked in), shorts, trousers, or full-length skirts, with at most two or three variants in the model itself.

Meanwhile, I only played the trial for FF14 a few months back (before it exploded), and with barely any time spent in the game I already saw options for like five different skirts. On a male character. And then you go to a hub and you see people's characters cosplaying as Castlevania's Dracula, Lady Dimitrescu, Tuxedo Mask, fifteen different varieties of magical girls... you get the point. If you want your MMO to attract the female crowd, make it a fun game to play on a moment-to-moment basis, and offer them an interesting variety of outfits. It sounds misogynistic, but there's nothing wrong in catering to people who want to look good. The men playing are also going to thank you.

 

[reinigen]

Back in 1.0, the art directors consulted their cosplayer coworkers when designing the miqote (this was before male miqote were a thing) because they knew catgirls were going to be popular with cosplayers. As for the question in hand, they could easily have said "we'll consider it" and that would be that; I do believe that the options to have regular armor and bikini armor should be available for both genders.

All this talk about underdressed females in Warcraft... meanwhile 80% of women (and I mean actual women, not troons) that I know who play FF14 play underdressed males and females, with the occasional bank-vault-on-legs for variety. Why? Because they like how the models look and the game is called Fashion Fantasy 14 for a reason.

It's absolutely hilarious that warcraft can try to pander with hiring of female developers in diversity quotas. They'll remove Sylvanas being called a bitch and remove as much skin as possible. The plot will be completely consumed by mary sues.
And yet women will still choose to play FF14 over WoW because it lets them run around in thigh high leather boots and mini skirts

One of my favorite old school streamers Dodger/Dexbonus plays a male catboy who is permanently in a leopard print thong banana hammock, and she loves him. Anyone who tries to claim women don't want to do it too is a fucking lying hack.

 

[Tanner Glass]

No this is bullshit, first off nobody played Diablo for the story.

Second Diablo 3 had major mechanical issues that were far larger than whatever story bullshit issues that were going on. They wanted to originally have the cash auction house to try and make money from it by monetizing everything diablo 2 had. Everything in the game was originally based around this. When it failed the game was effectively directionless with no money stream coming in either, and it wasn't until reaper of souls did they make an effort to fix shit.

People absolutely loved the story of Diablo 1 and 2 because there was no story. The entire plot could basically be described as "bad shit is happening, a group of no name adventurers go and try and sort it out". Most of Diablo 2's dialogue revolves around most of the important characters trying to figure out who the fuck you are and there's very little of it.

Diablo 3's "big" story was horrific and one of the main reasons it failed so horribly. It was so badly written it actually ruined the mood/setting of the game (See also - Starcraft 2) to a point where one of the most welcome changes in Reaper of Souls was "a mode with no story".

The game was also a huge mechanical mess that clearly wasn't very well tested or conceptualized and the Real Money Auction House was another bruise on the Blizzard brand.

 

[Haramburger]

Real Money Auction House

I liked it, even though the items were shit design at the time I made a decent bit of money. Best thing I ever sold was level 60 Blackthorn's Breeches(when the 4/5 class sets didn't exist yet) for fifty bucks. POE gets away with not-soulbound items and trading/blatant sales but somehow that's a no-no for Blizzard. I never understood the double standard there, and it hurt the game that you can't help your friends with items imo.

POE is crushing D3 right now, so it's clear who was "right."

 

[Well Intentioned]

Never knew that shit about Metzen's wife becoming a lesbian or him apparently finding Jesus. A lot of shit makes sense in hindsight now, particularly with the weird direction SC2 went in.

Raynor being a drunken hick and Metzen's self-described title of bourbon cowboy who can't get over Kerrigan who was suddenly this huge love interest (and wildly tonally off from Raynor swearing to kill Kerrigan and make her pay or whatever.) Plus Kerrigan becoming pretty much a Christ-like figure and enjoying a massive redemption arc.

Also fits with the whole Thrall 'Green Jesus' shit that reached a peak in Cataclysm.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

The old Blizzard RTSes had great writing in that they didn't style themselves great writers, and just produced something completely competent that was held up by the overall aesthetic and buttery-smooth gameplay. I look fondly back on the original SC, because while nothing was really stand-out exceptional, it just fits so nice and snug into the comfy atmosphere of 90s scifi. That same success finds itself in the overall writing of WoW's early expansions - lots of indirect storytelling, inoffensive, competent, and totally skippable if you don't want to deal with it.

Then they started to get high on their own supply and thought they could actually write something new and original - and it wound up being not only fucking retarded, but derivative of other fucking retarded trash. I could not play beyond the first mission of SC2:HOTS, and I'm still amazed I beat WOL. The fact that everyone saw "Sylvannas will be redeemed" the instant she committed elf genocide was the point at which Blizzard's writing staff should have maybe realized that they're useless hacks, but I get the impression someone in the office is tasked specifically with shielding their fragile egos from the backlash that stupid cinematic has had. I base this assumption on the fact that virtually none of their borrowed power systems have been popular (artifact weapons are maybe an exception), yet they seem completely clueless in interviews that there's even the smallest bit of trouble in paradise.

 

[Well Intentioned]

The old Blizzard RTSes had great writing in that they didn't style themselves great writers, and just produced something completely competent that was held up by the overall aesthetic and buttery-smooth gameplay. I look fondly back on the original SC, because while nothing was really stand-out exceptional, it just fits so nice and snug into the comfy atmosphere of 90s scifi. That same success finds itself in the overall writing of WoW's early expansions - lots of indirect storytelling, inoffensive, competent, and totally skippable if you don't want to deal with it.

One of the things that I think was a turning point were the retards who complained that they didn't feel "epic" enough and that the experience should be more directly catering to them and making them feel important. Because somehow locking horns with dragons, primeval elemental forces and eldritch horrors who want to take over the world and defeating them wasn't special enough.

We saw this with the shift in how Arthas was utilized in Wrath and people complained about how he morphed into a Saturday morning villain. No, not like that, they complained.

So Blizzard kept adjusting and trying to make the PC the "central focus" of the story instead of side pieces riding shotgun with Thrall or Jaina or whoever, with Cataclysm being a weird anomaly out of this trend with Green Jesus.

Instead of being some schlub who signed up to do your part or whatever, you're some variant of a Chosen One. This also led to legendaries and artifacts getting watered down so everyone could participate and get a shiny Orange Item. In my mind, for the worse.

 

[Tanner Glass]

I liked it, even though the items were shit design at the time I made a decent bit of money. Best thing I ever sold was level 60 Blackthorn's Breeches(when the 4/5 class sets didn't exist yet) for fifty bucks. POE gets away with not-soulbound items and trading/blatant sales but somehow that's a no-no for Blizzard. I never understood the double standard there, and it hurt the game that you can't help your friends with items imo.

POE is crushing D3 right now, so it's clear who was "right."

I hated it, but I totally got why they did it.

RMT for Diablo 2 was very popular - there were several websites dedicated to just exactly that and it was the kind of "gray area" where dumb people would get scammed out of actual, real money (See also - Wow Gold Buying, Wow Leveling Services, Wow Arena Carries, Starcraft Ladder Boosts, Overwatch Ladder Boosts). Instead of trying to disincentivize Diablo 3's RMT, Blizzard decided to just provide a safe place to do it and take a cut of it instead.

A very "easy" solution for them - and much like their other "easy" solution (WoW Token) it completely destroyed the integrity of the game and was a gigantic blow to the damage to the brand and the company.

The Reaper of Souls solution (all items aren't tradable, at all, unless you personally were there when it dropped and only for 2 hours) was a much better solution, but by no means a perfect solution.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Ugh, more diversity hires for Blizzard

If WoW wasn't toast before it sure is now.

"My primary focus will be on ensure proper diversity and creating a welcoming environment for those who wish to engage with our company."

What about the game bitch? Without all those toxic males you got jack and shit or in your case jill and trannies.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Instead of being some schlub who signed up to do your part or whatever, you're some variant of a Chosen One. This also led to legendaries and artifacts getting watered down so everyone could participate and get a shiny Orange Item. In my mind, for the worse.

Spoiler: storytelling autism

Weirdly enough, Wrath and even Cata was how they should've gone with it. Cata's storytelling was fucking godawful trash, but the idea that your character is basically some elite vanguard doing the bidding of the big players is the best way to handle the general approach to storyelling that WoW's disaffected "click for text box" format encourages, as well as the general approach of the game being 'you are some shmuck exploring this big world.'

I do think it was more around Pandas that they tried to have your character be 'involved' more actively, to the point outright of CHAMPION starting to crop up and really running wild over in WOD. It's completely jarring to go from being a no-one to being THE SAVIOR WHO DOES EVERYTHING (except for all those other saviors), and I really can't imagine how the fuck the new player experience puts it together. I had given up on the game until some friends dragged me in for Shadowlands, so I wanted to level a guy through the BFA content I'd never done in order to unlock Zandalari trolls. I went from the cata intro where Goblins are introduced to the horde to YOU ARE MY FOREMOST EMISSARY, GUY WHO HAS JUST SHOWN UP. NOW GO. Godawful.

FF14 handles it in the easy way by making your character the self-insert savior of the universe that everything revolves around and people generally regard as such -- but I don't think that's really necessary. If the retard devs had any braincells left, they'd lift the idea of FF14's MSQ as a way to introduce lore and characters to new players and clue them up to speed by ensuring that you know what's going on before you get to a certain point in the game. This was part of what they made phasing for, ffs. Instead they sat on their ass and convinced themselves that they were the best, despite WoW's successes coming from stealing other peoples' ideas.

 

[Corn Flakes]

One of the things that I think was a turning point were the retards who complained that they didn't feel "epic" enough and that the experience should be more directly catering to them and making them feel important. Because somehow locking horns with dragons, primeval elemental forces and eldritch horrors who want to take over the world and defeating them wasn't special enough.

We saw this with the shift in how Arthas was utilized in Wrath and people complained about how he morphed into a Saturday morning villain. No, not like that, they complained.

So Blizzard kept adjusting and trying to make the PC the "central focus" of the story instead of side pieces riding shotgun with Thrall or Jaina or whoever, with Cataclysm being a weird anomaly out of this trend with Green Jesus.

Instead of being some schlub who signed up to do your part or whatever, you're some variant of a Chosen One. This also led to legendaries and artifacts getting watered down so everyone could participate and get a shiny Orange Item. In my mind, for the worse.

You could say that the problem was that Blizzard should have picked a narrative lane and stuck with it.

The game worked well early on because you were just one adventurer out of many exploring the world. The enemies you fought were powerful, but the NPCs you did quests for were usually pretty passive in their involvement with the story. Before they implemented phasing, you just didn't see archmages and kings going all over the place to push a story forward. When you saw an important NPC out of place is was usually just a scripted sequence at the end of an important questline, like Thrall going out to talk to Garrosh in Outlands back in TBC. So you may have been an "unnamed" adventurer as far as the story went, but it was usually you getting shit done. By the time Wrath of the Lich King was released your character (at least on Alliance side, I don't remember Horde side) was recognized as a hero of Outland, but it was clear you were still only one person. Compare Icecrown Citadel to Siege of Orgrimmar, where half the fights were book-ended by NPCs talking to one another.

When they switched to the "player character being more than just a hero" narrative focus, it clashed with the way the game was designed. They kept flip-flopping between the player being assumed to have agency and a leadership position, and being bossed around by NPCs. Add to it the comicbook-tier storytelling, and there was just no saving Warcraft's story. Final Fantasy 14 gets away with it because the game is structured from the ground up as basically a single-player story, and while it's not exactly going to win any awards it's written more tightly than Warcraft's and it usually works for what it's trying to do. Also, you follow the other characters and their stories a lot longer (and with a lot more depth) than in WoW's quest panels.

 

[ZMOT]

When they switched to the "player character being more than just a hero" narrative focus, it clashed with the way the game was designed. They kept flip-flopping between the player being assumed to have agency and a leadership position, and being bossed around by NPCs. Add to it the comicbook-tier storytelling, and there was just no saving Warcraft's story. Final Fantasy 14 gets away with it because the game is structured from the ground up as basically a single-player story, and while it's not exactly going to win any awards it's written more tightly than Warcraft's and it usually works for what it's trying to do. Also, you follow the other characters and their stories a lot longer (and with a lot more depth) than in WoW's quest panels.

you don't even have to go full cutscene, eso has most of it's stuff ingame via dialogs and voiceovers, which works more than fine. and afterwards you get a nicely rendered cutscene (remember those?), not some ingame machinima trying hard to be anime.
fuck most those cinematics are several minutes long and have no dialog at all, all show don't tell. at best you get some voiceover. so no space for cringy current year writing.

Spoiler: heavy spoiler for southern elsweyr

You could say that the problem was that Blizzard should have picked a narrative lane and stuck with it.

you can still write around it, rift had anyone know you were the one who did all kinds of shit (among others on your powerlevel, so even raids get acknowledged), but the interactions were mostly done WoW-style.
eso is a bit schizo since you can start at any point in the story and do it in any order, so most dialogs either never go into it or conveniently ignore it. if you do it in order you get extra options where they recognize you again to weave a loose connection, cutscenes have stand-ins for the player character which "officially" changes constantly.

FF14 puts more effort in it and even has you show up in cutscenes, however it also is a lot of talking and watching words, which makes it hard to be "immersed" (in the lack of a better word).

TLDR: blizz writers suck and even with the tools at their disposal could've done better.

 

[Lone Outsider]

A not-insignificant number of women who engage with this fantasy content also enjoy the skimpy armor, and not for any lesbian/sexual reason, something closer to the "wearing skimpy costumes during halloween" vibe. Most women don't have an issue with it, and thus don't talk about it loudly and constantly. Of course it would be a negative attitude that actually addresses it at a Q&A, not a "I like this guys, stay the course" statement.


I remember this being about Alexstrasza: The obvious answer would've been "She's actually a giant scary dragon, and they use magic to look like people, and this is what she chooses to look like, because she thinks she looks coolest that way and is a mommy that wants to have LOTS of babies, HUNDREDS of baby dragons, so this is how she chooses to appear." Not fucking hard, but I'm also not at my party office 18 hours a day strung out on drugs.

All this talk about underdressed females in Warcraft... meanwhile 80% of women (and I mean actual women, not troons) that I know who play FF14 play underdressed males and females, with the occasional bank-vault-on-legs for variety. Why? Because they like how the models look and the game is called Fashion Fantasy 14 for a reason.

At this point I really don't care if a woman is donning a Burka or running around naked. I've seen the good and bad on both sides of the isle and honestly, I prefer a likeable Character, not a coomer or woke propaganda piece.

Ugh, more diversity hires for Blizzard

If WoW wasn't toast before it sure is now.

"My primary focus will be on ensure proper diversity and creating a welcoming environment for those who wish to engage with our company."

What about the game bitch? Without all those toxic males you got jack and shit or in your case jill and trannies.

Unless Ko(ck)tick realizes that he wouldn't get that extra dough by pandering to the woke fuckers, he is gonna lose out on a helluva lot of money. He is rat bastard but even he gotta realise that this is costing him and his company big time and there is nothing a jew hates than losing money. Right now Blizzard is getting double teams by two lolsuits and I wouldn't be surprised if they get a third cock to complete the gangbang.

For the story part, I moreso meant Starcraft than anything else. I'm fairly certain Metzen had a hand in the Kerrigan super-goddess ending.
I can't exactly recall where I heard or read about the art part, but I do recall hearing at some point that Metzen's born-again righteousness was a contributing factor to D3's complete lack of any sort of "edginess" to the art. Could just be something totally untrue just derived from context of the time, but it's always made enough sense to me that I never thought twice about it, considering other things that he did like the Thrall self-inserting in Cataclysm.

It's funny because that's literally what happened to Metzen. He became a born-again Christian because of his wife, which led to him intentionally softening up the stories he wrote and the art of those games as well. Diablo 3 looked how it did because Metzen, high and mighty born again Christian, said that D1/2's gothic horror style was born from a "edgy atheist phase" and that Diablo 3 being so different was intentional as a way of embodying his new-found beliefs. His reward for his devotion to these beliefs was his wife becoming a lesbian and them only staying together to raise his kids, so he doesn't even get laid anymore, lol.

Frankly it would have been even more hype if not for the nascent woke infection. Don't know much about Metzen's Private life but if he did become some soft Christian due to his wife and then she become a lesbian afterwards then I would have said bad dose if not for him being a such a cuck. Blizz games always had a slightly hardcore edge to them, hell in the early stories/canon they explicitly stated that Garona Halforcen was a product of rape. And speaking of rape, the Rouges Monastery is littered with bodies that are positioned in such a way that they were implied to have been litterally fucked to death.

The new blizzard would never do something like this and I expect the woke nutters to lose their shit unless the game toned that shit down or did something to censor the game.

Warcraft is a very fantastical setting, clearly taking a lot of inspiration from things like the work of Frank Frazetta. It's a world with big muscly dudes and buxom chicks of all races duking it out, wearing impractical armor because it looks cool. Crazy things happen because "dude wouldn't it be cool if" is pretty much the defining story thread. Realism shouldn't be taken into consideration in such a setting; bikini armor isn't protective, but who gives a shit? Any time they actually try to inject a dose of realism into Warcraft, it gets objectively worse because of how much a realistic concept clashes with what already exists.

To put it another way, if the playerbase at large didn't want bikini armor in the game, then old sets like Jade Plate wouldn't still go for thousands of gold on the auction house while more "realistic" sets of a similar rarity like Overlord's Plate go for hundreds at most.

Honestly, I care more about things that use realism as a base while still having fantastical or Sci-fi elements than to force everything down to reality. It's clear that this kind of realism is destroying the willing suspension of disbelieve.

 

[Tanner Glass]

You could say that the problem was that Blizzard should have picked a narrative lane and stuck with it.

The game worked well early on because you were just one adventurer out of many exploring the world. The enemies you fought were powerful, but the NPCs you did quests for were usually pretty passive in their involvement with the story. Before they implemented phasing, you just didn't see archmages and kings going all over the place to push a story forward. When you saw an important NPC out of place is was usually just a scripted sequence at the end of an important questline, like Thrall going out to talk to Garrosh in Outlands back in TBC. So you may have been an "unnamed" adventurer as far as the story went, but it was usually you getting shit done. By the time Wrath of the Lich King was released your character (at least on Alliance side, I don't remember Horde side) was recognized as a hero of Outland, but it was clear you were still only one person. Compare Icecrown Citadel to Siege of Orgrimmar, where half the fights were book-ended by NPCs talking to one another.

When they switched to the "player character being more than just a hero" narrative focus, it clashed with the way the game was designed. They kept flip-flopping between the player being assumed to have agency and a leadership position, and being bossed around by NPCs. Add to it the comicbook-tier storytelling, and there was just no saving Warcraft's story. Final Fantasy 14 gets away with it because the game is structured from the ground up as basically a single-player story, and while it's not exactly going to win any awards it's written more tightly than Warcraft's and it usually works for what it's trying to do. Also, you follow the other characters and their stories a lot longer (and with a lot more depth) than in WoW's quest panels.

I would argue that Blizzard did pick a narrative lane and stuck with it - it's just a shitty one that no one likes.

World of Warcraft (and Warcraft as a whole) has always been a story about named NPCs - Thrall, Garrosh, Sylvannis, Jaina, Bolvar Fordragon, Tirion Fordring, and so on. They drive the story, they're in the cutscenes, and most importantly I think - they get to do the cool things the player cannot. This is I think the main reason everyone dislikes WoW's story, is because they empower the "main cast" so much and your character just acts like an actual NPC.

- Thrall and the Player Character can both be Shaman, but only Thrall is the "World Shaman" who defeats Deathwing by unleashing a sick-ass dragon Kahamaha through it's heart.
- Tirion Fordring and the Player Character can both be Paladins, but Tirion is the only one who can break free of the Lich King's trap (by beeshing the Light) and ultimately defeating him.
- Slyvannis was an elf, then a banshee, then an undead, but was also apparently one of the best hunters to ever live. Your hunter is a dwarf that tamed a bear.
- Most of the "good" NPC characters are able to not participate in the Horde/Alliance war (Thrall, Varian at times, Fordring, etc). The player cannot ever do this.

I would argue that WoW has a lot more "someone is a special hero with a powerful destiny" storylines than FF14 does - I'd go so far as to say that the "a unique and gifted hero" trope applies to all of WoW's main cast. The main reason WoW doesn't have a cohesive story is because the "named cast" are so much better than the players in all aspects that it ruins immersion.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I would argue that WoW has a lot more "someone is a special hero with a powerful destiny" storylines than FF14 does - I'd go so far as to say that the "a unique and gifted hero" trope applies to all of WoW's main cast. The main reason WoW doesn't have a cohesive story is because the "named cast" are so much better than the players in all aspects that it ruins immersion.

And then in the next expansion we have to kill X wildlife.

 

[reinigen]

I would argue that WoW has a lot more "someone is a special hero with a powerful destiny" storylines than FF14 does - I'd go so far as to say that the "a unique and gifted hero" trope applies to all of WoW's main cast. The main reason WoW doesn't have a cohesive story is because the "named cast" are so much better than the players in all aspects that it ruins immersion.

This is 100% my problem with WoW's story the last few years. It's not the story of my character and his exploits around Azeroth. It's Thrall/Jaina/Sylvanas/Bolvar's story and the 10+ hired goons they use to kill the inconvenient targets for them. None of it feels like anything I myself have done.