Immersion in the story is just icing on the cake
by David Bowers 
Sep 1st 2007 at 11:01AM
Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi discussed with players at BlizzCon their desire for the World of Warcraft to be more immersive, for the characters to be more believable and relevant, and for the story to be more at the forefront, right alongside gameplay. So now a professional screenwriter named Cocles submitted a suggestion on the forums as to how that feeling could be created, by letting the world's characters react to you in a more believable way. Here's one of his examples:
Think of how immersive it would be if you were to step into Outland and have Nazgrel look at you and say, "When I sent word to Orgrimmar that we needed more troops, I never dreamed they would send the slayer of C'thun himself to aid us. You will be a great asset to us Cocles, and I am glad to see you here!"Check out Blizzard's response beyond the jump...
Had I not killed C'thun, or done anything else of note, Nazgrel could instead look me up and down and say, "Well grunt, let's see what you're made of."
Kisirani, who was behind the unfolding changes in the life of Griftah, as well as other immersive elements in the game (Blood Elf paladins over level 20: try to /eye a Silvermoon City guard and see what happens), says that they have already done quite a bit of this sort of thing in the Burning Crusade, notably with the Skyguard and Ogri'la factions. He says it may seem simple to add a lot of these fun conditional elements to the game, but it can actually take thousands of lines of code to manage it. It's something that the developers would really like to do more often, but it has to take a back seat when competing with actual new content:
Would you rather have one repeatable quest with everything that entails (one reputation gain, one reward) with this level of conditional content, or four quests (repeatable or otherwise) with four reputation gains and four rewards that had much less conditional content? In the end, no matter how many people we have working on a product, there will always be a limited timeframe in which to release content as we do not (yet) own a time machine. At present, while we certainly do dedicate manhours to the writing and creation of this immersive content you ask for, the majority of our time is focused on creating the actual content itself.All this makes me wonder what Metzen and Afrasiabi actually had in mind when they said they wanted Azeroth to be more immersive and the story to be forefront. What sort of improvements are you hoping for?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Warrior_Tess Sep 1st 2007 12:20PM
"Oh my gosh," my boyfriend shouted in delight and amazement last night, "that NPC just wispered me!"
Even though he was level 61, it was the first time he ever really felt he mattered in the "world" he's been playing in for over 2 months. It is a sad but true fact that people who don't regularly read quest flavor text miss out on feeling like a part of the game they play. Reading flavor text shouldn't be the only way players can feel involved in the game's story, and sometimes it's not...
I really love some of the extra effort that has already been made in BC to include reluctant readers into the story. More quests involve the player beyond the simple quest text. The constant dialoge between the NPCs at certain cities and /yells from various boss encounters, for example, keep players attached to the world and the epic strugles taking place, be they about dragons or fruit.
In Azeroth these things rarely occur. Unless you read the quest text you have no intuitive feeling that what you do is important. It is true that you get an occasional whisper or note from an NPC (my personal favorite: using Chained Essence of Eranikus), but it is rare and seems odd and out of place when it happens.
It shouldn't be too hard to write more of these interactions into the game. Even writing some dialoge in other cities, or changing the dialogue from time to time, or adding random NPCs that interact with other NPCs would inject more life into the game.
A bit lengthy, but that's my two cents.
TheSporkWithin Sep 1st 2007 12:38PM
The Skyguard text was *really* cool. I was one of the first people on my server to hit revered, and later exalted, and so I'd just chill in the Skyguard areas while they lavished me with praise. I'd get tells every few minutes from confused players; definitely a very cool effect that I'd like to see more of.
BenMS Sep 1st 2007 12:48PM
Yeah, the first time I wandered into the Skyguard encampment in Skettis and the Skyguard Windcharger saluted me and suggested we should race some time, that was pure gold right there.
I guess, as with everything WoW, we'll have to wait and see as far as the new stuff Metzen and Afrasiabi have in mind.
Camaris Sep 1st 2007 12:50PM
Although they did a great deal more on immersiveness and storylines in TBC, it does still fall short when it comes to the end-game.
An example.. when you enter Zangarmarsh, the majority of quests concern the naga and their nefarious plans. But we're never given the final part of the story: Just what *was* Lady Vashj doing? Where is all the water being pumped to? What are all those bosses anyway? Who is Hydross? Who is Leotheras? It's these kinds of things that can be explained in raid-related quests (there used to be some quests inside raid instances to collect heads etc... I guess they didnt have time for that in TBC). Perhaps the Sunwell will round up these storylines a bit.
Fletch Sep 1st 2007 1:39PM
Immersion-wise, I think Burning Crusade did a pretty good job. But there were some definite gaps. Most of the dungeons seemed to have much less lore behind them than the old Azeroth dungeons did. Hellfire Citadel was really good, but after that it's kind of a mess.
What the hell is going on in Coilfang? Slave Pens seems to be about the Naga pumping, but the last boss is a swamplord? Why am I fighting the native life in Underbog? Why are the Naga pumping water anyway?
Am I really supposed to believe that the Arakoa, Ethereals, necromancer Draenei, and the Shadow Council all are hanging out peacefully in Auchindoun? Could the bosses in these dungeons be any more random? Mana Tombs has a voidwalker, a crystal giant, an ethereal and now a multi-headed dog critter - is there any connection there?
Tumples Sep 1st 2007 1:45PM
The water is for a new well of eternity for Illidan.
Octagon Sep 1st 2007 1:54PM
I don't care what the "flavor" text is if the quest is "Kill N of Species X and report back for A, B, C reward."
The really great quests are the ones with the scripted NPC interactions. So if it means I get 1 quest. Then I want 1 quest. I will never vote for filler.
You're supposed to be a hero and you're killing the same stuff with different skins all the time.
There were some really nice quests in Hellfire Penninsula, and Zangramarsh, Terrorkar was ok, but Nagrand has no flavor. Nagrand is all kill/gather quests. I'm a particularly accomplished Warlock with the Horde, and the best assignment I can scrounge up has me killing generic animals and generic NPC's? Isn't there some sort of an epic battle with invading demon armies? I was led to believe Outland was in need of help, not groceries.
There should be no excuse for these quests. You're basically getting a list of chores. It's condescending to pretend that "adding 4 quests" instead of 1 is a great idea if you get 4 crappy quests versus 1 well written quest. In the end, they're only concerned with increasing play time. However this lazy filler brings down the product.
Baluki Sep 1st 2007 2:03PM
@6: Ooo, interesting. Where did you hear that?
epsilon343 Sep 1st 2007 3:17PM
Something that I noticed, when testing Shadows of Angmar, was how well the incorporated the story into the game. In WoW...it felt too much like I was just one of a few million people trying to do the same thing. In SoA, there was a central storyline that I could always focus on.
I'm not saying that WoW should do that, but there does seem to be a feeling of disassociation from the player and the rest of the game world that limits the immersion of the players in the world.
Bobby Hansen Sep 1st 2007 4:19PM
It doesn't even need to be that complicated.
Then NPC you talk to is an Orc. Your Exalted with Org. He should treat you differently then does the undead who never care to grind Org. rep.
Playing my Draenei, I have all my reps for the Azerothian races, but I just couldn't give a crap less about the Night Elves. Hate 'em in fact. They should treat me different then Gnomes, Humans, Draenei or Dwarves do.
Snuzzle Sep 1st 2007 7:38PM
I would love if they would do this! I found something really neat in game, that really made me feel that immersion. I long ago hit exalted with CE, and when I walk past the guards ... they salute me! They recognize that an exalted member of their faction has passed them, and respond. Little things like that, really make the game for me ^---^
I remember reading long ago how the Blizz folks wanted to make the story more "personal" by adding quests to for example, find the player's long lost mother, etc. But they realised it wouldn't be too personal and would in fact feel like cheeze if everyone in the game was trying to find his or her long lost mother. So they trashed that. But this ... this I like. A lot.
Tiodi Sep 1st 2007 10:18PM
That would be brilliant, like guards responding to more emotes than /wave, /kiss/ /rude and such. And It wouldn't hurt if they all talked like the ones on Sunstrider Isle do, I.E /rude gets you " Do not push it citizen!" Or with the orcs " Do you not value your life? Get the hell out of here!" and more
Tiodi Sep 1st 2007 10:38PM
Or even funnier, if you let loose a warp stalker or Felhound or weird pet in silvermoon, if the guards say " What the HELL is that?" On release. Things like
Faction reputation having some effect like in Unfriendly " Eyes you wearily, unsure what to make of you. Or friendly " I haven't seen you before." Hated : " YOU SO OF A $&%**" Exhaulted, a salute, occasionally a bow. Minor things, and sometimes a reaction to a class or race, I.E, if you're a warlock in Orgrimm, the guards mutter about you, same as in Silvermoon as a hunter or horde race other than BE or forsaken.
Now that I'm getting carried away, I'd also love a way to learn another language, or get a last name, say, when you're exhaulted with a city, you get a city/class quest and You have to do a certain thing and a name gets made based on what you do, and you have a choice in what quest to take out of like, 10, but u can only do 1. Example, you'd have to kill Demons to "prove your loyalty" In ogrimmar, and then you'd finish and get the name " Felslicer"
Or if you did the same quest in Silvermoon, you'd get the name " Alahdoii". Since i am on a roll of hopless but nevertheless cool ideas, If you were a crafter you could get a name for that.
Sylythn Sep 2nd 2007 10:45AM
I'm working on my epic mount quest for my paladin - and whenever you walk into the basement to talk to the head of the Blood Knights, you get saluted by the guards. It's a little thing - but it makes me smile every time.
Juliah Sep 4th 2007 1:51PM
People love fluff. They really, really do.
The /hood command to raise or lower the hood of a cloak in Dark Age of Camelot was a small thing, but it provided interactivity with your character's clothing. You could react to the fact that it was raining, and so on. A sense of immersion helps to magnify memorable moments.
I realize that there's only so much time, and Blizzard have to give some things priority over others ... but interacting with the world in ways other than just fighting is an excellent thing. That trampoline quest with the goblin in Nagrand? Just fun. :)
I appreciate the efforts the developers have made so far, and hope they'll continue to increase.