There is a point I'd like to make about "storytelling" v. "mmo." In an MMO, you are limited by the the fact that you have to have balance between the factions (that would be balance in terms of classes, racial abilities, quest opportunities, and moments for cool lore). While someone above stated that having a story be unfair is good, you can't shoe-horn that into an MMO property.

The point and suggestion I have made and will continue to make is that blizzard needs a warcraft 4, or at least some kind of single-player campaign. I believe there is a litany of reasons for this (the main reasons being we need new heroes, especially alliance heroes, as well as new villains, and we need to play as those heroes in villains in a storybook RPG or RTSRPG). Blizzard absolutely shines at telling stories through RTS campaigns, one need only to look at the recent example of Starcraft 2.

The problem with WoW as I see is that too much lore and hero stories are going on outside of the game in novels, and the playerbase is not creating emotional connections with them. Do we love thrall because he is some kind of hero we aspire to be? Or do we love him because we kicked ass playing as him, and saved the world along with Jaina and the night elves on Mt. Hyjal in W3? Did we hate Arthas because he was the big bad, or were we conflicted because we played out his life story in a riveting game?

I think the answer here is obvious, and I will continue to maintain that until blizzard puts out another single-player RTS or RPG to advance and create new stories, World of Warcraft will continue to be hamstrung by it's current need for balance between the factions.