What happened to the mystery in WoW?

[CarrieWeir]

I was just roaming around Alcaz Island just for fun and something occurred to me. Where did the mystery in WoW go? The random Naga slithering around Alcaz island and the giant Hydra. What are they for? Or Doctor Weavil, what is his purpose? Or what is going on down in the dungeons below the island? Everything in Cataclysm seems too explained or too predictable. A quest helper in the game is great but I think it takes away to much anticipation on what is going to happen next.

I'm almost certain it isn't like this anymore because the vast majority of WoW players want to just level up as fast as possible without reading a single quest and getting the best gear possible. But is that what the questing experience is all about? What are your thoughts?

[Fetzie]

Doctor Weavil held a chapter of Draconic for Dummies as part of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj opening questline back in Classic (until they removed the quest chain in 4.0.3).

[Valaras]

The mystery goes away the moment you learn the game better. There were explanations back then too, we were simply all noobs.

[leethaxor]

The mystery is still there for new players. But that's what it is, mystery is caused by something being new. When you played wow for the first time you didn't know where that path led, you didn't know what was over that hill or around the bend. And you explored, you spent hours reading lore, quest text etc.

Now adays, we've done all that. We have dozens of alts that have done that. We've seen all that there is to be seen. Actually when the shattering happened I took days off of raiding to just explore the new game world, go new places see the new things, turn over every stone etc. But then I just jumped back into the single minded focus of a raider. Even while leveling in cataclysm I had to hit level 85 as fast as possible, I certainly found time to go back and explore the game world, but overall, its something you do when things are new.

[feralminded]

It's still not quite the same as it once was and blizzard knows it. While the questing on rails philosophy of cataclysm certainly made it easier to level up it did take something away as well when it effectively shrunk the player interaction with each zone. Gone were the days of suddenly "finding" a new hub that was mostly unrelated to the previous one or whatnot. Again this is something blizzard has directly said they will address in mop so while there may not be much help for everything that currently exists I do have hope for MOP.

[Crittable]

Gone were the days of suddenly "finding" a new hub that was mostly unrelated to the previous one or whatnot.

I wish I found those new hubs when I was leveling my first character. I was level 38, I think, and I didn't know where to take my gnome rogue. Coming from Everquest, I was used to grinding my way through things. So, I took to soloing the elite dwarves outside the Uldaman entrance just south of Loch Modan. By the time I was 44'ish, I met someone new in the game and she showed me an entire world outside of the comfort-zone I was in. If it wasn't for her, I would have never found those hubs.

[proudmoore]

Both you, the player, and the game itself have changed. 6 years - or whatever fraction of that you've been playing - is a long time to expect something to remain constant.

On the other hand... do you make any attempt to find more in game than turning up to the next raid; gemmed, enchanted and be-flasked? A guildmate of mine took it upon himself over the summer to produce a film highlighting just how beautiful the world of Warcraft is. One of the things he did was to simply turn his interface off, and fly around the various zones, admiring the scenary. It's remarkable just how much effort Blizzard put into the game, but if you just run from one marked quest on the map to the next, you miss virtually all of it. I know for a fact that most of my game time consists of lazing around in Orgrimmar, periodically restocking the auction house and counting down to reaching the gold cap. You need to make a conscious effort to break away from that malaise, and look at what is really out there.

(For reference, the trailer for the film, which due to Rl stuff will probably never be finished, can be found here - it's remarkably professional.)

[Haler]

For me the "mystery" disappeared when I started regulary browsing thottbot and wowhead and such. In the long run, its no fun when you always know what happens next in the dungeon and what kind of items to expect from bosses.

Oh and Alcas Island used to be fun. It was an epic battle to kill one of those monsters there just to find out that they dont really drop any special loot

______________________
just me: Uunisepät | Uunisepät | Takkavalmistaja Uunisepät