Character agency in railroad WoW

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Topic/Postby Cherwina » 11 Oct 2018, 15:42

Character agency in railroad WoW

(Expansion on a minor rant from chat the other day)
This post will be a multi-part piece and will eventually contain some spoilers for BfA 8.1 towards the end. (I have to write this during my breaks, so forgive me for some rushed errors and sometimes leaving it in a weird place)

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I came back to WoW just over a month ago after basically being inactive since Cataclysm (technically, active enough to get to the end of MoP during that time but not while everyone else was doing it). I've really enjoyed playing through the end of my quests in Pandaria, the intro and Shadowmoon Valley in Warlords and now trekking through Azsuna in Legion.

From a roleplay perspective though, very little of what I've done in that time is something I would claim Cherwina did. Agency over who my character is, what they do and how they react to people has been mostly removed as I ride the railroad through the prescribed story. That's OK, I've played plenty of good RPGs where I play someone else's character and enjoy their story through things they do, but there's a reason these are almost exclusively single player RPGs. The notion that you are the hero falls apart when you immediately meet another character who's been told exactly the same thing.

A result of this is that I may be playing WoW more, but I play Cherwina less. Not in the sense that I play other characters but that the Night Elf Druid I play while questing is not Cherwina. But is that necessary?...

I've read a lot of people complaining about the lore getting worse and that the game needs better writers. I actually think that's wrong. I think part of the reason this railroading and loss of player agency has come about is specifically because they are working with professional authors. I have loved reading Christie Golden's books for Warcraft, but they have set heroes who are entirely under her control. You can't write stories like that for an MMO without losing player agency. As anyone who has ever been a tabletop DM will tell you, it's very hard to balance player choice against telling a story, but it is doable.

After having a chat with you guys, I had a sit down and thought about how player agency could have been handled differently through what I've played of Warlords of Draenor and Legion so far and still have had the plot progress through the key points Blizzard needed to hit, starting with the big key player agency problem of Legion... The Order Hall/Artifact weapon introduction...

Given vs Earned: Why me? problems
I loved finally getting the chance to see even a brief glimpse of the Emerald Dream, heading to the Dreamgrove and interacting in a meaningful way with the Cenarion Circle on something that wasn't just a plot irrelevant rep grind. To me, they are one of the most important factions (alongside the Earthen Ring) in the possibility of an end to the Horde vs Alliance war. However...

1) Do not try to treat me like I'm some especially powerful druid while I'm literally standing in front of the leaders, one of whom is a demigod at this point.
As a player in an MMO, this immediately makes me question "Why me?". I'm no more special than any other player character so why is this NPC trying to make me feel like a one of a kind? It just fundamentally doesn't work.

A player should never wonder why they are being treated the way they are. I understand that you are not as free as at the tabletop to react appropriately to the character you are interacting with, but WoW already has demonstrated that it can handle simple dynamic conversations. As well as dropping the overly dramatic praise of the player character in this scene, I would also make the following changes so that it feels like this is a result of player agency and not a fixed result:

  • Adjust the text of the quest based on the player's relevant reputations, in this case mention their help in Silithus and on Outland if they have Revered or higher rep with the Cenarion Circle or Cenarion Expedition as appropriate.
  • When giving me the title of Archdruid, actually give me the title "Archdruid" so that I can use it and so that other NPCs can recognise that I have it. Don't just have it that a few select characters know this event even happened and then drop it when it becomes irrelevant to the expansion.

2) Do not just give me a dialog box to pick a thing as important as an Artifact weapon.
Some of these artifacts are incredibly important and powerful. Some of them have already appeared in the game in appropriate, complex plot lines (Hi Ashbringer and Scythe of Elune). Why am I being given the option to just take any with but a short quest? In the case of Ashamane, a quest that leaves you wondering why they weren't locked up securely within some Warden protected barrow den, I might add...

We're on the Broken Isles questing for artifacts already in the Pillars of Creation. They could have easily had us being given a mix of potential leads for artifacts to investigate, some of which are 5-6 part questlines that lead you to the weapon. Parts that tell you more of the backstory of the weapon and it's relevance in the war against the legion.

For example: Ashamane should have been a quest line where you find out about the Ashen druids and their history with the ancient Ashamane, how they crafted the blades and earning their respect through multiple tasks. After all, they haven't let the Fangs out of their possession for 10,000 years for any reason. Why are they giving them so easily to me if all I've done is kill a single demon?

I haven't done any of the others yet but equally, G'Hanir better damn well have you doing something pretty major for Aviana. The Scythe of Elune should involve the Worgen and proving that you can find the balance to wield it without it all going wrong again.

Doing this allows the player to feel more importance over the Artifact weapon, to feel like they earned the weapon and that it was their decision to go and get one, rather than it feeling forced in your face and out of your control. You still get the same result but you stop the player wondering "Why me?" again and maintain an illusion that they have more control over events.

It's a given that the game's story is going to move along in a direction I have no real influence over but I want to have reason for my character to be proud of what she's achieved. To feel like this is something my character did off their own back, not because the devs deemed it so.
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Topic/Postby Juste » 12 Oct 2018, 11:49

In the case of Ashbringer the story kind of just is that Tirion fell and someone had to pick the sword up. Can't really see they could have done it otherwise because Tirion already was wielding it. I feel that they did ok job with the quest though. First you go commune with the spirit of Uther to seek guidance and then go to the Broken Shore to fight Dreadlord for the Ashbringer but there is a totally cool scene where you get bound by fel magic with Dreadlord attempting to possess you and you get Tirion's voice flasback from Icecrown Citadel "...Give me the strenght to shatter these bonds..." in game and then break free similar manner and proceed to kick Dreadlords ass.

Other Paladin artifact weapons however were recovering them from some old dungeons with bit more deeper backstory. It's not like Ashbringer has that old story in WC lore though. Only like few decades since dwarves made it during the Third War.


I think they attempted some of the earned feeling with later class role quests later on expansion where you go after these Legion champions culminating with the Mage tower challenge fights which rewarded you with unique artifact skins which definitely made you feel like you earned them.
Last edited by Juste on 24 Oct 2018, 12:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Topic/Postby Cherwina » 12 Oct 2018, 12:20

See, with Ashbringer, I feel it should have had a bit about Tirion, Uther and it's involvement with the Scarlet Crusade before leading to the fight with Balnazzar.

Ashamane though was literally just: Demon attacks the Ashen Druids to steal them. Ashen Druid runs off with them while you fight the demon. Go find the Ashen Druid who's already going mad because of his senses being enhanced by the fangs. Save him from a spider elf thing and he gives you them... He doesn't even know my character's name because this is literally the first time he sees me due being wrapped in web and immediately gives me the artifact his clan have been protecting from everyone for 10 millennia.
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