How did I go from that level of dedication to now, where I really don't care about the story in any of the MMOs I've played over the past 6 years?
There. I finally admitted it.
I'd been dancing around this realization since at least 2019 when I explored Vanilla WoW Classic and discovered there was no overarching story to Vanilla. Sure, there were some questlines that were pretty epic in scope, but beyond that there wasn't a Main Story that everybody had to follow. No Shadows of Angmar for LOTRO, no OG three faction story in ESO, no vanilla SWTOR story (and class story), no nothing.
And I discovered I liked that lack of story more than I ever thought I would.
That's not to say that I didn't think the original SWTOR stories were bad --they were awesome-- or that Shadows of Angmar was epic --it was-- but as time has gone on and I've seen expansion after expansion presented to the player base, I've become incredibly jaded.
It reminds me of how a band pays their dues by playing in clubs, working out songs through endless rehearsals, and finally gets signed to an album deal and releases their first album. That's great, but then they have to turn around and put out another album that doesn't have the years of polish that the first album did, and frequently that second album turns out to be a bit of a dud. If the band is lucky, they land on their feet and figure out a way to write songs and keep the grind going, but otherwise they're destined for the bargain bin by the third album.
Nothing that the development team has put out after the initial release seems to meet the quality, story-wise, of that original Vanilla release. Sometimes they come close, which is me throwing a bone to the World of Warcraft Legion fans out there who assure me that the expansion was great, but almost every other MMO out there doesn't reach that initial high point.
"I don't care what they're yapping about," one player once told me in a dungeon in SWTOR, "I'm here to kill things."
"And get the loot," another player added.
That made me more than a bit sad, because I thought they were missing the point of the dungeon. But I decided that you can't please everybody, so just focus on those who do enjoy what the devs created.
And here I am now, 15 years later, so jaded with modern MMO stories that I've discovered at this point it's better to simply not care.
***
Before someone says that the stories have all "gone woke" and that's the problem, that ain't it. That's akin to arguing that the OG Star Trek didn't have a social and political angle to it.* What I complain about is twofold: the feeling that the stories were written by committee, and the belief that for an MMO story to work, it has to consistently be bigger, badder, and the stakes more earth shattering that what came before.
While I don't have any proof that a lot of the more recent MMO stories were written by committee, I've been involved with enough committees at work and at college that I know how they operate. They try to smooth off the rough edges, build consensus, and remove problematic content. All of these are good endeavors to strive for, but the problem is that what each of those means to the individuals in a committee is quite different. Arriving at a consensus, therefore, means less taking a scalpel to a proposal and more akin to taking a hatchet instead. That doesn't mean I want edgier stuff, I just want stuff that has a singular point of view and a single voice presented as the narrative.
But you know what committees also don't do? They frequently don't present a case where you have something --or someone in the case of a story-- that you can identify with and root for.
Have you ever done a side quest chain that is really satisfying and has someone you can cheer for and identify with? That's because that side quest was likely written by a single person in charge of a questline or three for a specific zone. The NPCs in the quest chain were people you could empathize with and share a common bond with because they were written with that in mind. There is no main storyline about the "Fate of the World" weighing them down, so their admittedly smaller concerns are more important to them. I know that I have absolutely nothing in common with people who occupy the C-Suite or the places of power in government, so there's absolutely nothing relatable to me with their story. But the guy who cuts my hair, or the Dad I talk to while standing in line at the creamy whip** down the street? That guy I can relate to. I'm not going to be able to relate to a Prince, or a King, or The Head of the Conclave of Wizards, or any other sort of Grand Poobah, because I am not them, and their troubles are not mine.
The other problem, the constant need to go bigger than the previous expansion, is one I've harped on before. I was actually thinking the other day that at least Blizzard tried to not top "Defeating The Afterlife" of Shadowlands when Dragonflight was released, and I do applaud them for that, but then I stopped and went "Huh... When is it that the most powerful beings on Azeroth are considered a downgrade for a storyline?" That is the reality we're talking about with the Dragon Aspects as the central point of the expansion, that their expansion is not quite so over-the-top world ending as just about every other expansion with the exception of, uh... maybe Mists and Warlords?
***
Okay, I've gotten that out of my system. Can I still enjoy an MMO and ignore the story? Yes, I can. I mean, I do fish a bit...
But seriously, I can do it. I can hold my nose in the same way when I accept a quest I personally loathe and then go and do whatever needs doing.
If I can skip a cutscene, so much the better. If I can't, I'll simply get up and walk away until the cutscene is over.
I can't even say "Don't let the bastards win" because in reality the bastards already won. I have become like them.
*Free Hint: The original Star Trek did have a LOT to say about society and the politics of our time. If you can't see it, then you're not watching the same show I did.
**It's a Midwestern thing. Although in Wisconsin you get Frozen Custard, in the Cincinnati area you have "Creamy Whip" or "Soft Serve" places. They operate during the Spring, Summer, and the Early Fall months, and they sell various forms of soft serve ice cream. Payment is typically cash only. Some sell burgers and hot dogs in addition to ice cream, but ice cream is the main draw. For the record, one of our favorites is Putz' Creamy Whip:
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| From Yelp on August 10, 2026. |
#Blaugust2026
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