December 27, 2022

Live Chat with WoW Narrative Designers

At a recent meeting, members of the WoW Community Council discussed Dragonflight story development with Steve Danuser, Anne Stickney, and Terran Gregory. They are the narrative designers for World of Warcraft, responsible for creating and implementing the storylines, characters, and events in the game world. In this one-hour chat, they discussed the latest expansion story, revealed their thoughts on fans’ expectations, and shared their plans for the future. Here is a short summary of the most notable moments in the live chat:

They are working on the next major Patch and some minor ones. At the same time, they are planning for the next expansion. However, they can’t give more details right now. Players will have to exercise their patience. But the wait will be worth it.
Though his main job is writing the big arcs, Danuser is always interested in smaller moments in the stories. After all, developers’ care, passion, and dedication shine brightly through these instances. Take Dragonflight for an example. The dragonflights’ history and legacy can be observed not only in the main campaign but also from little side quest details. Stories of individuals within the expansion contribute to building these themes in a meaningful and personal way.
Due to the expansion of the narrative, quest, and content teams, more people are now working on creating a more profound and enticing tale for Dragonflight.
Dragonflight includes many factions to choose from. Each with its own set of quests, storylines, and characters. Though they all lead to the same story, the order in which events unravel largely depends on players’ preferences.
The dragons somewhat faded into the background when Cataclysm ended. That’s why the narrative team decided to put them in the limelight in this expansion.
WoW characters’ backstories are a treasure trove of lore that greatly contributes to the depth of the world. Whenever a character appears, players know what has happened to them in the past. Therefore, the community expects to see more intriguing stories whenever their favorite characters show up. That’s why the team wants to ensure that their stories align with the expansion narrative.
While each flight has to take care of its own issues, they all have a common goal: getting their power back and defeating Raszageth. The team desired to ensure each flight had unique tales but still participated in the main plot.

It’s not a coincidence that the three trailers of Dragonflight were named: Legacies. Throughout Dragonflight, we see how the dragons and dracthyr try to tackle their legacies. The dracthyr and how they figure out a way to live in this new world after such a long slumber. Wrathion and Sabellian compete for the legacy of their father. While that, the Bronze Aspect is working his way through the prospect of evolving into Murozond. And Kalecgos is navigating through the lost heritage of the blue dragonflight. Even Raszageth battles through the story of the aspects versus primalists ancient war.
The culture of Centaur and Tuskarr were extra taken care of. Representatives from different cultures helped to ensure their image was well-represented.
You don’t need to run a dungeon to finish the main story of any zone.
They are still working on the heritage armor. They want to find the right moment to tell the stories for the best impact.
The Night Elves’ story went through their recovery phase in Shadowlands. What happens to them next will be seen in Dragonflight.
The in-game quests and dialogues help tell stories. But it would be better if there were more books and interactable objects to paint a more complete picture. The idea of collecting journals is appealing to the narrative team. However, that would put a significant workload on the other departments.
Narrative design differs from traditional writing, especially in a game where players can interact with that world. As soon as players enter the game, the story has already been told through surroundings, creatures, art, and the NPCs along the way.
Despite Ion Hazziskostas’s amusing banter: “what sword?” with Asmongold, Blizzard still remembers the sword in Silithus. They are just waiting for the right time to bring it up.