How important is World of Warcraft’s story to your gameplay experience?

I often wonder about how other people play World of Warcraft. I remember raiding and having people in the raid who routinely had no idea what we were doing — they had no idea who the bosses were or why we were there at all, and if you asked them what the story of the expansion was, they would have absolutely no idea. Whenever we’d get to a boss who had some form of lore built in — a bit of dialogue, a cutscene, anything of that sort — they’d be eager to skip over it so we could get to the fight. And it always kind of confused me, because I was always so invested in the story. I mean, why would you play World of Warcraft and not care about anything related to it? You can kill monsters for loot in practically a million games, after all.

But that’s exactly how a lot, perhaps even the majority, of players play the game. Some find the lore not just uninteresting, but an actual impediment to what they signed on for — which is to kill stuff in a group and get loot, I guess. I’m guessing because I honestly have no idea and that’s part of the reason for this post, an honest desire to work out why. Moreover, I’d like to know where others fall on that spectrum between “lore nerd” and “just gimmie those shinies” — where are you, for example? Do you pore over every journal entry and consume all the quest text looking for tidbits of understanding? Do you debate what this passage in Chronicle 2 means for that passage in Chronicle 1? Or would you rather Saurfang just shut up about naming his kid Dranosh already so you can get on with plundering Icecrown Citadel?

Do you care about the game’s story? If so, how much? If not, how much don’t you care? Are you neutral, or do you actively dislike it when it crosses your path? Are you just here for the epics, or does every story development affect your game, to the point where certain story events can actually make it less fun for you?