Lore Watch Podcast: Better narrative through raiding in World of Warcraft

We love listener questions and go out of our way to answer them no matter the topic, so sometimes the topics we cover range far and wide. This week, we start off with a question on Kingdoms of Amalur before jumping into our usual lore arena, World of Warcraft. The listener notes they’re over 150 hours into the game and still aren’t finished, so maybe the two IPs can live in harmony, even if the question itself — about Alyn and the Re-Reckoning questline — still went over my head even with an explanation.

I’m much more at home with the next question, about using raids in WoW as a vehicle for narrative. We were not jazzed about the plot in the raid in patch 12.1.5 — to put it mildly — and part of the reason was how that story played out in the raid. We discuss when and where the story has been conveyed effectively, and when it hasn’t, through raids through WoW’s history. Plus, how could you use a raid to tell a story effectively? Then, speaking of raids, we come to a question about the nature of Titans and World Souls, and how the two interact. That’s right, it’s time for another round of our 17th favorite game show, “What is Aman’thul’s Frickin Deal, Anyway?”

If you want even more background story, we also have a guide to every Warcraft book in chronological order (for those of you who prefer reading that way).

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