It’s no secret that the walls of text World of Warcraft players find themselves running into whenever questing in the game are barely read thoroughly, if at all. Largely the narrative focus and story elements are swept aside in the rush to turn in a quest and grab the experience points. Well now there is a new add-on for the game that is re-inventing the questing user interface. Storyline by KajiSensei and EllypseCelwe completely changes the way players interact with quest givers and makes the whole experience feel a bit more involving for the player.
From the description:
“Storyline provides a new quest frame, that panel appearing when you get a quest from a NPC. World of Warcraft UI improved over the years but one thing Blizzard never touched is this hideous Quest frame. We wanted to have a quest frame inspired by the garrison frames dynamism.
Storyline frame adds 3D animated models for you and your quest giver. Also it “cuts” the dialogue into multiple parts, playing one after another in an old-school RPG style. Finally it adds more effects and visuals to express objectives and rewards.”
And here’s a quick video to give you a taste of the add-on:
The way that Blizzard have handled questing in World of Warcraft has been through many changes over the years but the core mechanic of turning up to an NPC, getting a chunk of text thrown in your face and then clicking accept has remained. With the addition of Storyline, available through Curse Client, really helps bring questing up to date and more in line with other RPGs.