Gamerant lists MMORPG's with best stories, FFXIV #6, WoW #1, uhh

[Dagget]

Are they serious?

https://gamerant.com/mmorpgs-best-storytelling-ranked/

[TheMightyMollusk]

They also credit Illidan as "among the greatest video game villains of all time" despite part of Legion being devoted to how Illidan wasn't actually a villain at all, so that article's credibility is near zero.

[Rufalus]

I don't think a single person could have time to fully invest themselves in the story of every MMO out there, so this is probably guesswork on their part. Maybe WoW wins because that's the game the writer has actually played a fair amount of.

[Arrius]

In terms of story, warcraft can bring a lot more on the table regarding lore.
The downside is that this is less of a 'you' story in WoW than more of a tale of certain characters doing certain things.

FFXIV does it the other way around: Each part of the series is a different story, but the main focus of 14 will always be you, the Warrior of Light.

[MsQi]

People have opinions.

[Anienai]

Swtor should be #1.

[Haru304]

In terms of story, warcraft can bring a lot more on the table regarding lore.
The downside is that this is less of a 'you' story in WoW than more of a tale of certain characters doing certain things.

FFXIV does it the other way around: Each part of the series is a different story, but the main focus of 14 will always be you, the Warrior of Light.

I've thought about this and I can't say I entirely agree.

WoW's 'lore' has been squandered by years of retconning, bastardized writing and has undergone utter ruination. I will concede that the original Warcraft series of games has a very strong, expansive and interesting lore to go by, but the majority of things added in WoW are entirely shallow (imo) in newer iterations of the lore. Up until roughly WoTLK, the lore, IMO, is still pretty solid because it utilizes the original games quite well. A huge part of it for me too is inconsistency in the writing for every character. Without or with little in-game justification or elaboration whatsoever, the major 'lore' characters of WoW change drastically every expansion to the point they sometimes do not feel like the same character, imo. There is a difference between character development and altering a character for the sake of plot convenience, which I think is something Blizzard's writing team do a lot. The game no longer exists to prolong and expand the lore. The lore merely exists as a means of explaining why you're doing specific raid of the week.

FFXIV doesn't escape all of that criticism either, ofc, but I think a lot of people would genuinely be surprised if they took the time to look at FFXIV's lore in-depth. There's quite a lot of it. It's just not blatantly fed to the player via the story.

That being said - while I do like a fair bit of FFXIVs linear story, it's by no means perfect, and I can't say if it would be a contender for the #1 spot. Regardless of style or approach though - I don't think modern WoW belongs in #1. Some of the zone stories, imo, for BfA were quite good but the overarching story and focus on wishy washy big lore characters is sinking the game for me, personally. Especially when you have DBZ-style story telling. Peacecraft Can do No Wrong Anduin Wrynn, Edgy Conqueror Lich King Beating Super Sylvy Windrunner, suddenly relevant Saurfang, 'vengeful' Tyrande, etc etc. All pale imitations of far better characters.

Call it elitist of me but I don't think the writer of that article has a nose for what I believe makes a good story or for that matter, what makes for good world building.

[Imakun]

Lore and actual storytelling are two different things.

WoW's lore is several times larger than XIV's (coming from Warcraft and all) and arguably deeper but the way the actual game presents it is, most of the time, bad. XIV may not have the biggest lore yet, but you can follow everything from start to finish while playing the game without the need of books or other media alongside what's presented to you during your playtime.
They use two different ways of presenting the story, different point of views, different use of cut-scenes, different level of interaction with other characters and story elements.

And the same goes for other titles as well, so in the end it's a matter of personal preference.

I don't mind collecting lore books and I like fantasy stuff, so I really enjoy the lore of WoW including the Chronicle books I'm collecting. I also like XIV's story, even if at a slightly lesser degree because of the latest developments, and I'm outraged at the absence of XI's story (which, to me, is far superior to XIV).

Can't say much about other MMOs, but lore really is a matter of personal preference so lists like this are kind of 'whatever'.

[Liam_Harper]

WoW story is an utter mess now, even the majority of their playerbase agreed on that from Legion onwards. Their devs even admitted they can bring whoever they like back from the dead and they're making a lot of it up as they go along and it shows. It used to be quite decent but that was a long time ago.

[Xatsh]

You have to look at the whole picture as well I guess. But most reviewers disagree with this article if you look around.

From what I seen in the last 2 yrs FFXIV: Shadowbringers has what most reviewers say is the best or 2nd best mmo story ever made. So I would put this as an major outlier. Honestly most consider WoW to be down near the bottom in terms of story line. Lore is another thing. WoW probably best ffxiv in the lore department with ease.

If you look at the whole picture though.

ARR's story telling was ok at best, leaning on the bad side. It was mainly a ton of fetch quest with a mediocre story. FFXIV did not really pick up until heavensward. So if this reviewer was like many players they absolutely despised the game's story progression in the beginning it could of been an issue of leaving a bad taste in their mouth. If they did a story skip to review the new expansion you miss all the tie ins to the game and honestly without backstory I think Shadowbringer's story would lose alot of its impact. Also possible they just did not like the ffxiv story line. Don't know how many movies I went to see that had stellar ratings and I was like meh would of rather seen anything else. Alot is subjective.