Use a "Stay a while and listen" mechanic for certain story conversations

[Feronar]

For bits of story and dialog that are useful for worldbuilding but not essential for understanding the overall plot, there should be a "Stay a while and listen" mechanic, where a speech bubble icon would appear above the character, and clicking it would trigger an optional dialog scene.

An example of this where they are discussing Alexandrian agriculture and irrigation systems. Useful for providing a bit of context and trivia, but not necessary for understanding the main story. It should not be a main story cutscene. The Dawntrail main story has a lot of unnecessary bloat that could be moved to optional dialogs or even removed outright.

World of Warcraft has been using this mechanic a lot lately, and it is great for providing context and understanding without being intrusive.

"But you can just skip the cutscenes." You can, but you often have no idea whether the cutscene you are watching will show something cool or important, or just inane filler, until you've seen it.

[Jeeqbit]

They have lore pieces you can read through. An example of this is in the puzzle area, where you can read the terminals and find lore on Krile's parents. There is also pieces of lore in some dungeons.

Another way they do this is via sidequests - the thing a lot of people ignore. There are plenty of times where this does actually cover lore from the MSQ, one example being a sidequest in The Fringes which told you all about Gaius and Black Rose foreshadowing Shadowbringers.

[Fawkes]

Another way they do this is via sidequests - the thing a lot of people ignore.

I used to do them all but then they made them worthless to do. They give less exp than a FATE and take 5X the time to do. And you already get more exp than you need just from MSQ anyway. You used to actually have to do some side activities to get enough exp to progress.

[TaleraRistain]

I heard this thread in Deckard's voice

[Gwenkatsu]

I heard this thread in Deckard's voice

I can see what you see not.
Vision milky, then eyes rot.
When you turn, they will be gone,
Whispering their hidden song.
Then you see what cannot be,
Shadows move where light should be.
Out of darkness, out of mind,
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.

Back in the day when Blizzard still knew how to make good games.

[TaleraRistain]

I'm glad I'm not the only one, lol.

Hubby and I played SO MUCH Diablo and Diablo II back in the day. We tried III and it sucked until they took out the auction house then got better but never grabbed us like Diablo and DII. Never tried IV.

[Catwho]

"But you can just skip the cutscenes." You can, but you often have no idea whether the cutscene you are watching will show something cool or important, or just inane filler, until you've seen it.

Tiffany Lockhart did the "never skipping a cutscene again" meme in Endwalker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBE4...ffanyLockheart

[Daralii]

"But you can just skip the cutscenes." You can, but you often have no idea whether the cutscene you are watching will show something cool or important, or just inane filler, until you've seen it.

If you hear Machinations playing and it's unvoiced, you know it's safe to skip.

[Exmo]

I'm one of those who didn't mind the world-building ladelled into the 7.0 msq. I always talk to NPCs surrounding the quest marker before progressing the story. I love that stuff. But if some of it were extracted out from mandatory dialog and added with extra stuff to optional dialog, I'd be satisfied with that change.

What I'd love to see more than world-building being relocated like this, is the same treatment applied to the ceaseless well wishing and platitudes from the scions et al like we saw in 7.3. That was tiresome as hell.