And as far as WoW goes, I'd like to know how far you got in it.
I got my main character, a Human Mage, to level 46, and netted over 1,000 quests, and got a Night Elf Druid to level 24. I also made a bunch of other characters but didn’t really progress them at all. The point remains that I’ve played enough of the game to get a significant grasp on what it’s actually about, and really, the plot was absolutely terrible, and I’m not just talking about the lack of emphasis or detail or direction when I say this, but how boring and unoriginal it was and I found myself really having to force myself to pay real attention and escape into the character.
Also, the quests don't treat you like you're the only one doing anything. They're constantly referencing other adventurers and while yes they obviously do treat you like you are important and making a difference, there's nothing implying that no one else is out there doing these things to make a difference as well.
In most cases, especially the important ones, yes they do. From a storyline perspective, there are certain events that can only take place once. The Defias story arch as I mentioned, where you kill Van Cleef, expose the corrupt Stormwind noble who was working with the Defias, get rewarded with the Wyrm Seal Ring etc… From a gameplay perspective, everyone is capable of doing the quests, but from a storyline perspective, these are things that can only happen once, and your character is the one personally credited with completing them. And the same’s the case with all the wanted quests (Hogger can only die once…), and really the vast majority of the story archs. As much as the quests lack in direction and detail and sheer quality, they’re made to be very personal and individual. The point being that you can make a personal and individual plotline in the settings of a game world shared by other real world players all doing the same thing.
Really it just comes down to scope, it's smaller than that of single player RPG's. The focus isn't on big storyline, but rather developing your character and having him/her be a part of the larger world and community.
Which simply isn’t a good thing given what it is (as MMORPGs are at their core… RPGs). It’s lack of an emphasis on the storyline completely prevents the player from really escaping into the character. It would work under a different format but not under the RPG format.
And if you consider what FFXI had as a storyline then I guess WoW has one too.
…What? Given that FFXI actually had a storyline, and a pretty amazing one at that, it’s not at all comparable to WoW in that respect. It’s widely recognised as having an uncharacteristically large emphasis on the plot within the [sub]genre.
It does have a constant presence of a greater evil throughout the game leading you to the final confrontation with Arthas that will be implemented in the near future. There are quests detailing him and dealing with his minions throughout the game.
In the 1000+ quests I got through? Rarely if ever. There was never an underlying plot that the quests were driving you through. Nothing linking the quests together, absolutely no indication of any end point. Absolutely no direction.
But either way, the story will never ever be the main focus of an MMO. Doesn't need to be.
Of an MMORPG? It’s how it’s supposed to be under the genre’s current format. That it’s an MMO doesn’t change that; as already explained, MMOs are perfectly capable of presenting an individual and personal storyline despite the game world being shared by other players, and aside from that, the only thing that separates the MMO from the core genre is the scale of everything, which is immaterial as to what amount of emphasis should be on the plot.
But if you want to ignore all the things WoW does extremely well because it doesn't have a storyline to rival a single player Final Fantasy game, then that's your deal.
I’m not ignoring them, I’m simply acknowledging them as what they are: fundamentally insignificant within the format of the genre.
WoW's doing fine by focusing on the world, the dungeons, character balance and making it simply fun to play on a minute to minute basis. Not your thing, that's fine.
From a commercial sense, sure it is, however, judging it analytically while taking into account the format of the genre, it fails, and that’s undeniable.