A sense of grandeur in MMORPGs

Playing dungeons with our friends in World of Warcraft recently I was reminded of just how much I appreciate the background details that many players may not even notice as they race from boss fight to boss fight. The Battle for Azeroth dungeons continue a long tradition of very impressive settings for our five-person exploits.

As is usually the case the areas you can walk with your character are usually quite constrained, if not downright linear, but the illusion of wider spaces and layered environs is still important to me.

A lasting memory, recently revisited via Timewalking, is that of entering the Old Kingdom dungeon and being struck by the immense scale of the cavern within which the relatively small explorable space is painted. Considering how old this content is it remains impressive.

A slightly earlier foray into the mists of dungeons past had me equally appreciative of how effective…