Noblegarden and other events aren't well enough advertised or explained

Community General Discussion
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So I wanted to do the noblegarden event. I was in Dornogol as usual, and I wanted to see what it would be like to try and do the event without looking at any external websites or guides.

So since there were lots of decorations in Dornogol, I expected that there might be some NPC around somewhere, maybe in the main building, or by the bank/vault area. But no.

Ok so I open the adventure guide, click on the suggested content tab, and eventually after 8 pages I see it: “Grab your baskets, it’s time for Noblegarden! Head to your capital city for more details.”

This is rubbish. You know, a lot of newer players these days won’t even know what is meant by capital city, since no one goes to these places hardly at all any more. Why can’t it detect what side you’re on and say the relevant city? Also, how do they know to go to the adventure guide, then the suggested content tab? Most of the year, the suggested content tab is full of boring things, a lot of people don’t scroll through it hardly at all, and the traveler’s log is the first thing people see, so its not jumping out at you.

This is pretty simple. Just have an NPC in the main area by the auction house. Give them a little glow or whatever and when you talk to them, they either can teleport you to the NPCs, or give you directions and guidance. Maybe make them a bit of a character and they kind of light up a bit or get some decorations when some new event is on. Or maybe make some kind of notice board that changes its look if there is an event on. Whatever. Just SOMETHING to help guide people. Most other MMOs do this kind of thing and its way better than what WoW does.

I know what the people on this forum are like and about 80% of you will say, “there is no problem”, because, of course, there never is, because WoW is a perfect game that doesn’t do anything wrong, ever. So in advance I’ll respond - YES there is a problem. Part of good design is assuming people are new, and they don’t know very much, and if you want people to play an event, you can’t whack up a few decorations and hide very vague information 8 pages into the adventure guide.

To me its crazy to make an event and then the only thing that is actually in game is a few decorations with pictures of eggs on them, and some tiny notice about it buried pages into a button hardly anyone presses. Its really funny to me that Dornogol is covered in decorations but not a single NPC, like, ok I get that a mystery can be fun, but this part should not be the mystery.

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There is an npc in Dornogal with quests. Sent me to Razor Hill and he had me do a quest in Dornogal.

It’s just down the steps from the Inn, on the same level as the TP is.

The wow news sites cover the event as does the warcraft site itself and is linked on the forums. I’m not sure if anything appears on the launcher.

The in game calendar also shows when events are on.

I’m not sure I’d appreciate something more intrusive myself but we are all different.

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Ok I see it, yeah that’s pretty awful, its side on to the main area so pretty easy to miss.

I mean, it could be less intrusive, the whole area is covered in decorations which do nothing to actually guide anyone, only to say that “something” is happening. Its already intrusive without purpose.

Just have these NPCs with their banner on the level above near the bank or a bit towards the back where there is some weird pointless pond thing that does nothing…

This is what should happen, if theres an event on, it should be something you see as you’re going around doing the usual things, so you get reminded to do it, and if you decide to do it then you know exactly what to do and where to go. This is also what happens in real cities and town centres, its normal and makes it feel alive.

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That’s why we have Newcomer Channel, and even General and Trade channels too.

If you have been reading the forums, you would see that even those of us that defend many of the game’s design option still come down with heavy criticism on others.

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How’s it not advertised enough? You literally see decorations up in any main hub, and an NPC reveller with a quest directing you to it…

The calendar shows you all events…

And in the forums a Blue Thread is up for it.

Blizzard even emails you about the event.

The quests themselves tell you what to do…

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How is it hard to miss…? It’s literally right beside the Inn with a quest exclamation mark on your minimap… so unless you play with the minimap disabled, for some reason, I find it hard to believe you didn’t see it unless you have total lack awareness of your surroundings.

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When I say intrusive, I just meant I don’t want a pop up in game. I’m not saying they can’t do more to help people realise things are happening in game.

I think they’ve improved a lot over the years with this kind of thing.

I do find the suggested content tab has too much in it and unless you know to look, you’re just clicking through until you find what you are after. Which usually means it’s someone who knows what they are looking for.

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I don’t really care what happens outside of the game, if someone doesn’t visit the forums all the time, they’re not going to see it. Emails aren’t reliable either, they can go into spam, they can be forgotten about, etc etc.

Look you’ve been playing the game a long time, so you’re used to checking all these things, but I know for a fact that all of what you said is not good enough.

Again with the calendar, you have to be someone who checks it regularly. With the decorations, they mean nothing, the impart no information other than there is some kind of event on, but you can’t do anything with that. You have to find some NPC which is off at the side, and out of draw distance range if you’re standing on the main area. There are exclamation points in a lot of areas, so just having some exclamation mark on the map isn’t good enough either.

You shouldn’t have to click a button or go to a forum, or anything. It should just be something you notice easily. Yes that sounds silly but its how it works. For example when designing UI, you have to be careful not to overdesign it because you know how it works - you have to put yourself in the shoes of someone new who knows nothing.

You will never convince me its not badly implemented.

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I prefer not having breadcrumb npcs on every corner of every city.

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NPC wit hthe quest is marked on the map by default.
The quest leads you by the hand to the areas you need to be in and what tasks you need to do.

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You’re such a tryhard at making excuses for the absolute sake of it to the point of sounding like a troll…

The game ingame, and ample other sources, gives you plenty of directions… how much hand holding do you need? You’d probably say the hand given was too sweaty and want someone else to.

Been playing since TBC and you’re the first I’ve seen complaining about directions to events… are you THAT inept and/or blind??

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You’re exactly the kind of person I was talking about. Not only are you totally resistant to change, you’re also rude and insulting. You disgust me.

You’ve been playing the game forever, of course its obvious to you. But you can’t see past your own experience with the game.

All I’m saying, is make the NPC stand out a little more, just put it in a more central location.

Most of the people on here are trolls, always saying things like, “its marked on the map”, but its not marked in any special way that makes it stand out from other quests. This is a once yearly very limited event, it should be more obvious. But its just like any other. You’d have to know it was a new icon. I mean seriously how can you not understand that? Also its like, any excuse to have a dig, because you absolutely need to talk down at people to make yourself feel better about your own inadequacies.

Anyway thats all I’m going to say, I dislike the people here and was just making a suggestion, hopefully someone from blizzard reads it, I don’t need to discuss it with any of you. Bye.

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I refuse to believe you’re this incompetent so I’ll just label you as a troll with you retorting every possible excuse. I don’t care if that disgusts you when a child is capable of figuring it out.

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YOU’RE the troll but you can’t even see it.

I don’t get why you have such a big thing about making it stand out more. But then you have to be insulting about it? Then you try to justify it by saying I’m trolling, yes, good excuse. Not sure exactly what is wrong with you, but well done for keeping this forum’s bad image going strong.

You’re pathetic. Oh and you’re going on ignore of course.

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Says the one so inept and incompetent where a child can deal with without issue, it beggars belief you’re being genuine.

Edit – looking at your other threads you’re just a lazy sod wanting to be handheld…

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Now Now Beer, play nice with the others.
Not everyone is able to figure out all things this quickly.

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And how do you propose to do that?
You want the NPC to follow the player? Because that was annoying af in Legion with the legendary weapons (still is to this day!)
You want the NPC to be an unavoidable object where we have to walk? Good thing we can probably fly and don’t have to care.
You want to make the NPC bigger? Jeez, why does Blizzard have to put all this crap in our way, I just want to get to the AH/mail box/something (alternatively: Why does Blizzard allow ppl to mount here/enlarge their chars, making it impossible to interact with stuff)
You want to make the NPC glow? Honestly, make quest items glow before bothering with any NPC

By the time you reach level 10 you should be able to use your map and know that the exclamation mark(s) are potential quests, and if you care go see the NPC. If you don’t care then don’t, but it’s not everybody else’s problem that you cba to open your map and look at it.

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Noblegarden started after easter.
On a historically late easter, too.

I just wanted to put that out there.

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Just put the NPCs in a more easily visible place. You can’t see that area from the inn, you can’t see it from the bank or AH, due to many factors like it being sideways on, hidden by the floor/walls, or draw distance.

I said before that the quest icons are all the same, you make out like its the only quest icon on the map, again, not sure what this weird attitude is, where you are desperately wording everything in your favour, because you’re so against a suggestion.

Around that area theres a bunch of quest markers, like 8? So if one more gets added, its not that easy to see it. Yes, OF COURSE if you spend 5 minutes looking around, you’ll find it eventually. But thats the point, you shouldn’t have to. And I should remind you that its not a weekly event, or whatever - its a once yearly special event which won’t be coming back any time soon, so it is different to the others.

The only way you know those NPCs are there, is by a generic quest icon which is near a bunch of others, and unless you already knew how many were bunched up in that area, you wouldn’t really notice an extra one. Other than that the only other indication is just simply that they are there, but I never go down there anyway, and unlesss you know they’re there, they aren’t actually that easy to see.

You don’t need to make strawmen like, “have the npc follow you around”, or “put it in the way”, I never said that. You’re making silly examples, to make the entire idea seem ridiculous.

What I said was it could be in a more prominent place, like the ledge that overlooks the catalyst near the bank. Its not in anyone’s way there, and you can see it. I said it before but thats the whole point, when an event is on, you want people to notice it easily. Another place could be that stupid pond thing near the portal room, that does absolutely nothing. But I guess that’s your favourite part in the whole game so we can’t mess that up can we.

I know you won’t be able to accept this, or acknowledge that it makes sense, but think about it - the whole of dornogal is covered in decorations, and yet the NPC is tucked away by the side of the trading post. Its a weird contradiction, you put the decorations in everyone’s face (even blocking flight in some areas), but you put the NPC off to the side… you could have no decoration and just the NPC in a more prominent place, and it would be much more helpful.

This is also how other MMOs do it, like for example in Star Trek Online when there is a yearly/special event on, they put an NPC just outside the AH/Bank. Its not in the way, it doesn’t look bad, its just a helpful thing to get people’s attention.

If you can’t understand basic concepts like this, then, you need to take a look at yourself before you start to insunuate people are slow/stupid.

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I am not “making strawmen”, you wanted the NPC to stand out more I asked how you proposed to do so, and since all you said was

I came up with ways Blizzard has already done or ways Blizzard might want to do that, because no, you didn’t say that, but you didn’t not say that, considering you didn’t say anything beyond “make it stand out”. For all I care we could dress the NPC in bananas and make it dance on top of the flight master.

But at the end of the day, I simply don’t agree with you that it’s needed. The information is there! You yourself mention the decorations, which are different to how the place looks normally. Now, you can wonder to yourself why that is and then you can
a: ask (newcomer chat, general chat, the annoying person blocking the mail box)
b: look it up and/or open the in-game calendar
c: try out the “suggested content” function
c: shrug and move on with your life

But sure, they could move the NPC somewhere else, and then you’d be complaining about the guy parking his brutosaur on top of it, rather than that Blizzard haven’t put the NPC where you personally would see it.