Just sharing a few thoughts here about my experience as a returning player.
I've played on and off since 2006. Stopping for a long break after cata. I returned during legion (right at the end) and now enjoy playing some bfa.
Yet, wow feels tragic in a couple of areas and I just wanted to highlight my experience of this to help devs improve the game for players like me.
Returning: when returning to bfa and legion for that matter, I felt overwhelmed by the absolutely huge amount of content and things to do; raiding is excetiopnally hard to get involved in because your basically a n00b - no one wants you, the main story line is difficult to distinguish because it's not well sign posted, understanding how to travel to different areas is again difficult as you need to know portals, ships and flightpaths with no sign posting, understanding how the previous law works together to create today's landscape and lore is absolutely impossible if you missed an expansion, and finally classes all feel the same so it's difficult to understand your unique role in the lore.
New players; levelling alts is tragic... absolutely tragic... the story make no sense what so ever, you have to find some person to go back to different points in time to hand in some quests, the levelling process is very unrewarding and frankly dull and lonely, you skip loads of content or get lost doing tiny bits of lots of things and then you land in bfa and feel you have played 9 different games.
Devs please... Please just find a way to "delete" all the expansions except bfa so you can level rapidly from 1-110 in azeroth in the state of BFA, then join in with the end game content on the new lands.
11/11/2018 09:54Posted by ZanzubarDevs please... Please just find a way to "delete" all the expansions except bfa so you can level rapidly from 1-110 in azeroth in the state of BFA, then join in with the end game content on the new lands.
It's calles a "boost", and you get one for free.
It works well for returning players who want to get into the max level grind ASAP.
Unfortunately, for genuinely new players, the result of a boost is too often tragic. They are left lost and disoriented, not knowing what they should be doing or why they should be doing it. I've spent enough hours with boosted beginners to recommend that they work their way through the levelling to learn basic systems, geography, some smattering of lore and personalities on their first character.
I would say that levelling is in a tragic state too at the moment, but largely because of scaling, which removes all sense of progression. But even without scaling, so much of flavour and development has been removed from levelling that I agree it is pretty empty compared to what it once was. But still, the world has a sense of wonder for a new player, so perhaps there is still hope.
Leveling is disjointed and I can see it being an issue for returning players (but with a free boost and heirlooms it's not as bad).
For new players though, and even returning ones, if you can find some friends it's not that bad. I'm a veteran player and I'm currently going back through all the old stuff on this character on a fresh account and loving it. The end game of BFA sucks, in my opinion, so rushing to it is pointless for me. I feel like really it's not great to rush to the max levels for anyone. There's some cool content in the old world and the only thing there really is at max level right now is an endless grind, raiding and pvp. If you aren't into any of those, as a new player likely wouldn't be, rushing to the max level will just suck.
I made a community which I posted here for this exact reason. Finding friends to chat to and help each other out so the game doesn't feel nearly as bad playing through it. There definitely could be places for improvements but I find a lot of the issues with the leveling process can be counteracted by finding some nice company and not rushing through it all. Like honestly in BFA unless you have some friends you are knowing you're going to raid with, or farm m+ with for ranking, there's really little for you. I can't speak for the state of PvP but from a PvE standpoint.... yeah it kinda sucks.
For new players though, and even returning ones, if you can find some friends it's not that bad. I'm a veteran player and I'm currently going back through all the old stuff on this character on a fresh account and loving it. The end game of BFA sucks, in my opinion, so rushing to it is pointless for me. I feel like really it's not great to rush to the max levels for anyone. There's some cool content in the old world and the only thing there really is at max level right now is an endless grind, raiding and pvp. If you aren't into any of those, as a new player likely wouldn't be, rushing to the max level will just suck.
I made a community which I posted here for this exact reason. Finding friends to chat to and help each other out so the game doesn't feel nearly as bad playing through it. There definitely could be places for improvements but I find a lot of the issues with the leveling process can be counteracted by finding some nice company and not rushing through it all. Like honestly in BFA unless you have some friends you are knowing you're going to raid with, or farm m+ with for ranking, there's really little for you. I can't speak for the state of PvP but from a PvE standpoint.... yeah it kinda sucks.
They have been discussing the possibility of a level squish so that max level would go back to 60. I think it is actually a good idea. You could have total freedom of where you want to level up, there are so many places now new players get overwhelmed.
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I agree that boosts have a purpose... but even as a returning player that has played for years on and off, a boost left me absolutely confused as to how the story is sown together and what I'm supposed to be doing.
It's a mess!!
A level squish would work well, but only if the previous expansions are 'hidden', yp u should roll through azeroth and then into bfa... stuff like TBC makes no sense what so ever...absolutely none in terms of an overall timeline. If the content was avaliable but hidden the story and experience would be much richer. You should be levelling and shuffling forward and backward through time.
It's a mess!!
A level squish would work well, but only if the previous expansions are 'hidden', yp u should roll through azeroth and then into bfa... stuff like TBC makes no sense what so ever...absolutely none in terms of an overall timeline. If the content was avaliable but hidden the story and experience would be much richer. You should be levelling and shuffling forward and backward through time.
Yep, Blizzard seriously need to bite the bullet and make a level squish.
They want to, they just donāt know how to go about it, itās not an easy thing to accomplish.
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This is the base point of your post, what you said previously to this is only preparatory. So your basic point is you want to skip everything to end-game, and zerg to max level, heck you donāt even want to zerg like the others, you just want straight max level instantly when you join because you left.
How about no, and actually play the game instead of wanting a hand out.
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I have returned to the game after 6 years or so. I used to be a decent raider precataclysm(cleared all raid content in wrath and BC) and an okish pvper enough to consider myself a veteran. To me the biggest tragedy is not the gameplay ,the story or the game content. BUT the community that is nonexistant anymore. Cannot relate to any guild , people feel alienated, i got up to 120 very easily in no time tried tanking a few instances on my DH but i get kicked or shouted at if for example i do not move some adds instantly, if i dont pull 3 groups at once or dont know the way.People just wanna aoe everything and every item is just handed to them. This is absolutely grotesque, cant even imagine what it must feel like to new players. I always considered wow community elitist and i knew there are many toxic players back in the day but this is just ridicolous.
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I disagree as a new player I am liking just exploring everything. Just rushing to max level in one area is boring as hell and not the experience I enjoy. Learning from the ground up is also better for group content when you join it, rushing to max in one area and then jumping straight into end game content is bad for everyone.
I wanted to start my DK from level 1 but they would not let me. Meanies.
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My point isnāt about being max levelā¦ my point is more about how a player levels. Either make the levelling really important (the bit I most enjoy) or make it about end game, both donāt work well together. Specifically playing the game from1 to 110 just doesnāt make sense, for example using amour for less than a level because you level so quickly, or investing any time in artefact power (a key part of the story lines) when a green drop is likely to me better at 111.
You pass through the content so fast most of it doesnāt even matter and itās a tragic shame.
Squish the levels back down to 60, hide (but make playable/optional) ever expansion before bfa and join the old world and new world together in one coherent story line. Not this bodge together non-sensical mess we have at the moment.
Make levelling slower but with a genuine worthwhile reward each level, sort professions out so that itās worth levelling them up as you go and make the game feel more vanilla without loosing where we have got to.
Everyone slams bfa but I really really enjoy it, but 110-120 is a separate game from 1-60 And itās stupid.
Not sure if Iām qualified to answer because I only played WOTLK and WOD. However, the big difference I feel between WOTLK and BFA is that internal achievements are replaced with external achievements.
I wish internal achievements would make its return.
I sentiment with this topic even though I feel its partly said wrong in first post. It is just that it is very hard to express what he tries to express.
He mentioned portals f.ex. Then I mention harbours, like the one in old Darnassus and then in Stormwind. These harbours act like train stations in real life. In train stations there are signs. How hard is it to put up clearly readable overhead signs on the dock that says āBoat to Stranglethorn Valeā f.ex. ?, not hard at all, ppl will remember it. There are lots of easy things Blizz could have done to make the forest become visible for the trees.
And dont get me started on lore. Imo they have messed up. I bet 99.99999 percent of mtg players cant place Thrall, Wrynn, Malfurion and etc into a timeframe, previous Darkshore, current Darkshore etc.
Being pretty unenthusiastic about lore of almost whatever game I do recognise its potential and its ability to confuse players on things only partly related if not done properly. As it stands the wow lore isnt coherent, and Im sure that those who care a lot can pin point complete breaks in it.
The key word is āCoherenceā !
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