Hello Community
I try to get my girlfriend to get into WoW in the past few days and my conclusion is, that its impossible. Now I have to engineer a good introduction into the game with a reasonable learning curve while having fun while playing… (more on this later on)
I see two huge problem with the state of the new player experience right now. It would not be critic, if i don’t suggest a solution for every problem, so i will deliver my thaughts:
Spells, actions and interface:
a) As far as i remember, you can’t chose the server of your first character (who starts wow alone lol)
→ the solution would be easy, let them chose their server or even more advanced: if i refer a friend, the friend should see, where my characters are or wich server i have characters on
b) you get bombarded with spells early on, especially with spells you don’t need. Just to put this in perspective… you take 2 quests per level in the early game. After each two quest you have to read ~three spells and the quest texts, so you will read more than you play.
→ here are many possibles solutions acceptable. You could change the order and the level of the spells for example (a level 3 warlock does not need curse of weakness). You also could do a “training” every 5 level or so, where the player gets introduced in a new mechanic. Not everyone knows what a curse is and what special. You could also let the new player chose a specialisation with a default option, so they just get the spells to play and get in touch with all the other mechanics.
c) the introduction in missing some features of the interface
→ for example the blue and yellow bubbles for quest objectives on the map
Lore (of cause)
I know, this is a really difficult part to fix entirely, but in my opinion nothing would be better than the state right now. You get thrown into random story’s and the whole experience is like a 60 level fever dream. I actually feel bad for my gf, that she has to go through that before she can experience the game!
→ I have some idea’s for this.
a) Chromietime 2.0: You have to go to every expension with the intro Trailer. Then you will go throu a small campain with a few quests per Zone, to get an idea of the expansion. You will also participate in a “fake raid” to defeat the bosses , so you get the whole story’s and cutscenes.
b) a leveling zone without lore
c) you can do the newest expansion from start to max level in some kind of form
d) Halls of history: this is a focus, not only for new players but also for “on off players”. Here you could display a timeline, where the player is right now in terms of knowledge and raidbosses. You can display the good and the bad guys as model, let the player rewatch cinematics, chose a chromietime path (even at max level, for example for transmog from the raids), and the player could start either the corresponding campain of a “chapter/major patch” or maybe a custom made campain for them specific. That would reduce the pain, when you had a half year break and then you come again and dont know, wich campain is the next you didn’t play.
Now a quick word for my solution right now. I will suggest my gf to buy TWW, then boost a character to 70, make a dracthyr and then play dragonflight. I will assist her with the actionbars, banning all spells she doesn’t need an when she gets the hang of it, we could open the spell range fourther.
Let me know what you think and if you have more advices for new players, don’t hasitate to bring it!
