Newcomers have a hard time in World of Warcraft – and this has been the case for a long time. No wonder they quickly lose interest.
Even though World of Warcraft is currently struggling with several bugs and issues, the expansion “The War Within” will likely go down in the history of the MMORPG as one of the better ones. However, one problem remains that the new expansion has yet to solve, which has plagued WoW for years: the experience for new players.
Newcomers don’t have it easy in WoW
What is the problem? For newcomers, World of Warcraft is an extremely complex game. There are numerous gameplay mechanics, thousands of talents and abilities – for a newcomer to grasp this requires a lot of time. However, many long-time fans have little of that. They know the content inside out and want efficiency, especially when leveling a new character.
That simply doesn’t go together.
What experiences does this lead to? The fact that newcomers increasingly feel intimidated can be seen well in the official forum or in the subreddit of the game. A relatively recent post states “Why WoW repels new players” and explains the perspective of a player who wanted to introduce his wife to World of Warcraft. SEgopher writes:
Firstly, the game doesn’t prepare you at all for the endgame. There are no clues as to which class or specialization is easy to play, and you level up too quickly to understand all the abilities or the story, and the interface is so inadequate that it practically suggests you download addons. […]
Secondly, and this is the bigger problem because it is completely avoidable, you are not allowed to be new in WoW. [My wife] wanted to play bear tank because she thought druids were cool and she likes bears – good enough for an RPG, right? Enter the endless screaming in timewalking dungeons and low key dungeons because she can’t hold aggro, pulls too slowly, or doesn’t know the route of the dungeon she has only played twice.
Later he adds that these issues turn the very social, fun content of WoW into its opposite:
Ultimately, these group activities, which should be social and fun, are the most stressful and toxic part of the game. Meanwhile, depths that some view as the new ‘Choregast’ are actually good at teaching people the game.
Who is to blame for the problem? It is clear that part of the blame also lies with the community. Some players who have been living this game for 20 years just do not have the patience to spend 90 minutes in a dungeon that can be completed in 10 minutes.
It might help if there was a way to provide additional information during the group search – even in the automatic group finder – so that newcomers can team up or veterans can specifically come together with newcomers if they wish.
But it’s also clear that Blizzard has known for a while, that newcomers have a hard time in World of Warcraft – and improvements are coming slowly but steadily. Whether the pace is fast enough, however, is not so easy to answer.
