A YouTuber experienced World of Warcraft as a newcomer, both Classic and Retail. He has harsh but clear words about what doesn’t work.
World of Warcraft is likely the most successful MMORPG of all time, having already thrilled a large community for over 20 years – whether in the modern Retail variant or in various Classic re-releases. However, the enormous success that WoW had in its early years has become a curse for the game. At least that’s what the YouTuber Gbay99 thinks, explaining what he noticed as a newcomer.
Who is the YouTuber? The YouTuber Gbay99 is primarily known for videos on League of Legends, but for about a year he has been focusing on Warcraft – starting with Warcraft III and then World of Warcraft in its various forms. He particularly enjoyed Classic, but also found a lot of exciting things in Retail. His goal is to understand the fascination of WoW, and therefore he prepares very little. He wants to experience the game as it is – and reports on it afterward. He believes this is the authentic experience a new player can have.
What are the failures of World of Warcraft? According to the YouTuber, World of Warcraft is exceptionally poor in its tutorials. The game fails to guide a new player to content that would actually interest them. WoW is notoriously bad at showing newcomers what the world actually does well.
Right at the beginning, there are many tutorials, but they are unnecessary and for things that one would rather discover for themselves – like the correct rotation of abilities. However, as soon as it comes to the exciting endgame features, World of Warcraft fails to explain to a new player how a system works or how to prepare for it:
As a notable example, Gbay99 mentions PvP in World of Warcraft. He definitely wanted to try it out and leveled a rogue to level 80 (still at TWW) to do so. Even while leveling, he thought about how to use his abilities correctly in PvP and how he should proceed. His hope: to not be the worst team member in the first PvP match and to contribute meaningfully.
But it turned out differently: He was repeatedly annihilated, had almost no impact on enemies, and couldn’t explain to himself what he was doing wrong.
He first had to research online to find his mistake: He had no PvP gear. Because WoW does not tell a new player anywhere in the game that you need special gear for PvP or where to get it.
It is simply expected that as a player, you “just know” this or have already informed yourself outside the game.
Gbay99 emphasizes multiple times: WoW is a game that completely captivates and has blown him away. It would only take so few improvements for newcomers to fall in love with the game just like veterans did many years ago.
What do you think about the state of WoW for newcomers? What needs to improve so that newcomers can successfully enter the content that interests them?
Cortyn says: The problems of World of Warcraft are actually quite quick to solve; it would just take one or two developers to dedicate time to it. Because WoW already has the Adventure Guide, which could simply be expanded with a tutorial feature. Just a menu that asks you: What content are you interested in? And then it unfolds further and explains – like a classic manual – the individual game elements and marks important NPCs on the map.
This could probably be done for all more complex game content. Mythic+, raids, dungeons, depths, PvP in arenas, PvP in battlegrounds, role-playing. A few pages of explanations, with images or NPCs who explain roughly how it works with voiced dialogues – that would significantly help.
Because for 20 years, World of Warcraft has assumed that you simply know how things work or have thoroughly informed yourself outside the game. Veterans cannot understand this because they have “always done it this way”. But newcomers coming from other games are completely overwhelmed – they could have so much joy in WoW, but the path to that joy is often hidden. And sometimes the sheer amount of content can also be overwhelming.
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