I want to preface this by saying that I see the need for Exile’s Reach mechanically. With the level squish, we need a more streamlined way to get new players into the game. That being said, I think the transition from the standard starting experience to Exile’s Reach comes at the cost of new players not really getting the “primer” on their race’s lore anymore.
Some of my favorite and most memorable parts of WoW were things like helping a freshly resurrected Lillian Voss deal with her new undeath, cleansing the nightmare taint from a then unburnt Teldrassil, reliving the horror of the feral worgen attack in Gilneas, and exploring a Quel’thalas that’s still haunted by Arthas’ assault on the Sunwell. Granted this comes from a roleplayer’s perspective, but I worry that new players won’t really get a good sense of their character’s racial lore like they would have before.
I get where you are coming from, but I still think the new starting area was needed.
I’ve been in the Warcraft world for many years and I love getting into the lore. If I try to imagine a brand new player experiencing it, I can see where it is overwhelming. The world and quest lines can seem very disjointed especially since some are happening at different times than the main storyline.
If a new player gets into the lore enough I’m hopeful they will go back and experience their home areas.
Well, given how fast leveling seems to be lately, it could encourage people to level up more alts and do it in different zones. There is a potential to experience a lot more that way, because there is no need to do the same zone 10 times is a row. While the first character might go to Exile’s Reach, there is plenty more to discover later with alts.
You’re only attached to what you’re describing because of nostalgia. There’s nothing special about those zones if you haven’t leveled a new character through them yourself. The lore there is horribly outdated and i think it only confuses people, who don’t know anything about it. Most players don’t even care for their race’s lore.
I first started playing right before Legion pre-patch, and my first character was Vandraeda, my blood elf mage. I had only a very vague idea of the lore at the time. Leveling through Eversong and Ghostlands the first time was incredibly confusing. Don’t get me wrong, the zones are beautiful and I’ve greatly appreciated them when I’ve replayed through them since, but they’re a mess for anyone new who doesn’t have context for all the Warcraft III references. There’s references to mana dependency all over the place but you don’t have Mana Tap, statues to Kael’thas everywhere but you don’t really learn who he is, Burning-Crusade-era references to Thrall being warchief but you never meet him as such because the quest to meet the Horde leadership has been changed several times, etc. The quests assume that the player is familiar with Warcraft III and Vanilla, which was fine when Burning Crusade came out but is not a reasonable assumption for a fresh new player now. As a new blood elf player you meet Lor’themar exactly once, with very few quest mentions of him, and that one quest doesn’t really give you any idea of what he’s like if you don’t know his backstory with Dar’Khan. I played through every bit of old Horde story content I could find on that character in an attempt to better understand the lore, and I still didn’t meet Thrall properly until I got to Cataclysm content, and I didn’t get to know Lor’themar at all (and finally remember his name and title) until I played through the Dominance Offensive and Isle of Thunder storylines…probably almost a year after I started playing. The old way of leveling was a mess if you were new and wanted to pay attention to the story. Exile’s Reach isn’t perfect, but at least it doesn’t assume that the player knows anything about the lore beforehand, which makes it a much better starting point for someone who’s brand new.
Exile’s Reach is also useful for anyone who likes even a little bit of RP background for their character, even if they don’t RP themselves. Want to play as a human who isn’t from Elwynn Forest? Go for it. Night elf who lived in Hyjal or Feralas instead of Darnassus? Goblin who isn’t from Kezan or troll who isn’t Darkspear? All possible with Exile’s Reach. It’s not perfect, but it’s nice to open up the possibilities for your character’s backstory if you are interested.
Azuremyst/Bloodmyst and Eversong/Ghostlands have sadly needed an update for years. They’re still stuck in 2007. Sadly now with Exile’s Reach I don’t think any of those zones will ever be updated like the vanilla ones were in Cata.
You do make a good point though. Barring a whole other world revamp, Exile’s Reach is perhaps the best we can hope for.
Well, honestly I enjoyed them, after a 7 year break was nice and somewhat nostalgic to see one of locations where WoW started for me. I am not even sure if I would want it to be updated… depends on how drastic changes would be.
This is the unfortunate truth.
Unless you’re a roleplayer, new players will pick their race for aesthetics that appeal to them, or if they’re a powergamer out of the gate, whatever they’re told is the “best” thing.
But I think they need to revise the character name randomizer. Seeing troll players named Zirkwokzzok feels insanely dumb when there’s NPCs called things like To’ja, Kajin, Rokanji, etc.
(Also, let players have an apostrophe in their names.)
Exile’s reach is pretty much needed. As mentioned the various starter zones are not only outdated, but come from various times. The lore is inconsistent and confusing to a new player. Beyond that they have never done racial lore well, or evenly. Some races get ignored for literal decades while other are brought up constantly. From their narrative it’s better to have people associated with their faction first rather than race.
Where as Exiles reach brings them into the game much quicker. Ultimately this is a game, more so now than ever before.
It’s designed as an unofficial strategy guide to your characters.
What I dislike about it is that it doesn’t teach core class mechanics per spec.
I think it doesn’t help grandma or your youngest cousin learn how to play well enough with just 10 lvls and no full spec teaching method.
So after ER you’re just on your own. Which is fine but that ability lightup guidance button smashing teaching method is gone.
I could see people quiting due to the worry of min-maxing later on. Or forgetting their core attack rotation until someone just says “go try a target dummy” and being completely in the dark and turned off by that antisocial response on an MMORPG.
I wouldn’t mind the Burning Crusade starting zones being stuck in 2007 if they were only stuck in 2007, but Silvermoon at least has been quasi-updated in little ways that make the lore even more confusing. The last quest you pick up before leaving for Undercity has you carrying a letter from Lor’themar on the topic of the Sin’dorei fully joining the Horde. You take it to Undercity so that Sylvanas can add her seal in support of the Sin’dorei becoming Horde, and then you go to Orgrimmar, originally (and canonically) to Thrall. This quest has been updated several times since so that it is turned in to Garrosh and Vol’jin when they each became Warchief, and then to Saurfang once Sylvanas became Warchief, which is rather confusing since none of these updated versions of the quest are canon. With phasing as an option, I’d rather revert this quest to being turned in to Burning-Crusade-era Warchief Thrall, perhaps as part of Chromie Time, and keep Silvermoon firmly in Burning Crusade rather than this odd mix of time zones. Adding “Stay awhile and listen” and gossip text options to the original quests could make the lore easier to grasp for a new player, and maybe we could tidy up some of the quests that have high numbers of mob kill requirements compared to later expansions. If there’s a concern about Silvermoon feeling dated (which it always will without flying), then use phasing to have the city NPCs updated to current time for max-level players, showing the progress of time.
Battle For Azeroth kind of butchered Race-identity though. Especially the culture of the races, Horde for one have been downgraded immensely. Alliance’s has mild issues. But I agree having some primer race quests would be cool, maybe if Blizzard offered a few quest chains in their respective areas with a nice reward at the end (Mount / Pet / additional Transmog or another colour varient to their heritage armour) would inspire people to go forth with it.
That being stated many races have identity issues being established at the time. Some improvements / point outs to the ones strongly needed are:
Orcs - Are a mopey race of shame now, that being stated their entire race & homeplanet in their peak of power were a pushover in WoD …
Nightelves - They had their home destroyed, and seem like angsty teenagers now; would love some quests to 'Restoring Darkshore and Ashenvale’ leading towards ‘Bolstering our defences’ to prevent repeated history towards give them their vibes back with Nature, strength and continuing to prevail through the eye of eternity.
Draenie - I feel the Lightforged flex on the other Draenie but I’d like if the originals could humble them in some matter …
Void Elves: I know Horde and Alliance are all GRRR, especially on the forums but I’d love if a group of Void Elves & Blood Elves got stuck or trapped in an unfortunate situation with one another and were forced to work together, by the end respecting each’s culture and profound ways, but parting for their respective factions out of the honour they have for them. After such, perhaps give the Void Elves some inspiration to their new path such as using Blood Elf Architecture but with purply / dark blue hues with Void-crystals (That look liked the Fel ones Silvermoon use to have) much like their kind had done from blues to reds when they renamed to Blood Elves respecting the fallen from the Scourge.
Trolls (Non-Zandalari): They’re all big on Loa & whatnot but I feel the Loa kind of got walked on in BFA it was sort of depressing. I also thought we’d see a LOTmore such as references or visits to other continents that had various other Loa (aside from Shadra who died … again) I mean the Zandalari had a preservation questline in Zul’Drak and have been referenced throughout WoW history of respecting all Loa around Azeroth where & when they discover or learn about them.
I feel a cool aspect to play for the Trolls to give a boon to their races identity - Would be cool to have them visit Locations / Shrines / Altars of other Loa and obtain a cosmetic only buff from them that shows their animalistic visual time to time above the character on chance from casting spells, or maybe even just change the visuals of their current racial so when they use it, it shows like Har’Koa or something.
All this is just some various ideas, but lately it just seems like it’s one big threat after another and it’s constantly people shaming a race for trying to embrace their culture / pride.
People choose based on appearance, but often end up with a favorite when a race’s lore appeals to them, an experience that does occur in starting zones, and it’s absolutely not an experience exclusive to RP realms.
People can get invested in lore without becoming RPers or even going to RP realms, I see it all the time.
But as for the OP’s concerns, while I think Talkaar’s point was largely ignorant, my own experience with playing a race as a person new to MMOs was just confusion. I didn’t understand any of the story at all on my first characters. I was just trying to figure out what I was doing.
In that regard, I think Exile’s Reach is better even storywise, because it’s very simple and easy to follow, and the strong personalities of the characters therein gave samples of each race’s flavor for the new players.
While Exile’s Reach does not show as much of each race as the original starting zones, I think they show enough for brand new players.
In all likelihood, players will go back and experience the starting zones for their races. With the exception of Goblins, Worgen, and Pandaren, the starting zones are still fully accessible at Max level. And it’s likely that players will make alts to experience these zones regardless.
Excluding Starter Accounts, Exile’s Reach is only forced on players for their first character too.