I’m a returning player from the earlier expansions of the game (BC thru WoD), and I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the story. I thought just making a new character would explain it to me, but it seems to only have made me more confused than I was before. I’m 11+ levels in and despite having played Warcraft III and multiple expansion of WoW, the only character I recognize so far has been Sylvanas (I’m playing Horde). Does Blizzard really just not care about the new player experience? It seems like 100% of the development is going into end game content, but they just completely forgot about the first 99% of the game. This has been my experience so far:
Old WoW:
You start in your race’s starting zone as a nobody
You learn about your people, their history, their place in the world, and how they survive in the land
You learn who your allies and enemies are supposed to be and why (it ties in with the previously established lore)
You eventually meet the leader (Thrall, Sylvanas)
You gradually expand out to new lands when you are ready
New WoW
You start on a boat with no explanation or context
You watch a cinematic and crash land on a random island in the middle of the ocean
You have no idea where you are from or where you are supposed to go (except following the quest arrow and pushing buttons)
You have no idea who your allies or enemies are supposed to be or why
You fly to your capital city for a 5 second conversation with your leader who somehow already knows everything about you and recognizes you as a “hero”
You immediately get sent on a flight path to another boat with no context, another cinematic, and another unfamiliar island filled with characters you have never met
The game assumes you already know who everyone is and what to do despite explaining nothing
50 Likes
I started in Shadowlands and the new player experience for me was Exiles Reach.
I think the first Island is pretty good because they teach you all about your class and general gameplay and focus on your love of your faction rather than necessarily your race.
I did feel a bit confused afterwards when we helped out the people at Boralus because as you say you go from being a newbie recruit to being ‘Champion of the Alliance’ and everyone talks to you like you’re a big deal.
At a later point I tried many race introduction areas and enjoyed them, though admittedly was confused by some areas (Worgen/Goblin is amazing, Nelf was a bit confusing with lots of running around, Human was very generic).
With that said I’d say starting in BfA and have that questing experience was very enjoyable- the way they designed questing hubs was easy to play (along with incredible visuals for Stormsong valley).
What are you suggesting they do? Make you play through the storyline in every single expansion?
7 Likes
they basically just want you to go outside the game and look everything up for wow. great design.
19 Likes
I didn’t even think about this but when you bring it up, it makes a lot of sense. And that is a major problem. It’s unfortunate there’s not an easy way to address this though. Without some serious adjustments to voice lines, the idea of them somehow ensuring new accounts are spoken to in a way which makes sense, is almost impossible.
What a bummer. That has to be super confusing for new players.
8 Likes
They need a New Player Guild. That you auto join if you are new.
Incentivize old players to help them out somehow.
4 Likes
With the help of billion addons and billion wowhead articles. The game in unplayable without those.
4 Likes
The game’s learning curve has become as steep and unforgiving as Mount Everest.
I genuinely feel bad for new/returning players.
9 Likes
I just picked random garbage gear/talents and started throwing my body at dungeons/pvp and that has worked out just fine. Adjusting as I go, obviously. 
3 Likes
This is why I can forgive them cause I understand they ultimately wanted a new expansion experience for players so it was kinda of an issue. With that said they could have had a fun side part where the original guide was like ‘Hey by the way I’ve talked you up maybe a bit too much’
I dunno about a guild but if I recall correctly there was a new player chat I was a part of when I started and there was a lot of helpful people.
It’s been a year though so I am happy to stand corrected.
There are a ton of lore videos on YouTube. Would be a massive headache to try and catch up in game.
1 Like
don’t forget they want you to buy their books because a lot of the lore are in the books as well not just in game as well as other games like WC3 and i think their older game WC?
Honestly most guides are a decent “tldr” to get started but take them with a grain of salt. I’m in a few Discords with people who’ve written stuff on wowhead and/or icyveins and they have very, very limited experience. 
I joined the game in wod.
There was no simplified version of the lore then either.
But now i know so much lore because in my spare time i love listening to YouTube videos about the stories.
Basically new players will come for fun and learn on their own terms. Or not. Its not that important
3 Likes
They could do something similar to the system in Diablo 3 where it has a full Campaign story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, with the option to skip all that by selecting Adventure mode instead which allows you to ignore the story and focus on leveling if you just want to get to the endgame as fast as possible. Or they could do what they did in Cataclysm and basically just skip the old lore and get you started with the new lore immediately. Right now it seems like the only two options available are go all the way back to Cataclysm content and have no idea what is going on, or jump to new expansions and have no idea what is going on.
2 Likes
they don’t they get kicked
2 Likes
Your analysis is spot on.
2 Likes
If you want Pre-Cata game play then go play classic WoW, however if you want the full story line from Cata forward you can pretty much get it all by choosing option to level through old starting points and not the island and chromie time. If you want to pick your xpac to level through you do that option instead and choose chromie time. Simple as all that. It is not rocket science. I have many new players in my guild that love the game and have the gest of what is going on by simply going back and doing old content during down time.
1 Like
So if you aren’t familiar with every expansion, the “correct” way to play is to pick the starter zone option and follow the story through all 12 years of expansions from Cataclysm to Dragonflight, right? I just played through the Exile’s Reach option and it never gave me an option to do Chromie time or whatever, it just pushed me to another island. It did give me that option on my main, but I had no idea how to use it or why I would want to. It just teleported me to Orgrimmar and told me to choose my timeline without explaining why or what it would do. Also I’m not asking for pre-Cata gameplay, I’m trying to get caught up with the current events.
Nothing since really MoP is going to spell out anything the current xpac lore to you. Specially Shadowlands. Dragonflight is pretty much rooted back to cata and 1000 years before that. As you play there is much NPC that tell you the back story as to what has gone on to get them there to that point of time concerning Dragonflight, you just have to listen to the dialog and ask them questions.
Game play wise, it’s been revamped in this current xpac, old xpacs are not going to help you any, any ways. Shadowlands ended all the storyline from WoD to Shadowlands. Dragonflight is a whole new monkey and circus.
1 Like