Hello,
I watched a few new players try and get into the game and they have no clue what is going on. One of the biggest complaints was “who is that” or “what is happening”. The quests after Tutorial Island confuse the player more than anything. Tutorial Island teaches them what game is like this and then throws them a curveball after their done. After the Island hey can basically pick an expansion to go to and quest there… New players have no clue what each expansion is. And if they do pick one of the expansions it puts the player right in the middle of a conflict that they have no clue about. Names are thrown around left and right and they don’t even know because they have never met or interacted with those NPC’s
Blizzard should divide the game up into Chapter that go through the main quest and storylines of each expansion.
Chapter:1 Azeroth (Learn the basics)
Chapter:2 The Burning Crusade
Chapter:3 Wrath of the Lich King
… and so on
The Chapters should focus on the main story and quest so the player can have some understanding about the state of affairs in Azeroth. And if they level up to max before finishing the Chapters they can make a new character and continue the story from there. Such as, I hit level 60 at Chapter 4: Cataclysm from there the game could move me to the current expansion. After hitting 70 I can go back and finish the story on the same character or make a new one and start with Chapter 5: Panda land. Of course, the players will have the freedom to free roam the lands, but a linear story will help catch the players up on who the characters are.