Ive been playing WoW almost since launch, so i can seem like a boomer yelling at clouds. But why have new gamers, or at least game designers, felt so needed to be coddled/Coddle? Mankriks wife was a meme because Classic WoW didnt hold your hand. You either used the vague directions in the prompt, or you looked it up online. And then exiles reach came out to cater to this next gen of players.
Ill be honest, when it first came out i thought it was a good thing. For most of us it was just a fast and easy way to get to level 10 and jump into the game ASAP. For newbies it covered all the core mechanics.
But then i watched a bunch of new players play exiles reach for the first time. They failed to grasp the plain and clear narrative of the cutscenes. They would ignore the giant flashing icon on their screen telling them to open their skill tree or spell book to get a new buff. ETC. ETC.
I watch a lot of react channels and this was such a common theme. But why? Why is this a common theme?
When i grew up, most of these things we figured out ourselves. its probable why we are so nostalgic for things. And if we needed a guide, wed use the ASCII art on Gamefaqs to figure things out. Im not trying to say one generation is better than the other. I just want to understand WHY things have changed, and why people no longer seem to desire to put in effort to solving a challenge in a game without being spoon fed the answer.
Some people think new players are uneducated and not intelligent enough to play an mmo or figure out how anything works and stuff. And most if not all of these people are willing to think exactly that the new players are to dumb and not smart enough to understand how the game is played.
Itâs not so much that the general populace has gotten collectively dumber. Itâs more the fact that the gaming marketplace and paradigms have fundamentally changed.
People have less time to play now.
There is far more demand and options for entertainment now than there was before.
The prevalence of the Internet now makes information disamination far greater now than it was before.
Competitors have focused heavily on short term gratification due to aforementioned factors but also particularly due to the rise of esports.
Gaming companies no longer provide detailed documentation on how to play their game.
Competition in the MMO marketplace has drastically increased.
WoW in particular is a huge game of multiple expansions with multiple gameplay design methods. Blizz has never bothered to retroactively bring them into line with each other. E.g. why do the BFA star quality ranks for profession recipes still exist?
To be fair, 99% of the game means nothing as if you jump into a current expansion, you donât need to know how something played before, you only need to know how it is played now. Friend of mine who just started playing in Dragonflight just got their Elite PvP title earlier this evening, so it seems there are still ânew to WoWâ players that learn just fine.
Idk, I find a lot of my time is getting answers from wowhead and people who spend the time questing and documenting various things so itâs like am I the one to talk lol
Im calling bull**** on this one. Weâve acclimated to changes that have become EASIER as time went on. A new WOW gamer intrinsically knows wasd, most new PC gamers know right click rotates the camera, etc. etc.
Im talking about people ignoring GIANT FLASHING ICONS on their screen saying âopen spellbook and get new skillsâ and watching them ask chat âso how do i get a new skill?â
For people who have never played an MMO, WoW and games like it have a steep learning curve. Itâs not that people lack intelligence, itâs more of a âwhere are the keysâ problem.
For example, Harry is a top automotive engineer. He has designed the fuel injector for the Brazlow Hyper car that won the poll at the 24 hour endurance race in Pluckdome.
So Harryâs friend Ralph comes along and asks Harry Iâve lost my car keys, do you know where they are?
Harry says, sorry no, I have no idea.
So Ralph says Buy I thought you were an automotive genius who knows everything about cars, so where are my car keys?
Itâs not that Harry lacks intelligence or the knowledge of cars, he just doesnât know what Ralph did with his keys.
Likewise, you can be a very intelligent person and not know what button to push to make someoneâs game work.
This reminds me of Egoraptorâs Sequelitis video on game design using Mega Man X and how that gameâs tutorial level taught you all the aspects of the game within the first minutes.
Iâm just gonna say it, being video game âliterateâ is far more complex than most people (especially heavy lifetime gamers like mmo junkies) ever care to admit.
Itâs why Iâd never recommend wow as a game to friends outside of the game, it would be a burden on both sides rather than something we could enjoy together.
Mankirks wife became a meme because the classic community already had tools to figure out where stuff was, so if you were asking, it was because you were clueless.
Of course you had an easy time, the game was much easier before. Professions were maybe 1/3 as complicated. Raid bosses, maybe even 1/6 as complicated. Rotations, easily 1/3 as complicated. Look up shadow priest rotation in cata vs now. Or even frost mage in classic era (spam frostbolt), combat rogue (actually 3 buttons, like you could only bind 3 buttons and do optimal raid boss damage vs now where people who say 3 button spec mean 15+ button spec). Dungeons only existed in normal and heroic and even pre-nerf cata heroics werenât as hard as current m0.
Everybody is handheld in the game , Blizzard can literally make the boss spam its killer aoe all the time and end the raid in 10 secs . Thy can easily remove the nerfs from healers and tanks in pvp which makes them godmode and make every pvper cry there . They donât want to do that because they want to give you a chance to win .
Besides that , a brand new player to the game compared to a player whose been playing the game for 10 may be even 20 years. Obviously the new players would need more help and attention. New player experience is a big deal
Right, but he also points out that if you watch them on YT/Twitch an alarming number just donât do basic things like click the giant flashing icon and stuff.
Iâve watched people have an explanation in the middle of their screen telling them what to do and them just not noticing or paying attention and getting frustrated that they canât instantly figure out what theyâre supposed to do even though itâs literally telling them right in front of their face. Itâs maddening to watch, tbh. I started watching them to see what new players thought of this and a few other games, and itâs definitely not just this game. Thereâs just this new generation of players that just canât seem to handle or just donât want to learn basic concepts or use awareness/situational skills.
Itâs not all, mind you. But the amount is alarmingly surprising.
Watching them?
Do tell how you saw this unfold before your eyes.
Where to beginâŠ
You had to wait until 40 to get a slow mount, keeping you on foot for two thirds of leveling.
You had to carry around flint and steel with simple wood to make a cooking fire.
Your bags were so small you deleted junk because youâre so far from a vendor.
You had to find keys and get attuned to run dungeons and raids.
You had to keep reagents in those small bags to be able to use major spells or cast buffs.
Boat and zeppelin rides were a must.
Limited number of flight masters.
Iâll stop there, itâs not a delusion. It was much more complicated. The games always been easy if you grasp how it works.