I’ve been introducing my kiddos to WoW. The only option for a brand new player is Exile’s Reach and I believe this to be a big mistake. I am unable to join them in Exile’s Reach for unknown reasons, unless I also start a brand new character. Being actually there to help and guide them would be a huge win. They also do not get to experience the uniqueness of a racial based starting area, which would make the game more immersive in the content/lore. I believe Exile’s Reach itself is actually making new players stop playing WoW.
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I agree. Hate the place. I call it Cardboard Island.
It is practical; I’ll give it that. It whisks you along from 1 to 10 with the soulless efficiency of an airport walkway.
Yup.
There are three reasons I dislike it.
- You get no feel for the history and essence of your race, and its place in the world.
- You get no opportunity just to mess around and experiment. The island just keeps moving you along.
- It is such a cheap rip-off of WoD assets (though new players wouldn’t be bothered by this).
There’s a video on YT of Taliesin’s brother - a genuine new player - playing through Exile’s Reach. I found it hilarious.
I do agree that new players should get the choice.
Do you believe the accountants which make the meaningful decisions in game design would accept the support burden of turning new players loose on the game? The starter experience is a way to lower the acquisition costs of new user engagement.
Hmm… when I made my most recent human I was given the option of starting Honestly though, exile’s reach is a good tutorial zone. It goes pretty quick. If your kids had decided to play a goblin or worgen and started in their zones, you still wouldn’t be able to join them right away, you’d have to wait even longer. (which is something I complained about way back in cataclysm). Exile’s reach is an improvement over that situation. Furthermore, leveling these days goes so fast, you don’t really get to experience the unique character of each race anyway. (Apart from the goblins and worgen). Exile’s Reach also gives better gear that the racial starting zones.
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Yes. That’s because you’re not a new player.
I don’t know exactly what qualifies to allow you the choice now. I expect it’s having a character at level 60. It used to be something like having a character at level 50.
For some races, like Human, the racial introduction is probably not a big deal. For others, like Forsaken - or Goblin or Worgen 
- it’s a pretty big deal to understand your race’s plate in the lore.
Seems weird to have all new accounts limited to one starting zone. Can people at least play through the tutorial zone while waiting for the rest of the game to download?
I guess what I was trying to get at is that the problem isn’t Exiles Reach and the solution would be a little more complicated than just going back to old starting zones or whatever. A couple of the old starting zones were cut off too and, having played through the human and undead starting zones recently, we still don’t get through too much of their story before leveling out of their zones, and we’re left with bad gear when we leave. I agree that Exile’s Reach shouldn’t be the only possible start and it would be nice to have more individual lore for each race (and class). My point is more that the “starting zones” really need to be updated in order to achieve the goals the O.P. was talking about.
Unless something has changed, the requirement is to complete the full tutorial on one character (so not that big of a deal.) That use to include the BfA intro part of the tutorial, but I suspect that’s changed now that Dragonflight is the default leveling experience. The end point it probably similar, and I think you get an achievement or notification the first time you complete the tutorial.
The level requirement is for unlocking Chromie Time. (Or at least it was, I have no idea what the rules for unlocking that are these days — it’s hard to know how things change when you’ve unlocked something long ago.)
everyone uses the same client.
if it wasn’t downloaded, you wouldn’t be able to play.
which ones?
Darnassus and Undercity are still where they were.
These are both potentially affected by phasing caused by BfA campaign progression, but I would hope that they default to a pre-BfA state (or, at a minimum, be reliably toggleable by Zidormi).
yeah they’re still there.
Zidormi is in Darkshore, and outside Undercity
Zidormi in Tirisfal has been glitchy for my high-level characters, but I haven’t really checked on a newbie. Maybe I’ll give it a look with the Earthen I’m leveling.
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At any rate, I was continuing my reference to the Worgen and Goblin starting experiences. Sure, Technically theres a place on the map where Gilneas is, but that’s not the same Gilneas that Worgen start in. Don’t the Trolls also start on an island now? Is that accessible by higher levels?
I tried introducing my boyfriend to wow but he highly disliked this starting zone and I can’t really blame him… while it does offer a good tutorial it strips away any purpose of life of the actual game.
Still working on having him give it another shot lol
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What do you mean? Just having everybody start in one location? I mean, the hoarde and alliance are still seperated… I do feel like they could use a little more difference in their stories. Having all the hoarde working together, and all the alliance working together… that doesn’t seem to me to take anything away from the game. If anything, I think that not sending players from SW/Org to a selection of starting zones (in which each race/society gets explained and explored) is the problem. I think this is really more about the leveling experience in general. Or did I misunderstand what you meant?
P.S.: to clear things up a little, I’m suggesting that people should go from tutorial island to capital city, then from capital city be given a choice of zones to go quest in to get a better feeling of the lore. I think the tutorial is find, but the zones should be refreshed.
lol sorry I just can’t get over the name Deeznuts 
Just make an alt man it’ll be fine lol
I’ve been through WoD and I’ve been through Exile’s Reach and I’m missing the comparison. Can you elaborate on how this rips off WoD assets?