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Teaching Newbies about a non-existent game!?

Our illustrious Chief Editor Ethec demands I write articles on topics that everyone else tells me are impossible to write about for a game that isn’t even out yet… well I always like proving people wrong (don’t worry Ethec, I don’t intend not to write an article). So this week’s common content revolves around introducing players into a new gaming environment and how things seem to be going for Warhammer Online. Basically will WAR be an excellent MMO for new players and build them up to be good players, or will it lead to an influx of “Snakes on a Raid”?

I’ll be honest when I say I don’t remember much of the new player friendliness that was presented in the Warhammer Online demo at E3. Much of the content that I have played or seen so far required a bit of understanding before I was able to fully understand it. I was pampered in my experience as I was given a full description of the game beforehand; I doubt that most players will get the same experience that I did. Comparatively to a standard MMO, Warhammer seems to be on par with control schemes and general handling. The game itself seemed to have an “easy to learn, hard to master” approach when I was giving it my first shot.

As every player knows there are certain gaming aspects that are learned as you advance in the game; you can’t learn everything at once. Referring back to my first major foray into MMO’s (World of Warcraft), I am reminded of the fact that I didn’t learn the importance of Agro management until I took my mage into Scarlet Monastery for the first time. So if Mythic is going to produce a game that they want to be new-gamer friendly, they are going to need to stagger the learning curve so that players aren’t overwhelmed. Learning to use skills, the UI, and general leveling up can be complicated enough without the huge gameplay aspect of PvP being introduced to new players.

One of the hardest aspects of the miniature hobby game is the difficulty of getting someone involved with Fantasy and showing them the rules. There are so many rules in Warhammer Fantasy that it is almost impossible for a player to read and retain them all on his or her first game. With an online game there is a lot more of a chance to ease players into learning their environments and the general rules that constrain them, as opposed to a miniatures game where there is a hardline that needs to be followed by all players. If Warhammer Fantasy Battles players are introduced to Warhammer Online it will be interesting to see how they conform to a controlled environment as opposed to a player controlled environment.

The reason that a good learning curve is important is because of the sheer impact it will have on end game content. If there's no hint of agro management until the end game raid encounters, then the learning curve would be incredibly steep and players would be forced to adjust and endure more hardship then necessary. As a player I myself prefer a game that has a long term learning curve but teaches the basics of gameplay in the first few levels and then moves into game specific knowledge near the mid/end stages. By the endgame content of a game I should be mastering teamwork and timing and not simple things like agro management or party structure. The endgame content of Warhammer Online will likely be PvP and high scale raid based, so a long term learning curve defiantly has some good benefits.

Another great reason that Warhammer Online should have a good overall learning curve is the dependency on player vs. player events in-game. As the game is heavily based upon players partaking in PvP events, there needs to be a certain level of competency amongst them when it comes to playing in that environment. In my history of FPS and MMO PvP events I've seen enough players who have no idea how to react in certain situations. If you're a cleric in a PvP raid please heal sometimes... it helps... really I swear!

Thankfully a large majority of the Warhammer crowd are used to seeing new rules introduced on a constant basis and adapting to them. Learning the basics of an MMO should be fairly simple for a player who is regularly keeping tabs on rank bonus, combat score, victory points, and the ever-important spell pool. Thus it might pay off for Warhammer Online to be a bit more advanced then the standard MMO that is currently on the market as it will allow players to become more immersed in the game and adapt to unique features.

All in all there will most likely be issues with whatever “newbie integration system” that Mythic decides to incorporate into Warhammer Online. However from what I’ve seen of the game thus far I would venture to say it is on the right track and a bit of beta-testing will go a long way to make Warhammer Online a more newb-friendly MMO for an ever increasing market of high quality games. A market which I have ever increasing confidence that WAR will be a huge player in.