Basic Training 

Does WoW offer enough?

By Greg “Doogmeister” Wood

OK, so you’ve never played a MMORPG before, you’ve just unwrapped your WoW box, installed the game, set up your account… and now you’ve just created your first Level 1 character and you’re standing in your starting camp… where to now?

You see a pop-up box appear on your screen, suggesting you go talk to the guy with the yellow (!) over his head… fair enough. You follow the advice and so begin your first forays into the World of Warcraft!

There are many reasons why World of Warcraft has been such a massive success, and I believe that one of them is that Blizzard have made the game easy to understand and learn! Unlike previous MMOs, which had quite a steep learning curve and often put new players off by making simple things difficult to learn, WoW is frequently pointing new players in the right direction, though the use of a few very effective devices!

By making it easy to pick up the basics of the game, and not forcing players to learn the basic aspects of the game by trial and error, Blizzard have really ensured that the early levels of the game really are an enjoyable experience to play! In my opinion, this decision has allowed WoW to be more accessible to your first-time MMO player, or more casual player. This in turn has meant that WoW has been able to capture a whole new section of the market which previous MMOs largely ignored, hence why it has shattered all previous subscription records!

So let’s take a look at World of Warcraft’s basic training program, and how it works…

1. Pop-up boxes

Right from the start, the game is offering you useful advice in the pop-up boxes. For example, telling you how to find quest givers, loot corpses and engage enemies. As new experiences come up in the game, there continue to be pop-up boxes giving you instructions. Even in the later stages of the game, pop-up confirmation text (eg. when you will change an enchant/item improvement) reminds even the more experienced players of something they may have overlooked.

It’s good that you have the option to disable most of these if you are already aware of the information, but for the new players to the game they help give you a great head start – less time wasted trying to figure simple things out and more time spent actually enjoying the game!

2. Loading screen hints

These were introduced only in later patches, but again are very useful for the less experienced player. They contain a number of useful tips and keystroke commands that aren’t taught in the pop-up basics. Again, rather than learning these by eating up valuable game time poring over manuals or other websites etc. players can actually spend more time just playing, and learning the things that can’t be taught in this way like good tactics and strategies.

3. Being “shepherded”  by quests

This refers to quest text being set out in such a way as to provide some hints, and also the way that quests will lead you into other zones you haven’t explored yet.  It’s nice to get some signposts pointing you in the right direction, or guiding you to new places, and I think the way the quest text is written helps do this job very well.

I see these as being the three main ways in which Blizzard does a good job in familiarizing the new player with the game, and guiding them along the road towards the end-game.

Sure, there are some things that could always be improved, and there are some things that are left out. But I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing… after all most people don’t want to be spoonfed 100% of the time and still like some challenge… I know I do!

Now, my colleague Messiah has raised an interesting counterpoint or two in his blog! You may want to check out his side of the story. But I still think that the quest text helps even with this too, as apart from elite quests, there are a number of other quests where the text specifically suggests you’ll want some allies along, which encourages you to group when you need to.

I do agree, perhaps there could be a bit more outlined about meeting stones, grouping and using the Trade/LFG channels in the loading screen hints. But overall, I think Blizzard does a very good job of schooling its new players, and makes learning the game non-threatening and more enjoyable! This has really been one of secrets behind the World of Warcraft phenomenon!

So welcome all newbies… welcome to the World of Warcraft! Your adventures in Azeroth are only just beginning…

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