WoW unfriendly to new players?

[Kukakkau]

Recently I considered starting up my WoW account again after my exams had finished (in the latter half of the summer) but realised to catch up I would have to buy 2 expansion packs each worth £25. This then made me realise how unfriendly the game is to new players since to catch up they have to pay around £90 for discs (£20 for original and TBC and £25 for WotLK and Catyclysm) and of course the subscription costs of £9 a month.

Also theres the patches which took me 4 hours for the original (I started just after Blackwing Lair came out so probably alot more now) and around 2 hours for TBC patches, that makes it likely around 10 HOURS of patching to catch up.

So adding in the costs and age long times to catch up with patches I'm wondering how appealing WoW is to new players these days? Because faced with those numbers I'd give up and find an alternative (just discovered Perfect World - not as good but it's free download and no subscription, plus 15mins of patching)

In all I think lowering the subscripion cost would likely help new players come in cause it is kinda steep considering they already make way too much money (£38.15 per second from all subscriptions alone [around 11 million players])

So does anyone else feel daunted by all this or has been deterred from getting into the game because of it?

 

[Ranorak]

Actually, the last few patches and the oncoming expansion have vastly improved the game for newcomers and old familiar friends.

They drasticly lowered the amount of EXP needed to level up.
They lowered the levels for mounts to 20 and 40, instead of 40 and 60. As well as the cost.
And Cataclysm will streamline the quests in Azeroth to the quality we now have.

The only thing that is slightly hard for a new player is the Auction House.
stuff is just way overpriced in there.

 

[Kukakkau]

Actually, the last few patches and the oncoming expansion have vastly improved the game for newcomers and old familiar friends.

They drasticly lowered the amount of EXP needed to level up.
They lowered the levels for mounts to 20 and 40, instead of 40 and 60. As well as the cost.
And Cataclysm will streamline the quests in Azeroth to the quality we now have.

The only thing that is slightly hard for a new player is the Auction House.
stuff is just way overpriced in there.

That right there would make me quit - there's no challenge to leveling up and you don't get any sense of reward from making an effort to 40 for your half assed mount. Killing it further

But still I was refering to the costs/patching time pushing people away not gameplay

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Actually, the last few patches and the oncoming expansion have vastly improved the game for newcomers and old familiar friends.

They drasticly lowered the amount of EXP needed to level up.
They lowered the levels for mounts to 20 and 40, instead of 40 and 60. As well as the cost.
And Cataclysm will streamline the quests in Azeroth to the quality we now have.

The only thing that is slightly hard for a new player is the Auction House.
stuff is just way overpriced in there.

That right there would make me quit - there's no challenge to leveling up and you don't get any sense of reward from making an effort to 40 for your half assed mount. Killing it further

But still I was refering to the costs/patching time pushing people away not gameplay

To be honest its not so easy that you can breeze to 40 in less than a month. But to be honest, it sounds like you've made up your mind. I started playing in September. In total I think it took me about a day to install everything and patch. Maybe 8 hours for the whole process. And you don't need to get WotLK unless you're at level 70. TBC for level 60. And as for subscription... I find the cost kinda fades a bit if you use the prepaid game cards. I use the two month cards and to be honest it doesn't feel like I'm spending much at all for the fun I get out of it.

 

[Koganesaga]

The game might not be noob friendly in terms of installation and pricing, it's so damned noob friendly any other way they drive away the people who prefer a challenge in their games (me, TBC before nerf ftw), of course you can't blame them for doing what gets them the most money.

 

[jubosu]

The game is friendly now due to making everything easier.
I haven't really minded myself because it me glad i don't have to burn as much time leveling alts.
Made pretty much every level easier and gear pops up more often it seems

 

[Bagmanith]

In a genre that is notorious for having trouble drawing in and retaining new players I think blizzard have a done a marvelous job with WoW. The start up costs (in Australia) are comparable or perhaps even less then any new release title.

Blizzard has always played a balancing act with their games, in regards to catering for a large player base and continue to do so. So is wow unfriendly to new players, not compared to numerous other online games and communities.

As mentioned, Cataclysm, slated for release later this year, will also be restructuring the "old world". As such many older players will roll new characters further "leveling" the playing field for new players.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

And here I was thinking you meant the actual game, not Blizzard's money hungry nature. Honestly I think they were rather cruel to age old players. I think if you played for X long, you should have been able to get discounts on your subscriptions.

If I wasn't still paying the full monty each month, I might still be playing.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Recently I considered starting up my WoW account again after my exams had finished (in the latter half of the summer) but realised to catch up I would have to buy 2 expansion packs each worth £25. This then made me realise how unfriendly the game is to new players since to catch up they have to pay around £90 for discs (£20 for original and TBC and £25 for WotLK and Catyclysm) and of course the subscription costs of £9 a month.

New players don't need both expansions. Unless you're using refer a friend or just playing the shit out of it, you should have a couple of months as a new player before you need Wrath of the Lich King (sure, a serious player can get to 70 pretty fast, but if you're that dedicated the price probably isn't putting you off too much).

Once Cataclysm comes out, I'd expect the price of the previous stuff to fall a little.

 

[Mokuren]

I don't think it's a matter of it being friendly to new players or not. Aside from personal taste, I think the real problem with this game is that most of its better content is locked up in the highest tiers. That is, at max level, which was 70 last time I bothered to check but it might be higher.

See, it's not like there's nothing to do at lower levels, it's just that there's nothing GOOD to do. Compared to all the dungeons, the raid, the massive cooperation/arena/PvP/battlefields/what have you and stuff, everything else is just "Grind to max level then start begging around to be allowed into a guild that actually lets you participate in some raid where you can get some equipment that will make seniors actually talk to you".

The fact that there's so many XP boosts simply implies that the part where you gather XP is the most boring, and must be navigated quickly so you can get to the REAL game. It's just that there's these two tiers that annoy me, this is what I think when I read "Unfriendly to new players".

I realize it's an "old" game that has a lot of "old" players that want new content to keep interest, but I think that if the lower and mid levels were made more "unique" as well, then maybe even the idea of making another character will have some reason beyond 100% completionism or self-imposed challenges or just giggles.

 

[enzilewulf]

Actually, the last few patches and the oncoming expansion have vastly improved the game for newcomers and old familiar friends.

They drasticly lowered the amount of EXP needed to level up.
They lowered the levels for mounts to 20 and 40, instead of 40 and 60. As well as the cost.
And Cataclysm will streamline the quests in Azeroth to the quality we now have.

The only thing that is slightly hard for a new player is the Auction House.
stuff is just way overpriced in there.

Lol when I played I just bull shited people on my lv 80 account by mining like 100 copper and put it up for 100g to see if any one would buy it. when they did I laughed my ass off. suckers. If I remember right you can only put it into stacks of 20 so each one was 100g and I made 500g. I was laughing sooooooo hard.

OP: I think that the game is a lot easier now. I love it really. Even though I don't play anymore.

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

I think for sixty days $30 isn't too bad, could be worse. And unless you are new to the game and feel like buying all the expansions at the same time time then it isn't there fault it costs you so much, it's your own. I recommend hitting cap level on an expansion then buy the next one. That's what I did.

 

[Jajarra]

I don't think it's a matter of it being friendly to new players or not. Aside from personal taste, I think the real problem with this game is that most of its better content is locked up in the highest tiers. That is, at max level, which was 70 last time I bothered to check but it might be higher.

See, it's not like there's nothing to do at lower levels, it's just that there's nothing GOOD to do. Compared to all the dungeons, the raid, the massive cooperation/arena/PvP/battlefields/what have you and stuff, everything else is just "Grind to max level then start begging around to be allowed into a guild that actually lets you participate in some raid where you can get some equipment that will make seniors actually talk to you".

The fact that there's so many XP boosts simply implies that the part where you gather XP is the most boring, and must be navigated quickly so you can get to the REAL game. It's just that there's these two tiers that annoy me, this is what I think when I read "Unfriendly to new players".

I realize it's an "old" game that has a lot of "old" players that want new content to keep interest, but I think that if the lower and mid levels were made more "unique" as well, then maybe even the idea of making another character will have some reason beyond 100% completionism or self-imposed challenges or just giggles.

The new expansion, Cataclysm is addressing that, actually. The problem with level 1-60 is that for the most part, all of that content is from Vanilla WoW, and hasn't been changed very much. Cataclysm is going to rebuild the entire world, level one quests to top tier raids, with what Blizz has learned from TBC and Wrath, or so we're told.

 

[NeutralDrow]

And here I thought you were complaining about the game itself being unfriendly. And here I was, about to drop a few smokebombs and shout into a loudspeaker that that's the silliest thing I've ever heard, and I've heard a man explain to me the healing properties of aluminum foil. I just picked the game up again a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still being astounded at how intuitive and friendly the system has become. Most recent praising: having stat change and vendor price listings for quest rewards.

Anyway, I don't really see the problem with the other, as well. You don't have to spend all that money at once until you reach a high enough level or you're just dying to make a jewelcrafter or scribe (or a Dranei/Blood Elf). Ultimately, it's the same thing the veteran players have done.

 

[Small Waves]

WoW is like the ultimate casual game. They would have to ramp up the difficulty a lot more before it comes anywhere near close to being unfriendly to newcomers.

 

[Davrel]

If you're already level 60 - you can burn through TBC content and get to 68/70 in literally a couple of days and without even putting that much time into it.

 

[Hollock]

it's incredibly friendly to new players. Ask them how much they paid for their mounts. I had the game for months and never had to get the expansion.

 

[jasoncyrus]

Well firstly you can just download the newest vanilla client from the site.

If you choose to buy the expansion discs then Wotlk has ALL the TBC patches on it.

If you download the expansions from the site then it downloads the latest version of that client.

On a broadband connection it'll take a couple days at most to download and install them.

You can also buy the battle chests for a group discount.

Finally as many have said the levelling curve is drastically shorter now. You can burn through 60-80 in a week no problem, 2 week if you're lazy.

 

[Voodoo_Person]

I considered buying WOW at one point, then i realised you has to pay, i decided i had better things to spend my money on (i'd also like to point out that im not ripping WOW players for paying, i just didnt want to myself)