Allied Races and the New Player Experience

[EbonBehelit]

Thinking about the whole Allied Race system, and how they unlock, has raised a serious issue in my mind: "What about the new players?

Can you imagine being a fresh newbie, sitting on the character creation screen? Seeing the race options laid out before you as you create your first ever character? What if your heart is set on being a Void Elf, Dark Iron Dwarf, or Zandalari Troll?

Not being able to create one's first character the way they see fit means many new players may in fact be forced to have their first ever character be a 'throwaway' of sorts, in order to unlock the race/s they actually want to play. This could be a major demotivating factor for new players and cause issues with new player retention, in my opinion.

Am I off-base here? Perhaps a discussion can be had.

[Magistrate]

Well, I guess you're right in a sense, but characters have become a lot more throw-away and interchangeable over the years. There are many people (myself included) that started on one class or race and discovered they liked something way more and rerolled anyway.

They're more of a prestigious thing, I think. Like getting a mount or a mog or something. New players can see all of that stuff locked in their collections--the fact that it's not yet available in a sense makes it seem more desirable.

If the Allied Races had special classes you couldn't get on any other race, I might be more inclined to agree that this is an issue.

[azurrei]

It's possible it could be offputting, which in my mind would actually be a good thing. If a new player is not willing to work towards goals, especially those of the cosmetic variety, then they really shouldn't be playing this game. They would just join the small, but loud contingent of current players already trying to find a million reasons why they shouldn't have to do any work to become allies with the races in which they want to play as an allied race...yeah, think about that for minute.

Allied races are intended to be different than just adding new playable races to the game. They are meant to be a cosmetic reward of sorts for completing a series of content...rewards shouldn't just be handed to you, right? I mean, I don't see some new mount, weapon skin, etc. advertised on the expansion box and expect it to be waiting for me without doing any work, do you? I get that the few new races added to the game in the past were simply playable with the new expansion, but players need to understand that there are differences between those previously added races and allied races.

[seleri]

You're right. The system is bad as is (and I say that as someone that already meets the requirements for the first 4). Luckily, I'm sure they'll remove the requirements, or at least the rep, after a few months. The people defending it do so because they meet the requirements and it was something they accomplished naturally playing the game the way they play. If it were locked behind pet battles (or whatever aspect of the game they don't actively participate in), most of those same people would be pitching a fit.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Not being able to create one's first character the way they see fit means many new players may in fact be forced to have their first ever character be a 'throwaway' of sorts, in order to unlock the race/s they actually want to play. This could be a major demotivating factor for new players and cause issues with new player retention, in my opinion.

Am I off-base here? Perhaps a discussion can be had.

Can you imagine being a fresh newbie, sitting on the character creation screen? Seeing the class options laid out before you as you create your first ever character? What if your heart was set on being a Death Knight?

Because that's exactly what WotLK was like. You know...the expansion that saw WoW reach it's height in sub numbers.

[EbonBehelit]

Can you imagine being a fresh newbie, sitting on the character creation screen? Seeing the class options laid out before you as you create your first ever character? What if your heart was set on being a Death Knight?

Because that's exactly what WotLK was like. You know...the expansion that saw WoW reach it's height in sub numbers.

The thought had occurred to me as I was writing the OP. There's a few major differences between the two, though:

Levelling to 55 was simple to understand and not particularly difficult - even back in Wotlk. Not to sound inane, but 110 levels is going to seem more daunting to an unfamiliar player than 55 did. There's also the achievement requirements to consider, since a new player isn't going to understand what they even mean until they become familiar with Legion's quest chains and rep - and when they do, the scope of the task ahead may be an even further blow to morale.

Also, Death Knights (and Demon Hunters for that matter) start at the same level you need to reach in order to unlock them in the first place, so no time spent levelling was wasted. In addition, since any race bar Pandaren can be a DK, you can essentially headcanon your original character into a Death Knight with very little effort.

[Mirishka]

Why wasn't this added to one of the other dozen+ topics about allied races? What made you decide that the forums needed yet another one?

- - - Updated - - -

The thought had occurred to me as I was writing the OP. There's a few major differences between the two, though:

Levelling to 55 was simple to understand and not particularly difficult - even back in Wotlk. Not to sound inane, but 110 levels is going to seem more daunting to an unfamiliar player than 55 did. There's also the achievement requirements to consider, since a new player isn't going to understand what they even mean until they become familiar with Legion's quest chains and rep - and when they do, the scope of the task ahead may be an even further blow to morale.

Also, Death Knights (and Demon Hunters for that matter) start at the same level you need to reach in order to unlock them in the first place, so no time spent levelling was wasted. In addition, since any race bar Pandaren can be a DK, you can essentially headcanon your original character into a Death Knight with very little effort.

I love how this community flip-flops between 'WoW hands us everything I miss the days when the game took effort' and 'omg this actually takes work QQ y i gotta work 4 this' whenever needed.

To someone new to WoW, the whole goddamned game is daunting. The levels, the expansions, the classes and different specs, the dungeons and raids, the mechanics, what to stand in and what not to stand in, its a ton of things to work through and learn and make progress on.

So stop pretending that allied races are some uniquely unfair, terrible thing that might just be too much for those poor, unfortunate new players. A 'further blow to morale', seriously?

[FelPlague]

Thinking about the whole Allied Race system, and how they unlock, has raised a serious issue in my mind: "What about the new players?

Can you imagine being a fresh newbie, sitting on the character creation screen? Seeing the race options laid out before you as you create your first ever character? What if your heart is set on being a Void Elf, Dark Iron Dwarf, or Zandalari Troll?

Not being able to create one's first character the way they see fit means many new players may in fact be forced to have their first ever character be a 'throwaway' of sorts, in order to unlock the race/s they actually want to play. This could be a major demotivating factor for new players and cause issues with new player retention, in my opinion.

Am I off-base here? Perhaps a discussion can be had.

"Hmm this race looks cool... Says i need to unlock it... Interesting... Guess i will go unlock it"
then he selects off the dk or the demon hunter...

yeah man its so fucking stupid, fuck blizzard for putting level requirments on these classes, i want my classes and i want them NOW fuck off blizzard
oh wait races? right, right right umm....



seriously, you can tell how much people just want something to shit on, when the demon hunter and dk both having had level requirments was "oh cool" and now its "well fucking WE HAVE TO EARN STUFF FUCKING WTF, I WANT A GAME THAT I LOG ON AND EVERYTHING IS GIVEN TO ME"

ALSO if you really think someone is going to find "110" scarier then "55" maybe you need to stop letting 5 year olds who cant count play?

also you do know the game guides you to doing these acheivments right? telling you on your map, adventure guide, and acheivement tab?

you act like the average player is too stupid to google, or look at their UI

[Mirishka]

"Hmm this race looks cool... Says i need to unlock it... Interesting... Guess i will go unlock it" then he selects off the dk or the demon hunter...
oh wait races right.
seriously, you can tell how much people just want something to shit on, when the demon hunter and dk both having had level requirments was "oh cool" and now its "well fucking WE HAVE TO EARN STUFF FUCKING WTF, I WANT A GAME THAT I LOG ON AND EVERYTHING IS GIVEN TO ME"

Exactly.

It was because of Blizzard's concern for the 'new player experience' that resulted in changes which are largely regarded as the dumbing down of the game. The easymode starting areas, the way which quests are conveniently laid out, the way that the game doesn't overwhelm you with spells and abilities and a ton of information, and just a ton of other changes. All the stuff people bitch about as making the game too easy, too catered-to-the-casuals, too dumb, blah blah. Things that people supposedly loved about classic/BC, supposedly changed and dumbed down for the sake of new players.

And now there's suddenly a crop of players crying "The allied races are so unreasonable! Think about the NEW PLAYERS, Blizzard!"... how convenient that it suits their narrative this time.

What a joke.

[Jaigar]

Eh. The allied race repuation requirement will go away when BFA actually releases. I hope. I believe its temporary gating to give players something to do/work towards during the downtime.

[Blamblam41]

Ahahahaha, so many people in this thread so blatantly looking to project their lives into their games.

No, I don't think people should have to 'earn' the allied races, especially after reading shit brained comments about how this game has been dumbed down. Like, do you even fucking get it? The game has difficulty levels for a reason, the game will let you inconvenience yourself if you want.

I will never, ever understand how casualizing or otherwise lowering the bar to entry into content rustles so many of your jimmies, to the point where it's an honest to god concern you have mental disorders.

The obsession with achievement, exclusivity and prestige might just be a narcissistic personality disorder, but I honestly believe it has far more to do with your inability to achieve anything in your lives you deem exclusive or prestigious, posturing it being far more of a self esteem issue.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

The thought had occurred to me as I was writing the OP. There's a few major differences between the two, though:

Levelling to 55 was simple to understand and not particularly difficult - even back in Wotlk. Not to sound inane, but 110 levels is going to seem more daunting to an unfamiliar player than 55 did. There's also the achievement requirements to consider, since a new player isn't going to understand what they even mean until they become familiar with Legion's quest chains and rep - and when they do, the scope of the task ahead may be an even further blow to morale.

Also, Death Knights (and Demon Hunters for that matter) start at the same level you need to reach in order to unlock them in the first place, so no time spent levelling was wasted. In addition, since any race bar Pandaren can be a DK, you can essentially headcanon your original character into a Death Knight with very little effort.

Even with the new leveling system...leveling to 110 is still probably going to be less of a grind than leveling to 55 was back in lich king. And the achievements you need to unlock the races can be done pretty easily just by playing the game.

[Flarelaine]

We really need one megathread for all the whining about having to play the game.

[Wildspirit]

I'm willing to bet that BfA will, at some point, bring some sort of shortcut feature for those reputation requirement. In time, those maybe even removed when and if Blizzard consider that lorewise, the Allied races have been there long enough to be a part of the core Horde / Alliance.

Allied races are atm sort of a prestigious cosmetic thing and therefore requires some efforts to unlock. I can understand that as a new player it could be frustrating to see some options you can't access to but it's like Dk and DH where you need to work for it. I'm not particularly offended by this to be honest.

[Iflash]

There are 13 races already. I highly doubt a new player will have some sort of unshakeable attachment to one of the allied races, to the point that any of the other are "throwaways".

It would go like this:

Blizz "We have 19 races, but 6 of them are special races, you need to befriend their race in game with an existing character to be able to play as them"

New Player "Ok, cool!"

Seriously. It's a new player. None of the new races were in WC3, or the Warcraft Movie, or are mainstream enough for a new player to start BFA because of them.

There's :
-Fancy Night Elf
-Dark Blood Elf
-Bigger Antlers Tauren
-Dark Dwarf
-Slightly lighter Draenei.
-Taller Troll.

The only people that could have any attachment to these races are people who played Legion already, except maybe with the Zandalari and Iron Dwarves, and we don;t know if those will have restrictions.

[rohendar]

I would go even further. Say you only ever played shaman, never played any other class or alt. All your achievement points and reputations are on this character. Your BoP items etc. In order for your shaman to be an allied race you have to:

A: unlock the race
B: pay MORE money to racechange your shaman

or

C: relevel another shaman and lose all your first character has achieved.


In my opinion, having the allied races be a race you can only use for NEW characters is fucking bullshit. I have all 12 classes already at 110. I'm not going to goddamn relevel my chars in order to make my druid a zandalari troll. I'm going to have to pay EVEN more money to blizzard on top of ALREADY paying for the expansion AND a monthly fee, in order to play Zandalari troll druid. ABSOLUTE FUCKING BULLSHIT.

[deviantcultist]

We really need one megathread for all the whining about having to play the game.

I think this pretty much settles the thread.

[Super Kami Dende]

Jesus Christ, there are literally 3 thread about the same thing in the 6 "recent Forum posts" sections.

Look before making another whine thread, they already ready have enough threads full of idiots doing it.

[Mijati]

well its blizzard.. full of stupid ideas and a bullshit way to get them done ...
just as hind .. they could even have done it like : only players who play more than 7 years wow will have acces to the new races ... would be the same crapp shit like now

[Iflash]

I would go even further. Say you only ever played shaman, never played any other class or alt. All your achievement points and reputations are on this character. Your BoP items etc. In order for your shaman to be an allied race you have to:

A: unlock the race
B: pay MORE money to racechange your shaman

or

C: relevel another shaman and lose all your first character has achieved.


In my opinion, having the allied races be a race you can only use for NEW characters is fucking bullshit. I have all 12 classes already at 110. I'm not going to goddamn relevel my chars in order to make my druid a zandalari troll. I'm going to have to pay EVEN more money to blizzard on top of ALREADY paying for the expansion AND a monthly fee, in order to play Zandalari troll druid. ABSOLUTE FUCKING BULLSHIT.

Wait, what?

That's still true for any new race, regardless of the unlocking. Or new classes for that matter. So what you are saying is that race changes to new races should cost no money?