Allied Races and the New Player Experience

[Aeula]

New Players used to have that experience all the time. I did when I joined and saw the glorious Sin’dorei race sitting on the character creation screen. I was forced to settle for a Night Elf until I decided I liked the game enough to get TBC, heck I even got the collectors edition. I’ve played Blood Elf ever since.

It’s a goal to aim towards, same as anything else.

[Zyrinx]

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.

Should have been Barbershop options.....

[Rogalicus]

New Players used to have that experience all the time. I did when I joined and saw the glorious Sin’dorei race sitting on the character creation screen. I was forced to settle for a Night Elf until I decided I liked the game enough to get TBC, heck I even got the collectors edition. I’ve played Blood Elf ever since.

It’s a goal to aim towards, same as anything else.

But you didn't have to be exalted with Shen'dralar to play Blood Elf. It's one thing to see nice race and think 'Ok, I need to buy this expansion and play that badass', it's another thing having to buy it and then grind some shit you've already outleveled.

[onesBronson]

to be fair, once mop launched they also removed old expansions as a concept.
up until mop you needed to buy each expansion, only a few bucks, or buy the warchest
but once mop came you just needed to buy "the game" and then the "current expansion" if you bought only the game, and never bought the new expansion, lets say you bought just the base game during mop, you have all up to cata, cant get pandas, but everything else good. Then wod comes out, mop is now not the current expansion, and is added to the base game, so you havent bought mop, but you now own it, and can make monks and pandas, then legion comes out, you own base game, wod becomes part of base game, you can then go to draenor. Banm. So "no need for said expansion" yeah no.
that is false that you did not need to buy MoP to play a pandaren, you did need MoP to make a panda.

That was then, this is now. I distinctly remember rolling a pandaren before buying MoP back then, now it matters little since previous xpacs are condensed into the base game when the new one releases.

[Destinas]

There are character boosts for 90 (WoD) and 100 (Legion), as well as the fact that DHs start at 98 (and level to 100 in their starting zone) - and you only need a level 70 to make one. The only large hurdle is the fact that there are achievements at 100/110 (as well as rep?) to unlock the Allied Races. People that want to earn that will do the work to do so. Even though I started in late Vanilla, I didn't level much, and I quit for much of BC. In Wrath, I started back up and put in the work to get to level 55 to play a DK, as well as earn pets/mounts from previous expansions, because that's what I chose to do.

Every expansion adds more boulders to the mountain for new players to overcome. Look at, for instance, collections and in-game holidays. There's no way for a new player to get everything from a holiday their first time doing it (unless they leveled several characters at once). Allied Races are similar to that, in the fact that it's another thing players simply have to earn to be able to use - like flying for WoD and Legion.

Presumably there will be a character boost for BfA as well. You do know that you can use those on a new account, right? You also know that Dark Irons and Zandalari are earned in BfA zones, right? Even veteran players won't have those available to play the moment the expansion comes out.

[Deleted]

Allied races don't start at level 1 and they don't have a starting zone, so they're not meant for brand new players (assuming those still exist, after 14 years). I highly doubt that someone who never wanted to play WoW before now is suddenly overwhelmed by the burning desire to play an Emo Elf or a moose-horned Tauren, anyway. If any brand new player still exist he already has plenty of races to choose from. Don't use "brand new players" as an excuse to skip the rep requirements for returning players, please.

[Rogalicus]

In Wrath, I started back up and put in the work to get to level 55 to play a DK, as well as earn pets/mounts from previous expansions, because that's what I chose to do.

You leveled from level 1 to level 55 and then from 55 to 80 instead of leveling from 1 to 80, that's all. People will need to do outdated dailies in old expansion for 3 months (I'm assuming usage of the least retarded way to gain reputation i.e emissary once a week) to earn races from new expansion. Do you really think it's the same? Before you call me lazy and entitled, I have more than 70 exalted reps, including Nightborne and Highmountain, it's not about me.

[Destinas]

You leveled from level 1 to level 55 and then from 55 to 80 instead of leveling from 1 to 80, that's all. People will need to do outdated dailies in old expansion for 3 months (I'm assuming usage of the least retarded way to gain reputation i.e emissary once a week) to earn races from new expansion. Do you really think it's the same? Before you call me lazy and entitled, I have more than 70 exalted reps, including Nightborne and Highmountain, it's not about me.

I wouldn't call you lazy or entitled, because it's the same for me - and I'm generally not that confrontational on this forum most of the time.

It's not a direct 1:1 comparison, of course. But, at the time, it was a hurdle for me with my schedule, and I truly hated leveling at the time. However, the point you seemed to cut out from the rest of my quote was the fact that it's about work vs reward. The reward was worth the work for me. If new people see the reward as worth it, then they will go through the work to be able to play as those races. In Wrath, I did tons of old dailies from BC to get mounts and pets to collect for weeks. I farmed old dungeons and raids for mounts - Rivendare's mount took me 72 tries. It was all outdated content, but it was what I wanted to do with my time for something optional, same as the Allied Races in the future.

Now, I do feel they could make the rep requirements a bit smoother - perhaps an easier way to get rep tokens, or make rep tokens give a ton more rep. Allied Races aren't unlocked equally, by any means, and I feel Blizzard could have made it better. Some of them aren't that bad in the end, while others are definitely worse. Nightfallen quests alone (which, btw, Insurrection is now needed instead) get you nearly to exalted anyway. Highmountain Tauren quests are an easier difficulty than all the other Allied Races, even despite scaling. And, as I mentioned before, Zandalari and Dark Irons will be unlocked via BfA questing, so we all start that together - considering a new player would be starting in BfA in this scenario.

[Deleted]

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.

I know but i didnt play leigon and got the game back to make one of the new races, but i cant, so i have to boost one of my carrs lvl that then spend weeks trying to unlock something i have already purchased, if it was made clear that you couldnt get them straight away i would understand but they used it as a selling point which i think is wrong. fair enough you can say 'but why buy the game if you dont want to play it' but i do want to play it, not just run on the tredmill they have created making everything time locked just to keep you sub'ed instead of making the game actual fun. i understand some people are really into the stroy lines and stuff but i just dont care about doing quests im not intrested in, i would prefer when you reach 120 you have to do a quest line (not too long) and i unlock it, not fucking weeks of grinding and pointless shit from the last expantion to get something current i think think its bullshit.

[Zorachus]

The way to unlock Void Elf's is insanity by Blizzard, totally the wrong way of doing this.

For comparison;

- Blood Elf's introduced in BC, did Blizz force you to go back to an old zone in vanilla WoW first and farm rep in a lowbie zone before you were allowed to chose the Blood Elf race to play ? NO.

- Death Knights introduced in Wrath of the Lich King. Did Blizz force you to go back to BC and farm rep in Outland to unlock the DK ? NO

- Pandas and Monks introduced in MoP. Did Blizz force you to back to Cat and farm old rep to unlock the Panda race ? NO.

- Demon Hunters introduced in Legion. Did Blizz make you go back to Dreanor and farm rep in the previous WoD expansion to unlock DHs ? NO.


So why now, after spending the $50 on BfA, and a couple years paying the $50 for Legion, are we forced to go back to an old expansion, and farm rep in outdated previous zone to unlock Allied Races ?