Having new players starting on BFA after Exile's Reach is fine to me. I wouldn't think it is a good idea to throw a new player into the decision of what expansion if they don't know them in the first place.
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I would be down if they wanted to introduce a completely linear experience as a option for those that want it. But they would have to first port the Vanilla instances of EK + Kalimdor into the game. It unfortunately not possible to play the game in a coherent sequential fashion as is.
They can make it so that, as a new player, you have the two boxes with "Start at Exile's Reach" and "Start at startingzone". Except that for the new players, the Exile's Reach one is in gold ans sparkly while the Starting zones one is in big red and warning that it's not advised for new players, and with a warning prompt when choosing it asking you to confirm your choice (and repeating you that it's not advised for new players).
That way, the only one who will choose the starting zones are the ones who want to do the story in order.
It woul be great, but I think that not having the vanilla zones is acceptable at first since they are available in classic. They should focus on working on the phasing of the big cities and their surroundings (like the Dranoshar's blockade that's phased at BFA and don't let you start Legion for example).
But for a new player. Where is the loss? Exile's Reach is great for new players, and they don't know anything about the old starting zones anyways, but can go there on their main or a new character in the future? At some point, a game has to invent a starting line for people to keep up, and Exile's Reach, as well as BFA, is more or less the updates of the current world a new player would need to figure out, and almost 18 years of content is a little heavy for a brand new player.
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If you're a new player that don't care about the lore and jst want to play, having the two options with a big warning doesn't hurt, they will likely choose Exile's Reach because that's the one they are pushed towards. If you're a new players that just finished the three warcraft games and wow classic however, not having this choice hurts a lot, they basically can't start the story where they left it.
So with only one choice you get it right with 99% of the players (probably more), but hurt 1% of the players (probably less). And with both choices with get it right with 100% of the players, the choice seems pretty obvious to me.
They do, if they care about doing the story in order, they will ask where the best starting point if you want to continue the story, and the answer is not Exile's Reach.
This 1% I'm talking about does not need to "keep up", they played the three Warcraft games and classic and want to continue their story, not keep up and skip 7 expansions
They don't need to figure out : the community is there to help them, to show them the order of the story. And you got plenty of ressources on the Internet. Just found a quest ? Type it on wowhead, if the patch it corresponds to is latter than where you are, keep it and don't do it now, easy.
I can assure you that's it's not too heavy for those you just want to do the story in order.
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Yes, the players that would benefits are very rare, but I'm sure that cathering them is still worse a little tweak on the interface. And yes it happened many years ago but what's your point ? It's still spoiler for those who stopped after war 3 and wow classic ?
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Yes, the players that would benefits are very rare, but I'm sure that cathering them is still worse a little tweak on the interface. And yes it happened many years ago but what's your point ? It's still spoiler for those who stopped after war 3 and wow classic ?
The right way to do this would have been returning the vanilla zones to pre cata state and streamlining/updating the graphics. Obviously avoid the grindiness present in the current classic environment.
Hear me out.
Vanilla was perfect as a whole world on it's own without any major single thread. It made it feel like you really were just an adventurer getting out into the unknown. That way people wouldn't have felt like there's these completely disjointed stories and instead you go through these zones, do your little thing here or there or everywhere and then be let out on your own to explore the expansion content that's present. It was generic enough then that plot threads had already been laid for the vast majority of current expansions instead of the cata/deathwing/n'zoth specific stuff we have going on right now.
Originally Posted by High Overlord Saurfangi7-6700 @2.8GHz | Nvidia GTX 960M | 16GB DDR4-2400MHz | 1 TB Toshiba SSD| Dell XPS 15
Don't forget that Legion was A LOT easier to begin with as a new player. Artifact quests were a super smooth introduction to the game.
It took me ~1year to learn nearly everything about the game in wotlk - and i played 4-5h daily back then.
A new, maybe even casual, player might just be overwhelmed by all of this right now. continents, lore, systems ... hell i didn't even know what a buff is in my first dungeon.
Since leveling is so fast right now i think a predetermined way is absolutely fine ( and needed at this point ) for the fist time leveling.
It is also nice to have all new players in one addon - so they can play with each other in random dungeons & the world.
Queues are also a lot longer when you choose another addon. Maybe a new player is unlucky and chooses burning crusade. The addon with pretty long dungeon queues right now - and notorious for it's boring "kill X for item Y" quests which many people hate.
It's also aesthetics. I wouldn't want my 2022 customers to see the 2007 outland graphics.
Freedom of choice should allways matter, you are right - but what to choose when you have no idea about anything in the game?
Last edited by sunxsera; 2022-05-22 at 06:25 PM.
The main leveling plot for BfA mostly surrounds the stories of Kul Tiras and Zandalar. Its generally liked by many and did a pretty good job as far was world building goes. The war campaign was the divisive part but its mostly a side story while leveling and the majority of it is regulated to the max level experience so most new players will never seen it.
Think about it, why would a new player that has no previous knowledge of the game wanna go into older content that has 20 year old graphics? Not to mention people might get confused. The first time is linear so that people can ease into it.
You're thinking with the pov of someone who has played the game before. That's not how new players see the game.