Learn from WOW beginner "tutorial"

In the latest World of Warcraft patch, Blizzard reworked the new player experience. And in my opinion, there is a lot to learn from how they do it.

All the menues, systems, abilities and mechanics are gradally, and cleary thaught to you. At the start, you simply don't see everything. But, as you progress, more and more systems etc are presented to you.

In my opinion this is very good to make the game more beginner friendly. They also did it in a fun way.
For example, I played WoW all my life, and this was a fun experience for me.

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AntVictus

You don't really need a tutorial that is that expansive. Vanilla WoW just had popups that told you stuff which you could disable from the get go. It doesn't really need to be more complicated than that.

Also I have played the current retail WoW tutorial...and let me tell you it's not a good situation. The older way all of it was done was superior, had more meaning and let you ACTUALLY learn about the game and things that were going on. Hell I would argue that Cataclysm had the best of both of those situations.

The majority of us aren't drooling babies that aren't going to look things up or not ask, at least in the actual Ashes community. Asking for help is literally a basis of the feel of a community, and honestly the hand holding you want in this is indicative of a game that has lived past it's lifetime and just tried to purposely over complicate it's systems to the point that it needs it. Ashes thankfully, isn't that game.

CROW3

I preferred Vanilla wow's starting experience compared to say BDO's. The new wow island has a LOT of hand-holding, but for someone brand new to the game it does have the player learn (as opposed to explain) the basics.

Here are a few suggestions I thought would help make the initial experience smooth and/or desirable:

Have a starting zone. I think most players would appreciate a space where they can learn how AoC works, UI elements, basic quest functions, iconography, nomenclature, etc. in a place where mistakes don’t have consequences (especially in a game that is built around actions having consequences). These can be as involved as you want them to be.
Consider a tip overlay. I’ve used a number of tools that can be toggled to overlay a UX with helpful snippets on what an element is, or how to do a specific task. These can also provide feedback to the dev team on what players are actually doing, so they can refine the UX with data not just anecdotes. Pendo is a good example.
Invest in your writers. Having excellent, concise descriptions for spells/abilities, tool tips, descriptions, etc. seems like table stakes, but we have all played games where it’s damn near impossible to understand how abilities work, let alone interact. This is a must have.
Allow players to skip a starting area
Allow players to turn off any/all tips EASILY

LieutenantToast

Definitely seeing a lot of great comments on both sides here for what level of "hand-holding" folks might prefer - keep those suggestions coming!

Personally I like to see a more minimal/simple UI that's intuitive to pick up without too much extra explanation; that and definitely having some "options" in place for the amount of introduction you would like to the world.

Amma

LieutenantToast wrote: »

Personally I like to see a more minimal/simple UI that's intuitive to pick up without too much extra explanation; that and definitely having some "options" in place for the amount of introduction you would like to the world.

I understand that most of the players like minimal/simple UI, but please think of the players too, who are the opposite. When i think about the fact that addons wont be a thing in AoC, than i wonder how much tools do i really get to be as effective as i want to be and as i think my character can be. I dont mean things like damage-meter or like a questfinder. I mean something like active usable UI for a healer, who needs far more information about the life, buffs and debuffs in the raid than a dd needs.
A DD has to concentrate on him and the enemy to say it a little bit in a simplified way, but the healer has to see far more to be really effective, and if you are in a 40 people raid, and all you see are 40 healthbars running wild around in the room because of different aoe-attacks, then the healing will be total chaos.
Dont get me wrong, i am not only concentrating on healers. That was just an example.

As a dd my monitor/UI was full with different Addons (in WoW). Why? Because i wanted the information about what was happening with the raid, especially when you are the raid-leader. All the Addons were a nightmare for other guild-members to see, and they wondered how i can play if i apparently dont see anything. The point is that some people (like me) use these Addons (especcially if you can make them partly transparent) as a "head-up-display" on which your eyes only concentrate for a second if you need a quick overview over the raid-party.

All i want to say is that not all people want a simple UI. Some are more happy with much more information on their screen, and they dont care about less sight on the enemy, because they feel that they still see enough. So i really hope that in the final game the ui has not only movable parts, and thats it, but that we get the option in the menues to activate far more information-sources if we want to.

I think as long as this would be a possibilty to activate or deactivate, then everyone would be happy to choose what they want and need.

PhyleX

LieutenantToast wrote: »

Definitely seeing a lot of great comments on both sides here for what level of "hand-holding" folks might prefer - keep those suggestions coming!

Personally I like to see a more minimal/simple UI that's intuitive to pick up without too much extra explanation; that and definitely having some "options" in place for the amount of introduction you would like to the world.

If you want a tutorial implemented please give us the option to skip it. Many of us don´t need a introduction to MMO´s.

A little idea from me:

For completely new players you can design the tutorial like a dream during or passage from one of the starting portals. There you can "dream" your humble beginnings in the best MMORPG. So you have completely creative freedom because its dream

.
With that in mind you can make the world we all play in "tutorial free". If something like this is needed.

If you don´t need a tutorial as a player, you can dream "faster" and you jump strait into action

Grimfaldra

Hmm...

I also considered WoW's tutorial decent, even good. But I found it lacking in the crafting part and even in the explainy-part.

EQ2 had the Starter Zones that were exclusively for new characters and basically had all the characters lined up that beat you down with walls of text explaining the basics. I was not too fond of that to be honest and I am one of the guys who actually reads the books he finds in the world.

Same with crafting...you could easily equip yourself with your own (useless) noob gear in EQ2 to practice crafting. That was decently explained and you could not do much wrong.

GW2 actually nails it quite well when it comes to the "flow" and the feeling that you are at the start of your adventure, only to screw up in the explainy-part..

Maybe a mix of those things would be nice, maybe a walled off gig with different "stations" like in some tactical FPSs (for mortar-training, queue up here). That way, people can decide if they want to learn how to move or just get an update on how to work spells and craft. Of course, managing to pull that off AND keep it immersive in the storyline is a bitch. Then again, this can be instanced like the personal stories in GW2.

Strangeape

All that is needed is a way for veteran mmo players to be able to skip the very basic tutorial.

From a marketing/support perspective, there are still a lot of people getting inot pc gaming from console for instance, or older gents/ladies getting into gaming who don't have a clue as to controls that are instinctual for us longtime players.

But i agree, i don't feel like "learning" how to walk and jump and crouch unless they've dramatically changed the usual contro layout

edit: Maybe explore the possibility of a stand-alone zone, separate from the main server for the more complex components, like crafting? like a tutorial island or whatever for those who'd like that?

maouw

PhyleX wrote: »

LieutenantToast wrote: »

Definitely seeing a lot of great comments on both sides here for what level of "hand-holding" folks might prefer - keep those suggestions coming!

Personally I like to see a more minimal/simple UI that's intuitive to pick up without too much extra explanation; that and definitely having some "options" in place for the amount of introduction you would like to the world.

If you want a tutorial implemented please give us the option to skip it. Many of us don´t need a introduction to MMO´s.

A little idea from me:

For completely new players you can design the tutorial like a dream during or passage from one of the starting portals. There you can "dream" your humble beginnings in the best MMORPG. So you have completely creative freedom because its dream .
With that in mind you can make the world we all play in "tutorial free". If something like this is needed.

If you don´t need a tutorial as a player, you can dream "faster" and you jump strait into action .

I like this idea of having the tutorial take place in Sanctus before you go through the portal to Verra.
Vets can just run straight into the portal if they don't want to do the tutorial.

There's no magic in Sanctus, and story-wise it makes sense that you'd be taught basic skills before you are sent through the portal.

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