For the noobs!!!

The noobs.

Most of us know them, we all love them, and we all hate them. But what does this term really mean? Until recently, I don't think I fully understood. You see, I've been a gamer as long as I have conscious memory. Some of my earliest memories are of my Father whooping me at Q-Bert (He cheated. He turned the controller 45 degrees to make the control more logical, a brilliantly creative idea to a child.) I remember watching my Brother player Super Mario and swing the controller around as she jumped and moved the character, seemed silly at the time, but look at the success of the Wii. Being a gamer from birth I've surrounded myself with like-minded individuals, thus "noobs" were not common in my circle.

I honestly don't think I really understood what's going on with noobs until very recently. You see, recently, my mother started playing World of Warcraft. It's been a wonderfully illuminating experience for me. To watch her as the gears turn in her head making the connections as she goes. It's similar to watching a child learn something new, seeing the look on someone's face when everything lines up and makes sense is amazing. Unfortunately, that expression is one that most people aren't willing to work hard for. There's a point where frustration no longer becomes worth the effort of searching for the Rosetta stone that makes everything work.

Thanks to my Mother, I feel I now have a deeper understanding of the noob. I've witnessed her frustrations with the game, and her triumphs when things click. As in typical fashion, this got me thinking about design. More specifically, design for noobs. World of Warcraft is not very noob friendly. Taking a player who's never played a game before and putting them in a position where the world that is completely alien is a pretty traumatic experience.

I'm sure many people would argue that there's no need to address this. "WoW has over 11 million players! It's fine!" is a statement I've heard a few times talking to my peers about this. And a statement I agree with, WoW is fine. But "Fine" is a pretty low bar for a game in my opinion. The second a designer stops thinking about how to improve on what already exists, they stop being an effective designer. With a game like WoW it's important that the game continues to grow at every stage of its life. A part of the game that, in my newly emboldened opinion, is sorely lacking is the approachability for noobs.

How can we address that Trauma? Speaking from the eye-witness account of my mother, there are quite a few things that could help. First and foremost, WoW assumes that a new player is aware of the controls. This is not ok. With today's internet, digital distribution is more popular than ever, you can't rely on anyone having a manual or instructions. Your game is obligated to teach a person how to play it. The only assumptions I feel that can be made to a new players, is the fact that they know how to use a mouse and a keyboard. Presumably they logged into the game, and made a character, so these are assumptions I feel safe with.

"But what buttons do I push?" is an exact quote from my mother. And it's a question the game should have answered for her. She stood there; in a mass of polygons where she wasn't able to identify the character she just spent an hour making. With no clue as to what she should be doing, and overwhelmed by the intimidating world in front of her. She moved the mouse around a little, and tried clicking on things, but her character didn't move a smidge. Had I not been there to help her, I feel that a customer would have been lost right there. I explained to her how to move with the arrow keys (We later moved to WSAD) which went pretty well for a minute or so. After running around in circles, the next question came "OK! Now what do I do?" It never occurred to me that guy with the exclamation point over his head wasn't something that someone would instantly go investigate. But she didn't seem to notice it, she was too focused on her character and making sense of the pop up windows asking her to duel.

Blizzard already has the perfect tools in place to build an experience for the noobs. Phasing. You can see this technique used wildly in the Death Knight starter zones. As well as all through the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Take a second to think about it, think about your mother playing wow. Or even your grandmother playing, picking the game up with nobody there to help them. How hard would it be to create training grounds within WoW? A simple phased area where all players would start. The phased area could be completely skippable, and would go over the controls and how to make sense of the interface. You start all alone, and standing next to a <insert race here> with a box over his head that says "Right Click Me!" From there, this gnome could say "Use the W key to run forward! Run to me and right click on me again!" The game would actually teach you how to play it. The gnome could provide direct instruction to the player and help them understand the basic controls and interface. You would run through a quick battery of movement, camera controls, your inventory, how to use items, drinking/eating, basic melee combat, Just enough that you can confidently drop a player into their starting zone and be confident that they can actually play the game.

After spending 3 hours as the tutor for my mother, she was finally off. She killed the wolves for Sten Stoutarm and her adventure had begun! Three days later, she eagerly told me about how Sten had made her some gloves for her troubles in killing the Wolves, as well as how she covered for the mail delivery because Sten didn't have time to deliver them (she guessed because he's too busy making gloves for everyone.) As well as her stint as a rum runner, and the brutal defeat she suffered from the notorious Vagash. She had gotten hooked, and she loved it. She is likely a long time subscriber now, and it was so close to being lost without an in-game tutorial. I'm happy I was willing to stick it out, but I think it's something the game should have done for her.

Hell, it could even be extended further! A quick little Machinima could be made for each castable ability in the game. Some of the tooltips can be radically confusing, especially to players who don't know the game. I know my mom would have loved to see a quick cut scene from the trainer that gives her the run-down on the benefit of sheeping. Or the advantages of having frost armor up.

I'll leave you with this. 10 days later, after her trial has expired and she has committed to purchasing a full copy, in addition to monthly fees, I said "SO! Now that you're going strong are you going to get your friends to play too?" her reply was "Nah, It would be fun to play with the nurses at work, but I don't think they'd be able to figure it out." Now, only if she felt the game wasn't hard to figure out, Blizzard would likely have at least 10 more customers. And she tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on.

Thank you Mom, you've helped to broaden my personal design opinions.