Anyone who has played an MMO can remember their first time logging in and being barraged by the huge persistant world and the complexities that comes with that. Anything from learning how to type in chat to character control to more extensive game mechanics; is part of learning a new game. I can only speak for myself but for me these are some of the most memorable experiences I have in the MMO universe. The child-like wonder involved in starting a new game, MMO or not, is an experience that is hard to recreate through out a games experience. What are the positives and negatives to being a newbie? How does this affect people migrating from one game to another without spending time mastering the endgame content? Simply, what is a newbie and what makes it enjoyable and not?

Before I dive in too deep about the ‘newbie experience’ I would like to define exactly what it is to be one. The webster online dictionary defines it as this:

new·bie
noun, often attributive \ˈnü-bē, ˈnyü-\
: newcomer; especially : a newcomer to cyberspace

Now there is a difference between a newbie and a noob that I do not want to get confused here. To me a newbie is some who is new to the game and has not quite figured out all the basic systems of the game. A noob is someone whom is just bad at the game regardless of their account age or time played the game. You see, a newbie will eventually figure out the game and be good at it. While a noob will just be bad, regardless. To clear up any confusion this article is based more around the idea of a ‘newbie.’

If you have ever played eve, especially since they changed the beginning areas, you know the downfalls of being a newb. Eve has a very complex and steep learning curve that can take days, even weeks (read: months), to get a hang of. This brings me to the negatives of the ‘newbie experience.’ A quality game should be intuitive enough that you feel you can log into it and actually play. Maybe you don’t know the maps, or the skills you have, but the game introduces them to you in a way that is easy enough to understand and leaves you willing to explore and eager to learn. I don’t want to talk too poorly about eve but it took me many “attempts” at the game to even feel like I was having fun. Eventually I did but it was a long strenuous process that I only went through because of how many people said the game was amazing when you figure it out. It was not memorable for me at all, and I don’t think I could ever do something like that again.

The first time a logged into World of Warcraft I was playing an Undead Rogue. I remember I was only level 5 and my friends and I were running around trying to find a cave that had some spiders that needed to be evicted. It probably took us around a half hour to realize it was literally sitting right behind the quest giver. Maybe it was a waste of time, but that was over six years ago and I still look back on it fondly. I was dropped into a new world with only a single dagger at my disposal yet I had this sense of greater explorations in the future. Getting my first talent point, my first mount, hitting max level, all these experiences felt profound. Even at max level I felt like there was more to learn. Yet, I never felt burdened. The curve, at that point in the game, felt almost perfect. Eventually I would figure out the game, work my way up to High Warlord, expansions would pass, achieve Gladiator and finally just feel burnt out and bored.

The feeling of being bored brings me right into my next topic, modern day game migration. This has been talked about before, but it seems the modern MMO player has become some what of a game locust. They jump from game to game swarming the content and burning it out before new content can be released. I personally feel this has some connection with the lack of learning new things and making the world more explorable. If you get over this newbie experience too fast, you get burnt out and bored of the game. Eventually you end up looking for the next big thing.

In conclusion, how important is the newbie experience to you? Do you feel like an ever changing world with new places to adventure where you never quite can master the game mechanics is a positive or a negative factor in an MMO? What is your most memorable newb experience?

This weeks Developer Question comes from Ed Stark, a content designer. He asks us what we like to do inside of our online games.

What are you interested in doing in ESO aside from the usual questing and pvping? What makes a game have lasting qualities that keeps you logging in time and time again?

Something that has been bothering me a lot recently is the fact that most modern MMO’s seem to be straying away from Archetypes. Your typical DND style Warrior, Mage, Assassin archetypes are being traded away for a more ‘unique snowflake’ approach. Now, let’s get this out there right away, I am not directly saying this is a wrong approach but I am more curious at how this will affect the Elder Scrolls Online as a game. Also, whether it is a good approach for an MMO in general.

Morrowind was my first experience in the Elder Scrolls universe. This was before I had gotten seriously involved in any MMOG. I loved how open the world was, how the questing was so non-linear, and how I could really be whatever kind of hero I wanted to be. The first two are eventually what brought me into MMO’s; I feel the later may be the downfall of my MMOGing experience. As a single player game, being the best at EVERYTHING is fine. You are the only champion and there is no one else to compete with you. It’s what makes single player games so great.

Does the lack of archetypes and a more ‘be whaever you want to be’ type progression work in an MMO setting?

I am not convinced. I am going to use Funcom’s “The Secret World” as an example here. While having SO many flaws it did have an interesting progression system. Something similar to what I expect in ESO. Basically, as long as you keep playing you can receive more skill points to put towards new abilities. Anything from tanking skills, damage skills, healing skills, even more utility type abilities. The problem here was that eventually your single character could become skilled at everything! Now of course there were restrictions and you could not do them all at once. But our main tank could switch out after a long fight and heal the next battle. Now what is wrong with that? Maybe I am just living in the past, but I like my heros! Gandalf, for a lack of better example, was your typical wizard archetype. We loved him carrying a staff and casting spells etc. Now imagine if halfway through the series, his character decides he wants to be a warrior. No. This bothers me. It takes away from that shiny special feeling you get of being the best and spending so much time working towards that goal.

Another interesting point is that if every character has the same ‘buffet’ of skills to choose from, won’t we eventually find the best build to use? Modern gamers are ruthless towards developers. They can find glitches and bugs in any system faster than you can blink an eye. This was another downfall of TSW. Anyone remember in Fusang all the AR builds early on? Cookie Cutters steamrolled while the people trying original builds were torn apart. Would this happen in ESO?

Now this is all speculation, and could very well change but it is an interesting idea that I would like to keep at the forefront of discussion.

What do you think of Archetypes? How does it affect making alts? Does a skill point ‘buffet’ work, or do modern players eventually figure out the single best build?

 -Nosix

Creating ESO: The Ogrim

Also! More beta codes were sent out yesterday. Check your inbox!

Crafting in The Elder Scrolls Online seems to be shaping up to be something very special and quite unique in the MMO space. In today’s Elder Scrolls column, we take a look at a recent conversation with Creative Director Paul Sage and his thoughts about crafting and community. See what we gained from the discussion and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

By William Murphy on February 05, 2013

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