Addon and UI tips for new WoW players
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 15th 2012 at 2:00PM
Can you believe there are people out there who have yet to play World of Warcraft? It's totally true. In an attempt to be investigative and thought-provoking, I've begun writing a few pieces on bringing brand new MMO players into World of Warcraft more than seven years after the game's initial release. For the purposes of experimentation and all that jazz, I turned off every single addon while my ... subjects ... toiled away.
It was uncomfortable at first watching an addon-less screen, but bearings were gotten and life went on. However, there were a few points of the user interface that were not necessarily troubling to my brand new player, but moreso gave a feeling of being "lost" on the screen during moments of tense combat or heavy movement.
I wrote down the observations that I believe new players can benefit the most from. With little to no customization needed, these addons and tips can greatly enhance a new player's starting experience while removing some of the tedium of certain tasks mixed with hard-to-explain concepts. Maybe we can even get some of these features in game as part of Blizzard's new player initiative.
Tide talents over until Mists of Pandaria
You have no idea how badly I want Blizzard to just throw away talents right now, immediately, much like the release of patch 4.0.6, because there is nothing more confusing and off-putting to a brand new player than a wall of text and pictures. My test subject was so excited to see a new panel open up on the menu bar only to be greeted with more choices, more reading, and discussion about abilities she hadn't even gotten to train yet. Seriously? At level 10? The aspect of the talent system that worked best, ironically, was the specialization part, where my new player quickly read the descriptions of the class, liked her pet, and chose Beast Mastery based on the description.
So until Mists of Pandaria destroys talents as we know them, make talents a no-brainer for new players. I'd tell you to grab an addon like Talented or Talent Planner, but both projects were abandoned some time ago because, well ... talents. Instead, you get to be the addon this time. Talents are important to a character's scaling power, and making sure your new player is filling out that tree, even haphazardly, is worth it. Hand hold with talents until Mists of Pandaria, since then the system is just easy-peasy.
Selling vendor greys -- not as easy to explain as it sounds
Our lives are shaped by the language of MMOs -- we grew up with it, lived it, played every game in the genre. Even if you weren't an MMO gamer, by the time Mario 64 rolled around, you pretty much had a handle on how to navigate through a 3D world, could grok the fact that an object could be behind another object and you had to run around, and knew that there was a relative set of physics that affected how your character interacted with the world.
The problem arrives when you have someone who doesn't necessarily possess that muscle memory or motor skill set, especially with a mouse and a keyboard at the same time, with buttons to hold for moving your eyes. It's a strange and foreign concept that reminds me of the early days of film, when people in theaters didn't understand that "cutting away" to a new shot after people walked through a door meant that people had walked through the door and were in a new space. Conceptually, that's not easy for someone who doesn't understand the language of movies.
Vendoring grey items was one of those conceptual ideas that sounds easier to explain than it is. First, you have to establish that there is an economy and that economy is practically limitless. Then, you have to explain sources of income. One such source of income are items specifically designed to be worthless to you but worthwhile to any vendor in the world, because this item's purpose is to be sold. Can you see how this becomes a bit of a headache?
Rather, why not install something like Sell-O-Matic 2 for your brand new player, making the act of gray item inventory management a thing of the past? These addons can be configured to sell all gray items in your bags immediately upon clicking on a vendor. It is heartbreaking to watch someone you love go from item to item, reviewing its color, and making a decision to sell.
Download Sell-O-Matic 2 at [Curse].
The number of people who read quests
It's strange, the things you learn about people when they are in unfamiliar worlds. I thought this new player to be an avid reader of good and bad fiction -- but well, not here. This was a different person, someone weird and primal, who cared not for words and prose but looting and finishing quests. Who knew?
With the absence of reading quest text comes the atrocious consequence of new players who get frustrated when they do not understand how to complete a quest. Getting something like Quest Helper gives new players a more plain-language, right-on-the-map explanation of certain quest elements that will make your new player's experience just a bit more fluid.
Remember, brand new MMO players don't understand the language or concept of "spawn locations," much less the idea of patrols and adds. Quest Helper (or any quest addon that you prefer) can pull all of those concepts together and, in practice, it will slowly become apparent how things work.
Download Quest Helper at [Curse].
Next week, I'm going to do an Addon Spotlight all about recommended addons for returning players coming back for Pandaria and the Scroll of Resurrection. What would be your biggest addon tips for the old guard coming back to see the new worlds ahead?
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Twill Mar 15th 2012 2:23PM
Nice write up. It applies more to helping my dad when he started than my little sister. Weird how the generational gap makes such a huge difference with this stuff!
My Dad: "I don't see any bears..."
Sister: "I killed them all. Wait until they respawn. Duh."
*My dad gives me a puzzled look*
Narayana Mar 15th 2012 2:28PM
So, wait, "doesn't read quest text" is a problem that plagues even the new guys? Not just the jaded cynics who see everything as a means to an end(game)?
Caz Mar 15th 2012 2:50PM
Apparently.
This and the talent tree screen being described as a "wall of text and pictures" makes me wonder if books -or for that matter reading at all - are a normal part of everyday life any longer.
Caz Mar 15th 2012 2:58PM
More a reply to myself....
Imagine the shock, walking into a dentist office and picking up a magazine while you wait. Wait a minute...what is this....this thing? OMG it's a collection, of walls of pictures and text - bound together!?!?!? The horror! LOL
I jest, seriously. But it's funny.
Narayana Mar 15th 2012 3:09PM
Just to be clear... I count myself among the jaded cynics and have since the game came out. Back in the day, I actively avoided running dungeons as I leveled up because I saw "no point" in getting that gear when I knew I'd eventually just replace it with higher level gear later on. That's about as cynical as it gets.
I'm just surprised to see that someone coming brand new to this game comes to it laden with some of the same bad habits that someone who has been playing forever.
Revynn Mar 15th 2012 3:18PM
@ Caz - Actually, I know exactly where he's coming from. Especially while playing SWTOR lately, I've realized how intimidating the standard talent tree model is for a new player. The natural desire is to make the "right choice" (however you define that) when picking a spec or talent, but as you're scanning over talents that add 6% Crit chance to your Don'tHaveThatYet Strike ability when it hits a target afflicted by IHaveNoIdeaWhatThatThingDoes . . . It's like reading a foreign language.
Ok, my You'llGetThisLater ability will do an extra 3% damage, but I don't get that until level 74. My spellbook says it does 350 damage over 6 seconds. That sure doesn't sound like a lot. A level 85 just walked by me and he had 234K HP. Should I even bother spending a point there? I could get this thing that reduces the cooldown (WTF does that mean?) on my LowLevelAbilityYou'llReplaceInTwoHours. I guess that sounds like a good choice.
Duts Mar 15th 2012 6:18PM
What's a "quest text" and where does it drop?? Sounds like I could use one of those. Can I DW it on my DK??
clundgren Mar 15th 2012 7:41PM
When I first started WoW, back in the olden days, I only did quests when they were absolutely convenient. For the most part, I would find a good spawn point, and start grinding instead of questing. That's just how it was done in previous MMOs, and in Vanilla WoW grinding was still significantly faster than leveling through questing.
I've had to train myself to slow down, read the text, and enjoy the story.
kaosgrace Mar 20th 2012 4:14AM
Well...here I am sitting in my dad's house. On the 14-foot wall in front of me is a full-length floor-to-ceiling array of bookshelves so full that in front of each row of books sit several stacks of additional books, while a few dozen stacks of books lie on the floor waiting to be shelved. On the smaller wall behind me, there's a similar picture. Downstairs, there's an entire room - his study - with every wall filled floor-to-ceiling with books. Every flat surface in this house has at least five books on it, from the coffee table downstairs to the kitchen counter. There are books stacked in front of the TV. His wife is currently sitting on the couch, with an iPad in one hand and a book in the other, doing research for the novel she's writing.
A few months ago, I introduced my dad to WoW. And after arriving in the world, he picked up a quest. Accepted it. Closed the window. Then turned around to ask me "So, where do I go?"
I'm not sure what it is, but something about the quest interface seems to discourage even the most avid readers from reading it. I think a big part of it is the "parchment" look and the use of a font that really doesn't look like it's designed to be read.
Which leads into my addon suggestion: One of the top addons on my list is Fontifier. That plus a good free font (I like Ubuntu) makes everything in the game far, far more readable.
Jamie Mar 15th 2012 2:38PM
I'm surprised Quest Helper is still kicking around after WoW's interpretation of it was added in. I'm not saying WoW's version is perfect but I didn't see enough of a need to keep up with the addon.
Revynn Mar 15th 2012 3:08PM
Quest Helper has died and come back like 6 times now. I get that people want an alternative to the Blizzard version, but QH seems to be designed in a way that requires an immense amount of upkeep and work to keep running which eventually burns out the latest person to adopt the project. What surprises me isn't that it's still around, but rather that it hasnt been completely scrapped and rebuilt with a lower maintenance and lighter weight structure yet.
danawhitaker Mar 15th 2012 5:37PM
QH is barely alive. Quest Helper Lite, however, is much more functional, and requires much less upkeep, and is what I recommend to all new players. The people who manage QH persist in the deranged idea that it's better to maintain their own database of quest and mob information rather than use what Blizzard has made available (which is the route that Quest Helper Lite takes). Ergo, any time new quests are added to the game, Quest Helper Lite can pretty much handle it on the fly, while QH will bork itself and shows no data for any quests added since 4.0.3a and beyond.
The people who created QH wanted people to keep running the addon and sending in data, even though the addon didn't work at all. For a period of time, the functionality for unchanged areas (BC and Northrend) was even disabled, so the addon was entirely useless. I'm actually fairly disappointed the author of this article even recommended the addon, because it's been in such a sad state of disarray and the addon authors are so stubborn about the route they're persisting in for its development that it is utterly useless. There was a time and place where I'd have recommended nothing else, but that time passed a short period after Cataclysm launched when it became clear that the addon authors were going to continue soliciting donations for development (not sure if *that* is still going on) while refusing to make the addon workable. I understand that addons are done on a volunteer basis and may be a time-consuming endeavor, but when you're soliciting money for a project you *really* should be showing some effort in making the product work within a reasonable time frame - and I don't consider reasonable to be 1.5 years and counting after the Shattering, when the addon became basically unusable.
Evelinda Mar 18th 2012 9:04PM
What Dana said.
I love quest helper, but it doesn't work. It hadn't worked since cata launched and removed all the vanilla quests. It's more trouble than it's worth at the moment, and i find it incredibly frustrating that they're still "working" on it, more than a year later, with no appreciable increase in functionality. Especially when they were asking people for money to do it! I've given up on them, and have been using the default wow quest ui, which is not as good as quest helper WAS, but at least it works.
Telwar Mar 15th 2012 2:51PM
For a person who's truly new to gaming, I suspect that telling them to get an addon just so they don't have to think about selling things is going to, ahem, not be well-received.
wow Mar 15th 2012 2:53PM
I've gone back to using the default UI now. Most of my addons are background stuff, such as bagsaver and bagnon. The only changes I've added to the default UI are Titan Panel, Mini-mapster (I use it to give me a square box, instead of a circle, except for one corner, I kept that curved. Some quality of life stuff I use are tiptac and tidyplates. hehe.
I also use Auctionator for playing the AH Game. :) ;)
Shinanji
Telwar Mar 15th 2012 5:33PM
The very first addon I got was Gatherer, as I went mining / skinning to start.
Most of my addons tend to give more information rather than change things around, like Gatherer or AtlasLoot or Recount. Otherwise, I use the stock ui.
Pyromelter Mar 15th 2012 3:21PM
"because there is nothing more confusing and off-putting to a brand new player than a wall of text and pictures."
/headscratches.
Talent trees and similar type choices have been around for... (google's that...)... 21 years in games, and have been traced back to board games from at least 1980. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_tree#History
A skill, talent, or tech tree is such an integral part to so many rpg's, I fail to see how it would be off-putting. In terms of confusing, I don't see how the new talent tree will be any less confusing - there's just less to choose from.
I have a hard time believing that Wow would be the first skill-tree type game that most people would play in their lives. And even if it was, the previous and current versions of the skill trees weren't all that complicated. The concept of a skill-tree in general is pretty easy to understand - you put points in certain unique skills to give you bonuses to combat, healing, tanking, or to give you new abilities to use.
So I'm kind of baffled, unless these people like played pong, then got hit on the head and were in a coma for 35 years, as to why wow talent trees would be off-putting.
The quest-helper idea is a great one though. I also like Tom-Tom as it helps to give a very easy visual cue as to where a player should go for a quest.
Revynn Mar 15th 2012 3:32PM
- "So I'm kind of baffled, unless these people like played pong, then got hit on the head and were in a coma for 35 years, as to why wow talent trees would be off-putting."
You're assuming every new player is an experienced gamer or, at least, someone who has played an RPG type game before. I've tried to get my wife to play WoW a couple times and, as someone who had previously never played anything more complex than Super Mario 3 (run around, bonk stuff on the head, don't fall down the holes), I had to explain a lot of very basic (to us) concepts like WASD movement, mouse looking, talking to NPC's, looting, etc.
Shrikesnest Mar 15th 2012 3:42PM
It's not confusing if you already understand a class holistically, know what it does and what all of its abilities do, etc. But for the absolute newbies it is overwhelming; talents reference abilities you do not have yet or game mechanics that you are not familiar with. It's not the concept of a talent tree tjat's complicated, it's the fact that it's a sprawling, intetconnected jumble of information and choices that constantly reference mechanics and ideas the new player is not familiar with.
This is one of those situations where veterans are so familiar with the game that it is all a second nature to them, and they act as though very specific knowledge were common knowledge, easily grasped by anyone at any knowledge level.
Brett Porter Mar 15th 2012 4:23PM
For those that have done RPGs and D&D, etc, they may very well be used to talent trees and similar choices. However, I read it more as those that are new to gaming/MMOs in general and not just WoW might be put off by them.
For example, when I first started, WoW was my first MMO and I just threw talents every which way, not even coming close to something that made sense. Prior to WoW the only place I've seen talents are in D2 and those were easier to understand since they had implications in the here-and-now, whereas old school WoW talents would sometimes affect abilities that don't show up for 50 or so levels.
Anywho, my 2c :)