With a small teleport, World of Warcraft wants to ensure that returning players can find their way around immediately. Cool thing or “supervised play”?
The World of Warcraft is big – quite big. With eight expansions now and a ninth almost in the starting blocks, you can easily get lost on the numerous worlds, continents and islands. Apparently, the confusion can also be so great that you can no longer find the current content. Blizzard is now helping and giving returning characters an easy way out – wherever they are.
What was discovered? An interesting message was discovered on the PTR for the pre-patch of the new Dragonflight expansion, aimed at returning characters who haven’t logged into World of Warcraft for a while. When they enter the game world after a long break, there is a big message in the middle of the screen:
We haven’t seen you in a while!
Would you like to be teleported to your capital, Stormwind?
A question that can then be answered with “Yes” or “No” in order to accept an immediate teleportation accordingly.
Who does that help? Such a feature should only require a weary smile from most players, after all, most WoW veterans should simply be able to use their hearthstone to get to the next best capital.
But anyone who has started with WoW at some point over the past two decades and then lost interest again may have their hearthstone “somewhere in the pampa” or, with all the changes, don’t even know how to get back to the capital at all.
Just imagine a character wandering around the Maw or missing somewhere in Nazjatar and possibly having bound the hearthstone there as well. Anyone who first has to research forever how to “escape” from the area at all may then no longer feel like playing WoW.
Why is Blizzard doing this? The reason for this should be obvious. WoW is a fairly large and complex game in its scope, which often makes it difficult for newcomers or those returning to the game to catch up – especially after perhaps having taken a break of several years.
In order not to lose returnees immediately because they are frustrated and do not even get the current content, there will be this teleportation to the capital in the future. From there, the quest line for the latest expansion usually starts automatically, so that you are introduced to the new content relatively easily.
It’s one of many small improvements designed to ensure a smooth return to Azeroth.
What do you think? A good, worthwhile improvement? Or is it better not to play WoW if you can’t even find your way back to the capital on your own?
Are you just getting started with WoW again? Then here are 5 things you should urgently do before Dragonflight launches.