<Hardcore mofo who doesn't mind helping newbies or seeing newbies helped. Newbie>Noob any day http://209.197.11.144/y3g4m9j8/cds/comics/3223892223c1814zzq2za94454048.jpg?dopvhost=static.cad-comic.com&doppl=0ac9b00b4689579346d957c303c9efedd20ce455&dopsig=65e5fbe24263b2e9fa37c0839d678267
But frankly, I don't see what's so hard to learn about an MMO. WoW is not hard to learn, it just takes forever to level up - or well, it used to, before the leveling curve was (rightly) shortened and we didn't have heirloom stuffs (which sadly, although again, probably rightly isn't available to new players right away).
Also, with ElitistJerks.com having all the nice basics in one page per class/spec it doesn't take long to go from basics to most ins&outs of your class.
What I hate however, is the effect this has on the players. You might think they get better, but they don't. There's less expectation, resulting in players having to try less and therefore they end up doing worse now when there's all the info they need easily available than before when that info was somewhat of a challenge to sum up (difference between reading one page of EJ now and reading endless discussions on it and on the sites it frequently linked to before).
Now, ok, you can call me a hardcore arse for bitching that the players are getting worse and while I won't agree with it myself, whatever, fair game. The problem is that it actually makes them worse as people. I've literally watched some of the most awesome people I knew in TBC, fun, nice, polite, generous guys and girls turn into the most miserable gear-grabbing sods who'd turn their backs on their friends over an epic item. And this is in a game progression that's turned from "work for your epics" to "we shall rain them down on you". Fuck me if I get it, but it's really set the hate for WoW-casualism for me in stone.
The raiding scene also just went down the toilet. Yes, TBC model was possibly a bit too hard to get into, but frankly I jumped into Karazhan (when it was completely new, not when it was old news) a little after hitting 80, I wasn't longing for raid content yet because I was still having fun in 5 man heroics, but the opportunity arose so I went for it and it was okayish, hard, challenging, but rightfully so considering I jumped a few steps on the intended progression path. Oh and it had this strange element they nerfed now called fun :|
The WotLK model is just "hit 80 and go wherever". Literally no one anymore goes to old instances, most new players wouldn't even see the "older" dungeons like Naxx/Ulduar (not that Naxx's much of a shame to miss, but that's a whole new different level of a problem), instead jumping right into TotC/ICC. Now, lack of ingenuity that spawned Trial of the Crusader instance aside, the difficulty doesn't seem to feel good to many people. I know a large variety of players and the only person who enjoys the new difficulty is my best mate IRL, who plays WoW on and off rarely, usually taking 1-2 month breaks. And yeah, you can say that's ok as people should have a life, but in a game that has a monthly subscription, I think it's not wrong to expect a due amount of lasting content for the money paid.
A variety of casuals I know that aren't die-hards say they hate the casualism cause it's just too easy to speed through it before the next patch, leaving them without anything to do, even for them and even the period where they have stuff to do is far less fun as it comes with little/no gratification compared to the TBC model. There's literally nothing to do once you reach 80 outside raiding and Arena (unless you seriously find random questing enjoyable in WoW, in which case I tip my hat to ya, I'd personally just go read Morrowind books again if I wanted such an awesome interactive experience, at least it'd have some half-decent writing) and 5 mans get old before you even reached 80, "lasting" only a few days past that with the joy of "harder" difficulty on Heroic and the TotC/ICC 5 mans.
On overall, the game's empty compared to how it's been before. Yes, it's friendlier to the newer players, but you don't get to be new forever nor more than once, so sooner or later you'll end up getting very bored, far more so and far quicker than you would've back in the old days, even if it took you forever to start raiding back then, you still had more to do even with raiding blocked off.
In fact, it reminds me of Morrowind. I remember it coming out and a gaming magazine in my country gave it something like a score of 50/100 or so (they very rarely give anything below 50), saying it'll end up being the worst game of the year. Further in the year bam, front page, game of the year Morrowind with a rating of 90 or so. Why? Cause the beginning was unfriendly, but there was so much joy and gratification to the game the further you got into it. That for me was what the TBC was like (although frankly I found Morrowind more unfriendly at the start, but then again maybe I'm a freak for having and being able to make friends to give me tips/a hand in an MMO
).
/Epic tantrum over, free eyedrops and an apology to those that endured the massive wall of text :\
