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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Najo" data-source="post: 4005495" data-attributes="member: 9959">WOTC is trying to remove what are called Barriers to Entry. Basically, anything that keeps a person new to a product/ game/ setting from trying it and becoming a long term customer. World of Warcraft is a good example of a game that has very few barriers to entry when you first start playing. For example, in World of Warcraft complicated class and race combinations are broken down into simple step by step choices. 1) Choose horde or alliance 2) choose race  3) choose class 4) choose look. 5) choose name. It is kept visual and uncomplicated. Imagine what WOW would be like if you had both Horde and Alliance laid out at once or if did some complicated mixing and matching of race with class and then determine once playing if the character was viable. The game is streamlined and simplified to allow anyone able to use the basic functions of a computer to play.  When you start playing, the NPCs in the original starting areas guide you through the basics of game play without you realizing it. How to get quests, follow the ? and ! using you inventory, collecting drops and turning them in to npcs, doing combat, buying class skills, etc. The new areas where the Blood Elves and Draenai are not designed as well as the original areas for Undead, Humans, Elves and Tauren. The orc/ troll and dwarf/gnome areas suffer a little bit in this department, as there are some counter intuitive parts. Then each level block (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc) takes you into a new section of the game. You progressively learn about talents, skills, open regions, multi part quests, multi region quests, etc. The areas where players hit speed bumps are grouping for dungeons, the auction house, raiding, pvp, navigating the cities, and some environmental and mob quests with the activation icon (the pointer/ gear thing). Though some of this stuff is a no duh for gamers, causals have trouble with these areas. Also, before the expansion, WOW did not transition level 60 players into end game very well. They still have some issues there, but there is more for players to do at 70 and so is not as much of a problem.Anyrate, many hobby games (D&D very much included) suffer from these issues too. It is that learning curve and ease of finding people to play with that get in the way of new players having fun. You want to get those out of the way, both in the rules and setting. In Forgotten Realms, the problem was 1) no obvious easy starting place for new GMs and players. 2) a overwhelming feeling of being lost in history, npcs and lore of the realms. 3) Not knowning how to use those elements appropiately to invoke the feel of the realms. 4) Tightening up marketing elements (for example, I personally do not like the egyptian and norse gods that are in Forgotten Realms being there. It ruins the feel of the setting as an outsider to me. I know it implies a connection to earth mythology that was partially intentional, but it comes off as uninspired. I would put money on it that those gods are gone now.)So, by moving the realms forward in time and causing an event that lets the designers fix marketing elements, bam! The realms gets most of these issues solved hopefully. The problem is, it seems like it became an opportunity to change the look and feel of the realms and remove the legacy of well loved characters. This could be avoided by down playing the devestation and ruin that remains, allow most of the starting zones for characters to be intact, and let the many heroes and villians have moments in history that changed the world during the 100 year gap for the better or worse. Allow those loved heroes to leave a mark on the world, or be betrayed, or do something long term players can enjoy learning about them. Likewise, keep that Ed Greenwood essence in the cultures and traditions passed down from the 3.5 setting into the 4.0 setting. Let the heart of Cormyr, Waterdeep, etc be true to what they were before. I think doing that would resolve the initial negative backlash we are seeing and still invite new players by the removed barriers and jumping ahead in the time line of the setting.</blockquote>

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