Originally posted by Mythios11

The Cata update to the original zones took all of the nostalgia out of leveling alts so most people I know just use the dungeon finder now. 

Blizz also added a lot of in-dungeon quests which provide decent XP and usually blue (superior) quality items

If you roll a tank or healer the dungeon finder queue times are really fast making it a very viable alternative to traditional questing.

there are dungeon quests for each dungeon. Just that they are not repeatable.

Even dps DF queues are quick if you are doing leveling dungeons. Only the end game dungeons need some wait.

Originally posted by Gudrunix

Originally posted by nariusseldon
You are totally missing the fact that leveling is best done by lfd. Very few quest grind anymore. Thus, the questing zones r empty. The dungeon queues for leveling is very short now. I was leveling my L40 alt yesterday and the wait time is less than 5 min, much better than h dungeon queues at 85. There r atill plenty of low level toons in wow.

Que times are low only because the dungeon groups are cross-server.  And the whole LFD system results in the game world being even more empty.  It's less like an MMO and more like an RPG that happens to have a mutliplayer lobby built in.  But part of the appeal of MMOs is the immersion that the open world and other players give; you just don't get that with a lobby system.  Hence why I feel that WoW has lost much of the appeal that contributed to its magic during the early years.  Now it's just a level and gear grind where you happen to have to team up with other (random) players, with little or no immersion.

A lobby game is great. You get cities full of players and you can jump into the action fast.

That is why the LFD & LFR systems are so popular.

This isn't really a WoW issue, but a larger game design issue that you see in most MMOs. It's a very traditional single-player game design if you think about it. What's really sad is that designers spend this time making beautiful areas that gamers spend a few levels in and then move on, never to return to if they stick with "mains".  It's a waste of resources on their part and splits the community up, sabotaging opportunities to bring new players in to an established game.

Originally posted by therain93

This isn't really a WoW issue, but a larger game design issue that you see in most MMOs. It's a very traditional single-player game design if you think about it. What's really sad is that designers spend this time making beautiful areas that gamers spend a few levels in and then move on, never to return to if they stick with "mains".  It's a waste of resources on their part and splits the community up, sabotaging opportunities to bring new players in to an established game.

You are absolutely right. What they should be doing instead of zones, is building the world like a real one is, there shouldn't be borders around a zone that is lvl 10-15 inside it only. They should make it all mixed up with all levels around based on the migration characteristics of the mobs in each lil territory. Give some danger back to the experience, if you're level 22 and you wander too far in the wrong direction, you can and will get eaten by something far more dangerous that you are. But then again, you might just get to see someone worse than the beast hunting it when you get there too. Keeping all levels intertwined in all zones is a very good way to build immersion. The way games do it now it builds a social class structure into the mix by design. Those at the cap dont intermingle with those moving thier way up. Its a fiefdom and it should be an intermingled society.

Originally posted by therain93

This isn't really a WoW issue, but a larger game design issue that you see in most MMOs. It's a very traditional single-player game design if you think about it. What's really sad is that designers spend this time making beautiful areas that gamers spend a few levels in and then move on, never to return to if they stick with "mains".  It's a waste of resources on their part and splits the community up, sabotaging opportunities to bring new players in to an established game.

This ^^^

It's not just and issue with WoW, but all themepark based games.   There is no reason to return to the lower level areas.    As people say in WoW, Halloween is the one time of year that players go to Lordaeron.

 After 7 years, there just aren't that many people starting from scratch.  

Don't worry OP, you can rush your self to max level either questing of via the various dungeon finders in a very short time, and then you'll be with the rest of the population.

Yes it is easy to get to max level now, but that is not the point.  For some it is the journey, not the destination.

  There is a major MMO (out longer than WoW), that took a chance and did what it's community wanted, started a server from scratch using the original game only.  The server rules also stated that the next expansion would open up when a majority of the server voted to progress the server.  It was so popular that they brought on a second server with the same rules the next day to handle the number of people that joined the new server.  For all the people that scream vanilla, this might be an idea to bring to the table at Bliz. 

Originally posted by slickbizzle

 After 7 years, there just aren't that many people starting from scratch.  

QFT.  I did have about 1.5 weeks off of work this year, so I re-activated my account using the 10 day free trial of Catalcysm.  The last time I played was last Christmas where I had 2 weeks off of work and I leveled my Worgen hunter from 1-60 in 7 days again using the 10 day free trial (2 pieces of BoA: no guild membership).

Did a "/who" in Hellfire: there was one other person there

Did a "/who" in Zangarmarsh: I was the only one there 

Did a "/who" in Nagrand: I was the only one there both days

Did a "/who" in Netherstorm: I was the only there, except I did see a horde player at home base.  Came back 10 minutes later and he was gone.

Did a "/who" in Howling Fjord: there was a level 67 priest there and me of course

Dalaran/Shattrath were completely empty; trade chat very, very quiet.  Really kind of eerie from my memories on how crowded these places were when the expansion first hit (and years before that).

LFD dungeon runs very smooth though.  As DPS, my wait time is < 10 minutes.  Tanks are insane or dungeons have been really nerfed.  Tank grabs two or three groups in Shadow Labs and plows it all down...BIG PULLS, no wipes!

Originally posted by grouchomarx

QFT.  I did have about 1.5 weeks off of work this year, so I re-activated my account using the 10 day free trial of Catalcysm.  The last time I played was last Christmas where I had 2 weeks off of work and I leveled my Worgen hunter from 1-60 in 7 days again using the 10 day free trial (2 pieces of BoA: no guild membership).

Did a "/who" in Hellfire: there was one other person there

Did a "/who" in Zangarmarsh: I was the only one there 

Did a "/who" in Nagrand: I was the only one there both days

Did a "/who" in Netherstorm: I was the only there, except I did see a horde player at home base.  Came back 10 minutes later and he was gone.

Did a "/who" in Howling Fjord: there was a level 67 priest there and me of course

Dalaran/Shattrath were completely empty; trade chat very, very quiet.  Really kind of eerie from my memories on how crowded these places were when the expansion first hit (and years before that).

LFD dungeon runs very smooth though.  As DPS, my wait time is < 10 minutes.  Tanks are insane or dungeons have been really nerfed.  Tank grabs two or three groups in Shadow Labs and plows it all down...BIG PULLS, no wipes!

This is my experience as well. As a tank it seems that the queues go quickly. I have noticed a few more people though than what you quote, even though I am playing off-peak (Euro player on American server).

All MMOs seem to go through this after a while though. I think one way to solve it and to instill perhaps closer guild ties as well would be to add a mentoring system like in EQ2, CoH/CoV, etc. Higher level players could go and experience low level content either solo or even better in groups with lower level players. Of course, this might not work out too well when people are on different stages of a questline and one person is hanging out in a different phase....

This is because hardly any new players are starting wow, with a lot of people currently leaving (almost a million this quarter).  The game is slowly dying, they will have to merge some realms soon because they are almost empty.

I am sure you will see more low levels toons once the new expansion is released but don't think is going to be significant. If you see a low level toon, there is a high chance that he/she is an alt. Those players will level up to 10 or so then park the toon on a main city and use that alt for PvPing and running dungeons . I would do the same with an alt, ain't going to repeat quests from 1 to max, been there done that.

There was a significant amount of low level worgen and goblins when Cataclysm was released. But that was in Moon Guard server, don't know about other servers.

The problems ive noticed on a majority of services ive tried in WoW is that many can be very unfriendly to newbies asking questions. Also some guilds do instant invites without even talking to the people that they are inviting, which places some enw players into an unfamiliar enviornment with a large group of unknown people.

Also given the type of behavior within trade chat ( which is similar to most larger games similar chat types) when a newer player asks questions they can be jipped, told the wrong info, or be scammed into doing things they may not wish to do.

Im not saying all guilds or any specific people on any realms are responsible, I do know a few guilds that try and help newer players out. But there are a number of factors as to why any game can be "unfriendly" to newer players.

Originally posted by Shadanwolf

My wife gave me some game time on WOW as one of my Christmas presents. I had not played the game in many many years.I chose one of the newest game servers(launched in 2009) that was in my time zone. So far I'm stunned at the lack of lower level players.The vast majority of the community seems to be at or close to max level.This is far from healthy for a game franchise ,if true, and makes for a very limited game experience for any new player?

 

Am I off base? What have you seen in this reguard ?

Ive seen some enwer players, just not in "large numbers" aka not multiples warndering around at starter area. with lvling abit easier in the lower areas now, newer players can "grow up" fairly quickly. also ppl who roll toons on multiple servers can make death knights if they have a lvl 55 toon or higher on their acct which would start them off in the 55-60 range for that class.

What server are you currently playing on?

dont sweat it you wont be in starter area long enough to care!

They're there its just everyone hides in a corner and queues for dungeon finder.