In order to highlight the importance of a new player experience, MMORPG.com columnist Justin Webb asks a friend with no MMO experience to play through sixty minutes of WoW, bringing us the results.
With the Star Trek beta coming to its conclusion, there have been lots of articles written recently about its starter area. The general concensus seems to be that it's not very good. I've played it for about six hours or so and there are still parts of the game that have me baffled.
Starter areas are really hard to do because, firstly they have to introduce the player to the game smoothly, and secondly, they need to teach the player how to play an MMO. Many games don't even bother with the second point, and make all kinds of erroneous assumptions about what the player already knows. The second point is especially important if your game is IP based, as hopefully you are trying to attract fans of the IP itself, not just MMO enthusiasts.
Read The Adventures of Jeannie.
