Can you spot the difference between noob and inexperienced, or maybe uneducated?
I know noobish players get up everyone’s goat, usually after just one glance or experience.
Things like these earn a player the title of noob:
- Unsockected or incorrectly gemed gear.
- Turning up at the wrong instance
- Wearing gear with the wrong stats.
- Rolling on gear that is more appropriate for another class.
- Inability to kite
- Inability to trap
- Asking “stupid” questions
- Not using correct rank spells
- Not being able to find your way back through an instance after a wipe.
- Selling things for the wrong price on the AH.
- Not knowing the little red man means you need to repair your gear.
The list goes on and on. I am sure you can think of many more yourself.
Real Life Noob
Something happened to me over the weekend that made me reevaluate my labeling of noobs.
Now admittedly this is unrelated to WoW, and it was such an extreme situation that it was perfectly obvious, but it caused those fused wires in my brain to fire and set off that light-bulb sitting above my head.
While mowing the lawn I could hear distant calls from my son. He was standing at the closed front door screaming at me to open it so he could join me.
Thing was, he had just left me, run through the open back door to get to the front door.
So I told him patiently to go around the back, but then that insidious WoW noob frustration meter peaked and I unkindly thought:
Geez, why couldn’t he work out something that easy by himself
Of course, immediately afterwards I chastised myself for the thought. A 2.5 year old doesn’t think in the same way, or of the same available options, as a nearly 42 year old.
That’s when the light-bulb lit up.
WoW is often criticized as an easy mode game. In fact that is something that attractive to both 1st time and hardcore players. The majority of the game is simple point and click, but there are challenges presented that keep hardcore players on their toes.
What often separates the noob from the leet player is awareness of the options and education into the best way of doing things.
I think it is widely accepted that the percentage of players that research the game, from class mechanics through to instance and raid guides is relatively low. At least the QQ around raid groups that don’t read guides appears quite frequently, and these players are more often than not considered to be good at their class.
What developmental age are they?
I dare say that the majority of noob players are at a wow development stage that equates to pre or primary school. They are keen to explore and learn, yet have not yet gained the knowledge and experience to move them into a later stage of development.
Related to this of course is the danger in feeding the noob fish, rather than teaching them how to fish.
Fostering Enthusiasm
There is a good chance that the enthusiasm to play can also be fostered into an enthusiasm of learning about the game. Assuming of course that they haven’t had either:
- Information delivered on a platter, ensuring they have never developed the desire to research. Or
- Their 1st forays into questions rebuffed with noob titles, this preventing them from ever accepting assistance from experienced players.
I am going to strive to maintain a similar level of patience with noob players as I do with my son. I figure that they deserve the opportunity to grow and learn in the game as everyone does outside of the game.
Of course, it occurs to me that I am still a noob, especially since WoLK came to us. At level 76.8 I still can’t find instance entrances, and with only 2 zones and 2 instances cleared so far, I would undoubtedly appear as a noob to the average level 80.
Gnomer and Out!
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Some people just don’t know what the hell they’re doing when they should be… If your a high enough lvl to start running instances and raids, you should know what your doin. Otherwise after the first one you should catch onto the drift of things….
or els you are very slow, hense the name noob (new-be)
A lot of noobishness is attitude-based, I think.
I’m level 80 and play a mage. I check blue postings and the like exhaustively, I crunch numbers for my gear (though not to the extent of the EJ folk, though I do trust their findings and rely upon them), I learn encounters beforehand, I gem and enchant properly, yadda yadda. I’ve played for four years or so.
And you know what? I still can’t navigate my way through Hellfire Citadel and, cheeks burning, have to request a summon or rez to do a Magtheridon gold run.
I think we all have noob moments from time to time where, with the best of intentions, we just… space. Maybe we have no sense of direction, maybe we, to our eternal shame, have died in a void zone. Maybe we’re silly in trade.
The attitude, though, is what matters. A new player that is open to help and willing to learn is new, but not a noob. That prot paladin with the Turning Tide with 63 spellpower, that vehemently denies anyone that tries to inform him? Noob.
I have done a lot of noobish things in my wow career.
trying to memorise Elywn forrest because I didn’t know about map.
Putting the wrong gems in my gear when I got my 1st peice of gemmable gear – being a disc/shadow priest, not wearing my pvp gear in arena.. not knowing about flight points, and running to places i could have flown to. ect ect,,
I grew up, as more information sources became accessible, I learned, be it from people, forums, blogs The instuction manual doesn’t cover anywhere near what someone needs to know, and I think that is what makes this as a game alot more fun to me, there is always something to learn, ( those patch changes help as well lol ) is that you can grow as a player, the ones that want to learn will find a way, the ones who don’t – don’t grow.
I think even the most experienced players have noob moments.
Oh and LOOT THE DOGS!!!!
@Nugget: In theory you are right… but.
1) You can’t account for different “learning development” stages (whether “age & experience based” or WoW based).
2) These days you can easily hit 80 without stepping foot in an instance… and you may do that only pushing a few buttons.. Hell, you may not have ever dragged a new skill from your spell book.
eg: Although I may not be an extreme noob, I am nearly level 77 and I have only done 2 Northrend instances, and in reality I was carried through at such a fast pace that I still don’t know what was going on. What will my 1st heroic pug think of me… noob!
@Apsaras: Yep, it’s the attitude that will win. Bringing this back to my 2.5yo. He is the most open learner I know… until I try to change his mind.
If he thinks that the sky is red, I will go blue in the face before he accepts that the sky really is gray (I live in Melbourne). It’s excusable for him as he hasn’t reached a higher learning development stage, but we automatically cut off “perceived adults” that behave in the same way.
@pugnaciouspriest: There’s a few admissions that probably should never have gone public…
But I agree with you in that once you reached the higher developmental stage, when looking for new information, had the doors of the mind open for new info, then you have reached that higher plain and can really progress…
@theerivs: Yeah, even the best will still hug the slimes from time to time (especially 1st time).
“Oh and LOOT THE DOGS!!!!”
Yes… it doesn’t help when the game is filled with loads of mis-information propagated by the masses… I mean if you can’t trust 39 AV team mates (game after game), then who can you trust?
Big Red Kitty’s brain maybe?
I believe we all experience that when trying something new. In time, armed with knowledge and practice, things will become easier.
Oh by the way, that’s a cute picture. Is that your son? He’s adorable.
I’ve met some people in-game that never set feet into an instance at the lower levels and it was not by choice. Based on their availability it was hard to find a group to run things so they just focused on leveling. I’m encountering this now with my lowbie Gnome Warlock. At the moment, she’s level 26. The desire to run instances is there, but I just have not had the chance outside of a few run through via my guildmates and those definitely don’t count. A few people I know are still having difficulty getting into instances at a higher level because of their schedule.
I have ALWAYS had problems navigating the various instances. In real life, I can almost always get somewhere I’ve been before. In Wow, for some reason I always have problems. The visual landmarks just never click in my brain, I’m sure it has something to do with how I process them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten lost trying to find the various hellfire instances.
Gosh, the noob moments never end, either. There’s always someone who knows more than you.
Of course, since my first character just ding’d 60, I probably still qualify for the term in its strictest sense… but I feel less nooby than ever.
But then I recall my very first character, when I thought I had to pick ONE of the available skills to train instead of training all of them. No wonder I died all the time!
[...] moment of the Week Well over at Armaggedons Blog, he gave me an idea. Since I haven’t played WoW in some time. I’m apt to do stuff, that [...]
@Gaming Diva: Agreed. It takes time & the right frame of mind to improve.
Yep, that’s Odin… a fair while ago… A more recent (and 1/2 culturally related) photo can be seen at http://gnomeaggedon.net/2008/11/23/india-may-not-be-northrend-but/ India May Not be Northrend, but…
My 1st 2 toons made it to level 50+, solo. I was the 6th in my merry band of faster playing friends… I know I didn’t see an instance on my 1st toon… the 2nd had a bit of experience, but mainly as I was a Guild Leader, and I was the guide to new guide members through the low level instances…
@Fish: Ahh yes. I am directionally challenged as well… not so much in real life, but put me in a field of pixels and I don’t know which way is up (I always hate it when quest text says “Go North”…)
Recently when doing UK for the 1st time, I was waiting patiently by the UP summoning stone… luckily the PuG was very accepting of my shortcomings (other than being a snort Gnome that is)
@Rhii: You are probably closer to it than many.. but don’t worry.. you will meet plenty of noobs at 80. It’s like graduating at high school. You do it, feel like you know everything, can’t be told… only to discover you have anoter 60 years of learning ahead of you…
You are not the only one to suffer from the single profession shortcoming… Or the I have picked 2, how come everyone else has 5 (including secondary)… And there are quite a few bloggers out there that have ‘fessed up to the little red man chasing them around for a few levels.
@The Way of Death: Always happy to inspire…
Does that make me inspiring to you think?
Do people aspire to be a little Green Haired Gnome with big balls of fire?
To me there’s newb and noob. Newbie implying new and inexperienced. Noob implying foolish mistakes and depending on the severity – the negative connotation can get worse. I try so hard not to SAY anything mean to someone that falls in either category… but the thoughts in my head or uttered to my hubby or a friend…
Does that mean I think I’m perfect? Goodness no.
But one thing that I’ve heard a few too many people bring up recently that makes me go /facepalm is that they haven’t trained new skills since about level 70ish and they’ve been 80 or nearly 80 for more than a week.
…
How do we forget to train for 10 levels after having trained (at least periodically) for 70?
Damn, I think this coulda been a post.
** (oops) sometimes the thoughts shared with my hubby or with a friend may sound a bit harsh because I’m like “how can they… why? why? why?” But it’s more like I’m trying to figure out how they came to their conclusion or justification (of whatever it might be: gear, spec, spell rotation, travel path) to try and figure out how I can help teach them something more efficient.
And yeah, the teaching to fish… I’d rather do that than ‘hand hold’ even though I’ve had people get mad that I just wouldn’t tell them all the answers they sought. “You need to know where to find it, I’m not always going to be online when you need help.”
/end comment
Get to 80.
Put as many points as possible in one Talent Tree.
Ignore any left over points.
Can’t figure it out.
@Stupid Mage: Yet, putting all your points in one tree would _seem_ to be logical.
“I am a fire mage” thus I spec 100% in fire.
I would suspect that 90% of the people that don’t do this, only know to spec like a template that has been shared with them. They wouldn’t know how to review the talents and make semi-intelligent decisions.
9 out of the last 10% would know that you need some synergy, thus choose somewhat more wisely.
the last 1%… well they are probably those that have ElitistJerks set as their homepage, and not only want the answers, but know enough to challenge the status quo