Extra Sparkly New World

So after being thoroughly bored to tears in Wurm, I was ready to go on cruise control and do something more closely related to easy fun.

I decided to go for it and made a new undead hunter in WoW to re-learn the ropes.

Again, I ran into some vaguely disorientating new experiences. I could have sworn that hunters didn't start with a pet before. Well, now I had a pet spider running around tanking for me even before level 10.

I couldn't seem to find a bow at level 1, but it mysteriously appeared at level 2, with no ammo cost. (For all I know, I could have had it at level 1, because I started with arcane shot, but I was so impressed with the axe on my back I might have gone into melee mode automatically and just ran up close to whack things with the axe.)

I had an NPC companion, Darnell, who accompanied me for the first few newbie quests and hilariously carried about 10 corpses on his back for me when the quest said to go get 10/10 such items. Very theme-parky. Especially since I didn't run into a single new player in the zone. (I guess everyone is waiting on Cataclysm proper. And Forsaken are passe, it's all troll druids that are the rage now and worgen/goblins soon(TM).)

Ran around. Killed stuff. All the skills seemed streamlined down to almost nothing. I had arcane shot and steady shot, that was it. Oh, and hunters now use focus, not mana. Guess they got tired of bottomless reservoirs at high level? Did some quests. They may have changed. They may not have. I don't have the experience to tell. But they probably did, since the New Player Experience is what they were intent on changing this go around.

I think what Blizzard is now desperate for is new blood. So many jaded hardcore vets these days. Hence the promotion of WoW for $5 for those who haven't yet given it a shot.

It wasn't horrible. And it wasn't great or exciting or new or wow (forgive the pun). It was...pleasant. Pleasantly amusing.

I guess I shall just theme park as long as I can stand it, now that the ride has smoothed itself out considerably.