World of Warcraft

This is a short guide on how to answer newcomers' questions, and how to post in the Newcomers Forum in general.


Many new players come to World of Warcraft and have many questions about the game. This is the newcomer forum, and people with no experience within World of Warcraft will post questions that is really obvious to you and most players that has been here for a while. I see people trying to help newcomers out every day, and that makes me very happy. However, almost every day, I also see experienced players being arrogant and rude to our new friends, and that makes me sad. The reason why I make this guide is because I believe that many experienced people who wants to help newcomers out needs to know what to do, and what not to do.




Answering newcomers

You’ve seen them every day; the questions that make you go “gee why didn’t this person use the search function or read the stickies before posting?”. As I see it, there are three kinds of response (examples coming):

• Bad, meaningless response:
Response that tells the person what he/she did wrong, but not how he/she can do better next time. The thought behind those response messages might not always be to put the opening poster in a bad light, but telling the person that they did something wrong without saying how to do better is never the right thing to do.

• Praising, good response with no meaning:
Response telling the person what they did that was right, but not giving any answer at all to the question he/she asked. Everybody love good response, but what’s the point when it says nothing at all except for “good!”?

• Constructive response:
Giving constructive response might be hard. Constructive response is balanced response; it tells what was good, but also what to do next time, and what was not that good.

Examples:


I will give one example on each kind of response. I will use the same question in all the examples.


Let’s say that this question was asked by a level 37 gnome.

hey I was wondering where I get mount.

Example number one; bad, totally meaningless response:

lol you have no mount?! Man you are level 37 and you have no mount yet? Noob!

Well it’s quite obvious that this player is new to the game, and had no idea that you can get a mount already at level 20. Telling them that they are a noob because they have no mount is not very nice, nor is it giving an answer to the question at all. If this is what you've got to say: don't.



Example number two; praising, good response with no meaning at all:

Hello there newcomer, and welcome to the World of Warcraft! This game is awesome because of its great community, variety of realms and different kinds of gameplay. When you get into it, maybe you want to come do some instances with my guild? We are friendly and always open for newcomers to join. We love helping new people out! My realm is Defias Brotherhood, and it’s an RP-PvP realm. RP-flagged realms have additional rules which you should read before making characters there.

I wish you a warm welcome to the World of Warcraft and hope you will enjoy your stay with us!

A very nice post, welcoming the newcomer to the World of Warcraft and its community and encourages to teamplay. However… Where was the answer to the newcomer’s question? Telling the newcomer about the game is fine, but I believe the newcomer rather would have a short, correct answer to what he/she asked, instead of a long introduction and guide on how to play, the realm types and more.



Example number three; constructive response:

Welcome newcomer, to the World of Warcraft. So you are seeking information on where to buy a mount? Gnomes can buy mechanostriders (their racial mount) near Kharanos in Dun Morogh. You have to learn the riding skill from the trainer standing near the mount merchant before you can ride your mount. For future notice: everybody can buy mounts and riding skills at level 20. So should you create a new character, I recommend you to buy a mount a bit earlier. When you reach 40, you can buy a faster mount, and a better riding skill.

I will also highly encourage you to read the forum stickies! Atop this newcomer forum is a thread named ‘Helpful Newcomer Reading’. It contains many guides and information that you should read as a newcomer. This thread can be found here:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=141724284

Have fun riding your mecho-bird :)

/clap! A brilliant answer! Opening with a precise answer to the asked question is great, and continuing with “future notes” makes it even better. Encouraging to reading guides is always good, and as I see it, this answer is one of the better ways to do this.

Other questions and 'stupid questions'


Many questions asked here can be answered simply by typing one word into the basic search function. Some new players post questions about what is answered in the quest four lines down on the front page, and is actually breaking the Code of Conduct. For the more experienced player, it is very easy to say “omg stop spamming and take a look at the other threads”. Answering like that leaves the newcomer with a bad impression on the more experienced players, as well as no answer at all to his/her question. As I see it, at least a link to the other thread is a must. Try also to stay as objective as possible and answer to the question. The "however"-word is always good to use in situations like this. E.g.:

Hello there. This question has been answered several times before, even today! You are asking about ______ and the answer is ______. You should, however take a look at the other thread about this, and next time:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=xxxxxxxxx

Use the search function! The search field can be found atop the forum page.

See what I did there? I answered the question, used "however", and gave information on where you can find the search field.



Picking on people's language:


Many people tend to pick a lot on people's language here, and especially when answering to newcomers' posts. Some newcomers (as well as experienced players) do not have the best skill when it comes to writing in English, but they should be accepted anyway. Picking on people's language usually doesn't end up in something good. Feel free to comment people's language, but do not make a huge point out of it. You should never make a reply with the intention only to pick on somebody's language.






Even experienced players need guides. I’m sure you have a lot of experience from the World of Warcraft and that you try to help the newcomer out. However, telling the person what they did wrong without giving any answer at all is even more of a 'noob' than the newcomer asking the 'stupid/obvious question'. So next time you post an answer to a newcomer with a question, think about what kind of response you give. Everybody has been a newcomer without a clue about anything at all. A little kindness can get you very far, remember that!



(Edit 31.05.10: Added "Picking on people's language", thanks to Tatile. Also fixed the setup a bit.)

D'oh. Yes, it's a typo, and it will be changed :)

im still quite new i dunno about all the glyphs and stuff but im getting there i was stupid enough i had a level 20 warlock awesome but i deleted it .. >.<

If you open a GM ticket, you can have it back :)

If you don't know how to open a GM ticket, please have a look at this guide:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/900641324