I'm replaying Wynncraft (yet AGAIN), here's my thoughts

Hello everyone. I'm a long time Wynncraft player who's logging in for the first time since Rekindled World dropped, and I decided to do a new 1-106 playthrough. I found out that I have a LOT to say about this game, so I'm going to share my feedback as I progress through this journey. Given that Wynncraft is this weird hybrid between a minecraft creation and a full-fledged game, I'll try and critique it as such.

Keep in mind that while I do have many hours in this server, meaning I don't have the true new player perspective, I'm out of the loop on anything post-2024, so I don't know what "Burger" is or what the community loves/hates. I do want to try and replicate the new player experience to the best of my ability though.

This post will be about the first hour of my journey. I'll continue posting updates to my journey on the forums/discord (primarily the latter).

Class Selection:
I love the class selection screen. Amazing first impression with visuals and music.

People don’t give this part of a game enough credit. As a new player, you get a glimpse into the game’s setting, and each archetype has an enticing description (shadestepper can oneshot? riftwalker controls time?) I can absolutely see a player easily picking a class/archetype based on what sounds coolest, rather than going off of stats/name like in 2015.

Tutorial & First Impressions:
King's Recruit was fine. I feel like it will teach new players all the basic mechanics. But that's it. It's just... fine.

First, I don't think the quest actually gives an impression of how Wynncraft plays. There's no exploration, minimal loot collection, a loot cave that gives off the wrong impression, and not enough combat. I've played a few other minecraft MMORPGs, and their first slice of gameplay perfectly showcased how the rest of the server would play.

This could theoretically be alright; lots of games don't focus too much on core gameplay in their first fifteen minutes. The difference is that those games have some sort of a different hook to get the player invested, such as worldbuilding or interesting characters. Wynncraft has even less of that. The world it presents at the start is generic, and honestly too similar to vanilla Minecraft in terms of the mobs it has. Aledar and Tasim both talk like stereotypical AAA characters ("ok w, amadel has the elemental crystals and you KNOW what that means")

For a server that cares so much about player retention, it's crazy how bland the tutorial feels. Yes, the models and builds are amazing, especially that zombie miniboss, but they can't carry the introduction alone. Any minecraft server can look nice. I want to see standout writing and gameplay; something that truly sets Wynncraft apart within the first 5 minutes.

At the end of the day though, this isn't the biggest issue, since king's recruit is only like 5-10 minutes long. And it's still leagues better than that profession-centric tutorial we had once.

The king giving me a teleport scroll was nice. The king telling me to visit the shitty website map if I'm lost was not.

Crate Advertisement in Ragni:
I despise the crate/store advertisement in Ragni. Breaks immersion, and how many new players are gonna want to immediately buy something? Would they even know or care what a silverbull share is? Kinda funny how the advertisement feels as prominent as the bank across the street.

While in Ragni, I encountered a bunch of players with pets and cosmetics, one even opened a crate. New players seeing people with cool stuff, and then asking them how to get it, feels like a way more natural way of introducing them to the store. There’s already an advertisement in the character info menu too!

Keep in mind, this is the first thing you'll probably notice once you leave the throne room and talk to Tasim: an advertisement for a store of a game you've barely played. What impression would that give new players? That Wynncraft cares about money above all else? I just can't think of anything this advertisement accomplishes, but maybe there's internal data I'm just missing.

Enzan's Brother:
I’ll always be a fan of the concept behind Enzan’s brother. The Emerald Trail is a great tutorial for what Wynncraft is actually like as a game, and this quest gives every new player an excuse to travel through it.

The mushroom miniboss was a playsession highlight. It growing took me by surprise and I loved its kick attack animation. Made up for Therck's overly quirky dialogue.

I love how the end of Enzan’s Brother organically leads you to more content. The NPC tells you to return to Ragni, and the ring tells you to seek out a cook… but he also tells you to climb the stairs, where I found a mysterious key, which I really hope leads to something cool. If you want guidance, you have that with the first option (Cook Assistant does this too!). If you want a mystery, you can try to find out what this key does, and why it was here (hopefully).

Cook Assistant:
Cook Assistant is so much better now. I’m not kidding; the replacement of that fetch quest has probably increased player retention by 10%. Now it’s a funny 1-minute quest that highlights the importance of teleportation scrolls. It’s also a good showcase of the Katoa Ranch surroundings, and it made me want to check out what that structure [decrepit sewers] was sometime in the future.

Champion Rank Experience:
Holy shit, thank you so much for not spamming my chat with the “you have 4 unspent ability points!” message if I choose not to spend my champion-exclusive bonus points. I want to see what the server is like unmodded before I download wynntils or anything similar, and I was worried I’d have to break that rule to get rid of annoying spam.

Misc. Complaints:

• There’s a cave in front of Ragni that’s supposed to be blocked according to the npc and a sign, but you can just walk in until the npc tps you back out. Might be more immersive to have a boulder blocking it until you beat Tunnel Trouble.
• In the time it took the reward chest cutscene to play in the Pigman Barbecue loot cave, every mob respawned and immediately killed me in a swarm.
• The ring you get from Pigman’s Barbecue should be called something other than “Blank”. That name makes it feel like a bug prevents an actual name from showing up lol.