Question to answer: Who are the players in the starting zone and how do they act?

In order to find out what type of players were in the starting zones, I decided to observe gameplay and interact with characters. At 2:43 pm, I created a dwarf to start in the Coldridge Valley zone on the Dun Morogh server in an attempt to observe other player’s behavior in the starting zone. I began by following a level 6 minion dwarf, Coodle. He began by accepting a few quests in town, and then proceeded to go to the caves in Coldridge Valley to complete some of his quests, killing 5 Lockjaw Raiders. I assisted him in battling two of the Raiders. When he completed killing all of the Raiders, he went back to town and turned in his quest, at which point he leveled up to 7. I attempted to engage him in a conversation, but could not get him to talk.

In order to find out more about the background of the players that existed within the starting zone, I spoke to the whole realm. I first informed everyone that I was a researcher from the University of Denver, and the proceeded to ask if anyone was interested in talking to me, at which point Keldion, a level 1 dwarf, whispered me agreeing to answering some questions. I found out over the next seven minutes that Keldion had been playing since October, and currently plays three characters, the highest of which is a level 62 paladin. Keldion is a 32 year old female from Boston, who was at work at the time that I talked to her. She was in the process of showing a friend about the game when I asked her for her opinion, which explains why she had just created a new character. Throughout my observations and interactions, I found out that at least two characters in the starting zone were just people who were creating new characters, but had previous gameplay experience.