This entry is aimed towards folks who are logging into WoW for the first time. If you're already familiar with how the game works and you feel I missed some important info, please do leave a comment so I can improve the info given to new players :)
If you haven't read my entry on the topic of Character Death in World of Warcraft and you're squeamish about your character dying, please take the time to read back :)
Now that you've configured your first character - selected a name, race, class and the physical attributes for what you look like on the game - it's time to log in and get started playing World of Warcraft.
Role Playing Game Training exercises
Computerized role playing games have many different ways of introducing new users to how to move around and manipulate things. Some games force new characters to go through a "newbie training area", while others just plop you right into the action and give no clues at all. I find World of Warcraft to be more towards the latter example, but with some helpful exceptions.
Of course, there's the manual you get with the game, but if you're like me and started with the 10 day free trial that came with a friend's full copy, I didn't have the manual right at the beginning because the game owner rightly didn't want to give it up yet.
The World of Warcraft website is a good place to start to learn some of the this-RPG-specific information, including information about the History of Warcraft. There are even Warcraft novels!
Manuals!? Bah.
But if you're like me, you just like to dive in without reading, so here's the one piece of information I needed when I logged in the first time:
The guy with the yellow exclamation mark over his head has an assignment/a quest for you to do.
From there, through the quest system, you're slowly introduced to the many aspects of the game and its interface and how you can use your character. You may need to ask for help now and then [I'll write an entry on communication and guilds and parties soon] but I found the quest system to be a great teacher, inspiring me to learn about specific things about the game in order to complete the quests and get more.
Why Do Quests At All?
Why am I talking about doing quests anyway?
Simply because, aside from the interface-education aspect, World of Warcraft is geared towards questing at low levels.
It's designed to inspire you to explore in safe directions and bring you into contact with enemies who will offer good experience but not overwhelm you. Then to further reward you, since completing quests gives great experience, there are equipment and money rewards.
And of course, since you're dealing with a geographically huge MMORPG, quests give you something specific to do that forces you to learn where things are in the towns and cities you visit, and the roads or travel routes that connect cities up.
So, what are you waiting for? Go start your first quest!