The previous beta was my first ESO beta and while it impressed me a lot I do remember having problems learning how to do certain things in the game. As far as combat and character leveling goes you couldn't ask more from a beta, but beyond that this was my experience:

• I was never told in-game what the different icons on the map were (ones like the tree etc.). Some of them were in the legend but there were those that were not and I had no idea what they meant. I eventually figured them out from experience - but it was loads of unnecessary friction. The presence of a legend in the map suggests that all the icons should be present.
• I tried to craft once. The discoverability of extraction got in my way - in the 30 seconds I dedicated to learning crafting I simply didn't notice the extraction tab (in fact, I didn't notice those tabs for a good long time - never mind just crafting). Right at the end of the weekend I gave it a second try and figured it all out.
• Dungeons. My problem is that I didn't know where to go (again, the legend), how to enter with a party or event how to set a party up - so I never bothered (obviously I would have been playing them at release, I just had limited time and didn't want to go through the friction of getting a message through on the spammy /zone chat). I'll be going into dungeons in the next beta now that I am more familiar with the process (and the map icon).

As far as solutions go, these are the ones I came up with:

• A very obvious solution: complete the map legend.
• Have a very early/low-level quest near the crafting stations (have rudimentary ones on the starting island?).
  1. Have the NPC ask the player to go out and get some ore in a certain area, not necessarily all of the ore required (the NPC could give the player the difference between the quest objective and the amount required).
  2. Then with UI effects explain the creation of one item, from extraction to crafting.
  3. Following this provide the player with the objective of killing a mob that will drop an enchanted item (if they have the quest).
  4. Direct them to an NPC that explains research and shows them how to craft an enchanted item.
  5. You could go further and explain enchanting/alchemy crafts, but most players would easily figure that out with the knowledge from "normal" crafting.
• Again, a quest.
  • Have an NPC in an area where the player meets the level requirement that asks them to go into a public dungeon, a solo dungeon and then a party dungeon.
  • The NPC should explain what the player needs to do for each, e.g. "you'll need to find 3 other adventurers."
  • The different Guilds (Mages etc.) seem like a good time to start introducing dungeons. Have the final boss in the dungeon drop a quest item if the player has that quest active.

Tutorial-type NPCs should probably be permanently marked on the map with a special icon, and skippable (like the Cyrodiil tutorial NPC - who should also be marked when you get in). This would encourage players to go meet them (but you can get rid of them by visiting them and indicating you know what you are doing, and get the mats/XP for no effort). This isn't a problem for me now because I watched videos and did some reading - but players should be initially guided to success with these [very core] concepts.

Now that I know how to do them they are actually really simple, the problem is that they are not simple to discover.

I don't mind the spirit of this post, and I agree that the map legend would benefit from having more detail.

I don't agree with you on the crafting point, as if you read the tooltip it gave you a very in depth guide into each tab and what it was used for. (note that the first time I went to a crafting station I didn't read this and had lots of trouble working out what to do, but then moved onto a different crafting table and this time decided I should read the tooltip) I'm not sure if you can read previous tooltips in the help menu, if not then maybe this would solve your problem. The alternative might be to have a skyrim style crafting tutorial where you can learn a few basics, this is probably most needed for trait research as a lot of people seemed to have trouble working out how this worked.

As for dungeons you get a quest asking you to go to the proper group dungeon which I think is direction enough.

That said a bit of sprucing to the tutorial sections doesn't harm anyone, but it can be annoying if they over do it. Hopefully the information given is enough, I think it's pretty close to being enough and that problems generally arise when players try to skip through it all and then realise they actually have no idea what they are doing. Your final point about being simple to discover is a good one, and maybe all they need to do is just bridge the gap a little bit in some areas, or at least make it very clear to use the help function and have a pretty in depth FAQ about all the main issues, including the ones you listed here.

As far as crafting is concerned, I totally agree there needs to be OPTIONAL quests you can do when you first start crafting. In many other MMOs, Everquest 2 in my personal experience, when you start crafting, there are quests that have you go out, gather materials around the world, and make certain items based on the particular craft you are starting. It's simple to do, and based on how many people I read on various forums that are confused from the start, would be very appreciated by the masses.

Indeed, my solutions are one of many and are likely by no means the correct ones - just ideas. I agree though: the players should just be directed to see what these things are about (bridging the gap) even if there is no in-depth tutorial.

I suspect that I didn't read the tooltip during my first crafting - so that might have been the problem. Still this is a bit of a problem because many players may not notice it or read it.

You know what I'm gonna go ahead and agree with you too.

Even though I've played many MMO's before, its actually second nature to me.

But stepping into your shoes for a short minute I could definitely see where the confusion comes from.

Looking for group function should and could be much more intuitive.

Crafting could have those tiny little extra hints

Map could definitely benefit from a legend.

All good things to help a new player out.

For most of us we've probably got it figured out, but this is going to be many people's first mmo's... not that I'm saying you've never played one before, I just think the game could use a little of this.

Agreed. Even Skyrim had crafting quests. All this can be done easily, be a quick quest and a valuable tutorial to people who know nothing about game mechanics.

In this day of ADD, you can't expect people to carefully read a wall of text explanation. Doing is a better teacher than only reading about it anyway.

Anyone read the book sitting right next to the crafting stations? Explains crafting for each one pretty well.

Tips and tricks - http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1493169-tips-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started/

here ya go this is good info and might help you

Excellent post OP. People not used to the Elder scrolls style compass and lack of a mini map will definitely be overwhelmed at first. I know quite a few friends who found it that way after reaching the starter island from coldharbor and some of them stopped playing because of it.