Musings on those who will start playing after Cataclysm

A while ago, I watched a video about the changes made to the starting zones in Cataclysm, and I was pretty blown away by what I saw, even though the changes made to the zone I cared about (Dun Morogh) weren't that extensive. Now, I only watched the changes to Dun Morogh and the troll starting experience, because just watching Dun Morogh made me feel like I was spoiling the new content for myself, and that's something I don't want to do. I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that Dun Morogh has changed in some noticeable ways.

But that got me thinking: I could appreciate these changes because I am intimately familiar with Dun Morogh (I have rolled an irresponsibly large number of alts), and those players who play through Dun Morogh after it has been affected by the Cataclysm will be able to appreciate the changes because they'll remember the old Dun Morogh. But what about the players who start playing after Cataclysm comes out? They'll come into this world and only know it by what they see, and what they see will be a different world from what we think of as "The Azeroth". They'll know nothing of the old world other than what they may hear from us older players. While they probably won't appreciate what we had to go through before the old world became as good as it will be when Catclysm comes out (any older person will tell you that the younger generation never fully appreciates all that the older generation had to go through and how easy the younger generation has it), a more pressing question comes to mind when I consider this next batch of players.

What if they don't understand what is going on? After all, we know why the world is going to look the way it does (massive dragon resurfacing) because we have been keeping track of news about the expansion pack, but what about these players? They will come into a world in chaos, a world that has literally been torn apart. Will they understand what they see, or will it just be too confusing for them?

I don't worry about this, though, because, though the world these players come into will be a world in turmoil, that's no reason to think they won't understand what is going on. It's not like we came into a perfect world, either. When I rolled my first human alt, the nearby forest was overrun with wolves, as well as rat-like creatures that seemed unnaturally fixated on candles. There were also other humans in the nearby grape fields who were antagonistic towards the humans who had given me my orders and attacked me on sight (remember way back when?). These situations could have raised all sorts of questions in my mind, but I figured there was a good reason for them and forged on anyways. Sometimes the quests I went on provided me with my reason for killing the enemies I was killing, and through those quests, I pieced together the expansive story of the world around me.

Now, granted, the troubles that plague Northshire pale in comparison to the troubles that will plague Azeroth when Deathwing resurfaces, which could mean that my analogy doesn't mean much. However, the troubles that plague Northshire now pale in comparison to the troubles the face Azeroth now, what with the Lich King ready to destroy us all. Yet we aren't introduced to the Lich King in the beginning. We first see his scourge, then when we get to Northrend, we can slowly paint a picture of who he is through the quests we do and the aftermath we see him leave, until we meet him during various quests and instances, and some of us eventually go into Icecrown Citadel and take him down. I imagine Deathwing and the cataclysm will be built up in the minds of newer players in a similar way. Quest givers will simply mention his existence and the Cataclysm as if the new players already know about it, and they'll be able to piece together everything that happened as they play, just as we did.