When anyone plays Arctic or any other mud for the first time, I believe that their first few moments in the game decide whether or not they will continue to play further or drop it altogether. Therefore, I think since arctic offers very, very little new player support(no mudschool/no newbie channel) that potential new players are giving up before they get a chance to experience the game.
The way Arctic deals with new players now is two-fold:
1) Ask an immortal for help.
While this is fine, it shouldn't be the only method of seeking help from the player base. Sure, a player can pick a name off the who list(if he/she knows what a who list is) and ask a person at random for help, but I think that's asking too much from a person who just started playing.
2) Read the help files.
This can seem like pulling teeth. Reading about mechanics and game-play etc. is too much to expect from a new player without providing any practical use(like, we could do with a mud school)
Adding a Mud School and a newbie channel(this can be default set -on- but able to be toggled on/off so people who don't want to help/hear spam don't have to) isn't a cure-all to Arctics diminishing player-base, but it's a step in the right direction and it wouldn't require a lot of work to implement.
__________________________
I'm not really certain that
I'm not really certain that a newbie academy would really help things. For a good portion of last wipe, I spearheaded a newbie-oriented clan to try to boost the player base (AMA); and personally went through over one hundred completely brand-new players, trying to give them a strong foothold in the game, and a desire to keep playing.
Really, there were two types of people who ended up seeking us out. One was the type who enjoyed Arctic because of how mysterious it plays itself off to be, and they would, with a little trial and error, become fairly decent players on their own. The other type didn't have any patience for learning or appreciation for the subtleties of the game. They wanted nice equipment and wanted to know how to get it. They did not really care about how to learn how to know how to get it. A Newbie academy would only be ignored by the second group, and would just be a boring obstacle for the first group to hurdle over before experiencing the real game.
I think that the best thing that can be done would be for some programming work to be implemented so that every time a new IP address connects to the mud, and then goes on to create a new character, some sort of alarm should go off in 31+ world. If anybody is on to see it, they should message the newbie. They should offer help, but only as a second modus operandi to being a salesman of Arctic's finer points. Most people who find the game seem to already have a very good idea of how a mud works. There are details that may need to be worked out, but most of this can be done through trial and error. Basically, instead of addressing /how/ to play Arctic, we should address /why/ to play Arctic. If a player buys the pitch, they'll be happy to mess around and explore. If they're still happy after messing around, they'll read the necessary help files and keep playing. This being said, the ASCII maps of towns given to new players are embarrassing and could really use improvement.
The idea of a newbie channel seems nice, but there's a lot of potential for spam; especially considering the limits on use of the shout channel. Maybe it would be a good idea to implement this, but have the channel disappear once a player reaches level 5. Aside from newbies, only 31+ players, or rank 10 players who meet the criteria to become a hero, but choose to remain a player, should be able to make use of it.
My $0.02
-Freyr
If the ascii maps are an
If the ascii maps are an embarrassment, could you show us an example of a map that isn't?
Instead of making a
Instead of making a newbie-tutorial zone that a lot of people dont think is suitable for this mud, how about making "option tips".
Option tips will periodically print out tips about this game, for example:
[TIP 52: Always take food, water, a source of light and a scroll of recall when exploring]
[TIP 12: Type "option ansi" to view this game in color]
[TIP 81: Looking at strangers is deemed rude]
[TIP 1: Type "option tips" to toggle tips]
This option will be turned on automatically for every new character.
Option Expert will remove Opt tips automatically.
I posted this idea on the imm board and I would like to hear what the players think about it.
I think the TIP option and
I think the TIP option and newbie options are both great ideas. Upon creation of a new character, it would be good to give a choice for users to appear in the tutorial zone or directly into the game. This would no doubt capture the crowd that are trying out MUDs for the first time.
This is the first time i've seen or heard of TIPs being displayed in this manner (only played 2-3 MUDs briefly and always stuck to Arctic) and i'd say it would certainly help newbs a lot. Perhaps even the 2nd type of newb that Walbert mentioned.