I'd like to post here some thing I experienced talking with real newbies in these days.
Issues completely not related with the quality of the game kick away 8 out of 10 of the potential future subscribers.
1) No intro. Every MMO they play shows something either talking about lore or actual game play, usually videos. Istaria shows them a bland blue window that screams "close and ignore me" and then gets them in trouble.
Sure, it's their fault, but THEY are those who ultimately decide to bring in money or not.
There are several totally useful web sites, the Crimson Dawn one being VERY helpful to newbies. Maybe the new players could be given links if a movie is too much.
2) More clues about what to do in the first isle. The first isle and NT are usually where they quit.
In particular:
- Not a single one would know that they could drag skills onto the hotbars. They ALL (those who talked with me / dragon chat) fought with no skills and died again and again. Most of the time they had to resort asking for advice about why they suck. Having a first day player wondering why he sucks and fails again and again is not going to help keeping him in the game.
Even myself, I forgot a lot of the game, entered with an alt and did not recall about the "drag abilities to hotbars" and spent some minutes wondering what was going on. Imagine a total first timer.
- If it's a newbie, don't send him "to the other end of the island" to dig gems, they are not accustomed at the fact Istaria is vague. They don't even know how gems are supposed to be, I had a guy standing near me with no idea those dots were gems and had to be digged.
- Top of the top of the learning curve (sometimes it's a wall): dragon who needs to craft. There's NO way a new player of "our times" (ie accustomed to easy interfaces) is going to self-understand the long sequence starting from zero - an empty hotbar and ending with the finished product. After 20 minutes fumbling with it, they give up and close shop. A video of the whole sequence (since there's no manual or anything unlike at our times) MUST be made. This is really a nasty impact they get.
- I don't know if this is intended or not, but not having Bristugo available as new character is a killer. Bristugo is "our town", where to find people.
Going to Kion? Sure, it's perfect as game design, but you just end in a desert and then they start asking: "does anyone play this game?" which alone is a big demotivator. Plus if they need gear (like always), they will be somewhere in Lesser Aradoth with no idea how to come get it at Bristugo, where THE connie is and where players ask them to go get stuff.
I know they can go to NT but that's to get the newbie get there and then moving your character there and basically waste time - not all will be available to help them then.
- The chats - they should really be WAY more evident to be used, and all of the ones "we" older players use.
Once again, newbies (and myself having played most MMOs) know that asking on chats = be derided, talked names etc. etc. They don't know Istaria is different, something has to tell them to ask. Else they will not ask for help and will eventually desist.
- NPC are all but helpful. They won't even appear until you smash your face on them, the map won't show a (!) where they can go get a quest. This is something every single vaguely modern MMO does.
Now I know that Istaria got technical limitations so that NPC appear late but the substitution of the general blue circle on map with a (!) has to be feasible.
- new players expect to somewhat find a "story", not only about lore which Virtrium has worked hard to improve but also a sequence of activities. IE at least for tier 1 they should get quests to be sent to the various NPCs (even just to learn what their purpose is) in a sort of chain.
- new players don't get a clue about the various NPC functions (no, the blue window has been closed ages before) so they see a consigner and don't know what to do, or they see a trainer and don't know they can right click and trade for formulas. This is said by the game somewhere but not in a way a new player will know to do it when it's needed.
- new players should not be WTFPWND by the first "super-extra-weak-humble-gruok" they meet. Have them able to kill level 1 and 2 and then make the game progressively harder. Else since there's also the above, they will really not want to continue. Of course the slaughter comes worse because when they meet said gruok they did not know to have to drag skills on the hotbar. Or they left the starter island without knowing that they won't get skills doing so and then they get thrashed hard.