the past few days, i've spent time chatting with newplayersin the noob towns. as i have noticed, there's been a good increase of new players. many of these are the 7-day trials, but most have been around for almost a month. through the conversation i found that these new players are having similar problems:
1) not enough noob items on consigners. it seems most people that could make stuff are busy leveling, PB runs, or building on their plots. inventory on consigners are so few, as i've looked myself.
2) when a noob look up a crafter and asked for goods and services, he was directed to the MarketChat. most of the time the people in that channel would tell the noob to look up a crafter, round and round we go.
3) no guides on beastiary and their location, stats for class/leveling, hunting grounds, guides forcrafting. the manual don't have enough info.
4) most of the new players don't know to tap into chat channels for help. most can't simply rush to join a guild to gain these knowledge. simple fact is, it is not wrong to not rush into a guild.
5) they don't make enough money to convince lower level crafters to make things for them. new players are selling hides and such, their income is so much less than those certain crafts that can makemuch more at the PB.
frustration. that's what i got from the people i spoke to. quite a few said that their would leave at the end of the trial, others say they will let their subs run out.
in the Realm of Order, there have been a few good hearted individuals who try their best to stock the noob towns, and make spells, gear for new players. these people i have much respect for. however this is not enough or anywhere near what is necessary.
in my noob days, i could see 40 people at a Consigner. i would save up 1s for that blade, or spell (big money i know). there were a plenty to chose from. this is no longer the case, and the amount of cash intake and spent, are simply too great between the young and old.
i don't have a solution. maybe you guys could come up with something. maybe the devs can. i do think in order for us to stick around for a long time to come, we need a continual increase of new players coming to Istaria.