Star Wars: Shattered Equinox
by
Saroth
After seeing the negative "newbie-unfriendly" review from Dioss, I simply had to speak up. I started playing SWSE approximately oen to one and a half months ago, and am attracted to it as I have been to no other MUD before. While a lot of this is the featureset (custom ships and the space system were what attracted me), a good portion of it is the newbie-friendly nature.
Initially, I was expecting SWSE to be like any other MUD I'd tried when it came to players; I expected them to wander around slaughtering things, ignoring me except possibly to kick the crap out of me. I was delighted to find this wrong; in fact, multiple organizations vied for my membership, and nearly everyone I met stopped and talked to me. If anything, I wound up feeling intimidated because my character concept was still somewhat sketchy.
This helpfulness continued into OOC; the only time I really got guff, despite all my questions, was when I could've answered my own questions with the (extremely extensive) helpfiles. I've tried to return this as well; in fact, I feel I owe my IC rise in power to extensive newbiehelping. I always try to answer questions, and am willing to assist newbies ICly and OOCly in any capacity I can.
In a month and a half, I've risen to a position of considerable power IC, and in fact I usually have trouble doing OOC things like raising stats, because so many people need me. My girlfriend, who began playing at about the same time, was just promoted to builder.
In short, this is by far the most newbie-friendly MUD I've ever seen. I found MUDs to be boring, a general waste of time, and was not a Star Wars fan, when I first tried SWSE. Since then, I've brought about 10 new players here via my positive reviews.
Furthermore, I was around when Dioss was having trouble. Without actually being present, the players offered the best help they could. If this is newbie-unfriendly, then I don't see what newbie-friendly could be.
SWSE made me give MUDding a second chance, and turned me on to Star Wars. It's given me a bunch of new friends, and drawn me in to the point where I spend excessive amounts of time here. Obviously, it has something going for it.
