[Muirdach]

I agree, and I think God Wars II is a great example of a MUD where the engine itself makes it unwelcome to people who don't know what they're doing and aren't prepared to learn quickly or suffer the consequences - caused by the complexity, and the complexity itself is a great selling point as "advanced mudders" are drawn to it.

As for Detah's point about not allowing new players to created: yes, but I meant newbies perhaps more accurately as "new mudders" rather than "new players". There are people who play a complex world for the first time and relish the harshness and all the details. The ones I referring to I suppose are more often called noobs - the ones who just don't get it and take ages to understand anything, even when explained in the most basic language.

I suppose to clarify it a little - the part I was looking to explore (though all the comments are great) was whether the lack of help for newbies itself might be a selling point, as opposed to it being tough for newbies as a direct result of some game design (such as with Kavir's game). Essentially, an advertisement like "Experienced Mudders: Don't you just hate those games where as soon as you do anything, some noob comes up and demands to know all your secrets, or can't figure out the way to the bathroom? Our mud is ruthless and harsh and anyone who can't take it is quickly weeded out. Find your place and never have to deal with the brainless masses!"

Perhaps I'm overstating things a little, but I'm truly concerned that perhaps we as designers, in often doing what attracts the most people, may be turning away the best people. That while it may be nice to fill a who-list with a hundred names, 75% of them might be inanely chattering away or doing things that drive away those who know what they're doing. Of course, I'm not seriously suggesting we should start kicking off newbies, just exploring the whole thing from a different angle.

I guess that it's advertising a barrier to entry, as per Brody, I just thought I'd turn it around given how open and appealing MUDs are for players these days - basically begging, sometimes - it would be interesting to see if the "hard to get" approach might work as a differentiator.