What's your proposed alternative? A natural language parser?
And what would you suggest doing when a command is invalid? How is the user going to know what to type if you don't give them any suggestions?
Introductions can be okay, but keep them optional. I log on to a mud to play, so if I'm forced to sit through a long introduction I'll almost certainly just drop my connection. I'd far rather see a separate location where I can go to learn how to play if I want to, and when I feel ready to do so.
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