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Thanks everyone for the replies, interesting to see the different approaches so far.
Matt, you mentioned tracking the data on disconnects during character creation -- unless that is top secret for some reason, it would be very interesting to compare to the information KaVir provided. I checked out character creation on both God Wars II and Achaea, so I'd love to compare those two. Is it possible to share your percent with us?
I see how the ability to change race later in the game mitigates this problem. Due to roleplaying concerns it's not a great solution for me personally. Also I wonder if it really addresses the main problem -- of new users struggling with a boring decision because they *think* that it's important. For instance, in the Achaea creation process I did not see any mention that race could be re-chosen later. Just starting a new character if you screw up seems like a poor option also, because it sounds demoralizing, and you probably don't want to demoralize a new player who is already likely a bit overwhelmed.
To me the race issue violates two principles of design that I try to adhere to: 1) Do not make a new player think or work before they try the game and have some fun, and 2) Never force new players to make long term decisions before they have enough information.
Those "rules" have made me question the traditional way that race works. Why on earth should very important things like a character's strength or intelligence or HP or mana for the rest of that character's existance be based on a decision they made before they started the game? Perhaps a system where race modifies your starting statistics (or abilities or whatever), but is outweighed by other factors as character development occurs, would be better. Has anyone here tried anything of that nature?
-T
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