[Sasca]

I think it was a combination of not knowing what I was doing and being placed in a high-traffic area that most put me off that particular MUD. I've been on half-a-dozen places that throw a newbie in at the deep end, but what made them tolerable was that there were one or two rooms/areas beforehand that allowed a new player to try out a few basic commands or emotes, etc, to find their feet a little.

I've had to read helpfiles on the fly before, or been suddenly chucked in to RP with someone and trying to figure out the 'greet' system whilst speaking with them, but that's both manageable and challenging (and kinda fun, actually). What's not fun is being presented with very little information about commands and then being launched into the game.

One thing that helps alleviate this problem is a newbie channel or other means of OOC communication for a new player, but I understand that quite a few games have limited channels or nothing that's appropriate for basic questions. Nobody likes to feel like a complete chucklehead when starting a new game; it's embarrassing for the new player and irritating to existing players- and it could be so easily remedied by having an intro room before the game where someone could just catch up on helpfiles without being in a ''public' place.

Of course, if there are no helpfiles worth mentioning then it's a moot point- but that's another matter altogether.