[Sasca]

I would like to preface this with a reminder that I am not setting out to be malicious or bitchy about any one kind of MUD or game. This is a list of things that I, as a player who is trying to find a home, have found frustrating/irritating/incomprehensible. This time, I'm going to comment on games that I've tried that didn't claim to be RP-Enforced. I am primarily looking for an RP game, but here are some things that Admin of some games might think about-

1. I logged in and began your game. There was no area set aside for newcomers- it was straight in and I had no idea what was going on. I arrived at a central point and was given no idea or suggestion or how to begin. There were other, more experienced players present and they ignored me or emoted impatience with my existence. I was both confused and flustered. I logged off.

2. I logged in to your game and started to create a character- I got asked if I wanted to 'specialize' and I didn't know what that meant. Some games made a point of telling me not to specialize if I was new, and that was appreciated- but many games don't give the new player a clue as to what it means to specialize. When I typed 'help specialize' I got the answer 'What?' or 'That's not an option'. I logged off.

3. I managed to get through creation and started in the newbie area/school. Then I faced a bunch of typos- I don't mean one here and there- I mean that the game was littered with misspellings and typos and I didn't get more than a few rooms without getting fed up. If you don't care about how your game is presented to a new player (or any player, for that matter), then why should I care about your game? You haven't taken the effort to correct even the most basic of things. I logged off.

4. I started up a character and got through the creation. So far so good. I read everything and was attentive to the help files, but when I got launched in to the World that you created, I was left without knowledge of how to communicate, or what commands were available to me. I typed 'Help newbie/help starting/help new/help' and got 'That's not an option' or some-such. I logged off.

5. I was doing alright in newbie school/area, but then I typed a command that your game didn't recognize. Instead of a response like 'That's not a command' or 'That's not a valid option', I got 'Stop talking nonsense' or 'What?!?!' or even 'What are you, a retard? (seriously!)' If my command isn't recognized, could your game just say 'I don't understand.'? A 'clever' response that's insulting doesn't really help. I logged off.

Again, this is meant to be a helpful critique of games that I have tried and a commentary about what might be going wrong with your game. It's not an attack of any kind- just observations that I think might be helpful.

Who am I to make such comments? Well, I have been playing MUDs (not MUSHs, not MUX) for about fifteen years. I have played and tried a lot of games, been a builder and an Imm on a couple of games, and been loyal to a few games that sadly went under. Whilst I appreciate suggestions of games that I might enjoy, that's not why I wanted to write this post- so please don't feel the need to suggest games. I'm trying to help out the community by saying the things that I, as a newbie, have been irritated by- in the hopes that creators/builders/admin of MUDs will garner some helpful tips. I sincerely hope that this commentary helps.

-Sas