[Ide]

You could try a couple of things:

* give the player something to do right away (I don't mean a tutorial or a newbie school -- something interesting)

* make sure they know what that is -- provide contextual hints, or a what/think command that provides short-term goals.

Also just be honest with yourself and realize your game may only appeal to a niche of players. Probably this is what you want anyway. The trick is finding those people, and as prof noted some of this just takes time.