[KaVir]

I'd say so, although I think it can be phrased better than "Not Newbie-Friendly". I've put a lot of effort into newbie training areas, detailed help files and context-sensitive hints, and there are usually people around who can answer questions, but my mud is still sufficiently complex that I've chosen not to click the "newbie friendly" radio button on listings even if it's available, and usually explain up-front that the learning curve is steep.

Despite that, I've still received a fair degree of criticism about the complexity, with the learning curve being described as a brick wall, the mud only really being "okay for an advanced mudder", and that the overall experience was "so alien and different from what I was looking for that I didn't feel I had the patience to re-learn what I knew".

Recently there was even an article on linux.com entitled , which mentioned "For a little check on what game developers can actually accomplish with MUDs, take a look at God Wars II, or at least look through its New Player's Guide -> Combat section, which is simply astonishing in its complexity."

One of the replies to the article made a point I found rather interesting, particularly within the context of this thread:

"I tried the God Wars II MUD and I must say it's very impressive. From the web page it looked too complex and intimidating, but I was surprised how natural it felt after a while. Maybe there's a lesson for game developers in this: instead of dumbing down everything, make it entertaining so that people will want to learn it."

Rather than trying to be "Not Newbie-Friendly" just for the sake of it, perhaps a better solution is simply to give newbie friendlyness a lower priority than other parts of the game design - for example, instead of compromising your vision by simplifying the combat system, you just accept that some players won't understand it (or be willing to make the additional effort to learn it), and work around that fact as best you can with tutorials and documentation.