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I'll target my answer towards people who don't already play text MUDs, as that's where the potential for growing the number of text MUD users lies. I'll just talk about the very first part of a MUD experience. Those first 5 minutes are perhaps the most important factor in retaining a new user. I'm going to use Achaea's introduction as an example of one that does some things right and some things wrong at the end.
1. Presentation This is a no-brainer. First impressions matter, a lot, and if you've got a disorganized or ugly website, or blind the user with horrid color combinations, you're making a mistake. If you use no color, you're also probably making a mistake. Color can and should be used as an organizational tool, assisting the user in quickly classifying the vast amount of information text MUDs typically throw at users. Further, color is a layer of information that can be placed directly on top of the the text as far as the end user is concerned. Most other types of encoding will involve marking text with extra characters (for instance, putting a star before a line), which increases the amount of text you have to throw at the user.
2. A user-grabbing introduction I'll suggest this is probably best accomplished via a story-based introduction (like WoW's quest system that leads you while teaching you the game mechanics), but an introduction should do two main things:
a. Retain and peak the interest of the user.
Make it interesting! But don't make it too long, and don't peak too early during the introduction.
b. Assist the user in getting over the hurdle that the interface represents.
Any user interface has a learning curve, even if it's extremely well done. Just learning to use a mouse has a learning curve, for instance, though I'd imagine nobody reads this really remembers not using a mouse proficiently. Text interfaces have particularly steep learning curves, and so it is crucial to try to ease the user's journey along it. Things like well-organized, well-formatted, comprehensive help files are great and a must, but the user can't even access them until you teach him how. (Unless you have help files accessible via a web page, which I definitely recommend. Minus a couple potential outlying examples, anyone who has gotten to your website knows how to navigate a website already.)
The user introduction can and should do this (help the user get over the interface), and ideally, it would do so in the context of a story, to keep a player's interest. What you can put in an intro and how it could work are really up to your imagination, but I'd suggest a couple different properties are at least worth considering:
1. Highly directed. Don't just drop players down and expect them to wander around and find things or learn things. Give them direction. Minimize the chance that they can accidentally leave the path(s) of the introduction, but allow them the opportunity to purposefully exit it.
2. Build interest early and continue building interest (while teaching) to a peak. You might consider the fairly typical three act story structure if you're looking for an accessible way to present a (short) story.
3. If your goals for it are simply as an introduction to the 'real' game, keep it short. On the other hand, WoW's "introduction" is just part of the quest system that leads you through the entire game. I believe this is their single best feature and if you can replicate it well for even the newbie part of the player experience, you're going to have a great intro. Just keep in mind that the learning curve for the text interface is a lot more difficult than WoW's interface.
4. Polish it, both in terms of presentation and in terms of usability. Track how players move through the introduction, and how many you lose at each 'stage' of it. By doing this, you may be able to get a rough idea of what you're doing wrong and fix it.
5. Try to avoid interrupting people in the introduction with unnecessary text. If it's not core to the newbie experience, they shouldn't have to see it. Don't confuse them until they're over the hurdle the interface represents.
Example: Achaea
I figure more of you have tried Achaea's newbie intro than any of the other IRE games' so I'll use it. What Achaea does right:
a. Fairly attractive, organized website.
b. Help files accessible via website.
c. Very pretty client (Nexus).
d. Story-based, highly directed newbie introduction.
e. Introduction and game generally use color primarily as an organizational tool.
f. Tracks completion rate of every section of the introduction. This has been quite useful over time in allowing us to raise the percentage of players retained from the intro vs. those who start and quickly quit. We actually cut out major sections of the intro and streamlined various other bits over time, though it's still far from perfect, and an entirely new one is in development.
What Achaea does wrong:
a. The intro is too long.
b. The intro peaks way too early. There's a moment fairly early on in the introduction that new users frequently cite as something that really grabbed them. You're led to a dungeon by an adventurer, and when you descend into the first level of it, you hear a noise, and your adventurer says it's goblins, and that the two of you would fall to them, so you must flee. He flees, you follow, and he gets slain by a goblin. The goblin advances on you, you take a flesh wound, things are looking grim, and suddenly, in charges a paladin to the rescue. This is great, but the problem is, that's the most exciting part of the introduction, and it's only really the 2nd stage of the introduction (out of 5).
c. It tries to teach too much. It throws far too much information at a user, who isn't going to remember most of it.
d. It takes place in the same world the other players are in. This can cause some problems with other players confusing the newbie (are they players or NPCs who are part of the intro? What should I do with them?) or with things like area or continent weather messages and whatnot. Some text has been excluded but it hasn't been comprehensive enough.
There's certainly much, much more than can be said in the matter, and I completely avoided the topic of character creation, but that's a start.
--matt
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