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Any newbie area--places like "Smurfville' or "Mob Factory" (*shudder*)-- are often a player's introduction to your MUD. You may want to consider giving special attention to newbie areas to showcase the theme and originality of your MUD. Often, newbie areas are overlooked, because, well, there's a misconception that it's more interesting to build higher level areas. But I think newbie areas are terribly important for retaining new players, as first impressions count for a lot.
As an aside, there's no reason to dumb down newbie areas. Just because newbies can't kill big mobs doesn't mean they're stupid. When I designed Lusternia's newbie area, I made sure that there was an interesting story line and dozens of quests, including two very long quests that are extremely difficult. A funny anecdote I've heard is that, since our newbie area is level restricted, some players puposefully die so that they can stay in the newbie area to figure out the quests!
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