[MUD-Dev] Text Parsing

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 11:13 AM 6/7/99 -0500, I personally witnessed Travis S. Casey jumping up
to say:
>
>On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Albert wrote:
>
>> I believe the problem of newbies being confused as to what to do can be
>> easily remedied by giving them a thorough introduction, a specialized area
>> that allows a sort of interactive help system. And until they reach level 2
>> or so, periodically give them tips, pointers, and help key words.
>
>I agree, but I see a few possible sticking points:
>
> 1 - How do you tell who's really a newbie?

They're asking for help? ;)

Seriously, if your help is easily accessible and well-organised, you don't
have to lead anyone by the nose. 

> 2 - How do you make the newbies go through it?

Forcing anything on anyone tends to have negative results. See above.

> 3 - A common pitfall of newbie areas is that they're insulting.

I personally think it goes a long way if you just come right out and say
that your game is hard. Be friendly. "Yes, this is a hard game to learn,
but it's worth the effort." This has two major effects. If the player is
having an easy time of it, he feels smart and successful. If he's having
difficulty, he feels like he's not alone in that. 

Most game help says "this is an easy game", which of course makes the guy
doing well feel average and the guy doing poorly feel stupid.

> 4 - Determining when somebody isn't a newbie any more can be difficult.

Hey, I find it easy... they stop asking for help and (hopefully) start
offering it. ;)

-----
| Caliban Tiresias Darklock            caliban at darklock.com 
| Darklock Communications          http://www.darklock.com/ 
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