That was pretty much my experience when I started out in Glomdoring, although I was entirely new to IRE MUDs, and I also made friends with a handful of talkative people before I graduated novicehood. The novice helpers will keep an eye on you for a while, and everyone is incredibly helpful — but after that, it's mostly crickets and tumbleweeds.

That's what I'm saying: Veteran players may not recognize it (or may simply not care, since they like the way things are set up), but this game seems very quiet to newcomers, and substantial in-person interactions (which absolutely do occur) aren't always available. Newcomers are far more likely to stay awhile and warm up to the game if they're given the benefit of friendly, informal banter. Maybe it's inane, but if it helps someone feel welcome, who cares?

The actual friendly banter mostly occurs in clans, and I don't exactly see people falling all over themselves to invite relative newcomers (those who show promise, I mean) into these clans. That's hard to monitor, of course, so kudos to those of you who do.

The planar system, the overabundance of orgs and guilds (for a player base of this size), and the fact that people who aren't enthusiastic role-players probably do most of their chatting OOC (which is fine in and of itself) serve to exacerbate the problem.

What's the solution, then? I don't know. All I can think of is a universal OOC channel, and believe me, I don't want that in principle... although realistically, since nearly everyone has access to some form of OOC chatting clan anyway (myself included), what would it actually hurt, with rules in place to prevent skullduggery?

This bothers me because I believe it affects the retention of new players, and I really do care about that. I believe we should strive to include people in whatever way we can, and forming exclusive social clubs is detrimental to that goal. We're just too small to have a bunch of inaccessible social pockets (I hesitate to use "cliques" for obvious reasons).

This thread can probably die now. There's no other comments or meaningful points to be made that have not already been made.

I doubt there is any administrator who wants to police a true OOC channel upon which everyone has access, to be honest.

We call it the forums.

It will take some dedication, including updated inductions of citizens and therefore updating the ranks, and time passing, before it can serve its original purpose again.

I just found out who the person the first post is referring to is, and I have to say, I am extremely upset about the situation. Gavriel, expect Ongaku to come to you IC with a formal apology. It won't do much good, I'm sure, but I feel both livid and mortified about this.

I'm sure it's not all like that though. Unfortunate how a few can mess it up for the rest. Oh well.

Hallifax doesn't even have any OOC clan (THAT I KNOW OF *eye*) and it's still pretty quiet. I can attest to this happening in Gaudiguch, although I can tell that Chixsanga has been making an effort to make GT more active.

Edit: Oh wait, there's the stupid Skyplume one.

If he wasn't chased off. I love the concept of Magnagora... but if things like that happen, I'm kind of glad i went Glom.

I'm sure it's not all like that though. Unfortunate how a few can mess it up for the rest. Oh well.

*cough*skyplumesecretsociety*cough*

Hardly secret when I know what their plot is.

*cough*skyplumesecretsociety*cough*

Perhaps if you were in the Council clan (or paid attention to it if you were), you'd notice I've been trying to get various people to take over the Legion and work on it for ... months, now. It's not an easy task.

Anger in general tends to be. sadfacenoob Awesomely Fainite