Re: Possible solution to the new player retention problem...
if anything, it should either be...
A. easy to get off island of some sort (that way advance players are not stuck there for days)
or
B. optional newb starting area
I don't see how some of the ignorant posters see this as being a trammel issue. There is an extreme poll of players on servers these days since either people are advance and experienced players, or completely lost (this game is much more complex then the original release with all the systems).
I've had about 20 unique individuals in my guild. I would say at least 8 of them have quit because they had no clue how to play the game, much less pvp, train skills or have fucko clues on what to do.
Now, putting rascists aside... alot of our new players from non-english speaking countries. I imagine these difficulties become 10 fold when nobody understands them or just gives them inbreded ignorance.
in the end... its really not my problem. i'm not the one hosting the server, if they really wanted to see their server survive without loosing new players or people from boredom... then they will make changes they see fit.
trammel, stat loss and anything else that adds non-rpg features to uo, are pretty dramatic and lame features, in which most players would quit or give up on the server. instead, there are many sensible non-EA ideas floating around that could offer up better solutions instead (why not use a test server?). EA, is not the BEST WAY, it is the half-ass way. We are much smarter then their soon-to-be fired employees that create each expansion.
What is better then some of the non-rpg ideas (statloss) or trammel?
Balance issues, better information on the server (such as uo.stratics.com info that is difficult for newbs to sift through), more incentives to do good on the server, a newbie training area or incentive program (help newbs) ect.