I got a friend of mine into batmud about half a year ago..
he's a big gamer, and he took to the detail and challenge despite
the.. differences from modern titles.

He went Tzarakk and had a lot of fun building up his character but..
stopped playing eventually. I think it's just a part of human nature
that a lot of people will abandon something once the novelty wears off

but his complaint was that.. the game had no structure..

after his initial discovery period with his guilds, he couldn't decide
what to do. I believe it's a translation problem in trying to convert a
more modern gamer (primarily consoles) where everything is very linear
to an open game like Bat where your goals are... ambiguous.

I can see that a lot of effort has been put into softening the learning curve
for newbies. Dortlewall in particular was very well coded, as well as the
introductory story. I also think part of the charm of Bat is.. throwing
you into the deep end and letting you sink or swim.

but even as someone who has been playing for a while... I find things that
are still passed on by word of mouth. So much of the essential information
of the game has to be passed on by players or through websites. I couldnt
imagine tackling some of the guilds in the game without the extensive
support of other players.. either through websites, or channel help.

I couldn't imagine trying to write or code an overarching guild designed
to guide you from one game point to the next.. A number of players have
tried to write up guides to help break players into the game but..
no one has come up with something to map out pursuable aspects.. and
considering how varied.. power levels are with characters.. it's hard
to suggest when certain things should be pursued.

You've reached lvl 50. Esiris quests are suggested. etc..

This doesn't even address aspects of the game where it's not in a players
interest to share information. ie. I pass on information on how to run
ships to a friend and now he's buying up all the compasses. etc.