The bottom line is retention. Players will stay in a game longer if they know what they're doing, which is why the tutorial and goals are there.
But the tutorial does not teach that mages don't use ST, DX, or weaponry, or that tanks can't use a direct damage spell. It also says nothing about weapon allowance. In fact, as opposed to warning about WA, it encourages newer users to get the biggest thing they can get their hands on. The tutorial seems to send two messages, "more/bigger is better" and "DX is most important". This results in the oh-so-common 4 minion team with each minion training HP, ST, a skill, a DD, an ED, an EO, and twice as much DX as anything else. Better yet, they're equipping 4 ranged and 4 melee weapons that are pushing their PR into the hundreds of thousands, while having difficulty finding opponents to defeat for even -101% CB :P
This is where mentors and the people of chat come into play, but I would imagine it is a bit discouraging when they are told that they shouldn't be using the weapons they spent all their money on, and that 90% of the XP they trained is highly incompatible with itself... ("Everything I did was wrong? I suck at this game, I'm out.").
"Goals" are great as is, with one exception. Forging... It adds something else to the whole heap of stuff you need to learn at the beginning for success. A very unnecessary and distracting step to learn. But it offers a seemingly HUGE reward (like 10k or some such) for it's completion, so they see that as the "must do" goal... This often leads to one of two things. 1, They can't figure out the forge, and get frustrated that there's so much money to be had that they can't get. 2, With the help of others, they manage to figure forging out, and get a point upgraded, and see that that was so much cheaper than upgrading at the blacksmith, so they waste near all of their BA on their tulwar or bastard sword, only to find that they still can't beat the people they couldn't before, and the few that they can beat all give -100% challenge bonus ($4 and 2XP? Sweet!).
As far as the tutorial, I would think it would help to add a line or two about mages not using weapons, and that tanks should mind their weapon allowance (possibly with a link to the wiki entry).
For goals, I think replacing the forging one with 2 goals (i guess split the forging goal reward if the ammount of money obtainable from goals has any signifigance aside from encouragement) would be great; 1) 'View the spell and skill descriptions on the train page' 2) 'Use the (get more) link to purchase a Battle Allocation'
Perhaps even a minor rework to the ToS... It really doesn't say much, so you could just make it a buncha checkboxes, so you're a little more sure that people read it, especially if you throw in an oddball :P Like, instead of:
* Carnage Blender is used by many people around the world. Competitive behavior is expected but users are asked to 'keep it PG' (i.e., civil and non-profane). This extends to character names as well as discussion posts and chat.
* You agree that all Carnage Blender accounts, characters, and items are and remain the property of Jonathan Ellis.
* You agree to use one and only one account.
* You agree not to share access to the CB account you use.
* You understand that any account on Carnage Blender may be modified or deleted at any time for any or no reason.
[] I Agree....
you could use:
[] Carnage Blender is used by many people around the world. Competitive behavior is expected but users are asked to 'keep it PG' (i.e., civil and non-profane). This extends to character names as well as discussion posts and chat.
[] I agree that all Carnage Blender accounts, characters, and items are and remain the property of Jonathan Ellis.
[] I am not interested in reading the rules or playing this game
[] I agree to use one and only one account.
[] I agree not to share access to the CB account you use.
[] I understand that any account on Carnage Blender may be modified or deleted at any time for any or no reason.
Questions, comments, thought? Wazzap?!
