The Starting Zone/On-Boarding/Tutorial is arguably the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT zone in the game. If you don't capture peoples attention within the first couple of hours of play....you've probably lost them. The younger that person is...the shorter and harder that becomes.
Some key points that should help create the "perfect" On-boarding experience:
1. Most Important: Never make the players character the MAIN hero of the story! Make them a participant in the story, but never the “Chosen One”. It makes no sense to have 10,000 player "Chosen Ones" running around.
2. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Stupid Simple) Don't assume MMO experience. Information Overload is a real thing. The focus should be on...
A. Learning the Class
B. Learning how combat works
C. Learning the UI.
D. Introducing the player as PART of a greater story. (not the main focus of that story)
E. Sprinkle Lore tidbits for players that like to explore. Hidden areas, books, NPC's mobs. The starting area doesn't have to be "boring tutorial".
3. Never overload a new player with junk mail or pop-ups. Nobody likes junk mail or pop-ups. Nobody.
4. Don't try to lure new players by giving away free high level items that will just clog initial bag space, and then sit in a bank and forgotten. It just introduces items and systems that confuse and frustrate new players. (Especially new MMO genre players!)
Example: LOTRO tried this a couple months ago for their anniversary. I logged in, got 10yrs worth of special and anniversary items in my mailbox that I had to organize, delete and store in my bank. It took over an hour. Played for another hour...encountered a multi-boxer and logged out never to play again. I was not happy.
5. Keep the senseless slaughter of small animals to a bare minimum. No player enjoys killing rats and bunnies. An adventure should start out with purpose. No adventurer in the history of adventuring started out by saying, “I think I’ll go kill 100 rats and bunnies today.”.
6. The starting area should be filled with lore hints and have a major hook to pull the player into the world. The player should feel purpose and drive to play their chosen character. Their class and race choice should feel important and needed, but NOT central to the story. The antagonist and enemies should be real...and not rats.
7. IMO...any good starting area will encourage grouping right away. There should be a quest or dungeon in the starting area that requires a group and has an irresistible reward (extra bag!). MMO's are SUPPOSED to be social and we need to get back to that. Set the stage early.
8. I differ in my opinion of how many starting areas there should be in an MMO. I believe there should be ONE starting area with a dynamic quest system that starts players in a random spot in the starting area and allows player to "choose" how they proceed from there. The quests would dynamically change and provide the appropriate information and reward based on when the player encountered and completed the quest. Leading the player and giving the illusion of freedom while teaching the player about the world, class, UI and lore. This is a complex On-boarding process/system but would provide for the maximum player retention possible by spreading the player base as needed, giving the players some "freedom", and allowing players to play and learn in a way that makes them feel comfortable in their new world/home.
9. Give higher level players a reason to come back to the starting area. Let new players SEE what they can aspire to. Plus, nice high level players might help new players with the group content! Player interaction is KING!
Starting Areas/On-Boarding = Player Retention = More Players = Better MMO Experience