I would certainly be interested in the festival, if not the beers!

Migg would have naively asked:

How can you see the Crystal through your apparatus? Aren't you blinded by the light?

and would really expect to get an informative answer 

I think this is not visible until you vote, so posting it here for reference, hoping I don't get the time conversion wrong:

Voting closes: June 11 2023, 20:45:51 UTC

I second Damola, this was a great story, I wish Jots great success in your new position, and hope to see you Hangatyr again. Migg is not much of a beer drinker, but I will be sure to drink a beer or two with you next time you come to visit. All the best!

I too have not been to the Dryken Plane in quite a while, however I will hazard some random thoughts of my own:

This has been mentioned already, but let me restate it. The Dryken Plane is where first comers will find themselves. Some may know what the game stands for, some not. To the former, the Dryken Plane might seem weird, as it is not an experience aligned with the role playing game they expected. To the latter on the other hand it may give the impression PS is a platformer of sorts. To either, if this proves too hard a challenge, given a time limit in a new game with unfamiliar controls, it could discourage them from staying on.

Relating to the floor, if people feel the moving pattern makes them uncomfortable then it should be changed for something more solid. Seizure inducing experiences are not something to greet newbies with.

Regarding the difficulty of the experience, i would suggest letting newcomers chose the level of the challenge they want. The Plane could start with a pop up message indicating there will be a golden man popping up at every crossroads, and if you want to be guided along the way, help will only be a click away. If you prefer the challenge, ignore the golden icon and proceed on your own.

As for the usefulness of the Dryken Plane, assuming it wants to convey an idea of the way in between the portals from the homeworld to the Labyrinths, which all races had to follow to enter Yliakum, this will not be clear to newbies unless some hints in the form of pop-ups relaying the lore depicted by the Plane is offered: some narrative of how the player has gotten there (e.g. "After entering the portal to escape your homeworld, you find yourself in a weird plane in-between worlds. You desperately seek for an exit..." or so) would go a long way towards helping people along. Perhaps some hints on how the interface works popping up along the way would also come in handy.

Finally, regarding the old tutorial, I also found it extremely useful as a newbie and would love to see it ported to the new game. A narrative during a teleport could help bridge the two, e.g. "After leaving the Dryken plane through the portal you find yourself in a labyrinth of sorts. You are rescued by a group of guards, who feed you, clothe you and put you on a flight astride a creature they call a "Pterosaur" to the city where their ruler, called an "Octarch", is located, there to be registered and get papers that will allow you to become a citizen of their world they call "Yliakum". The creature lands and lets you down in what looks like a marketplace". Then you are free to complete the OG tutorial or just move on in the city.

Improvements to the OG tutorial could be implemented as suggested by players during development, e.g. we can have an NPC let you know you can immediately exit to the city if you like, but despite any shortcomings I think the tutorial is a valuable aid when starting the game, and also helps align one with the game's character and mechanics, not to mention providing some useful items along the way.

Finally, if it is desirable to have different races start the game at a town established by their own race, exiting the OG tutorial could result in another teleport scene describing a Pterosaur flight to their own hometown. This of course could be made optional, an NPC could offer you to either be taken to a city populated by your own race or stay in Hydlaa, which I still believe is the more appealing option for a newcomer.

If the votes were significantly more, I would think you would find some votes casted for the two extremes. I do believe these views are not shared by many though, and the results are not too far off from what the general player base of PS is thinking of the subject, though the distribution should be a lot closer to a bell curve than what the votes here (and in the Redit poll) would suggest. In my years here, I haven't found many that would not engage in some RP, even if not systematically, or who would never lapse to some OOC activity at one point or the other.

Still, greater participation would have given us more reliable results, as I understand the people who voted here are more likely to be among the current player base, which seems to be more focused on RP than grinding.

[Sorry to interfere with the thread, but having just stumbled upon this I need to say this is an amazing story! Eagerly awaiting the next post]