Sorry to digress, but this needs to be addressed:
Stages in the conjectured life of a hypothetical newbie:
1) The "What the heck do I want to be/why is char creation not working/too many decisions upfront/#$#$ what's with the naming policy" stage. We need a better explanation of the naming policy in char creation...as most newbies aren't clueful enough to go hunting for it on the forums, it seems. Also, the whole of character creation needs to be updated; I'm sure some of the stuff in there is quite obsolete at this point.
2) The "How do I move around/manage items/train stats&skills/use the quest mechanic/kill things/talk/cast spells" stage. Fortunately, the tutorial mostly takes care of this, at least for the attentive newbies. There is the major outstanding issue of the "simplified chat window" still being on by default...that and folks with limited English proficiency, but the latter's unavoidable.
3) The "This isn't implemented???/Why does training cost so much!/Where's something to kill?/How do I make a lot of money?/Where do I get X?" stage. Being helpful within the bounds of good RP (you very much don't want to set a bad example for the newbies, of course) is about the best you can do at this point, as most folk will simply get confused if you launch full-bore into the IC/OOC/settings 101 spiel at this point (even a basic IC/OOC elevator speech is enough to cause some heads to spin, sadly, as this is phase most newbies are in when they leave the tutorial and we first encounter them).
4) The "How do I use the various RP-oriented commands (/me, /roll, ...)/What's going on here?/What guild should I join?/What's this RP business about?/What's godmodding?" stage. Again, being helpful is quite useful here; however, now is the time to really bring someone up to speed on roleplay. A reasonably smart and attentive newbie can (but will not always) hit this stage coming out of the tutorial thanks to Xargon; however, most newbies need at least some gentle nudging to get past stage 3. Also, there's the issue of guilds mass recruiting, some PL guilds are particularly notorious for this but many of the large guilds, including some ostensibly RP guilds, are guilty of mass recruiting. See Note 1 at the bottom of this post.
5) The "Is this within Settings?/How do I roleplay X?/Do you think this fits my character?/How do I write a description?" stage. Someone who reaches this stage is most likely going to mature into a competent roleplayer; however, not many newbies can get here without some tutelage from an experienced roleplayer.
Other stages that a newbie can reach:
a) The "Why is this so laggy?/Stop Crashing!!!/Why can't I see what I'm doing?/My computer sucks!/This game is too demanding!!!" stage. This is something that most newbies (and many experienced players) hit. Fortunately, most RPers are willing and able to take pity on the laggy, which helps tremendously.
b) The "This is too confusing!/Why aren't you just answering my question?/Why shouldn't I just join a PL guild?/I still don't get this RP business" stage. This is typically a sign of i) someone who is bewildered to the point of frustration, ii) has been beat over the head with Settings too many times without someone actually stopping to explain the matter at hand to them, or iii) doesn't belong on a RP server. Cases i) and ii) can usually be handled with enough patience and graceful explanations; case iii) happens to be a lost cause, but isn't the common case for this stage fortunately.
c) The silent-newbie/stage-fright stage. This often (but not always) coincides with stage 3 above, and can be caused by several factors, including limited English proficiency on the player's part, unfamiliarity with the chat system, and/or fear of making a mistake and letting slip with a remark that is actually OOC/out-of-Settings/pisses another player off/... Most of this can be handled simply by being gentle enough OOCly to make them comfortable.
d) The "I hate you!/Your guild sucks compared to my guild!/RPing is for nerds and losers!/Stop trying to RP with me, you're wasting my valuable training/questing/mining time!/#$)@#$&*@#) you and your guild too!/" (other forms of griefing and childish/immature behavior are included too) stage. There is one answer to these folks, especially if they do not respond to other forms of intervention, and that is to transfer them to EzPC, where they can misbehave all they want. See Note 2 at the bottom of this post for some notes on what is and is not considered griefing in PS, as compared to other MMOs.
e) The "Oops, gotta go! *poof*" stage. Don't worry, most of us are pretty understanding (or at least try to be) if your pizza just arrived, or if you have to take the dog out for a walk, or if you have an appointment in 30mins.
f) The hurry-hurry/rush-rush/run-everywhere/"hi-bye" stage. This is often coupled with c). See Note 3 at the bottom of this post.
I hope this sheds some light on some of the perplexing behavior observed among newbies...and provides some insight into how to teach them to RP
Note 1:
On Mass Recruiting:
Some guilds engage in the rather abominable practice of recruiting every newbie/non-guilded character they see. This is problematic for three reasons: 1) it leads to "misfits" getting pulled into the guild and not lining up with the guild's purpose and role (which isn't an issue for the types of guilds that usually mass-recruit, though), 2) it means that newbies (who don't know jack squat about what guild to join) get dragged into PL/oversized/mis-managed guilds and denied the benefit of proper in-guild tutelage (which most RP guilds at least attempt to provide), and 3) it tends to starve RP guilds (who often cannot be highly active in recruiting due to time/size/tutelage limitations) of recruits. Also, the mass-recruiting guilds all tend to be the same variety of guild: large, "general purpose" guilds that try to be anything and everything, at least to "goody-two-shoes" characters. We already have too many of those on the RP server, don't we?
Note 2:
On What Is (and Isn't) Griefing:
People coming from other MMOs often bring a different definition of griefing with them than is normally applied in PlaneShift. In particular, the use of jumping up and down or running "through" someone is not as much of an issue in other games, while "drive-by" healing and buffing is considered more offensive in other games than it is in PS (at least to my understanding).
Note 3:
Time, MMOs, and Roleplaying:
RPing (as we all know) is a rather time consuming (and unpredictable) activity; this is in sharp contrast to typical high-level MMO play, where the player's time is considered highly valuable and expensive (and is thus not "wasted" on anything that is not absolutely necessary to the goal at hand).
