Newbie tick channels are annoying.
I think the best of the newbie schools establish a goal/reward dynamic early on, then carry that into the "real world" seamlessly. Also realize that over the years the mudding community has evolved. While there needs to be an introduction for basic commands, I would wager that 9 out of 10 genuinely new players visiting here know the basics already. As such most new players are looking for an emersive experience that immediately gets them involved, rather than a "this is the school, this is the real game" situation.
The best newbie schools are the ones where you don't realize you are being taught something.
What are some things every new person asks about? What makes KoTL a unique experience? These things should be at least hinted at during their first 30 minutes here. There's no way to cover everything because there's so much KoTL has to offer, but at least point at the helpfiles.
Newbie tick channels are annoying.
Off the top of my head, things that really ought to be touched on:
-Questing, multiple questers and token types, sayto command and meaning of (T)
-Kingdoms
-Religions
-Leveling, Tiering
-Stats, Death stat loss
-Roleplay, rprewards, convert
-Runestones, tattooing
-Gemstones, socketing
-Customs
-Augmenting
-Races, Race modifications
-Casting circles, memorize
-Gold/silver having actual weight
Newbie tick channels are annoying.
Also we need to tap into the psychology behind people valuing their time. If you login and listen to a diatribe in the first 5 minutes from the newbie school, you haven't really made any effort. If you login, immediately get thrown into killing a few pests and complete a simple "Go kill this mob, come back" quest... you have made some effort and are more likely to value your character. Then let them kill some more, maybe send on a longer quest and so on. If you ease people into using their time and effort, they are more likely to value the character they have created. Perhaps even introduce some uncommon drops to make their character feel unique and special.
Lastly there needs to be seamless integration between the newbie school and the outside world. A good way to accomplish this would be for there to be a few quests that lead them back and forth between the school and the realm. For example, a Mesilena character gets sent by a newbie school mob to talk to Rhioon, who asks you to go kill something in the newbie school and bring back some drop. You bring it back, Rhioon gives you some quest tokens then introduces you to the quest request system.
Newbie tick channels are annoying.