I believe that a big part of getting your image across and allowing the players to experience CF as you guys would want the players to experience it, especially as newbies, would be a CF client. This client would have to be the identity of cf and represent the game to anyone who downloads it. It may contain custom sounds or messages, built in help (which isnt IC), item help, area maps that you have access to IC, etc. Maybe it can incorporate a tutorial about CF and how things work in this world in which they are about to enter.
The client is a big part of game marketing simply because it controls the channel through which people access CF and controls the image you wish to present. Many new players dont know of mud clients and even if they did its difficult to customize it to CF for someone like me. It took me a year to find out Zmud existed. Telnet may ruin the experience for many who start.
This is believe would be a first and crucial step to getting people who have never mudded to even try CF, especially if you wish to go out into the big world for players.