> As an example, half of the time if you see a new player (flagged newbie) struggling at the gnome and pop down to speak to them, they get spooked and just quit out.

True.. I did it myself on a couple of MUDs I was checking out. I wanted to poke around without being treated as a newbie, and persistent offers of help just annoyed me. perhaps a betetr approach in this case would be to show an echo that would only be visible to the new player, e.g. "Type 'summon guide' if you would like a guide to a help you in the unfamiliar world." And then appear/talk to them in the form of the guide before them if they do, and leave them alone if they don't