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Playtest Report: New-player onboarding feel pass

Real captured findings. Condensed from driving the harness (feel-tester personality) against stock GoMud during the 2026-06-06 sanity check (docs/e2e/2026-06-06-three-profiles-sanity.md).

Date: 2026-06-06 Target: GoMud (stock) — Frostfang start zone Personality: feel-tester Account: aitester Goals file: feel-tester-new-player-onboarding.yaml Duration: ~7 minutes, 9 commands

Summary

Played the opening as a brand-new player with no outside knowledge. The world itself reads beautifully — evocative rooms, ambient life — but two onboarding hints dead-end, and the world doesn't always reward the curiosity it invites. A newcomer can get oriented, but hits avoidable friction in the first minutes.

Goal Results

  • first-impression — DONE: the starting room is vivid and the prompt is clear; the banner points to help.
  • follow-the-hints — DONE (friction): the "type help for commands" hint dead-ends (see CONCERN).
  • explore-naturally — DONE (friction): several described nouns aren't examinable (see CONCERN).
  • grade-the-feel — DONE: grades below.

Findings

OBSERVATION (positive): The world feels alive

Room descriptions are atmospheric and specific; ambient lines ("A cold wind blows through the city") and a wandering guard make the space feel inhabited. A strong first impression.

CONCERN: The first onboarding hint dead-ends

The login banner says "Type help for commands," but help commands returns "No help found for 'commands'." The single most natural new-player action fails. Either make help commands resolve, or point the banner at a command that works.

CONCERN: Described nouns aren't examinable

The room mentions "tall elms" and a castle, but look elms → "Look at what???". A curious newcomer reaches for exactly these. A common MUD limitation, but it teaches players to stop looking — a real feel cost in the first five minutes.

Feel grades

  • Clear: mostly — you know where you are; the next action is fuzzier.
  • Immersive: strong — the prose and ambience carry it.
  • Consistent: weak spot — a hint points at a command that doesn't exist.
  • Forgiving: mixed — invalid commands fail cleanly, but dead-end hints aren't forgiving of newcomers.
  • Could a new player reach "I'm playing" unaided? Yes — but with avoidable stumbles in the first few minutes.

Stats

  • Commands sent: 9
  • Errors seen: 0 (no panics; "no help" / "look at what" are graceful misses)
  • Bugs / Concerns / Observations: 0 / 2 / 1

Why this example matters. Generalized from a DOGMud "feel pass" goal that graded an experience on named axes rather than pass/fail. A feel-tester surfaces the friction functional tests miss — a hint that lies, curiosity that goes unrewarded — the quiet things that cost you new players.