Hafen really for niche audience or it not advertise enough?

[neeco]

the server crashes often with only 200 people there's no way it's going to be able to handle more

None of those claims are true.

There was some crashing early this world, but after they got it sorted, the server was handling ~1k players online.

[loftar]

Super Mario Bros. 1-1 is a tutorial.

Very well aware, but it's the kind of tutorial that you'd be excused for not knowing that it's a tutorial, which is why I was contrasting it with "extensive and explicit tutorials".

[maze]

Make a runescape sorta starter island.

have a water kelpie or something guide them.

make tools, fire, food and stuff as the kelpie leads you near the water edge.
then have them go asleep at the end of the tutorial
and you see the water kelpie drag you off into the water.

when you wake up. you're in the hearthlands.

"you feel as the gods have given you another chance"

[neeco]

Have a dhelm wearing, b12 wielding npc come up and murder them as they finish the tutorial. They need the full haven experience.

Or better yet, save the code and let felix do it. I don't think he has anything better to do with his time anyways.

[vatas]

Current tutorial/character creation is serviceable ever since they added the tutorial/beginner quests that first guide you through creation and then give some straightforward goals and tips to help overcome the massive information overload that this game can be to a newcomer. That said, I wouldn't mind if devs spend some time trying to come up with ways to improve it. Runescape-style tutorial island is worth considering. But we have "closer" comparison, Salem's character creation. You need to complete quests that teach you some gameplay basics like building things, collecting firewood, restoring biles, studying inspirationals and unlocking new skills. It's quite solid IIRC with downsides being that your character won't be saved until you finish the character creation, said creation being quite long, and if you try to rush through it you'll get overlapping narrations that can be quite annoying.