Hey there, I just started H&H not more than an hour ago. I've never heard of it until a friend showed me a link to your webpage. I decided to check it out since my favorite MMORPG was Runescape (which I played with many of my friend when I was a young teen.)
I've always enjoyed adventure games where there is little to no restrictions on where and what you can do in terms of skillset. The main reason why I wanted to check out this game was because it sorta' reminded me of the freeness of Runescape (I guess nostalgia grasped me a bit more than I would have anticipated.) The idea is novel and the discovery experience is a great touch too. It gives incentive to explore and learn more about the world around you. The main thing I've always enjoyed in MMORPGs is exploring and fishing (when I got minecraft 90% of my time was fishing, don't ask me why. I just like fishing in RPGs.)
The first thing that came to mind when I started was:
"What the hell is any of this? Name? Hearth Secret? What's that? What? Oh! I'm a guy now, not a floating ball o- Aaaaaaand now I'm a female. Oh! Guy again. Chest? Clothing! Where is my inventory'? Where is the menus? Okay, up the ladder!"
There was a lot to learn already and I had to check the website again to explain it. Note: It still hasn't explained a lot of my questions. I know this game is not fully complete, but if there is one thing that needs to be worked upon is making the UI and starting phases of the game seemlessly easy to navigate and understand. Again, I realize this game isn't complete yet, but god I must have spent an hour and a half trying to figure out the start of it all. BIGGEST COMPLAINT SO FAR: Who designed the text for in game messages to be red when most of the terrain is green? I am moderately red-green colorblind and even though the message shows in the chatbox, by god is that annoying? Bright yellow or white text, please.
I also was very confused of the skills, the beliefs, and the attributes. I still am on the "belief" system. Also, why can't I fish? I made a fishing pole, I put it on my character, so why is it telling me I haven't "Fully Equipped" it? It is little things like that which frustrates the hell out of new players.
These are my initial thoughts, I'll write down more later.