[DarkHeart]

It aint what ya know, its who you know

I too decided to play a round, and took measures to ensure nobodywould know its me, i changed my playernick to Anon on signup, and have made sure only to login from ingame irc with a fakenick. I too started late around about the same time as Forest

1st gal i landed in have been nothing but friendly to me, offering advice and guidance instantly, and when i told them i wasnt in and had no plans to join an alliance, they said "ok, we'll cover your ass" When our gal got raided i received in gal defence when members of the bp didn't. They have tirelessly got me scans and put me into their attacks.

I didn't do this as an experiment and tbh they worked out i wasn't nub pretty quick, i did this purely because i don't want to get dragged back into uber activity by old contacts on irc, but i was pleasantly suprised by the warm welcome a gal was prepared to give to what they assumed was a new player

I would like to have seen a double blind experiment from Forest and a.n.other to compare results. Forests experiment is notable as it mostly includes the games 'elite' or at least some of its most active. The whole game isn't anti noob but parts of the game want to win and would do anything to win or at least give themselves a shot at the win.

Maybe my account uninowingly provides the double blind experiment,
I dunno. But i do feel it shows that if you remove the 'elite' from the equation then a new planet enjoys a much better experience.

For that reason i feel blueesper has made some of the better suggestions as to 'how to fix this', though of course they would need major fine tuning.

Edit - I do wonder if a bp was given an option 'accept new planets in the shuffle' how many people would tick that box