Hi everybody,

For today we've decided to discuss our newbie area in Earthrise. This is one of the first things players will see, and we thought you all would be a bit curious to find out how it works.

Today's question is ...
What can you tell us about the newbie/starter experience in Earthrise? Although we can have multiple characters, will every single  character go through the same "starter" experience, and will there be ways to opt out of it?

Here is what our developers had to say about this:
When we designed the starting location in Earthrise, we strayed quite a bit from the cliches in the MMO genre many of you are familiar with. Instead of providing the players with few or no options for their progress through the storyline and character development, we decided to offer the player great freedom of choice.

As the player character arrives in the world of Earthrise, he or she will be able to go through the whole process of accommodation to his new body, and learning how to adapt to the new world surrounding him. Everything in the starting location will be determined by the direct actions and choices of the player. This includes choosing not to go through the process of initial adaptation - yes, you can skip the tutorial zone almost completely, or complete it partially if you like. Any task in the starting location will give a bountiful reward to the players, though and so we actually recommend going through it - but you don't have to. The choice is left to the players completely.

The players will not be forced to choose any side in the conflict between Continoma and Noir immediately. We will introduce both factions to the player and you will be able to choose between the two major political players or walk the third path of neutrality as you start your adventures. When you reach the end of the starter area with your first character, you may be surprised what is in store for you as you fully experience Earthrise for the first time.

We look forward to seeing all of you one day as newcomers to the world of Earthrise!
~ m.

True, having people start when they have just been cloned gives a nice opportunity to have an interesting tutorial/newbie zone.
I am certain a lot of people will be happy they can skip the tutorial. Personally I like playing through starter zones. Never skipped the tutorial in CoH/CoV for example. Only tutorial I ever grew tired of by playing through it once was Fallout 3...

Of course Moll, managed to not really tell us anything other than that we have more reasons to want to create a character right now

Faction choice sounds a bit like what they had done with Anarchy Online starter zone when the aliens shoot down the transport that takes newly created characters to Rubi-Ka.

This:
Is pure torture. I applaud your sadistic nature Moll

Great QOTW, gives a little better on insight to what we'll be faced with when entering the world for the first time. Appreciate it Moll.

I hope stuff like this.. I am pretty sure they said that "end of february / beginning of march will be optimistic". I think we are left out 

Anyways.. After rereading the QOTW the piece of "Everything in the starting location will be determined by the direct actions and choices of the player." sparked my interest.

Can we conclude that this will be instanced? I know there has been stated there where no instances, but how would you manage this otherway?

And if you did find a other way of dealing with this.. will it also be outside the newbie area?

I'm glad they included a "skip-button". Most tutorials I can't stand if I want to make an altrinate character. But like others have said, it doesn't really seem like you'd want to make an alt, unless of course you want to change the appearance of your character to fit the main part your character will play (RPing). It also sounds like they give you an advantage by running the tutorial.

Good system, I'm glad its not pointless and forced =)

I really want to play this game >.<

Interesting read. Its good to know that when players do feel the need to create an alt for whatever purpose they'll be able to launch into that purpose immediately without wasting time in starter zones.

They probably just introduce you to the conflict between Continoma & Noir in the starting tutorial.  The details on 'choosing sides' was mentioned in this QOTW.

I agree though, not a lot of new info in this QOTW.  It is nice to see that player choice is extended to the starter tutorial though.  Also that players will be able to get 'bountiful rewards' (presumably gear) as they familiarize themselves with the game.

That is a good question. I can see them having opportunities for all factions,  but never truly accepting outsiders into their fold. Kind of like the Mafia in regards to non-Italians. Not much to go on, but more info on sub-factions is in the works supposedly.

Starting gear wasn't addressed, sadly.

I'm sure the newbie experience will turn out fine. They're probably giving out minimal information to make sure testers' first impressions aren't unduly influenced.