I completely, 100% agree with Cale_Knight and others who've said the same thing: Give newbies the basic information that their character *should* know ICly. Where and how to get water, where and how to get flour, etc.
Not giving the newbies basics like where and how to get food and water *will* drive otherwise interested people out of the game. Because the help documentation sucks on this stuff. Let me lay out for you pretty much how this went for me about a week ago:
1. Look at the help file for help_map_allanak. Ooh cool, there's a map of the city! Oh, I will be able to find what I need now! There's the temple where I can get water, and it's clearly marked. Great. OK, navigating isn't too hard, I just continue straight down this road and eventually I'll get there...
2. OK, I'm at the temple. There's a templar here. When I try to talk to him, he doesn't say anything. There's no one else here for me to ask...ok, I'll look in the help files again...
3. How to buy things! Yeah, that must be it, I'll look in help_merchant...Wait, there's nothing there that's relevant to buying something, not even a link...OK, help_buy...great, a buy command! I'll type "buy water"...But that doesn't work. What the crap am I doing wrong? I just want to buy some water.
4. OK, I'll look at some other commands related to buying things. List! Yeah, ok, so I type "list" and surely the templar will tell me how to buy water...um...list doesn't work here because he's got nothing to sell? Crap again.
5. Back to the help files. Help_water, that must be it! And this help file tells me...absolutely nothing I didn't already know, because the only thing of use is that it tells me WHERE TO GET THE WATER, which is where I already am!
6. Alright, I'll look at help_drink since it's linked from help_water....nothing there of use at the moment, since I don't have any water to drink yet. Help_thirst, no help at all, help_eat, not there either.
7. Finally, it's only by traveling from help_water to help_drink to help_fill that I actually find out how to get water at the temple.
8. And guess what? I don't have anything to carry water in yet. That means a trip to the Bazaar...
9. I've just spent an hour trying to figure out how to get water, which I still don't have, and I really don't feel like banging my head against the Bazaar at the moment, so I log out...
10. Never to return because, frankly, I didn't have any fun at all and my first experience in ARM was one of complete annoyance and time-wastage.
(Actually, I myself did come back, because I'm stubborn. But not everyone is like me.)
Oh, and I still don't know where to get flour.
I encountered a newbie earlier today in the game and I tried to give him as much helpful information as I could, ICly, because there was no one better-qualified around to help. He, however, had to roleplay as if he was brain-damaged AND not from the city. Poor guy. Good thing he didn't ask me where to get flour, because then I'd have to roleplay being brain-damaged too.
I hope he comes back, but I really wouldn't blame him if he didn't.