Oh, I must have missed the replies. Just saw them...
@Nahlard:
In a way, yes, I believe that elite group makes a better game. And you spotted the weakness:an elite group means fewer new players. Trouble is: you already have the group formed. And with elitism (in most cases) infatuation comes along (and I agree with it when it comes to MD). How will you break the group? How will you make it accept new players easier? The easiest way would be to ban them all . But I can assure you that if decide to come back they will be elite in notime. This is a fact and not a theory. It was already proven.
@Daemon:
I see your idea related more to advertisement then the actual game. You say that a guide could bring more players. You might be right.But is it enough to keep them? How much information can you put up to keep a player interested at least until s/he reaches mp4? Cause if you give too much...
Most of the players lose interest at mp3. So if you manage to bring them to mp4 your chances of keeping them increase. It's funny , I am trying to make one of my cousins play for 2 months I think . He has all the info but he logs in only when I yell at him to do it or when I play with him. Right now I am not sure why he is not playing constantly: too much info or is he just being stubborn? I agree, this is an isolated case but... So see my problem? How much is enough? We have different measures when it comes to information. What a person can achieve in few minutes with certain info another one might achieve in days. It's way to subjective.
Oh, I just got an idea . Maybe there can be mp related guides (looots of work and I don't know if I personally would ever volunteer for such a thing). Something like: you get a doc when you register. Then when you reach mp4 you get another one with more info. And finally, if necessary (although i kind of doubt) a new doc when you become mp5.
Or maybe something else can be done. Right now I have just a rough idea. It's crits/battles related but I think it can be extended. Implement some sorts of quests that would give as reward a small boost of stats (5 or maybe 10 of one kind or whatever). And the quests should go like this: ask a player to explain for example how haotic damage works. H/she submits his/her answer to a designated player/group of players. The answer gets reviewed and in case it is correct the player gets his/her reward. The downside is that answers might (actually they will) be passed from player to player and few of them will actually do the research for themselves. On the other hand I think I also have the solution for this issue...
All in all maybe things will change and MD will become a more player friendly game. Until then you can do 2 things: accept the current situation or start to change things. Second option is as you assumed the hardest. It's not easy to change something, it's not easy to make your ideas accepted. But if you ask me it's the best option. After all: what better things do you have to do in the game then try to change ist course/history?