Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

New master accounts appear in 'Halloween Orange' on the 60 second list, making them easily identifiable as people who need to be contacted as a matter of urgency in order to ensure a best possible chance of converting them into an active user.

Upon each subsequent sign up, the user will be prompted to say if they are 'new' enabling sneaky bastards to pretend to be new if they are that way inclined.

This way, genuinely new people are given a big "contact me" siren to draw attention to themselves and equally, naughty time-wasting incogs aren't busted right off the bat.

Umm, "new playing accounts" are actually pretty identifiable. They are the farthest away from HelpDesk, and are at the beginning of Webspider. I don't see how this would benefit the game only make it easier for people to hound the new kids :P 

That's exactly the point, Aislin.

Squishy turns on advertising, we get a whole host of accounts, but only a fraction of them ever experience the game. Some (or most, I don't have the figures) play for either a few seconds or a few minutes, then logout and become inactives. That just costs MafiaReturns money and doesn't benefit anyone.

So, how can we improve on the equation? Explore the barriers stopping people from becoming active users. 

1. Signing up - They've done this; excellent!

2. Knowing what to do - They have the tutorial, but a few mails will definitely help with the basics

3. Finding a reason to stay - This is the main one. There's a learning curve. There's a lot of text. There's only really one reason to keep coming back; the people. The sooner you interact, the sooner you find a reason to stay.

This suggestion is an attempt to reduce our wastage and up our retention rate. 

Isn't that pretty much what happens now, anyway?

I mean, I can't remember the last time I wasn't asked about past experience or a known name.

Don't they just turn off the tutorial for that?

That sounds good to me, Squishy. A toggle option to say I'm not new and I don't need any extra help.

I still think with regards to retention we should look at the automation idea: https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/894023#138681015

The options you stuck in there Squishy seemed reasonable I thought.

I am also a big fan of that (obviously), I just think this one is a less intrusive step that may (or may not, we would have to see) improve retention. 

Luciussweet " play for either a few seconds or a few minutes, then logout and become inactives. That just costs MafiaReturns money and doesn't benefit anyone. "

as far as I'm aware, and I'll be happy to be corrected if wrong on this, but people don't actually show up on the locals list and their profiles aren't actually viewable by searching them (if you happen to know a name from say a friend just started and you want to check their profile out) before their first 30 minutes of game play is up.

Removing this for first time users, that'd be a great start to changing them being isolated for the beginning of their time here and leaving because of a lack of contact with other players