I agree that positive interaction between players is important, but what I was referring to is the new player's initial thirty-or-so hours of play. A player should be able to explore the under level twenty areas on their own so that they can learn to navigate the MUD and re-gear themselves. Once they learn their way around all the newbie areas, the major cities, and then areas designed for characters under level 20, then sure let them group. But until they learn how to navigate from Galadon to Udgaard a good group, in my opinion, is not the key to keeping new players.

But hell, I could be completely wrong. I'm neither a game designer nor a game administrator.