Again, my newbie point of view.
If the arena was a store right now, I would be running around trying to find someone to wait on me, or even another customer. ("Gawd, it is SO good to see you! Let's fight!") This kind of inactivity also lends itself to the dubious behavior mentioned before, especially since a level ten, or a bunch of them, if they have the gold, could do a level 500 combat. Depending on the rewards, it might be worth it. (keep in mind I just started here, I have no idea of the value of the items that could be won.)
What I really see now, is that the arena is as quiet as a funeral home in the after-hours. This certainly doesn't encourage new blood into the arena.
My first thought on new comers thinking the arena was tilted in favor of more experience players was, "Can't these characters read?" I always complain about the lack of decent tutorials in the game, but in the arena this is spelled out in short syllables, kind of hard to miss it IF you read anything about it. That's not to say that there shouldn't be a tad more work in allowing the new comers to fight amongst themselves. Just as an example: A guildless player, or one from a small starter guild, is at a great disadvantage compared to a player who has many items of guild gear to choose from (I'm including myself here).
Rewards. I'm all for rewards. Medals are nice, but tangible virtual rewards are better! (an oxymoron if there ever was one
) The current system seems to be centered on inventing arena gear. I've nothing against that, but it does take up a bit of your backpack, and if you don't have much space (9, count 'em, NINE chests! Where the $#%@ am I going to put them before I loose them???) it starts to be a big problem. Yes, if you've got the gold, or the FSP you can get more, but a newer player doesn't necessarily have either of those. A reward of 1 extra stamina might work, and since it's worth 25,000 gold currently, it's not a bad reward. (Especially for an aspect of the game that uses no stamina
) It also doesn't flood the game with more gear. (The AH looks more like a rummage sale these days....) A few shards might work too.
Part of the problem does lie with the bovines in the barn, and it doesn't require any coding, or any prizes (Grim, this is a FREE fix!!). How about a tad of advertising in the various spots of the game once in a while? By the looks of things lately, most new players come to hack and slash, and maybe use (shudder!) global chat. I went five years without having any idea about the arena (Thanks Brice and Yodamus!) and there are others out there, so a line like, "Have you tried the arena yet? The newest participant is Goodgulf, level 8, who just won a flabble rune." Of course this could be done for various game aspects too.
Just my thoughts as a newcomer. I now return to the arena, to look longingly at the participant listings......

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