Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn Developer Diary

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn producer Aaron Cohen has written a new developer journal on WarCry that focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of putting a tutorial in an MMORPG.
...what we did with Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn was create a controlled directed experience (complete with an attractive female guide, named Gwen, who is maybe a distant relative to Megan), that was short, to the point and hopefully fun. We tried to get in the very basics of the game, including how to die (because that is the one thing every player is going to do a lot of, so they might as well learn how to deal with it).

Was it the right answer? As always, the players will tell us. So far, I think so. I do know that for a new player, having Gwen be the first presence you meet in the game isn't a bad thing at all.