Cerebus all godo points, though the root of darke's problem is far more large in scope than difficulty for newbies, this issue isn't really a newbie issue.

Mud's are designed for player interaction, darke is no acception. You have factions, groups of friends, warring groups or idnividuals combating each other or helping each other, this is all part of playing. The fewer players/resources darke has the less interaction becomes possible to any extent.

Any serious pvp action that would occur on Darke would probably shatter the majority of it's player base because you either have everything you need, in spades, or you don't. Even if you do, much of what you have, isn't replaceable, or would take eons to replace.

If someoen looted your rays banshee weps, you are effectively powerless against that person or anyone else until you replaced them (or if you have spares). This can make for interesting times, but when 1 person ont he game has true weapon (or no one currently active does, or they only login when their buddies need it etc) player run shops are cool, but won't really solve this as money has no value on darke. When a tinker has everything he needs gear wise, there's no reason for him to sacrifice his exp/hour and put low level runes on things for anything but absurd cash.

I'm not saying each person being an island unto themselves makes for a good mud, but at least it opens up avenues where players can be more competitive against each other without having us all have to be one big happy love family because that's the only way we can all get what we need. The fewer the players, the more power the players need to have resource wise to keep the game intersting. This is just my opinoin I guess.