I've been thinking about a good demo to attract the masses around. I'm going to dump the idea here, which could be rather long, so be prepared. If you want, you can add on or create your own.
So I first came to the idea of a game like Wizard101. You go through streets, completing quests, getting rewards, average MMORPG stuff. I'd say that the demo for SLO could be something like a single street. An instanced area in which you start next to a quest giver. They give you a quest to defeat three or so bandits, making you run a bit down the street, maybe take a turn, go over a river on a bridge. Basically just show off some beautiful scenery, until you arrive at a bit of a more open area in which an ample amount of bandits stand. I would suggest these first bandits only used ranged attacks, and the player starts with only chidori. It could teach players a bit about fighting bad odds. Once you defeat three, you run back to the quest giver, turn the quest in, and get a few rewards. I would suggest these rewards be something like a new piece of armor and one more jutsu. The quest giver then sends you down to the next quest giver, whom sends you on another quest to kill bandits, this time with these bandits have more jutsu and health. This could repeat a few times, until the player has the testing jutsu and a few shiny pieces of gear. The last 'defeat bandits' (could be a ninja from another village) quest could be turned into the Kage of the Hidden Hill. (or an NPC assistant if the Kage will be a player in the game) Once this little demo is completed, players get to keep the jutsu and gear they acquired once they join the multiplayer aspect of the pre-alpha/beta/etc. I believe it would be a could simulation of what being in a village would be like.
If it would be possible, having the entire Hidden Hill there would be advantageous. If it would be able to be implemented, it would probably be a good idea to use invisible walls so that the village isn't spoiled. Another solution would be to create a makeshift village for as far as the eye can see, to make it seem like the village is complete. I'm not particularly sure that the village system would be as structured as this, however this would probably be the easiest way to give a taste of what questing could be like without having to create much more than a street and a park-like area.
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