NyxCC,

I agree with all you said. All I and some others have tried to point out is why the participation rate among beginners will always be low and the dropout rate is high. You point to another important factor which is determination. I wouldn't still be here and have made the progress I have if I wasn't determined. But most people can't sustain determination long enough to see their own progress and this accounts for the drop off among new members in general. And when you add a time constraint it's just another roadblock that demotivates them. You and I may be able to stay focussed on a task beyond the end of the month (and I certainly don't care about wings :O) but for the rest it seems insurmountable and they give up. The Task of the Month will always appear to be an intermediate and above skill competition to the average beginner. No amount of fiddling with beginner tasks will change this. As you know achievement drives motivation so what some of us are suggesting is that a separate proving ground with apparently surmountable tasks that develop the skills that lead to lucidity and higher rates of lucidity will improve the retention rate. Something like Spellbee's Spring Competition should be the first round competition for the beginner where a sense of achievement will allow them to graduate to the Task of the Month. They need to be connected in a way that makes the progression obvious.

I see it as a tiered system with one stage opening a gate to the next level. Think about how addicted people get to video games, trying to get from one level to the next. Determination doesn't seem to be a problem then. I'm also reminded of the Wipeout gameshows where the first obstacle course is the qualifying round that gives access to the the next, only in our case we want everyone to qualify.

The human brain likes to fall back into old habits, the path of least resistance, but there are ways of tricking it into believing it can do something. Dreamviews would be an amazing training ground if the competitions were linked together in a progressive and cohesive way rather than stand-alone clubs.