Love this idea. A tutorial island in essence. Give players the choice of either going to the tutorial island first or starting off on the main continents. Have the tutorial island be a very simple war island with nothing but people that want to be mentors and only a handful of regions. Perhaps make it reset every month or something to keep it from ever being anything long term.
That is a slightly different idea again. Adds flexibility to the experience but doesn't address what I see as a key issue with retaining players, that instant and immediate feedback upon signing in. If someone isn't online and has the time to interact with you when you create a character chances are you aren't going to log in again.
