please be respectful to new players

As a brand new player, as of 3 years ago, that was my experience, as well. It didn't take long before I came to the forums. Now, the only time I use General Chat is to answer someone's questions or to point them to the wiki or forums.

Even after playing 3 years, there is so much that I do not know. This game is extremely complicated and there is no one place to go for answers. The wiki is dated and in many spots outdated and the results from searching online that lead to forum posts are often wrong (like searching for things on Google will return results from 2004+.

For the most part, the forums are the best place to ask for advice and seek answers.

I can see an angle where someone can reach that conclusion, however, I believe it is an unnecessary excuse for poor game upkeep.

The EQ2 team had 20 years to put in applicable documentation/tutorials, as each system was introduced.
They chose not to.
Calls for better documentation date back to about as long as the game has existed. I recall the tooltip information being wrong done Feldon's head in, and that's just the tip of the iceberg regarding EQ2s abysmal information.

If the EQ2 team actually believes/believed that explaining how their game works has a low ROI, it's no wonder EQ2 ended up in this state. As for now, it's too late to close the gate, the horse as bolted, trying to cohesively document EQ2 systems and mechanics as they stand, would be a tutorial in embarrassment.