Honestly? first time experience if you want to grow your userbase.
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
For example, there are many arguments to why WOW is a dominating force in the MMO market and one of them is with the "first 5 minutes" concept. It hooks players early and from there tries to keep the experience fairly pleasant through the first X levels of play.
There are many other MMO's out there and the first 5 minutes can be frustrating. These games usually don't do as well.
EDIT - Having thought quickly about another benefit of stickiness vs first impression, this is another argument I came up with that is pro-first impression.
I think that if you had to choose between the two, that first impression is better for the network effects that it can create.
Think about your browsing behaviour and how you pass content along to your friends.
When you find something new and interesting, do you send it to your friends (via IM/email/facebook/twitter) straight away or do you wait a couple of days before you send it?
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
For example, there are many arguments to why WOW is a dominating force in the MMO market and one of them is with the "first 5 minutes" concept. It hooks players early and from there tries to keep the experience fairly pleasant through the first X levels of play.
There are many other MMO's out there and the first 5 minutes can be frustrating. These games usually don't do as well.
EDIT - Having thought quickly about another benefit of stickiness vs first impression, this is another argument I came up with that is pro-first impression.
I think that if you had to choose between the two, that first impression is better for the network effects that it can create.
Think about your browsing behaviour and how you pass content along to your friends.
When you find something new and interesting, do you send it to your friends (via IM/email/facebook/twitter) straight away or do you wait a couple of days before you send it?