Salem

I loaded the game, it took a little bit for the graphics to load in - I walked over to the man in the brown hat, attempted to talk to him. My body features just repeatedly randomed, the Dye guy would do the same and the guy near the boat "Doesn't talk to naked people" nothing else I could interact with, no pops ups or anything else, nothing in inventory or any way to equip clothes, just kept randoming the features and saying "Brave new world" walked around the starting building - Can't progress *logout*

rofl, you have to get the clothes from the chest and wear them.

I havent made a new character in a long time, but I'm fairly certain there is notes on the bottom right of the screen that tell you exactly what to do, in the exact order that you need to do them.

It was not letting me access the chest.

Worked out you need to use the skill Childish things for the pop up to allow you to use the chest - but when I obtained the skill there was no pop up to say "Press CTRL+T" until I flicked through everything myself.
It just halts new players progress if you don't have pop ups to instruct them, you start with one - but then not the second one which halts progression.

I just made a new character to see what you are talking about, here are the instructions as they appeared on my screen:

Speak to the man in the brown hat. (right click the man)
Learn the skill 'Childish Things'. (ctrl+T and buy the only skill available)
Investigate the chest. (right click the chest) (tab to open inventory, move items from inventory to chest)
Put some clothes on. (Ctrl+E to open equipment window, and put clothes on avatar)
Give the Captain your name. (right click captain, type name, press enter)
Change your appearance at the barber's. (right click the mirror/dye guy)
Right-click the ship to board it.

Then you just click the server you want to play on and it teleports you to that city. Pretty straight forward if you ask me.