Losing is fun. Nethack contains a number of opportunities for "cheap" deaths that a new player (even one who has experience with other titles in the genre) can'

Losing is fun. Nethack contains a number of opportunities for "cheap" deaths that a new player (even one who has experience with other titles in the genre) can't necessarily reasonably be expected to anticipate. This is widely considered to be poor game design, even by many roguelike developers. A lot of (most?) modern roguelikes are a much better at conveying information to the player. Rift Wizard, for example, is built around a magic system exponentially more deep and complicated than anything in Nethack, yet is still possible for a (very) careful and through player to win on their first run.