I find that the Counterpoint is a little biased. It just supposes that the player and the GM start out at high levels, and not the context or situation in which this happens.
Personally, I give experience (or its equivalent) for things that a player do in order to give additional depth to his or her character (unfortunately, I have not played much with female role-players, but that is beside the point), and so do a number of my friends, which also are Game Masters.
This may lead to the situation where a person, which started out as Unskilled, might be an Amateur or even Experienced when the person starts play. This is because of the experience the person received (person is meant as character) because the player took the time to develop the person more thoroughly than just some numbers (or whatever) on a piece of paper.
A very relevant case is my newest Street Fighter character, Jean-Jaques Xavier. Because I wrote a rather comprehensive background for him, with plenty of GM hooks and adventure plots, I received 25 Experience to spend before he began play. This is rather much, considering how the Street Fighter system works (or did, after we changed it, but that is another story). Nevertheless, both the GM and I felt this was warranted (I didn't expect 25 Experience, though), as I had made an extra effort to know the character beforehand.
Another issue to consider is the issue where a highly skilled character dies, and a character is generated to replace this dead character (the player doesn't want to give up RPG'ing even though one of his characters died. It's an occupational hazard for adventurers, isn't it?). Is it then right, or even smart, to start this new character as Unskilled, even though the rest of the characters are veterans? This new character will probably die long before the rest of the group even begins to feel threatened, and if the gap between experience levels is great enough, the new character will be utterly useless, no matter the occupation of the new character, as the old, veteran characters will have better equipment, be better skilled, and in all be more prepared. This is yet another occasion where I feel it would be right to generate a more experienced replacement character, in order to preserve play balance, and the enjoyment for everyone.
The arguments list in point/counterpoint aren't explicit enough.
It's not made clear if the new player is actually new to RPG's or just to the game in which he is about to play. I've been playing for several years, but have never actually played AD&D to date!
Apart from this one flaw, I'd like to offer a counter-counterpoint.
Being new to the hobby can be very intimidating, you don't know the rules or the style of the game and in some cases you may not even know the people you are about to play with. As a result the urge to build a power character and grovel for lots of experience, etc. to build him up is strong. This is a bad thing, because inevitably it'll come down to the "yeah, but I've a bigger damage bonus than you" argument. Alternatively, giving a new player a weak character makes the player feel like he's the weakest link in the party, and the most expendable.
Therefore, I feel that the best compromise is to only have certain players for a certain scenario. After all it's the GM's job to make the game enjoyable and he should ensure that the players and characters suit the setup. If there is a new (to the hobby) player, I feel it's best to let them start playing in a scenario with a weak character, surrounded by other weak characters (played by more experienced people) this way he/she (sorry if I was sexist before now) can see how things work, and if the character survives it can then be incorporated into the larger game.
On the other hand, in the case of an experienced player joining a game with which he is unfamiliar, the player should have enough skill to be able to select a character of appropriate skill level for the game. At the end of the day howevver the ref. is the one to say yes or no.
A conclusion (Yes, all this drivel has a conclusion):
New players should be allowed to see how a game works surrounded by characters of a like skill level and not dropped into the power hungry experience is a must kill die die kill game for level 97 techno mages!
Experienced players joining a new game should be allowed to decide for themselves, but the GM has a final say in the matter. It's fun to make a power player suffer in the body of a novice character.
Anyway, that's it - shoot me now.
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