I think it would be cool if new players could grab new armor/weapons from a donation box. I would think that there should be a limit on how many items can be taken from donation boxes per day, like 5 so they can have at least some gear to level in, and when the gear is placed in the donation box it should be flagged as unsellable + nonconvertible to prevent abuse.

I understand the need for a new player to learn how to earn gil, etc. to succeed but allowing the new player to have fun first may go a long way towards player retention. ( ~.ø)b