How will new players perceive this game? (A pessimistic outlook)

[Azurymber]

Have you played Hello Kitty online, or is this more of you pulling complaints out of thin air?

So, a demographic that is "not" the players playing this game now, which will not be the same game when they DO start playing it, will not like the game that they do play when they see it.

But they will not experience the game the same way you have, they will not even experience the same game progression. It is the difference between Buying Everquest at launch, with all the bugs and server crashes, and Buying Everquest when expansion packs launch. It's a completely different experience leveling up with The Nexus to take you around, and playing having to sneak aboard the ferry. The PS3 launch is bound to cause a flux of population across all servers and cities. The Players will have a population of other players to game with, along with our own.

I was the first North American Game Sage on hello kitty online when it was released under Aeria games (it failed lol). People playing now aren't whats going to make the game successful, otherwise they would have started charging already. And they will pretty well have the exact same experiance since there is nothing new. Players tend to play for efficiency. So there won't be much point in doing quests for sp or gear since you can push any dom/dow to rank 20 in under a day with little effort.

The only merit quests really have is storyline. You basically spend hours running back and forth for story. And most of the story is completely pointless and has no real lore.
Occasionally you get tidbits, but for the most part its pretty lame compared to whats available in other games.

[Kallera]

And they will pretty well have the exact same experiance since there is nothing new. Players tend to play for efficiency. So there won't be much point in doing quests for sp or gear since you can push any dom/dow to rank 20 in under a day with little effort.

And this is where you are completely wrong. Many people I've played with in FFXI stated that the only reason they've kept with FFXI so long was because of the connections that they have made in game, many of them having days where they would just sit in Aht Urghan in linkchat. They weren't playing for efficiency, they played for community that brought them together.

When the game started, repairs were constant, the game speed was much worse, the timing of levequests and behests, 15 man parties. SP Leveling was based on actions taken in battle...The list is not only the entire change log of this game.
but also, All the updates and revisions prior to PS3 release.

"Nothing new" my foot.