Rank cap increase every 1-2 years discussion thread

[Sol_Aureus]

Kiara I am happy you are in favor of rank increases, they are a must though, and have to happen as fast or faster than new content lasts in the game. New Recipes, New Content, New Armors/Weapons, New everything every so often, just makes something better. Same Recipes, New Content, Old Armors/Weapons, only fulfills 1/3 of what can and should be done often. If you keep people thinking about finding new recipes, new armors/weapons and more... you have increased the amount of content in the game 10x more than just adding a couple new armors/weapons and maybe a couple dungeons.

Horizontal Progression
- New Items/Weapons/Armors
--- Negatives: Possibly Weapons/Armors you don't need/want
- Old Recipes/Crafting Skills
--- Negatives: Same boring stuff, capped and bored, floods markets, ruins economy
- Old Gathering Locations/Items
--- Negatives: Same boring gathering, nothing new, why gather anymore?
- New Dungeons/Mobs/Challenges
--- Negatives: Could be fun, and could be a complete waste of time, with no drops that you need/want
- New Maps/Areas
--- Negatives: Even though its a new map, you cant use repeatable mobs anymore without them feeling like the existing mobs. You negate the ability to re-use mobs and increase ranks/give new skills to.
- Old Skills
--- Negatives: You occasionally might get new skills, but you are limited in what you really can add since fixed rank

Vertical Progression
- New Items/Weapons/Armors
--- Positives: The new Weapons and armor will be better than the existing, and there will be something to achieve
- New Recipes/Crafting Skills
--- Positives: New Stuff for crafters to do, New Items in the market place and New Skills to achieve
- New Gathering Locations/Items
--- Positives: Keeps gatherers in business, keeps crafters supplied, gives new skills to achieve
- New Dungeons/Mobs/Challenges
--- Positives: Gives players something to strive for, those few new ranks that allow them into the new content and can introduce new and harder challenges
- New Maps/Areas
--- Positives: You can simply do more things with more maps/areas, more quests easier, new cool challenges can be made on those new maps and they don't feel like of its another Rank 80-90 mobs area...
- New Skills
--- Positives: Developers can get more creative and they can simply make new ones more powerful giving more things to strive for

Really no choice, if you want the game to last a long time, it has to grow in every aspect, not just horizontal, but vertically also.

While you make some valid points, saying that vertical progression is nessesary for an MMO to be fun and successful without preceding or following that statement with "in my opinion" seems like you're trying to pass it off as a fact, which is very closed-minded. FFXI proves that vertical progression is NOT necessary to make an MMO fun and successful, otherwise it wouldn't have survived during the 7 years that I played and the cap stayed 75.