Quote Originally Posted by Worm View Post
I mean I really wouldn't mind seeing a game in the style of EQ or FFXI however I think it would fair poorly in the market and I feel that if it didn't non-instanced EQ playstyle can't stand up to millions and millions of players. There'd have to be either an insane amount of content with huge landmasses OR they'd just have to give up and instance things which is the REAL reason content obsolesce happens, since each raid is going to be around a similar difficulty, naturally people won't run the one that drops worse gear.
That each new piece of content must drop vastly superior equipment is the mindset that causes older content to become obsolete, not whether content is instanced or not. If new content were to come with different rewards that accommodated different play styles or offered alternatives to what already existed, it makes for a game that has quite a bit of relevant content for players to choose to do and get cool rewards while doing it. The methods used by some modern games and now FF14 make for a game where no one wants to do old content. It becomes a joke to complete because of how easy it is with superior equipment, and doesn't drop anything that anyone wants, because all drops are inferior to whatever just came out. What's left is the only content people care to do at all, which is whatever was just released. Some people might want this style of game, but it's incredibly easy to see why some wouldn't. A game that gets constantly updated like an MMO does has the potential to build itself into an experience with lots of things to do and get some nice rewards while doing them. A game that uses the power creep method becomes only as good as its latest patch, since no one wants to do any old content, as it becomes easily out leveled and unbalanced and has no relevant rewards. We don't even get anything nice in exchange for these methods. It only serves to make the amount of relevant things to do in game feel incredibly restrictive.