My friend the "content locust" :(

[TrystWildkey]

To be fair, this is 2.1 aka first update from 2.2 We really don't know the final rate of contest upkeep the team will layout.

There is a lot to factor in, and it is still somewhat early to tell.

If they can keep a 2~2.5month major content refresh, it is sustainable...

...but it really hard to say at this point, since we need to know what the team's target goals are.

I almost agree with you. But only almost. It is early in the game's lifecycle, and they do plan to keep up with the 3 month schedule for updates.

However, by this time, we are able to see the foundation upon which each update will be built.

I'm one of the people that has no problem with the amount of content. There is a crap-ton of stuff I haven't done yet.

My dissatisfaction comes from the typeof content, not the amount. Even though it is early in the game's lifecycle, we have enough information from the current game, and from what they've released regarding their future plans, to understand the basis of all future content.

The basis of all future content (so far, at least) appears to be an ever increasing item level. Vertical only.

For people who manage to play at just the right pace, (completing the new content just before the next major patch date) this game is fantastic!

For people who play at a faster pace, they've run out of new things to do before the next patch and get bored. (understandable)

For people who play at a slower pace, their viewpoint varies.
They could be pleased that they'll eventually get where they need to go, since older content will get the echo buff.
Or, like me, it's a 'why bother' attitude. I can either grind out the dungeon runs now, and have completely useless gear in just a couple of weeks, or I can take the easy way out, wait for the echo buff and get my gear later.

There's no challenge for me. I could even just log in for a half hour each day, completely bypass dungeons, do beastmen dailies, and eventually get all myth gear. Wow, fun ><

In addition to the vertical only gear, with very simplistic stats, we know that all of the battle content relies on memorizing the mob's pattern, and memorizing your own pattern for each fight. Now, I'm not saying that this in itself is a bad/wrong decision. It's just not to my taste. FFXI, XIV 1.0 and XIV 1.23 (which are the only MMO's I really spent any time playing) did not rely upon pattern recognition and creation as heavily and exactly as 2.0 does.

To top it all off, because of these 2 aspects of the game's foundation, we can extrapolate that any future classes/jobs will not really deviate from what we already have. All will have a single set of Best in Slot gear, and all will have a single effective skill rotation. They might appear different, but, depending on where you place your skills on the hotbar, you could theoretically play each job by pressing the same exact buttons in the same exact rotation for each encounter.

EDIT: Poo, please don't flag me, I started composing this before your most recent update and there are some good points here that may be relevant to the original discussion. /grovel

[kukurumei]

I almost agree with you. But only almost. It is early in the game's lifecycle, and they do plan to keep up with the 3 month schedule for updates.

From all interviews they wanted a 2~2.5month cycle. This may or may not have changed

12/14 is 2.1
we are 2/14

so we are on 2 months right now. Given the new years is a traditional slow down. It's entirely too early to see their designated goals.

What's in the content does matter, but not as much as you think. There is always a consumption of "any" content. No matter what. That's what make the WoW model such a surprise.

They can have an intern design something half baked, and people would still do it to past the time, and call it good.

There needs to be a mixture here.

And more needs to be said for "movie" content like hildibrand, that offers nothing but story and humor. Yet people will keep their subs just to wait for the next episode.

In terms of programing effort for hildibrand. It is a matter of days with a few interns, and very good story board employees directing it. (Basically just on those alone, they can stuff into any update and people will be fine with it)