Quote Originally Posted by Akuryu View Post
Hunts are going to cost them so many subscribers that they'll have to do something eventually. I've been playing MMOs for 15 years. In any MMO I've ever played, if they make gearing up easy and dull, people quit. These games are all about chasing the carrot at the end of the stick. You can't give the whole playerbase a barrel full of carrots and expect them to still care.
The carrots they offer in these types of games are wilted and discoloured in the first place, and at the rate patches come out here, they quickly expire and become rotten as well.
At least at this point, the 'ease' of chasing it falls in line with the worth of the actual reward. Prior to hunts gearing up was just grindy, uninteresting, and dull... All for a 'reward' that places you back in the same relative position you were before.

When everyone and their grandmother is 110, the population will take a dive. That's when the real patch notes will come out, but by then it'll be too late.
If maintaining the current raid-centric design with strict linear progression that MMOs tend towards is the only way to avoid this, then I won't cry too much, honestly.
Lots of interesting and fun items to pursue >>>>>>>>>> one or two uninteresting gearsets per patch that are just a direct increase over the prior.

That said, I don't really see this as bucking the trend anyway, and the focus is going to be the same as it ever was come 2.4, but this was at least a nice change (all issues with the actual implementation of the hunt not withstanding), if only for a brief time.