Quote Originally Posted by Xianghua View Post
The way I see it. The Journey is nice. But In a game that should last 5 years or more. It seems to be such a small part. Even more so in this game where we all already at the cap. If you make the Journey too long. The people who start late or don't pick up the game now are going to be so far behind everyone. Think about CoP after most completed it. People would spend days shouting for help and get no one. Honestly I never even heard of a MMO that was more about the Journey then about the cap/endgame/PvP. (what I mean by this is I've never heard of a MMO that made the journey last 5 years or more and was successful.)

I'll Love the Journey if it's there. But if it isn't not going to bother me much. Long as i'm having fun I'll keep playing so green. I'm not going to restart my character just to have the Journey either. So right now I care much more about what I can do at 50 and beyond.
I'd agree that, over the course of an MMO's life, endgame should be the #1 priority for the company that created it. It's the main thing that will keep people subbed over the years. There should be a ton of endgame stuff to look forward to when you're a new player. I believe this focus should be a gradual change though, perhaps starting with an equal balance of low-midgame and endgame content then eventually focusing more and more on the endgame. The rate of this shift of focus should be directly related to the leveling curve and how long it takes the average player to cap a class or two.

I view 2.0 as the game's official release, the way the game should have launched back in October 2010. If it fails to keep the interest of new players it's doomed, there's no denying that. I too would prefer to see them put more effort into endgame activities, but that's only because my journey is over already. I'm sure that this approach will likely still keep many new players interested, but how many really just want endgame? Yea, when we get there that's all we want, myself included, but we're not new players and not the main target audience for 2.0.

I'm confident we'll get a ton of endgame activities to do with 2.0. But as far as new players are concerned, I don't think they'll be as worried about catching up to us as you might think. If all goes well, we'll be the vast minority of the player base. So I think they should carefully decide how to approach the leveling curve in 2.0. Do people want to take it slow and have fun? Do they want to get it over with as quickly as possible and start dominating the endgame scene? Or does it really not matter much to them, as long as there's fun stuff to do?

As the game gets older, whatever leveling curve they choose will obviously get shorter and shorter. Their focus will naturally shift towards more endgame than low-midgame stuff. The rate of new subscribers will get slower and slower, and that's a fact. They'll eventually just have to focus on keeping their current subscribers. It's the same for every other MMO out there. But for new players, how important is it for them to get "hooked" at an early level?