How it used to be...

[Shurrikhan]

To be fair today's mentality of "it only gets good at the late/end game" doesn't help. For some reason videogaming culture, especialy on MMOs, shifted to a "must reach cap ASAP to enjoy".

Probably because the design of those MMOs is increasingly focused on endgame, often to the neglect or even minor disruption of everything prior?

[Kaethra]

Probably because the design of those MMOs is increasingly focused on endgame, often to the neglect or even minor disruption of everything prior?

You mind telling me which MMO focuses on endgame primarily? The only one I know of is 20 years old.

All of the modern MMOs in the last 15 years focus over 80% of their time with questing, leveling, and lore content. Aka solo player content. Even FFXIV does this.

[Shurrikhan]

You mind telling me which MMO focuses on endgame primarily? The only one I know of is 20 years old.

All of the modern MMOs in the last 15 years focus over 80% of their time with questing, leveling, and lore content. Aka solo player content. Even FFXIV does this.

You'd have to play very little XIV, or be some manner of TT/LoV/BT/GS competitionist, for the majority of your time spent to be in solo content, let alone 80% of it.

The same is true of WoW, Rift, GW2, B&S, Neverwinter, and (though more variably) PoE.

When design decisions are made to curtail complexity at the new level cap, to the result of negatively affecting the sense of player progression or toolkit cohesion at earlier levels -- i.e. when you improve A (endgame) at the expense of B (everything prior) -- we can say that endgame is their priority. That much hasn't occurred in each of the MMOs I've listed above, but it certainly has in, say, WoW... and a fair bit here (though it's always been notoriously unwilling to give much to early levels).

[Kaethra]

You'd have to play very little XIV, or be some manner of TT/LoV/BT/GS competitionist, for the majority of your time spent to be in solo content, let alone 80% of it.

The same is true of WoW, Rift, GW2, B&S, Neverwinter, and (though more variably) PoE.

I should have been more specific with the focus of the devs being on solo-leveling content.

You can see it here in ShB. Look at all the new zones. All that is for 70-79. The 8 dungeons and 3 trials together pale in scale to even one zone.