Thoughts from a casual

[fusional]

I wouldn't say a game that has survived 10 years with enough players to sustain a P2P enviroment is a failure.

But as far as the "artificial roadblocks", to me they weren't that. I lvled to 18 to get my SJ, I lvl'd to 30 to get my adv job, I lvl'd to 40 to wear full RSE, I lvl'd to 60 to wear full AF. To me these were goals, not blocks.

where did i say it was a failure? see, this drives me absolutely NUTS about the people in these forums. no matter what you say, no matter how specific- they convince themselves you said something entirely different.

and you're leaning heavily on a fallacy of personal experience. just because they weren't roadblocks to you, that doesn't mean they weren't roadblocks to the majority of players who tried the game and quit sometime between level 15 and 60. (and if i were a betting man, i'd say most of them quit between 18 and 30)

Sorry but these MMO's don't fail because Devs didn't think through their content

nope and wrong. i could type up an entire essay on the topic of how marketing and demographics work, and what that has to do with gaming, but you'd just ignore it and repeat yourself. so carry on telling yourself whatever it is you're convinced is true.