That said.. Even the numbers there add up.. After PoP there was a stagnant increase because all though the game was still going it wasn't going in the same direction and because of the things I mentioned the hardcore fans widdled away.
While the first three expansions kept a steady incline.
It became a game for completion types. Titles, "feats".. Which is where it should have gone honestly.. I don't see any issues with the development I just find an issue with how they didn't create some sort of "classic" servers while developing the game. Obviously Heinseight is 20/20 but really I think there should have been era separation of some sort but they thought these were evolutionary new features when in reality the more you develop over the first principle ideas the more you move away from them.
You can see the same thing with Dark age of Camelot. Shrouded Isles was an extremely good expansion, on par with Kunark... Trials of Atlantis was the same mistake that Planes of Power made.
And Both Brad (RIP) and Mark Jacobs both said that corporate decisions decided these mistakes as the players wanted it as "Community Market Managers" became the norm and to this day those jobs are what are killing the core first principles of what made MMORPGS originally great.
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