An idea to address long term retention

[cmdrrickhunter]

This is forever a problem with games. The first to actually discover the solution to this will be a rich company.

I don't believe growing power levels will solve the problem. I've named the dilemma the DragonBallZ dilemma, in my own work. People are not attracted to +X power (for whatever units we use for power), they are attracted to +%X power. They are interested in the exchange "for 1 month of my time, I can become 10% stronger." The result is exponential growth like we see in WoW. In DBZ, this showed up as power levels in the thousands when the idea of "power levels" was introduced, and by the end they had trouble even measuring large enough numbers due to the exponential growth.

Personally, I believe the solution exists with dynamic GM run worlds, but those require manpower, and manpower is pricey for a free server. The only other solution I have seen is the creation of player driven worlds, but EVE is the only game I've seen complicated enough to pull it off.

[Dravingar]

I'm sure for most people aka anyone with an exp penalty, the thought of leveling from 1-60 is about as enticing as a ball peen hammer to the scrotum.

Main problem with server retention is the fact that Kunark is a boring as shit expansion.